LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Thousands of families rolled out of McCarran Airport here in the desert last month, ready to take the gamble of their lives.

It happens every day here in the gambling capital of the world. But these people didn't roll any dice or sit at the slot machines. They didn't play cards or bet on a horse.

Their bet was on basketball.

From July 22 to 26, more than 1,000 teams from all over the map, with players ranging in age from 9 to 19, invaded Vegas to compete in one of three different Amateur Athletic Union, or club, basketball tournaments.

Championships are not the top priority here. Scholarships are.

"It's that $160,000 (for four years of college tuition)," said Chuck Spirou of Pelham, N.H., whose son Stephen played for the Granite State Jayhawks 16-and-under team in the Vision Sports Main Event Tournament.

"So many kids, if they can swing it, will come out of college in debt for years with all those loans," Spirou said. "They'll hit the ground with a weight tied around them. That's why the chance of coming out here, playing in a tournament like this and winning a scholarship is so huge to the athletes and their families."

One week each year, Sin City transforms into Hoop City. Originally backed by big money from the major sneaker companies — Nike, Adidas and Reebok — these tournaments showcasing the nation's top young talent rose from nowhere. And with them came the college coaches — hundreds of them — all looking for the next big thing.

Walk into one of 25 different high school gyms in Clark County over these four days, and there's no telling who you might run into.

"Our 16s had a game at the Tarkanian Center," said Mike Trovato, coach and director of Mass. Rivals, an AAU team out of Plaistow, N.H. "Walking in, we saw (North Carolina's) Roy Williams. Inside, there's Coach K (Duke's Mike Krzyzewski). The coaches are everywhere."

Making an impression

Those big-time college coaches don't travel to Vegas just to check out the pool at Mandalay Bay.

Recruiting in the summer has become serious business in the big-money game of college basketball. Success, whether you're at UNC or UNH, revolves around recruiting athletes.

When an athlete like Central Catholic's Carson Desrosiers, who plays for Mass. Rivals 17s, steps onto the floor, he instantly commands an audience.

The 6-foot-10 Windham, N.H., resident, ranked by many recruiting services as a top 100 senior nationally, hasn't committed to any of the 50 or so colleges that have offered him full basketball scholarships, though he's narrowed his choices to Stanford, Marquette, Syracuse, UNLV, Arizona State and Georgia Tech.

Among the 30 or so college coaches dotting the Rancho High School stands for this opening-round Adidas Super 64 tournament game against the Playaz of New Jersey are Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Arizona State's Herb Sendek, Providence's Keno Davis and UNLV's Lon Kruger.

Desrosiers is the prize catch, but that doesn't lessen the impact for the other players on the floor.

"You never know who is watching and whose eye you might catch," Trovato said. "A setting like this demands an awful lot out of the athletes. You're competing at a high level with very high stakes."

There is reason for such optimism.

Back in the mid-1990s, Pat Bradley earned All-Scholastic honors at Everett High School and had been receiving recruiting interest locally at smaller Division 1 and Division 2 universities.

The summer before his senior season, Bradley had seven 3-pointers in an AAU tournament game with Nolan Richardson watching. Richardson was the coach at the University of Arkansas, back then a perennial top-10 team.

Richardson offered Bradley a scholarship based on that performance alone, and Bradley went on to a successful four-year career at Arkansas, during which he set the conference mark for all-time 3-pointers made.

Even this summer, at the Adidas It Takes 5ive Classic, Canadian guard Brady Heslip entered the event as a nobody. According to Scouts, Inc., a breakthrough showing netted him 10 different mid-to-high Division 1 full scholarship offers.

"I'm a realist. I know Arizona State isn't coming to call on Stephen," Chuck Spirou said. "But take our Friday game against a Maryland team. The Wake Forest coaching staff was there. They're not there to see anyone on our team, but maybe one of our guys can catch his eye. Maybe this coach has a friend who happens to need a point guard or a shooting forward for his Division 2 team. All of a sudden, he passes on your name, and it could generate something."

A costly wager

It can and has happened. But at what price?

The AAU season started back in March, and for many players, it's an exhausting run of time and money spent.

"(The Jayhawks 17s) practice three nights a week from March through almost August. And none of the tournaments are local," said Mike LaRosa of Salem, N.H., whose son Alex played not only in Vegas but also at tournaments in Connecticut and New York.

Then there's the cost factor.

Granite State Jayhawks program director and coach Mark Dunham charged his players $1,000 for the four-month season, which includes practice time, uniforms and tournament entry fees. That doesn't include any travel costs.

Vegas alone cost the average family — say two parents and a player — more than $2,000. Coming off a spring of gas-guzzling trips to hotels around the region and a steady diet of fast food, it's not short money.

For an athlete like Alex LaRosa, a returning Eagle-Tribune All-Star who is considered a longshot to land even a Division 2 scholarship, that's a pretty steep investment.

"I wouldn't have done it any other way," Mike LaRosa said. "We played in the Boston Shootout, and my son got recruiting calls the next day. We played in the Super Regionals, and more calls. We went into this with very low expectations, and it's been more than we could have ever asked for."

The majority of the 10,000 or so athletes who competed in Vegas will not receive scholarship offers. It's a fact that Chuck Spirou, whose cousin Stan is the head coach at Division 2 Southern New Hampshire University, understands and has tried to impress on his son.

In his eyes, the Vegas trip was basketball and vacation all rolled into one.

"So many people go into this strictly focused only on the basketball and that drive for scholarships," Chuck Spirou said. "Sure, it's great exposure and great for the kids to compete against the best. But at the end of the day, it's more about life experience than anything else.

"I can tell you when we look back on this trip, we'll all remember those learning experiences. My son's not going to remember the buzzer-beating two-point loss to that team from Maryland. He's going to remember our ride up the elevator with (NBA star) Michael Beasley."

Scholarship driven

Dunham brought about 20 athletes, all incoming high school seniors and juniors, with the two Jayhawks teams. So far, not one has been offered a scholarship.

Proctor Academy's Ben Bartoldus of Hillsborough, N.H., has drawn the most interest — at least one member of the University of New Hampshire coaching staff was at each Jayhawks game in Las Vegas — but Dunham makes no promises.

"The parents are paying for this, and all I can do is put every kid in our program in the best situation possible to succeed," he said. "Showcasing the kids is always the top priority.

"Along the way, we made the round of 16 in a 148-team national tournament. Hopefully, around New England that will speak a little bit about the quality and drive of these kids."

Desrosiers' Rivals team, coached by Central Catholic's Vin Pastore, played in the more high-powered event, bowing out after a 3-0 run in pool play.

Despite getting knocked off, Trovato considered the trip a success.

While Desrosiers can play wherever he wants, and teammate Evan Smotrycz has already committed to Michigan, Vegas was a coming-out party for St. John's Prep's Ryan Canty of Danvers. The 6-foot-6 bruiser showed he can be a dominant force in the paint.

"His stock is rising," Trovato said. "These tournaments might take it through the roof.

"There are so many sponsored teams like the Playaz in this tournament, we don't think about winning. Our victories come when our guys get scholarships. That's why we're here."

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Big time exposure... at a big time cost

The AAU spring-summer club hoop basketball circuit offers athletes a chance for exposure regionally and nationally, chances they won't get playing high school ball. But it's a gamble that comes with a hefty price tag. There are no guarantees of college scholarships, or for that matter, playing time.

Here's what one local athlete's family paid along the way from March to last week's Vision Sports Main Event Tournament in Las Vegas:

$1,000 — The cost of playing in Mark Dunham's Granite State Jayhawks program. That fee goes to Jayhawks coaches' expenses, uniforms and warmups, practice time and all tournament entry fees.

$1,200 — Food, gas and hotel costs for the athlete and his parents at four different regional tournaments in the spring.

$1,000 — Three plane tickets for Las Vegas Main Event, July 22-26.

$250 — Rental car for the Main Event.

$850 — Six nights at the team hotel, Luxor on the South end of the Las Vegas Strip.

$875 — Food for three, seven days in Las Vegas

Total cost — $5,175. And that doesn't include gas for practice three nights a week in Nashua, N.H., or other miscellaneous travel expenses.