Not every student has floor seats at home basketball games, the NCAA investigating him during law school finals, and the CFO of FedEx texting afterward to persuade him to hire the school’s next head basketball coach. Blue Dream is the firsthand story of how Ryan Luttrell spent his days in class at the University of Memphis and his nights researching and influencing the school’s next basketball team.Ryan was working on a master’s degree in sports commerce, and what a perfect time, as the Memphis Tigers were ranked #1, a dream come true from his childhood. He religiously followed the team and one day decided to attend a practice with his 7-year-old son, Carter. They continued going to practices, and before Ryan knew it, Carter was playing alongside the team’s star, Derrick Rose, and Ryan was rubbing elbows with Coach John Calipari’s staff while playing nightly pickup games with them in the team’s practice facility. It was everything a fan could want, as he watched the Tigers make it all the way to the national championship game.The entire season seemed like a whirlwind, but as the players moved on to the NBA, the new recruits came, and this time, Ryan was already a fixture. He was privy to the most intimate secrets of how Calipari and his staff worked and maneuvered in the underworld of recruiting. Ryan seemed to be the only outsider allowed into this world, and the information was flowing so frequently that he began reporting for several local news outlets. Ryan and Carter both grew during another magnificent season. However, as the season ended, the beloved Coach Calipari left. Ryan was at a decision point: Leave with the Calipari dynasty or use his inside knowledge of the team and the politics of the program to rebuild the Memphis Tigers.After completing his master’s, he enrolled in law school and dived headfirst into the Tigers’ world, calling and texting with boosters to name the next head coach of the university, Josh Pastner. Ryan had moved from being a fan to being an insider to now being an influencer of the entire program and began having daily meetings at Pastner’s new office. As the coaching staff learned that Ryan had an event-planning background, he saw an opportunity, and it wasn’t long before he started his own company and put on his first tournament, which featured the Memphis Magic. Ryan had found a way to make money off his marketing and business talents while keeping talent locked in with Memphis basketball.Then the NCAA changed everything, as it seemed convinced that Ryan coerced athletes from his tournaments to commit to Memphis. Over the course of three separate investigations (all of which he was cleared in), NCAA coaches stopped talking to Ryan, and his relationship with Pastner and his staff became more than strained. At the same time, Ryan began to see the effects that his involvement in this recruiting world were having on everyone around him, especially his now-11-year-old son, Carter. Ryan began to realize that he wasn’t going to change the way that recruiting works for college basketball programs. He needed to wake up from this Blue Dream…