Tropes present in this episode:
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Gambling on the outcome of a pee-wee level game – even a penny – is, to many, unacceptable. Betting $10,000 is not only obscene but downright criminal. Additionally, Bo and Luke's probation rides on the Boar's Nest Bears winning the game, as Boss (expecting his county's team to lose) has a few charges to invent once the game is over.
- Accidental Misnaming: Rosco keeps calling Rod Moffet "Moppet," as in a baby.
- Angry Fist-Shake: Sheriff Little pulls this off a few times as the Dukes leave him and his ever-more-demolished car in their dust.
- Artistic License – Law:
- Bo and Luke miss their probation meeting with Boss Hogg by a few minutes. Boss says that the next day at 9:00 a.m. they'll appear before a judge to revoke their probation. Small town courts, especially those with travelling judges, do not work that fast.
- Bo and Luke agree to coach Boss's pee-wee basketball team in exchange for letting them off the hook. Boss says that if they don't win he'll have them put in jail.
- Artistic License – Sports: Uncle Jesse is appointed referee for the game because everyone knows he's the most honest man in Hazzard. That may be true but the fact that his two nephews are coaching one of the teams should disqualify him.
- The Bet: Boss and Chickasaw County Commissioner A.C. Tate Jr. wager $10,000 on the outcome of the game.
- Blackmail:
- Tate threatens Rod that if he shows up for the game, Tate will foreclose on his mother's farm leaving them homeless. Bo and Luke assure Rod that his father had made sure the land was paid off in full before he died, leaving the threat empty.
- The Dukes coerce Boss Hogg into donating the money he won from A.C. Tate to the local children's sports center by announcing it to the crowd even though he didn't agree to it. Now Boss has to do it "to keep good public relations."
- Down to the Last Play: Star player Rod Moffet makes the winning basket just a split-second before the buzzer, securing victory for Hazzard County and saving Bo and Luke's hides.
- The Hero: Rod Moffet.
- I Got Bigger: Discussed. When Bo and Luke propose getting Rod on the basketball team Boss and Rosco remember him as a little boy, but it's said he's had a recent growth spurt and is almost 6 feet tall.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Bo and Luke coach the team, Daisy is their fitness trainer, and Jesse is the referee in addition to hosting the entire Hazard County team on his farm during a week of intense practice. Boss Hogg sponsors the team and on game day he, Rosco and Enos are busy selling tickets, merchandise and refreshments. Who is running Hazzard?
- Opposing Sports Team: The Chickasaw Chiefs, which is heavily favored to win even with Rod playing on the Hazzard team.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Bo and Luke initially have trouble getting the boys to work together, and themselves have trouble finding a way to come up with an alternate strategy when Rod Moffet is initially declared ineligible.
- Race Against the Clock: Bo and Daisy go to the Chickasaw County hospital to get the original of Rod's birth certificate to prove he's 12 years old, as the game is going on. They get back in time for Rod to play the second half.
- Really Thirteen Years Old: Twisted. Under the rules of pee wee basketball, players are ineligible once they reach their 13th birthday. Tate uses this rule to his advantage, claiming 12-year-old Rod is actually 13 and, to back his claim, plants a fake birth certificate in the Hazzard Courthouse in order to force Rod to the bench. (He had done this after he and Boss made a $10,000 bet on the game, knowing that with Rod not in the game, Chickasaw would easily win.) This leads to a suspicious Bo and Daisy to rush to Chickasaw County to get the real birth certificate as quickly as possible.
- Scary Black Man: "Big" Ed Little, Sheriff of Chickasaw County, makes another appearance and beats up his car when he can't catch the General Lee.Waylon Jennings: [as we see Sheriff Little tear the door off his own car] That ain't nothing. You should have seen him this morning when [his wife] Rachel burned the grits. They're living in a motel 'til he puts the house back.
- Shout-Out: The title – and a number of the episode's plot elements – is an obvious play on and a tribute to the movie The Bad News Bears.
- Underdogs Never Lose: The Boar's Nest Bears are decided underdogs to the Chickasaw Chiefs.
