Sasquatch in the Paint by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld

Theo grew six inches taller over the summer, so he's expected to be the star center on the school's basketball team. However, he stinks. He starts to put in extra practice time, but he may lose his place on the school's academic team because of it. He meets a mysterious girl near the neighborhood basketball courts, but he finds himself threatened when he tries to save her from a dangerous biker. Then, he's forced to visit a cousin he hates, but his cousin seems to have changed, a little. The cousin secretly gives Theo a CD that will later create more problems for him. Can Theo possibly succeed on the basketball and academic teams at the same time, or is he destined to fail at both?

With Sasquatch in the title, I wasn't expecting much from the plot. However, the author was able to create some interesting conflicts and character interactions. Perhaps too many. There was the basketball team, the academic team, the mystery girl, his cousin, and Theo's dad joined a dating service. I think the plot would have worked better if the focus had remained on basketball and academics, and maybe the girl. The cousin and dad's dating just distracted me from the main problems. However, I enjoyed the book overall.