Vitale: Just Your Average Bald One-Eyed Basketball Wacko Who Beat the Ziggy and Became a Ptp'er

To explain the subtitle: Vitale beat the Ziggy (getting fired from the NBA) when, as coach of the Detroit Pistons, he became a Prime Time Performer as a basketball color man for ESPN, the cable sports station, and ABC-TV. Vitale, assisted by Sports Illustrated writer Kirkpatrick, deals exclusively here with college games, and those who do not share his enthusiasm or who are not already fans of his will find his memoir unexceptional. He includes a brief look at his coaching career in junior high, high school, college and the pros, but devotes most of his attention to random observations about his hectic schedule, the best and the zaniest college coaches, the top teams and players of the 1980s, his proposal for a semi-pro league subsidized by the NBA and other controversial aspects of the game. Photos not seen by PW. Paperback rights to Pocket Books. (Nov.)