It's the start of a new school year at Deering High: Michael, Chris and Earl have left, as well as Sam who's gone to college in Chicago. New recruits are recruited into the team by new team manager, Mary Beth.

After scoring low on the S.A.T.s, Hammer finds out that his scores aren't good enough for him to be able to be admitted into any of the colleges that he's planned on applying to. But when he learns that Duke University is sending a scout to watch him play basketball, he thinks that they won't pay attention to his academic achievements after seeing him on the court. Kristy tries to convince Hammer to take the S.A.T.s again, without much luck. Meanwhile, Julie and Michael's anniversary is coming up and when Mary Beth overhears Michael talking about buying a Ruby guitar, she mistakenly thinks that he's buying Julie a ruby.