From sparring to superstar

Chapter 74 72. A Mere Substitute
So he chose to practice the hook.

As the saying goes, if you grind your guns before the battle, you will be light if you are not quick.

Even if there is no qualitative improvement in practice now, at least I can get more familiar with the feeling of inside shooting.

And his eyes are not only on the game on the 20th, but his eyes are on Indianapolis on April 4th...

In the afternoon, Li Ao conducted training with the team.

Henry - Bibby would like to pull the Duke and Cardinals coaches, players one by one to say thank you.

These two teams have provided too much material for his preparations. Both teams are strong in zone defense and each has its own characteristics. One is good at 3-2 zone defense and the other is good at 2-3 zone defense. From a tactical perspective In other words, the two teams rounded up their next opponents.

This afternoon's preparations were mainly focused on meeting discussions, watching video clips and discussions. In terms of training, only two sets of 20-minute targeted tactical movement training were conducted.

During the second set of training, Li Ao approached Kevin Henderson, the leader of the team, and asked the other party to help him arrange a few attacking and running training, so as to find a sense of cooperation with his teammates.

For this request, Kevin Henderson chose to ask the head coach first.

When Henry Bibby heard who made the request, he said, "Do you think it's right for the players to intervene in the coaching staff?", and then agreed.

One sentence is an attitude, and I agreed to it because this suggestion is reliable, and it is worth hitting occasionally, and maybe I can score at a certain moment.

It was night, after Li Ao returned to the apartment and finished his physical therapy, he went online to check the complete promotion status of the first round.

At 8:55, after the University of Kansas Predators narrowly defeated the Chicago Blue Devils of DePaul University 82 to 77 in overtime, the first round of this year's Crazy Three is all over.

Li Ao saw that all 10 teams in the pac4 league except the Sun Devils had advanced to the top 32!
He really underestimated these opponents in the same alliance, and he may also underestimate himself.

The Cardinals defeated the Central Connecticut New Britain Blue Devils in the Northeast Conference with a score of 74 to 45.

Li Ao saw that the media commented on the dominance shown by the Cardinals in this game, which was at the level of a seeded team.

He was not surprised that the Cardinals crushed their opponents every time they played in the first game of the mad three.

It's the name of the Blue Devils. Why are there so many teams called Blue Devils, more than the Broncos...

The Wildcats played against another university in Arizona, the Northern Arizona State University Lumberjacks, with a big difference, 74 to 58. There is no suspense.

The Bruins were amazing, defeating the Kentucky Wildcats with Keith Bogans, Tayshaun Prince and Jamal Magloire 52-50.

The Kentucky Wildcats were the national champions in 98. Last season, they also made it to the Elite Eight. They lost to the Spartans by 7 points in overtime. This season, they have three top players, and they are a favorite for the championship... The Bruins The team's sixth man, Jerome Moiso, scored 27 points, more than half of the team's points, and helped the Bruins win the game on his own.

Looking at the evaluation of the Bruins game after the game, Li Ao felt that there is a high probability that Moiseo will participate in the draft in advance this year.

This game raised Moiso's draft price from the end of the first round to the lottery.

An interesting situation has emerged. The Bruins have crossed the mountain of the Kentucky Wildcats and may reach the top 16, while the Cardinals may come to an end this season. Their next opponent is the Spartans!
Li Ao feels that March Madness is really magical, with strong strength, which is better than the ranking.

……

……

"Sweet Top 16!"

"Sweet Top 16!"

"Sweet Top 16!"

On March 3, the Trojans competed with the Academy Badgers for the top 20 spot.

Outside Memorial Stadium, fans of both teams chanted the same slogan.

Entering the top 32, the dark horse name of the College Badgers is getting louder and louder.

Many people even think that the Academy Badgers are the real dark horses. They are only ranked 11th in the division with 11 wins and 6 losses. It is incredible that they have reached the top 32 so far.

After the first round of the Trojans, the title has begun to transition from 'super civilian dark horse' to 'super civilian team'.

But for tonight's game, in the media's publicity, the title of the Trojans is still the dark horse.

Because the publicity point of tonight's game is - the meeting of two super dark horses!
Six months ago, no one could connect these two teams with the Sweet 16, but now, the Sweet 16 will be occupied by one of the two teams!
Driven by the media, the fans of the two teams, who were already in high spirits, became even more crazy.

When Li Ao arrived at the Memorial Stadium at 8:16 in the morning, there were no less than a thousand people shouting "Sweet Top [-]!" outside.

From morning to afternoon, it hardly stopped.

After the lunch break, at 4 pm, the Trojans players had all assembled.

After eating something to replenish their strength, everyone gathered in front of the glass curtain wall on the second floor above the gate.

Watching the fans who blocked the streets with the opponent's fans compete for the loudest voice... This scene, the Trojans players were full of emotion.

Trepagnier sighed: "As Shelby said, I never thought I would be here today. Seeing them working so hard to cheer for us is really..."

Li Ao continued: "It's really hard work for them. After yelling like this for a day, won't their voices be hoarse? If so many people need to treat their throats, will the Los Angeles Hospital have enough doctors?"

"..."

((-_-)-_-)-_-)
The teammates were collectively speechless.

When Trey Pagnier saw this scene, he thought of emotion and responsibility. What was he thinking?
But everyone got out of the stressful mood.

Touched, responsible, not bad emotions.

But with emotion comes stress.

This is Li Ao's first college competition, so he will be very concerned about it, but he is open-minded and has a good attitude.

The teammates are different. Their emotion can be interpreted as fear of losing.

The teammates also had no interest in watching and feeling, and they greeted each other and left collectively to prepare for the game.

Li Ao followed in confusion, it wasn't even 5 o'clock, what are these people doing in such a hurry to go to the training ground?
Oh... must be so eager to compete!

Can understand can understand.

...

At 6:[-] p.m., players from the Trojans and College Badgers entered the field.

Outside the arena, the number of fans of the College Badgers far outnumbered the number of fans of the Tigers on the 17th.

But in the arena, there are not many fans of the College Badgers.

This is the advantage of the seeded team!Home field advantage ahead of the Sweet 16!

The fans of the College Badgers, except for the 'blind buying' tickets bought before the start of Crazy Three, couldn't buy them after the first round, and they were sold out.

'Blind buying' refers to the pre-sale of tickets after the Crazy Three schedule is announced, without knowing which two teams scored 32 and 16 on this day.

When the situation of the match is determined, in addition to the ticket increase, almost all the remaining tickets for the Memorial Stadium are sent to local universities and local communities.

Is this operation illegal... Didn't they leave hundreds of tickets for sale at the stadium, but the sale started at 17:9 pm on the [-]th, and they were bought out by the Trojans fans who were outside the stadium at that time.

Enjoying the cheers from the fans, Li Ao looked at the players on the opposite side.

Offensively it sucks!
Five starters, point guard Mike Kelly, 191 cm, averaging 5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game;

得分后卫罗伊-布恩，191公分，场均6.1分3.1板1.9助攻0.9抢断；

Small forward Dun Dun... No, it's Du En Du En, 196 cm, averaging 5.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 0.9 steals and 1.1 blocks per game;

大前锋安迪-考斯基，203公分，场均9.2分6.6板1.1抢断1.4盖帽；

中锋马克-肖弗，206公分，场均12分6.3板3.3助攻1抢断1.6盖帽。

Just looking at the score, it is impossible to imagine that this is a starting lineup composed of three players with a comprehensive evaluation of 3, one with an overall evaluation of 78, and one with a comprehensive evaluation of 82.

But looking at the defensive data, Li Ao called me 豮艸芔茻.

Average 1 steal per game!
The Dukes haven't gone that far!
Although the skill points of this group of people are not as outrageous as his, they are already very crooked.

Eh?Li Ao found that he seemed to regard the Duke team as a unit of measurement. When he met a team that played a good zone defense, he would use the Duke team as a comparison.

This should be a compliment, right?
It would be nice for a Duke player to know that he, a 32-year-old, thinks about them a lot.

The thing that attracted Li Ao's attention most in the opposite team was their sixth man... the surname.

The backup shooting guard named Jon Bryant came in and stared at him, far less friendly than that afternoon on the 17th when he offered his seat.

Legend has it that the American shooting guard surnamed Bryant has an elusive personality, and it really is.

Li Ao took a look at Bryant's player evaluation.

188 cm, 91 kg, really strong!
80的综合评价，数据却只有场均8.4分4.4板2.2助攻1.2抢断，防守表现绝对好。

With the addition of a sixth man, the College Badgers have a zone defense meat grinder lineup.

Li Ao has memorized the characteristics of each opponent's playing style in his mind in the past two days, but there is a systematic evaluation report before the start of the game, so he can compare and refer to it.

After a while, the cheerleading performances were over, and Li Ao could still feel that gaze that seemed to want to practice into a kaleidoscope.

That guy named Bryant seems to be eyeing him!

Li Ao curled his lips in disdain, and he didn't bother to pay attention to the mere substitute.

He walked onto the field and didn't go to the shooting hotspot. Instead, he went straight to the opposite side of the bench, and gently hugged Dean Teng, Liam, and the old man on the sidelines.

Then he looked at the opposite bench, the guy was still staring at him, and then he hugged the auntie assistant, which lasted longer than the previous three combined.

After hugging, the assistant aunt was jumping with excitement.

Li Ao turned his head and raised his chin towards the small substitute who had clenched his teeth. Before he could respond, he turned around and practiced shooting.

Jon Bryant is heartbroken!
He once heard a word - love at first sight.

He used to disdain this sentence very much, what is love at first sight, isn't it just greedy for someone's body?
But after seeing the beautiful woman across from him last time, he seemed to understand what love at first sight is.

I like it very much, but I don't dare to profanity, and I don't even dare to come forward to speak proactively, I only dare to give up my seat silently.

As for the picture he saw later, he chose to forget it.

At first he thought he would never see that beautiful woman again, but he took that glimpse as a good memory.

I didn't expect to see that beauty again today, she was in the first row opposite!
He still didn't dare to strike up a conversation, but the bastard who grabbed the seat that day actually ran over and desecrated his memory!
Looking at the guy who was shooting in the half court, Bryant wanted to grit his teeth. He wanted to let this guy know who is the best substitute... Eh?

Bryant heard cheers suddenly sounded at the scene, looked up at the big screen, and was stunned...

Their team's starting lineup has not changed, Mike Kelly, Roy Boone, Dun Dun, Andy Koski, Mark Shaw.

But the starting lineup on the opposite side was different from what they expected when preparing for the game!
The starting lineup on the opposite side has continued for 28 games, and it changed tonight!
Granville, Trey Pagnier, Scalabrine, Charles... and the guy running catch and shoot!

...

At 6:58, Li Ao and his teammates came to the field together.

Yesterday, before training for the game, Henry Bibby said that there was a change in the starting lineup. He replaced Shelby Jordan as the starting small forward.

At that time, he was actually quite calm, thinking that it would be a matter of time, even if he was not a starter this season, he would be after 'Little Lambert' graduated.

And he's already playing more minutes than Shelby Jordan, so it doesn't matter if he starts or not.

He hastily adjusted the lineup, but he was worried that it would affect the teamwork.

But since he was arranged to start, he would naturally not refuse.

But when it came time to set foot on the court as a starter, the emotions surged inexplicably.

At this time, a task reminder came to divert his attention.

"The host is about to play against the strongest defensive team of the year. The Academy Badgers are trying to strangle all opponents. Charge forward, face up to difficulties, and defeat the opponent... Mission: I am the pioneer trigger."

Best defensive team of the year?
This title, the weight is also Intuit enough!
But it is true that whether he watched the game live that day, or read the scout report or systematic player evaluation, the opponent's defense was amazing.

"I am the pioneer:

Goal 1: Scoring in double figures.

Reward: 1000 achievement points, after more than 10 points, 1 achievement points will be rewarded for every 100 point.

Goal 2: Opponent players have less than 10 total points.

Reward: 1000 achievement points, for every 10 point lower than 1 points, 300 achievement points will be rewarded.

Completing all objectives rewards 1 random defensive skill. "

Goal 2 looks outrageous. He estimates that he will play 25 to 30 minutes. During this period, he cannot lose more than 10 points, which is too exaggerated.

But he, who has seen the opponent's game with his own eyes, feels that this goal is easier.

It is more difficult to score more than 10 points on this opponent!

The Bulldogs are so good offensively, averaging 90+ points per game this season, the team only scored 17 points on the 49th...

At 7 p.m., the referee blew the whistle to start the game and tossed the ball into the air.

Charles overwhelmed Mark Schover to win the jump ball, and the Trojans went first!

Granville broke through Mike Kelly with the ball. The latter was 10 centimeters taller and couldn't keep up. But Duane on the flank shrunk and made up his defense. Mike Kelly has already cut off the passing line between Granville and Li Ao!

The announcer unleashes a barrage of OMGs, exclaiming the Academy Badgers' amazing team defense.

However, when Du En emptied Li Ao, Li Ao did not run to the receiving point, he turned directly to help the white mamba block Andy Koski.

Granville's predictive score!45 degree angle to the right!

Mike Kelly reacted quickly, switching defenses and then switching defenses. As soon as the white mamba received the ball, he was stuck by Mike Kelly.

The white mamba who was stuck still lifted the ball and took off in the confrontation...jumping and passing the ball!
Li Ao took it apart and then hit the bottom line, facing Mark Shaw, who jumped out from the basket, and made a two-point shot...

Temporarily increased to 85 mid-range shot + feels hot, Li Aomei's picturesque mid-range shot is silky and smooth, and hits two points long!
Henry Bibby on the sidelines raised his chin.

His starting adjustment, it works!
(End of this chapter)