Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor: The Len Bias Tragedy and the Search for Reform in Big-time College Basketball

Where were you on June 19, 1986?

That's the day when Len Bias, one of the greats of the college basketball game, a player seemingly destined for NBA stardom, died of a cocaine overdose.

For the next several months, millions followed the continuing, unfolding tragedy at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Six years later, where is big-time basketball—the big-money game whose vulnerabilities began to come to life with Bias's death?

How far has it come in reforming itself against the abuse...