Just when David thinks his dream will forever elude him, he is offered a dubious job coaching the men's basketball team at Cadwallader University, a fictional Nevada college.

The job only pays $60 for each win, but David is promised a lucrative contract if he can lead Cadwallader to victory over Nevada State (one of the top 10 teams in the country).

David begins building his team with his friend Hustler, a talented baller and pool ace whose own fortunes turn sour when his "pigeons" realize they have been sharked.

David and his newly formed quartet head west and immediately set about finding a suitable fifth man among the shallow talent pool of Cadwallader athletes.

David must find a way to get Winnegar to agree to a game, which, as team manager Howard puts it, will be "like getting the Ohio State Buckeyes to play football with Radcliffe."

Prior to the shooting, the fictional Cadwallader team practiced for two weeks with UCLA assistant coach Jim Harrick, who was credited in the film as a technical advisor.

[2] Columbia Pictures employed an unusual strategy to promote the film by sending out a press release that gave the impression that Cadwallader was a real university (complete with phone number and return address in Bunkerville, Nevada) that was presenting honorary degrees to, among others, Vice President Walter Mondale, singer Dolly Parton ("for her leadership in behalf of women's rights") and businessman Henry Ford II.

Likable in a rather harmless fashion, the Columbia Pictures release seems certain to turn up on the tube soon, after quickly exhausting the potential of major markets where its basketball theme could click.

"[9] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "'Fast Break,' a negligible but marginally entertaining sports comedy about a rags-to-riches college basketball team, is the sort of attraction that used to fill the bottom half of double bills.