From sparring to superstar

Chapter 77 75. Rising to Fame
The Trojans won 29 consecutive victories all the way to the top 16, becoming the focus of the entire North American sports world!

The game between the Trojans and the College Badgers was the most watched 32-to-16 game, not one of them.

Both teams are dark horses, no matter who advances, it represents the 'grassroots rise'.

Compared with the Academy Badgers, the performance of the Trojans this season is obviously more eye-catching. After defeating the Academy Badgers, the Trojans were crowned with the adjective 'legendary'.

The Bruins upset the Syracuse University Orangemen 62-56 and advanced to the top 16, but it was difficult to grab the limelight.

The performance of the Bruins in recent years has been unsatisfactory. It cannot be said how bad they are, but it is a bit far from people's expectations for this team.

The Orange team is very strong. In the past 20 years, they have entered the Crazy Three 18 times. In the past 20 years, the average number of wins has reached 22 games, ranking first in the United States, but they are not a championship-level team. They play very well. But the star is not good enough, and he is short of a key player who has made the final decision. This time, he was overthrown by Moiso and Kapono at the critical moment.

The dignified "NCAA's No. [-] basketball giant" beat such an opponent, and it was also regarded as an upset. This performance is completely incomparable with the Trojans.

However, the neglect of the Bruins is not the worst. Even the defending champion Kangda Huskies were upset by the University of Tennessee Volunteers, and the battle report was squeezed into a corner.

Personally, Li Ao took advantage of the team's 29-game winning streak and reached the top 16 of the Sweet [-], and gained another wave of popularity.

The phrase 'Sir, it's the 21st century, times have changed' is now on fire!
At the beginning, it was only a three-point fire in Los Angeles for a while, and it also won a wave of favor from Lakers fans.

Now, in March Madness, without Li Ao's knowledge, he shouted to the college basketball world—"The times have changed!"

Being able to take advantage of this shareholder wind is also because Li Ao performed really well in the two games of Crazy Three.

He scored 30 points against the Tigers. If it weren't for Eddie House's personal performance in the finale of college, he would have been sought after a long time ago.

In the game against the Academy Badgers, his performance actually only met the team's expectations, with 13 points and 5 assists, but he couldn't stand the rebounds tonight. He grabbed 9 rebounds, 13+9+5, all of a sudden. It has become the data of the top striker.

The media searched around the Trojans, and found that Li Ao had the best appearance and good performance, so they chose to praise him.

By noon the next day, half of the 32-to-16 game hadn't been played, but the Trojans went to the city where the next game would be held first.

Not only them, the Purdue University Steam Furnace Workers team, which has already advanced on another promotion route in the Western Division, also came from Tucson ahead of schedule, and the two teams met at the Albuquerque International Airport.

Players from both sides spat at each other... No, they greeted each other cordially and friendlyly. Some players who were overly enthusiastic even expressed their goodwill towards each other with their body movements, but both sides were more reserved and their movements were very restrained. Best wishes for reaching the regional finals.

After coming out of Albuquerque International Airport, Li Ao knew why he came here in advance.

The climate here is too different from Los Angeles, and it takes time to get used to it.

He had played in Tucson, Arizona before, and he felt that the tropical desert climate was like that.

Now that he obviously felt sick and uncomfortable, he realized that there is still a big difference between cities with desert climates.

Coming out of the airport, man, there are real deserts on both sides of the road!
Trepagnier introduced to him that the world's first nuclear bomb was tested in this state.

He began to worry about whether he could take a bath... But this worry was overstated. The desert is dry, but the precipitation is actually very abundant, but the sand can't hold water.

Whenever you see a house on the side of the road, you can see devices such as water storage facilities and pumps.

When I checked in at the hotel, the waiter also specially introduced that the hotel cooperates with the largest local water supply company to provide services such as filtered clean water and 24-hour hot water supply. In this area, this is used as a selling point of the hotel .

After arriving in the room, Li Ao took a shower immediately, and the air conditioner and humidifier also adjusted the temperature and humidity in the room, and finally felt a little more comfortable.

After a while, the hospital assistant auntie called, and he went to the hotel gate to pick up someone.

After helping the hospital to help the aunt check in and carry the luggage to the room, Li Ao said, "Auntie Vivienne, where should we go shopping?"

When Vivienne heard this, she fell directly on the bed, her limbs swaying: "No, I want to rest, I regret it, I should wait until the day of the game."

"You only came at that time, how can you watch the game when people are uncomfortable? You can get used to it if you come earlier."

Vivienne thought for a while and turned her head to look at Li Ao (^｀)
She said in a coaxing tone: "It makes sense, but I'm too uncomfortable now, I want to sleep, okay?"

"Okay, then you have a good rest. I'll go back to my room to play games. Come quickly and lock the door, lock the windows, and draw the curtains."

The tone revealed a little dissatisfaction, but Li Ao's footsteps moved extremely fast.

Vivienne didn't even react, and Li Ao disappeared like a flash after finishing speaking.

(o)?

Vivienne felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't tell. After locking the doors and windows with force, she lay down on the bed again, feeling a little uncomfortable under the pressure. She turned over, felt comfortable, and soon fell asleep.

When Li Ao returned to the room, he immediately collapsed on the bed and watched TV. He was already ready to hold back his discomfort and accompany him to the desert-style shopping street.

...

When he was uncomfortable, he became sleepy, and Li Ao was in a daze, and in the evening, the discomfort was almost relieved.

Using a hallokitty-shaped mobile phone to call the auntie of the hospital assistant, the other party asked him to order food and deliver it, but he still didn't want to wake up.

When Li Ao came to the hotel restaurant, the auntie of the hospital assistant must have delicious food. He ordered several signature dishes at the suggestion of the waiter, and sent him to the room, which was a luxury.

As he was leaving the restaurant, he ran into players from the Steamer Workers team again.

Facing the other party's group of people, he was full of kindness and gave the other party a friendly look.

The person on the other side eagerly wanted to have a more intimate and friendly interaction with him, but was held back by the person next to him.

We are all college students, so be reserved.

According to legend, the Chinese student of the Trojans is a kind person.

Back in the room, Li Ao felt very regretful when he thought of the player from the Steam Furnace Workers Team he met just now.

Today, the sports news is praising him. On the contrary, Arenas has been ridiculed by the crowd all day.

Last night, before the Trojans defeated the College Badgers, the Wildcats were beaten 58 to 84 by the Steamers.

Li Ao regretted this and lost the chance to play against Arenas in the 8-to-4 game.

In the Crazy Three game, the Wildcats might be able to get some equipment or skills from this No. 0.

But Arenas was ridiculed by the crowd, he felt it should be.

He made 20 of 5 shots, crazily throwing gambling balloons, and made 7 three-pointers in a single game.

The cameras even caught Wildcats head coach Root Olsen yelling, "Stop shooting [-]s, bastard."

As a result, in the next two rounds of this guy, Arenas directly hit the ball on the basket against the defense from beyond the three-point line.

The Wildcats lost so badly, [-]% of the responsibility lies with Arenas.

Li Ao is not too surprised by this, this is Agent No. 0, he will be as turbulent in the NBA playoffs, and he will be angry no matter what the occasion is.

Moreover, when Arenas reached the knockout round, he suddenly became less tough than the regular season. He often made the most stupid choices when facing opponents he couldn't beat.

It seems to be "as long as the heart is strong enough", but in fact it has nothing to do with being tough, it is just doing some unreasonable things, commonly known as being brainless.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the waiter delivered the meal to Li Ao's room, and he called the hospital assistant aunt over to have dinner together and watch the live TV broadcast paid by the hotel provider NCAA official.

The live game will be the game between the University of Texas at Austin and the Louisiana State University Tigers at Memorial Stadium tonight.

The winner of these two teams will be the opponent of the Trojans in the next game.

If it wasn't for coming to this city to play a game and need to adapt in advance, Li Ao also planned to watch this game live.

Watching the live broadcast is actually quite good. Although there is no atmosphere of watching the ball live, it is more intuitive to see tactical moves from the perspective of the live broadcast.

The competition was not as...intense as expected?It's not right, the score is quite fierce, but both teams play in a rather single style, like a true-round system, you come and I go.

Li Ao found that the strength of the 8 teams in their promotion branch was really uneven...

In the end, the Tigers beat the Longhorns 76-69.

The Trojans' 16-to-8 opponent is released-Louisiana State University and the Tigers.

The match between these two teams is the latest match to start today. After they finish, it means that all the top 16 of this year's Crazy Three Sweets will be decided.

Li Ao didn't expect that in the top 16 of the Sweet [-], apart from them, the other teams in the same league were the Bruins from the same city!
The Cardinals lost to the Spartans 48 to 55. Similar to the Oranges, the Cardinals have a high lower limit of strength, but the upper limit is not much higher than the lower limit.

After watching the game, Vivienne chatted with Li Ao for a while about Houtian's opponent, and then went back to her room to continue sleeping.

Li Ao is also preparing to rest. Resting well and reducing the physical impact caused by climate problems are also a key part of preparing for the battle.

Just then, the mission prompt came!
"The sweet moment is over, a more powerful opponent has arrived, and the road to the elite is ahead... Task: Become an elite, trigger."

"Be the elite:

Goal: The host needs to lead the team to the elite eight.

Rewards: 3000 achievement points, 1 silver equipment upgrade card, 3 level 1 skill upgrade card. "

Another mission!
3000 achievement points, yes, the equipment upgrade card, the reward I saw for the first time, currently the only equipment that can be upgraded to the silver level is the experience bracelet, but this upgrade is a good choice, the higher the overall training efficiency bonus is naturally higher.

Level 3 skill upgrade card... He doesn't really want to upgrade to 'transfer expert'.

After looking at more than 7000 achievement points... give him a smack!
The purpose this time is very clear. He has two level 2 skill upgrade card fragments, and he will stop when he draws one.

After the first white light flashed, a firework was set off on the system screen, and Li Ao's expression——

(￣(∞)￣)
"Congratulations to the host for getting the reward: 3 level 1 skill upgrade card fragment."

At this time, he didn't know whether to be happy or curse.

Fireworks are set off, this must be a rare reward for getting a primary lottery, just as rare as getting an attribute point once before.

But being so difficult to draw means how difficult it is to get all three pieces together!
In a complicated mood, he started the second lottery draw...

"Congratulations to the host for receiving the reward: a healthy cigar box.

Healthy cigar box: The cigars placed in this box will avoid harm to the body without affecting the taste. This effect is only valid for the host. "

What the hell are you eating takeaway for 15 yuan, and you still care about your health?
But it's not useless.

Li Ao knew that when he was still studying, he didn't have any major worries.

But when you enter the society, the world of adults, everything becomes different.

Then he got a fishing rod, a complete collection of barbecue dishes, and finally, at the fifth draw, he got a level 5 skill upgrade card fragment.

"Sure enough, you should bring your white lottery shirt and take a bath for at least 30 minutes..."

Li Ao wailed, and the 5000 achievement points were gone.

Sad for 3 seconds, he looked at his 5 level 1 skills.

"Champion's pride", this is useless for the time being, they are now 29 consecutive victories, with such momentum that they will not be afraid of anyone they meet.

As for the loss of confidence if the winning streak is broken... If you break it, you will be out, let alone think about it.

'Perfect warm-up', which he really wants to upgrade.

But judging from the effect of level 1, the fiery feeling of the first pitcher is actually secondary. The main function is to have a complete and effective warm-up process.

At present, level 1 is enough. Although I want to upgrade, it is not the priority to upgrade.

The remaining three, 'abort', 'stress', and 'siege' are all useful.

'Suspend' is related to emergency stop jumper and emergency stop catch jumper, the other two, 'heavy pressure' is single defense, and 'siege' is team defense.

After analyzing it, he finally chose to improve the offense!
When a better team defense is needed, with the help of Shelby Jordan, if you defend him alone against the pitcher, he is already very strong at present, and he has a reputation for being strong.

Without further hesitation, Li Ao issued an order, and the upgrade prompt came.

"The host uses a level 2 skill to upgrade the card, the target of the upgrade: abort, congratulations to the host for upgrading from level 1 to level 2."

"Stop level 2: When making an emergency stop jump shot or an emergency stop catch and shot within the mid-range range, the emergency stop basic skill +3, the emergency stop skill +3, and the shooting impact caused by the emergency stop are reduced."

Looking at the bonus effect after the upgrade, Li Ao felt that he had chosen the right one!
His emergency stop basic skill is already 67, and it can reach 70 after the addition!

After entering Crazy Three, he really felt how correct the development emergency stop was.

It's a pity that it's not a hard bonus. On the defensive end, emergency stop is also a very useful ability, which allows him to do better in defensive details, such as reducing the probability of fouls in defense.

Seeing that there were only 2.2 achievement points left, he brushed his teeth, washed his face, lay down and covered himself with a quilt, and slept. He couldn't be a gambling dog.

...

22nd, offseason.

Li Ao accompanied the team to the energy solution arena to prepare for the game.

Come one day in advance, everyone has more or less adapted to the local environment.

Li Ao looked at the signboard of the arena and found it very interesting.

The energy solution arena in the NBA is in a city that is extremely cold, but this energy solution arena is in the desert.

During training, Li Ao could still feel more irritable than usual.

If the air is too dry or too humid, I will feel irritable when working, but I have no choice but to adapt.

Today I only practiced in the morning, and the coaching staff let the players continue to rest in the afternoon.

The most urgent thing to be solved in preparing for this battle is the problem of environmental adaptation.

But they have an advantage. The Tigers only came from Los Angeles at noon today.

There are some benefits to having a good record and beating a team with a better record. The Trojans are the former, ranking first in the division; the Steam Furnace Workers are the latter, beating the second in the division.

The opponents of the Steam Furnace Workers just came from Tucson today.

Back at the hotel at noon, Li Ao had just returned to the room when there was a knock on the door. When he opened the door, he saw the hospital assistant who was about to cry from hunger.

|TωT')
The auntie of the hospital assistant leaned on the door frame pitifully.

Li Ao called to order food and deliver it to his room. An hour later, the auntie, who was full of food and drink, sighed: "Finally came back to life!"

Li Ao complained: "I'm hungry and don't know how to eat by myself?"

"I don't want to move. I don't know what to order when I call. Looking at your face, I have a little appetite."

Li Ao looked at the empty dishes...

()
He came back after eating a nutritious meal. He didn't eat much just now. These several dishes and a plate of pasta... Is this a little appetite?
Can't afford to support.

After digesting it for a while, Vivienne suddenly thought of something, and ran back to her room, and then came back with a box.

"This is... PS-2? Oh, Aunt Vivienne, you went to rob Sony headquarters? Isn't it going to be released in the second half of the year?"

"You just went to rob... Hehe, when we returned to San Francisco, our family received an invitation from the game company. I went to participate and applied for a test quota. It was just sent to me yesterday. It was supposed to be given to you last night, but Too tired to forget."

"Aunt Vivian, I love you so much!"

Li Ao grabbed the box and quickly opened it.

It is the same as the legend, much smaller than the PS generation, and it does not take up space in the suitcase.

Liam had a PS game console, and he wanted to give one to Li Ao, but he didn't want it.

It cost about 500 US dollars to get it, and it was more than 4000 in Ruanmei coins. At that time, he was reluctant to buy and could not accept such an expensive gift.

Liam could only buy one silently and put it in the car. When he occasionally wanted to play PS games with him, he would take it upstairs from the car.

Before, he planned to borrow Liam's game console to play away games, but it took up too much space, so he finally gave up.

The PS2 will be released soon, and Li Ao has an extra basketball scholarship, but he plans to buy one, but it hasn't been released yet, so he won't be happy to get the test machine now.

There is also an accompanying game in the PS2 box, Ridge Racing 5, which he played in the previous generation, a racing game with simple gameplay.

After plugging the game console into the TV, Li Ao suddenly thought of something and wanted to pay for it... But the hospital assistant didn't seem to spend any money on the test console.

Okay, then accept it, if there is any good thing in the future, just bring it to the hospital to help the auntie.

Play the game!
Vivienne was also happy to see Li Ao so happy, but at the same time she was a little speechless, complaining: "You are more interested in game consoles than in dating."

"For things like falling in love, it's natural to meet the right person. Chasing girls, the game is not fun or something, and I don't lack people to chase."

"..."

　In the evening, there are more than 600 monthly tickets plus updates. It is estimated that the update will be written around 10:[-]

　　
　
(End of this chapter)