Chris Duhon tries not to let celebrity change him.

Most everyone directly involved in the college recruiting process agrees it is ripe for at least some change, if not a complete overhaul. But while concrete modifications have been scarce and unfocused, indictments of the process remain abundant and precise.

"There are some damaging and unhealthy aspects from a psychological perspective," says sports psychologist Andy Palmer, who counsels athletes at his North Carolina-based Zap Corporation. "I've seen the meat market. A great number of coaches and recruiters are there to win and they don't know how to really nurture kids. My feeling is that if you achieve something too quickly, you've probably compromised your ultimate potential. So without time to grow fully as people because of the process, somewhere down the line those kids' cracks are going to show. Once all the glory of recruiting has faded, that kid still has to produce."

"One of the worst things about recruiting that probably will never change is that one kid will tell three, four or five schools that they are his No. 1 choice," says Connecticut-based athletic recruiting consultant and author Wayne Mizzoni, who provides fee-for-service advice to blue-chip scholastic recruits. "At the same time, a college coach is telling four or five kids that they're the No. 1 prospect at the same position. [They're both] doing the same thing, and I think it's hard to avoid that."

On April 27, the NCAA Division I board of directors unanimously approved a package of basketball rule changes, including a proposal to eliminate men's summer recruiting by 2002. Coaches are currently allowed 24 days of recruiting during the summer, including attendance at camps sponsored by sneaker manufacturers.

While the NCAA cannot prevent the camps from continuing, the board plans to prohibit coaches from attending them. It's all part of a program designed, according to Penn State University president and NCAA Division I board chairman Graham Spanier in an Associated Press report, to reduce "the unsavory influences affecting the lives of young people and the integrity of our programs."

The board also approved the formation of a Division I basketball issues committee, which will be charged with, among other things, the implementation of "Life Skills" programs that would focus on the total development of student-athletes at member schools.

Without question, it's a step in the right direction. But it's still short of a full stride.

"The more these kids think they can do without a college or even high school degree, the more unhealthy the environment becomes," says Art Taylor, Director of Urban Youth Sports at the Center for the Study of Sport in Society in Boston. "Part of the problem is there's not a plan to mentor those athletes who aren't going to go on to the pros. How are they going to handle the loss of no longer being a college athlete? There are a few coaches who care about the total kid - academics, athletics and lifestyle - but that's rare on the men's side, and it's in decline on the women's side as far as collegiate athletics go."

Ironically, what is arguably the most promising indication the process could regain some measure of sanity is that recruiters and scholarship athletes share, in principal, the same goal: a comprehensive, good match.

"It's a costly mistake if a kid signs with a university and then transfers," says Betty Jaynes, founder and CEO of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. "So recruiters want kids to stay for four years and want to do a good job making sure all the decisions made are lasting ones.

"But it really is difficult to make good decisions about kids with the restrictions placed upon coaching staffs as far as contact goes," continues Jaynes. "Really getting to know a kid is hard. At the same time, the contact is already extremely intrusive for blue-chippers. There's a middle road somewhere that we've got to find."

Palm Beach Gardens High (Fla.) right-hander Zach Miner, a likely selection in Major League Baseball's June Amateur Draft, confirms there are intrusive aspects to being a top recruit. But Miner, who is scheduled to attend the University of Miami on scholarship this fall, adds the encroachment isn't limited to collegiate suitors.

Miner, the subject of a profile in the April issue of SchoolSports' Miami print edition, was bombarded with requests by his peers to autograph copies of the magazine. Many of those asking for his signature apparently embraced the notion that it could be worth something someday. While Miner inked those issues with a smile, more or less, it was the influx of new "friends" that really disturbed him.

"Most coaches were nice and sincere with me," says Miner, 18. "But there's no doubt college baseball is a big business and you knew some people were lying to you. You'd ask about pitch counts in their program and they just wouldn't tell the truth. But that actually helped me with the weeding-out process.

"It's the people you're not really friends with who are all the sudden your buddy and want to talk to you about baseball that gets disturbing," he continues. "It kind of makes you realize who your friends are: the ones who talk to you like you're Zach and not just the baseball guy. It does seem like [the notoriety] goes to the heads of people around me more than it has to me."

To that end, top-notch athletes' most effective ally in the recruiting meat market is staying true to themselves and those who genuinely care about them.

"I'm a humble person and I just concentrate on the things that got me here," says Chris Duhon, a 2000 McDonald's All-American guard from Salmen High (La.) and a Duke University signee, who was recognized as the top scholar-athlete among this year's McDonald's players as the winner of the annual Morgan Wootten Award. "The main thing is to keep your nose clean and keep working. Work to be the best player you can be on and off the court. The key is, don't put any added pressure on yourself to be someone you're not."

There are more than enough outsiders already eager to fill that role.

"These guys better get used to the attention," says Boston High senior Tiffany Magazine, the de facto ringleader of the human funnel that greeted this year's McDonald's All-Americans at UMass-Boston in March. "I'm not a groupie or anything; I just love basketball. But they'll see a lot more of this outside their locker room as they get more famous."