THE CONQUERING HEROES

Gent tries to do for college basketball what he did for pro football in North Dallas Forty (1973) and The Franchise (1983): blow the lid off the cynicism and corruption festering behind the scenes. But that lid's been off a long time, and this turgid effort brings nothing new to an old story. Lapsed idealist Pat Lee, ``recruiting coach'' at Southwestern State in Dallas, finds his job on the line when a coed is raped by star center Chuck Small. Small had threatened to declare his eligibility for the NBA draft, and coach Barry Sand, Lee's one-time friend, charges him with using the covered-up rape as leverage to convince Small to stay. Failing that, Lee had better sign high- school sensation Eddie Sanford, a seven-footer whose mother Lee has been coincidentally hitting on in a hotel bar. Sand, who will do anything to make the Final Four, also orders Lee to join the bidding war for Jamail Jenks, whose high-school coach, O.K. Free, demands his own share: ``It wasn't wrong, it was just against the rules.'' Gent uses lengthy flashbacks to Lee's golden youth in 1950's and 60's small-town America to show that, despite his acquiescence, Lee may still be able to recapture his lost innocence. When the coed is found hanging in her dorm room, and when a guilt-ridden policeman who's helping Lee is found ``blown away'' in his squad car, Lee decides ``to bring them all down.'' That includes drug-store mogul Sam Watts, whose monogrammed, money- filled envelopes turn up in more than one pocket. Lee wins the day by substituting crime scene stills for the expected game highlights at a press conference, thus embarrassing Sand and Watts, getting the school placed on probation, and Small throw in jail. All the usual suspects, and their attendant vices. Predictable and obvious.