From sparring to superstar

Chapter 48 47. Repression!

If so, it is very suitable for certain occasions.

Outside the court, Li Ao felt ashamed when he heard the words 'make the Trojans great'.

But at 6:2 in the evening, when he entered the main arena of Memorial Stadium and heard more than [-] fans chanting "Make the Trojans great", he felt completely different.

He felt that he was about to burn up, as if the blood in his whole body was boiling, and he had to try his best to adjust his emotions so as not to be too excited.

Not only him, but everyone on the Trojans team was excited.

The enthusiasm of the fans makes them even more motivated.

The extremely fanatical atmosphere on the scene surprised the visiting Cardinals players.

Is this really the shame of Troy?
It's just an 8-game winning streak, isn't it?
The atmosphere also made them feel uncomfortable.

When they played other away games, the atmosphere they felt was worry and fear. When they entered the away game, they were greeted with violent boos.

And the fans in this stadium don't seem to see them.

For the traditionally powerful Cardinals, they naturally cannot understand what the 8-game winning streak means to the Trojans players and fans.

After all, they won 11 consecutive victories last season. In the past 20 years, they have an average record of 10 wins and 13 losses in the civil war stage of the pac5 league. Only the Wildcats are better than them, and the Bruins are slightly inferior.

Shelby Jordan rushed to the field, snatched the microphone of the host who was mobilizing the fans, and shouted: "Only basketball and fans can live up to it!"

There was a deafening scream at the scene, as if the ceiling was going to be pierced!
Li Ao was dumbfounded.

On show, it has to be 'Little Lambir'!
A certain No. 0 player quietly approached Shelby Jordan, grabbed the microphone and asked, "What about your girlfriend?"

Shelby Jordan spewed out "Vacco" on the spot, and the big screen shot was shown behind the Trojans bench, where his girlfriend was.

His girlfriend is also a very expressive person, and she immediately put on an expression of 'I am very angry'. Shelby Jordan quickly snatched the microphone back, added the sentence "Honey is above basketball", and the scene broke out. burst of laughter.

This episode relieved the overexcited emotions of the Trojans players.

Henry Bibby, who wanted to say something before the bench to calm the players down, took out a piece of chocolate and ate something sweet to ease the bitterness in his heart.

After playing around for a while, after greeting Vivienne, Liam, and Dean Teng who came to watch the game on the opposite side of the technical table, Li Ao returned to the bench, turned on the system, and read the analysis report of the players on the opposite side .

This opponent is really special!

It can be said that the teams he played against were different.

Their Trojans have three clear strengths: Granville, Shelby Jordan, and White Mamba.

The Bruins are full of talents, and they are high-end fighters.

The Wildcats have top talent in a well-balanced and strong roster.

The Sun Devils have the ceiling of the division's combat power Eddie House.

On the opposite side, the Cardinals team, with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss, doesn't even have a player with a comprehensive evaluation of first-class level!
The strongest Casey Jacobson, with a comprehensive evaluation of 84, a freshman, ranked 99th among high school students in the United States in 18, a tall pitcher-type white shooting guard of 198 cm, has averaged 15 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists per game so far this season.

The second strongest is Mark Madsen, a senior graduate student nicknamed Mad Dog, with a comprehensive evaluation of 83, averaging 12 points, 9 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game.

The comprehensive evaluation is above 80, and the 193 cm tall point guard David Mosley in the senior year has a comprehensive evaluation of 81; the 24-year-old super mature 201 cm small forward Ryan Mendes, a senior medical major , a comprehensive evaluation of 80; junior but already 24-year-old backup point guard Michael McDonald, 185 cm, a comprehensive evaluation of 80.

Li Ao looked at the opposite head coach Mike Montgomery.

He has an impression of the legendary coach of the Cardinals. He is a famous college coach who was not acclimatized after he came to the NBA from the NCAA and was not guaranteed at the end of the season. After leaving the NBA, he was listed in the top ten worst head coaches in NBA history. ranks.

When he read the Cardinals' scouting report before, he understood why.

In college, the famous coach's favorite players are those players who are older, more fully developed, and more skilled.

Among the five outstanding players of the Cardinals, except for the freshman Jacobson, the other four are all between 5 and 4 years old.

Of these four, except for Mark Madsen, who is expected to play professionally, the end of college for the other three basically means the end of their basketball career.

And this famous coach has the strongest zone defense in college, which was not popular in the NBA in the first ten years of the 21st century. He went to the Warriors team with strong offense and weak defense.

Regardless of the age issue, the lineup structure of the Cardinals really made Li Ao feel his scalp tingle.

How to attack!

You can only count on the white mamba's three-pointer to tear the opponent's defense.

On the 22nd of last month, the Bruins were able to overturn the Cardinals, and Kapono's 25 points made a great contribution.

However, what Li Ao fears the most about this opponent is not the five players with a comprehensive rating of 80+, but the pair of twins!
Jason Collins and Jalen Collins.

Looking at the two people with the same hair on the opposite side, he fell into deep thought.

Who can't the back be facing?
...

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the Trojans played against the Cardinals at home.

The starting lineup of the Trojans is still the same. The Cardinals sent David Mosley, Jacobson, Mendes, Mark Madsen, and Jaylen Collins to the starting lineup.

The players of the Trojans knew that this opponent was very defensive and difficult to play, but after the real match, they still played like crazy.

Mark Madsen defends like a mad dog. Although his defensive skills are not as good as Shelby Jordan's, his physical fitness is at the NBA level, his defensive attitude is no worse than Shelby Jordan's, and his defensive performance is even better.

Jaylen Collins, David Mosley, and Mendes are all online defensively. Although Jacobson's single defense is poor, he has a high golf quotient, and it is not a loophole when playing zone defense.

4 minutes before the start, the Trojans only scored 3 points!
But the Trojans went crazy, and the Cardinals players were not much better.

They already know that the Trojans are not as soft as in previous years, and they are playing extraordinarily tough this season, and they are prepared.

But the defensive toughness of the Trojans still exceeded their expectations!

Granville found his way defensively - gambling on the press.

The back is handed over to the teammates. The teammates help Granville through the zone defense. If Granville succeeds in gambling steals, he counterattacks directly. ball.

An important reason why the Cardinals have difficulty going far in the Crazy Three is that they lack offensive players, that is, they do not have top-level personal combat power.

Using older players does have advantages in terms of technology and tactical understanding, but there are also many things to lose.

Their flaw was exposed again tonight.

They limited the Trojans to only 4 points in 3 minutes, but they only scored 5 points!
It's time for the Trojans to attack again. The highly anticipated White Mamba hits two irons in the opening game and hits a three-pointer!
6 to 5, the Trojans overtook the score!

The White Mamba shot away, and the Cardinals' defense suffered a huge blow.

Mark Madsen is good at defending singles strikers. He also does a good job of supplementary defense and assist defense. He has strong rebound protection ability, but he is not good at defending outside shooters.

Mendes is good at defending against breakthroughs and cuts, and can even defend against some point guards, but his big problem on the defensive end is that he is used to staring at the ball, and he often misses outside shooters without the ball.

Jacobson has a good attitude and awareness, but he may not be capable enough.

After the White Mamba made a three-pointer, he hit two goals in the next three offenses, scoring a long two-pointer and a top-arc three-pointer, scoring 3 points and tearing the Cardinals' zone defense.

Fortunately, Jacobson stood up in time, scored a three-pointer, and in the next round gave a cut-in Mark Madsen a dunk with both hands, and the Cardinals stabilized the situation.

The score came to 11 to 10, and the Trojans still only led by 1 point.

And compared to the Cardinals who played outside passes, the Trojans relied purely on the white mamba to soar points. From the perspective of the scene, the former was the one with the upper hand.

In terms of running and shooting, Jacobson is not as good as the White Mamba, with similar talents, the difference between freshman and sophomore is still quite big.

But Jacobson, who averaged 3+ assists per game, is obviously stronger. In the case of tearing the opponent's defense, Jacobson performed better than the White Mamba.

Henry Bibby called a timeout to make adjustments and replaced Li Ao against Jacobson.

What happened to Kapono, Eddie House and other top university pitchers happened again in Jacobson.

Compared to those two, Jacobson is much weaker.

After Li Ao played, Jacobson seemed to return to the nightmarish night on the 22nd, when he met Matt Barnes that night.

Li Ao's sense of defensive oppression is not as good as that of Matt Barnes, and the confrontation is not as fierce, but Jacobson's playing is even more uncomfortable.

Flexible slewing, more sticky chasing and defense, and endless small movements...Jacobson rushes to the street...

Mendez was hard guarded by Shelby Jordan, Jacobson went into stealth mode, and the Cardinals' offense was completely overwhelmed.

The Trojans took advantage of the threat of the White Mamba, scored 10 points in the next 15 minutes, and limited the Cardinals to 9 points.

打到上半场17分06秒，比分来到26比19，特洛伊人队领先7分！
The Cardinals called a timeout to make adjustments.

David Mosley, 196 cm Kyle Logan, Mendes, Mark Madsen, and Jason Collins' five-man team were replaced.

This is the most defensive lineup of the Cardinals!

Jason Collins, who has a comprehensive evaluation of 79, is the strongest center of the Cardinals team. His younger brother Jaylen Collins has a comprehensive evaluation of 76, which is not as good as Jason Collins. The statistics show that his brother is stronger.

Draft expectations do not lie. On the 2000 draft prediction lists of major media, if Jason Collins participates in the NBA draft this year, he is expected in the lottery zone, while his younger brother is expected in the second round.

It's just that Jason Collins always has a mother-like doting on his younger brother, and he has been spoiling his younger brother since he was a child.

The two played in the same position and have always been on the same team, and he always gave up the starting position to his younger brother.

Henry Bibby also made personnel adjustments and tactical adjustments.

White Mamba and Shelby Jordan were replaced, and the combination of Granville, Trepagnier, Li Ao, Brusenthal and Evanisco was replaced.

The advantage in the start was expected by Henry Bibby.

The Cardinal team is characterized by a strong and stable defense, but the disadvantage is that the top big shooters on the outside cannot cope.

It's not that they can't deal with pitchers. They defended Eddie House well, and their shooting percentage can't be suppressed, but their players in each position are very tall, and they did a good job of cutting off Eddie House from his teammates. good.

But there is no way to meet big pitchers like Kapono and White Mamba, who are more than two meters long. These two are big and tall, and teammates inside and outside can always see where they are.

This is actually the reason why big pitchers are very popular in the NCAA, where the defense is vertical and horizontal.

Next, is the critical stage!

The White Mamba is not there, and there are no other long-range shooters inside. The Cardinals have done a very good job of defending the back line shooters.

Whether the Trojans can withstand the Cardinals' counterattack at this stage will play a decisive role in the outcome of the game.

After returning from the timeout, the Cardinals, as Henry Bibby predicted, let David Mosley and Mendes attack on the offensive end. The success rate of singles is actually average, and they mainly focus on defensive counterattacks.

This is not a difficult thing to analyze. The Cardinals have always played like this. There has not been much change in the past 20 years, but their overall strength is too strong. Even if most teams know how they want to play, it is useless.

However, the development of the situation was not quite the same as he thought, and the advantage did not tilt towards the Cardinals.

After David Mosley came up with an emergency stop jump shot facing Granville, Li Ao opened the point difference to 9 points with a long two-pointer with a one-step catch in the top arc!
In the first 10 minutes, Li Ao only had 1 rebound and 1 assist, and did not take a shot. The effect of the first shot in the 'perfect warm-up' is still there!
The feel of the Cardinals was lost in the opening stage, and it was another iron when it fell into the positional battle.

This is actually a normal situation for them. At this stage, their main score is defensive counterattack.

But when the Trojans attacked, the Trojans scored again!

It's still Li Ao!

He caught the ball on the left side of the three-second zone and turned around and made another shot!

With a basic mid-range shot of 77 and the addition of 'Catch and Shoot Expert Level 2', he has reached an excellent level of 80 in catch and shoot!

The Cardinals really gave Li Ao a chance, and both of his shots were open.

This is actually the advantage of the Cardinals. Although Li Ao scored 33 points in a single game against the Wildcats, everyone understood that it was just a special situation, and it was clearly an explosive performance. The fluctuating style of play is a manifestation of the Cardinals' defensive stability.

Before playing against the Wildcats, Li Ao was able to make mid-range shots, but he could also shoot.

Defending against Granville's breakthrough, defending against Trey Pagnier's catch and shoot, and defending against Brusenthal's inside scoring are the key targets of the Cardinals' zone defense.

But Li Ao scored two goals in a row!

30 to 19, the Trojans lead to double digits!
(End of this chapter)