From sparring to superstar

Chapter 32 31. That Year I Put My Hands in My Pockets

The cheerleaders entered the arena for a wave of performances. Although they were still very plain and could not be compared with the Huskies at all, the clothes today were very charming, with X-mas shorts + vests and deer ears embellished.

The teammates saw that the hysteria was about to flow out, so Li Ao stuck to his heart and watched the performance with pure appreciation, so pure and innocent.

When the cheerleading time was over, a school manager, along with Henry Bibby, led a cameraman and several political and business people to the home team's bench, and called the players to come up.

In such a popular game, there are always people who want to show off their faces.

Standing in the C position this time is Arnold Schwarzenegger, an iron-blooded tough guy in the film industry.

Schwarzenegger, who is in his 50s, has rarely participated in film and television filming since 94. He has also played guest roles or supporting roles. He has not played a leading role for 5 years because he joined the Republican Party and is currently competing for a seat in the California State Assembly. , the very high-profile one, even Li Ao, who doesn't care about those things, has heard of it.

Schwarzenegger enthusiastically shook hands, hugged and took photos with every team member, speaking words of encouragement.

One of his slogans for running for the council is to save money and rejuvenate sports.

To put it simply, it is to reduce the government's redundant and redundant expenditures, and to distribute money to high school and university sports clubs. This has won the hearts of students in California, where the sports atmosphere is hot.

For example, USC, the new President of the Student Union, campaigned with the slogan of helping the school teams to get more budget from the school and making the Trojans even greater.

In places with a hot sports atmosphere such as California and Texas, using this as a slogan has been tried and tested.

However, Southern California has won a total of 89 NCAA first-level league championships, ranking third in the entire NCAA. If you want to be greater, you can only hit Stanford University, which has won 95 first-level league championships, and won 101. Division I champion UCLA.

UCLA, Stanford University, and Southern California University are better than them in individual sports, but the overall strength of sports, the three of them are in the same class, and others are optional.

That's why the Trojans are called 'The Shame of Troy'. They haven't won a national championship.

Finally, the time for the Terminator's political show was over, and they left contentedly with the video and photos they had taken. The Trojans players finally got rid of this troublesome thing.

In normal times, when they meet Schwarzenegger, many of them will definitely rush forward to sign autographs and take photos.

But tonight, they are the protagonists. Schwarzenegger, a soon-to-be politician, came to rub the camera, so seeing Schwarzenegger is just annoying.

Players from the two teams exchanged pleasantries. Mike Bibby, the former boss of the Wildcats, was the son of the head coach of the Trojans. Although the relationship between the two fathers and sons was bad, the relationship between the two teams has been good for the past two years.

After all, there was no conflict of interest between the two teams before, at least until the end of this game, there was no grievance.

But the two teams are not all so friendly...

Li Ao came to the field to shoot to find his feeling, and made every effort to prepare for the upcoming game.

He took a few shots and all of them went in. Just when he was happy that his shooting seemed to be good today, he suddenly felt like a light was on his back.

Turn around and look...

What are you doing?

This guy doesn't think he's so handsome and wants to draw his gun in front of more than 2 people, right?
Li Ao stared back resolutely, and his gaze met Arenas's. The opponent raised his neck proudly and grabbed the jersey number on his chest, then turned his head and stopped looking at him.

"No, it shouldn't be, and you are not allowed to wear the same jersey number?"

Li Ao was speechless to the extreme.

Then he remembered a story about Arenas.

At the end of Arenas' freshman season, due to his extremely bad playing attitude, the head coach of his school said that his chances of entering college were zero, that he didn't have the strength to play college basketball, and that he couldn't do anything except pull-up jump shots.

In fact, it was his high school head coach who deliberately stimulated him. He was really stimulated and put on the No. 0 jersey. For the next three years, he practiced pull-up jumpers crazily. Focus on the development of this technology, and the breakthroughs are all developed around the emergency stop jumper.

After correcting his training attitude, he made rapid progress. The team he led also won the Southern California Minor League Championship for three consecutive years. He also entered the top 17 in the United States at the age of [-].

Wait, Li Ao remembered that the universities Arenas most wanted to enter were the two universities in Los Angeles. The Trojans didn't even give Arenas a chance to try out.

In addition to being unfavorable for a single technique, Arenas also has a lot of negative incidents off the court.

It's normal for people to hate their Trojans now that they want to get into college in Los Angeles.

Li Ao was regretful and somewhat fortunate. It was a pity that he missed such a powerful teammate, but he was more fortunate... Don't worry about a man with a gun in the locker room...

...

At 7 o'clock in the evening, amidst the wild cheers of the fans, the game between the Trojans and the Wildcats started.

Wildcats starting: Gardner, Arenas, Richard - Jefferson, Michael - Wright, Lauren - Woods.

Trojans starters: Granville, Trepagnier, Shelby Jordan, White Mamba, Charles.

Woods beat Charles to win the jump ball and the Wildcats went first.

Li Ao sat on the bench, waiting for the call.

Kevin Henderson sat next to Li Ao and asked, "Are you watching how Shelby defends?"

Li Ao responded: "Yes."

"That's fine, but your priority is your opponent."

"Oh?"

"Yes, we need what you do on the court, sometimes you may need to learn Shelby's defense and serve as a backup for him, but you are more comprehensive than him defensively, we need you to do more things, as a defense Or, you need to understand the situation of the opponent first, such as Arenas, you can see in which area he shoots well. In different games, the feeling of the same person shooting is definitely different. You can use this as a reference when defending. "

Li Ao nodded involuntarily: "It makes sense."

Kevin Henderson continued: "Of course it is also important for you to observe your teammates' defense, but to analyze how your teammates defend, you can watch the video to learn. When the Christmas holiday arrives, I will sort out the videos of the first 8 games of the season for you. , you should pay attention to what kind of defense your teammates have, which is effective, and what kind of defense is not effective. If you can imitate the successful defense of your teammates, at the same time, you need to consider your defensive advantages more, how to do better , how to avoid their own disadvantages..."

Li Ao nodded again and again, his neck was almost sore.

In fact, these are the principles that you will find very simple after listening to them, but before he was figuring them out by himself, it was difficult for him to think about them from the perspective of an outsider like Kevin Henderson.

He appreciates Kevin Henderson's guidance, but...

"Kevin, why didn't you teach me earlier? That way I can practice in several games, and now I may be able to make these observations and analyzes proficiently."

This statement sounds very unreasonable, and it is strange to teach late when I learn something.

But from Kevin Henderson's point of view, it was indeed his fault.

These should be taught.

However, he showed the true qualities of a man, and threw the blame back: "How do I know that you are improving so fast, helping you make a passing training plan, and adjusting the offensive and defensive system for you, don't you need time?"

Li Ao: (-)
After a moment of silence, he gave a thumbs up: "It makes sense!"

Seeing that Kevin Henderson had nothing else to instruct, Li Ao put this aside and focused on the game.

The progress of the team was shown at the beginning of this game.

The starting lineup of the Wildcats is slightly stronger than that of the Bruins. It is true that there is no striker like Kapono who is most suitable for the NCAA, but the Wildcats have no obvious shortcomings in this lineup, and every position is very strong.

Gardner's sudden points + long shots, Arenas' singles, Richard Jefferson's cut, Michael Wright's comprehensive inside offensive skills, Woods' absolute height advantage of 216 cm...

But their Trojans didn't start behind!
Charles' tough top defense did not allow Woods to easily eat inside. Shelby Jordan did a good job of defending Michael Wright.

Although the Trojans' zone defense was too strong because of Woods and Michael Wright, it gave Gardner and Arenas an excellent singles opportunity, and Richard Jefferson also seized the opportunity cut inside to score,

But Tre Pagnier also used his skillful one-on-one singles to score on Arenas' head repeatedly. Granville and White Mamba's sudden points + running catch and shoot cooperation also played Gardner and Richard Jefferson no no no.

Everyone in the Trojans played confidently, with sharp breakthroughs, decisive passes, and stable shots...they overwhelmed the incoming Wildcats!
At 5 minutes and 22 seconds, the White Mamba first used Shelby Jordan to block Richard Jefferson, and then used a beautiful turnaround to get rid of Michael Wright to the left of the free throw line. Trepagnier's pass from the distance made a mid-range shot.

The score came to 17 to 11, and the Trojans led by 6 points!
Henry Bibby, who was always nervous on the sidelines, put his hands in his pockets at this time, his expression became calm and calm, as if everything was under his control.

He's the one who wants to win the most, man, one day he's going to leave, and he's going to be here for years, and wants to coach him like old K coach Mike Krzyzewski for 20 years, make enough money to retire .

The record is very important to him. He has already won 7 consecutive victories in the first round. This wave of victories has surpassed his previous influence of leading the Trojans to the crazy three. He naturally wants to continue the winning streak and expand this influence force.

But this pocket, really can't be inserted indiscriminately.

Coincidentally, Arenas happened to see this scene. He didn't know what the opponent's posture was, which made Arenas extremely angry.

In addition, Henry Bibby refused to give Arenas a chance to try out and 'kicked' him out of Los Angeles, and the anger was super doubled!
Then, Arenas first made a two-pointer with an emergency stop against Shelby Jordan's defense.

Immediately afterwards, he stole Granville again, counterattacked and scored two points.

When it came time for the Trojans to attack, this time Charles caught the ball and turned around with a solid hook. Arenas flew into the inside and grabbed a defensive rebound. Trey Pagnier made a counterattack, and Arenas showed amazing emergency braking ability this time. He stopped directly outside the three-point line, then pulled up suddenly, and made a three-point shot...

Shelby Jordan did a good job of defending the ball. The defensive coverage area has expanded beyond the free throw line, but if Arenas breaks in two steps before stopping, he will make up for it.

But Arenas' exaggerated emergency stop and braking ability made Shelby Jordan just watch as the opponent made a [-]-point shot...

hit!

Arenas scored 7 points in a row, and the Wildcats overtook the Trojans by 18 to 17 by 1 point.

Henry Bibby was dumbfounded, what kind of fairy style is this?
He quickly pulled his hand out of his pocket and called timeout!
The alpaca was running back and forth in Henry Bibby's mind. Just 1 minute ago, he was still thinking, 'Don't call a timeout, let's see how long you can last', but he didn't expect the clown to be himself!

Fortunately, he is an old Jianghu, and the panic only lasted for a moment. After calling the timeout, he returned to a serious and calm appearance, thinking quickly.

First of all, he affirms himself and gives himself confidence-the opening game is fine.

But their weakness is that they don't have players like Arenas who explode at a disagreement to raise the team's upper limit.

So you can't lose a stable score.

So Arenas, who suppressed the outbreak, is the adjustment that should be made now.

At this time, the question arises, who should be sent to guard against Arenas?
Defense is their weakness. Recently, defense has improved a lot, but it is mainly due to the improvement of team defense. After playing harder, others can give Shelby Jordan more help. The improvement is in this aspect.

Single defense, this is more a test of personal ability. After playing hard, there will be a certain degree of improvement, but if you want to achieve a qualitative change, some people may be able to do it in a few months, at least not now.

Then only the kid is left...

Before his GPU could run out of the screen, his eyes saw the kid coming directly in front of him.

Li Ao moved his joints and said, "It's time for me to save the world again."

Henry Bibby really wanted to kick it up, but he wanted to say something if he couldn't kick it.

But he is an educated person, and he just enrolled in a refresher class at Southern California after renewing his long-term contract. It is impossible to beat someone.

And... Laughing to death, you can play if you want to?
Henry Bibby waved his hand: "Leo, you go up to defend against Arenas. If you can't prevent the holidays, don't rest. Special training every day!"

He wants this kid to play, and this kid can play!
Trepagnier, who had a sudden outburst and was beaten by the opponent player, was very unwilling at the moment, but he found that he was very lucky that someone replaced him to face Arenas at this time.

I found that I actually had such a mentality, especially when I saw Li Ao's expression of excitement without any fear at all.

'Is there such a big gap between me and him? '

He admires Li Ao's hard work, but he is also a competitive person, he knows that his talent is not as good as Li Ao, but he doesn't want to admit defeat!
Li Ao didn't know that his 'leadership' ability to stimulate his teammates to work hard, and this moment played a role again.

On his side, he heard that Henry Bibby had replaced him, and the task reminder came!
(End of this chapter)