AllMovie

Everyone is thrown for a loop (or is it a hoop?) when Lynn Hayden (Samantha Smith), Julie Teeger's much-admired high school basketball coach, dies in what seems to be a freak accident with a hair dryer. Monk (Tony Shalhoub) of course suspects murder, but this seems unlikely since Lynn apparently had no enemies. To get to the truth, Monk signs up as assistant to the school's interim coach, who happens to be Julie's mom (and Monk's caregiver) Natalie (Traylor Howard). Amidst a great deal of personal agony over having to actually stoop to physical exertion (and in a sweaty, smelly high school gym to boot) Monk uncovers a link between Lynn's demise and a recent forest fire--to say nothing of a similarly suspicious death at a country club three years before.