Synopsis

Logline:
A 35-year-old department store manager receives a scholarship to play Division I college basketball when the highly-recruited high school senior he’s been training insists to an interested school that the two of them are a package deal.

Synopsis:
A six-inch growth spurt prompts senior Marcus Leonard to try out for his high school basketball team. To teach him the game, he enlists the help of a family friend: 34-year-old department store manager and former high school standout Kirk Flanagan. In six months of intense training, Kirk helps Marcus become a fundamentally-sound, highly-competitive basketball player. So much so that midway through the season, Marcus starts receiving scholarship offers from numerous Division I schools.

When Marcus learns that Kirk still has college eligibility (on account of dropping out of school just prior to his freshman year to care for his ailing mother), Marcus hatches a plan for the two of them to play college basketball together. He informs his hometown university, Portland State, that he will only accept their offer if they include an offer for Kirk.

Portland State--initially miffed at the idea--eventually calls Kirk in for a workout and, surprised by his abilities, offers him a scholarship.

Having just bought a house, and with a baby on the way, the timing couldn’t be worse for Kirk--but with his wife’s encouragement and some surprise live-in nanny support from his sixteen-years-cancer-free mom, Kirk accepts Portland State’s offer and enrolls in the fall.

Early on, Kirk has trouble fitting in with the team, especially with some of the more intense and vocal players. When one of these players, the team’s star shooting guard, makes an inappropriate remark about Kirk’s wife during practice one day, Kirk responds by blindsiding him with a crushing pick, greatly angering the head coach and earning Kirk a lengthy stay in “the doghouse.” Five games into the season, when the backup point guard goes down with an injury, Kirk finally gets some playing time--which he makes the most of. Over the next handful of games, his clutch play and encouraging spirit endear him to his teammates, his coach, and the Portland State fans.

Finally gelling both on and off the court, the team puts together an impressive winning streak (beating two ranked teams) before losing their final game of the season at the buzzer--narrowly costing them a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Badly injured in the last game, and with money tight, Kirk decides it’s time to hang up his sneakers and look for work. He doesn’t have to look far: One week later, when Portland State’s assistant coach accepts a head coaching position elsewhere, Kirk is offered and accepts the vacant position--just in time to help prepare the team for the National Invitation Tournament, which they are the odds-on favorite to win.