After completing military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter—and takes him under his wing.
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Jimmy Dolan is a college basketball coach who wants a big promotion. To get it, he needs to make a dramatic find. He ends up deep in Africa, hoping to recruit Saleh, a huge basketball prodigy Jimmy glimpsed in a home movie. But Saleh is the chief's son and has responsibilities at home, since the tribe's land is threatened by a mining company with its own hotshot basketball team.
Senior Hardy Buchanan struggles to keep up at an elite private school while caring for his unstable mother and raising money for surgery to save their beloved family dog. Desperate for cash, he teams up with a mysterious runaway to run an unconventional scheme targeting wealthy classmates. But as the plan spirals and Hardy’s feelings for classmate Lake deepen, he’s forced to decide what kind of person he wants to be.