A runty basketball phenom from Colorado, all smiles and yes-sirs, stumbles starry-eyed into the ruthless world of big-time college athletics (UCLA, thinly disguised). In reality, hayseeds like this fellow do not come from Colorado, but come only from Frank Capra movies (his teammate slips him one pep pill during practice and he instantaneously behaves like a cheerleader on the sidelines and like a Harlem Globetrotter on the court). Robby Benson, who co-wrote the script, plays the part as if he is recruiting middle-aged mothers and teenage girls for his fan club. He is very sweet, but also very peculiar. Only when he is thrown together briefly with Melanie Griffith does he encounter anyone who is as peculiar as he. The movie has an urgent sense of purpose -- to scandalize us with facts, figures, and fish stories about college athletics -- but it tends to overstate its case in the harried, compressed, and simplified fashion of a TV hour. Directed by Lamont Johnson. (1977) — Duncan Shepherd
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