no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 28 "Friends"

Harden's recovery is crucial to the Devils, especially his military training style. After hitting the Cardinals behind, he was forced to go down the twin towers and chose the method of shrinking in when encountering a pick-and-roll center.

This approach prevented Lopez from being trained in the military again, but it gave Harden more opportunities to shoot outside.

The second half is a stage for Harden's personal performance.

Of course, his performance did not make the game lose suspense, because as the game continued, the physical fitness of the Devils who invested too much on the defensive end began to decline, and the defensive quality naturally declined.

Both sides you come and I fight to the decisive moment.

In the last minute, Xu Yong completed a fatal steal on Gus, and then Harden passed Robin Lopez and scored a game-killing layup.

The score on the field was finally fixed at 66 to 61. The Devils completed the reversal and defeated the Cardinals in the away game, breaking the opponent's undefeated golden body and winning a crucial victory.

At the end of the game, the members of the Devils rushed to the field and began to celebrate wildly.

This victory means so much to them!

Surrounded by the crowd, Harden scored 4 points with 18 three-pointers in the second half and 24 points in the game. He was the number one contributor to the team's victory.

Harden also enjoyed it to the fullest. Although it was difficult for him to breathe at the moment, this moment was too wonderful for him to describe in words.

……

After the game, the players returned to the hotel one after another.

Because of the long distance, they will not fly back to Tempe until the next morning.

The hotel is also a standard room, and Xu Yong and Harden still live together.

"Xu, thank you." When he returned to the hotel, Harden thanked Xu Yong from the bottom of his heart.

Without Xu Yong, he might not have realized his problem until now.

Without Xu Yong, he might still habitually choose to give up when encountering difficulties tonight.

But because of Xu Yong, all this has changed, he really experienced the thrill of trying his best to win the game!

That is a feeling that you will never know if you have never experienced it. It is more intoxicating than the red wine brewed in Lafite Castle.

"You have to thank yourself, James." Xu Yong replied with a smile.

What he said to Harden earlier made sense, but it made even more sense for Harden to experience the feeling himself.

Because he has really experienced it, he is not forced to change, but enjoys the pleasure brought by the change, which will prompt him to continue to change actively.

"No matter what, I'm very glad to meet you here, Xu, my friend." Harden took the initiative to hug Xu Yong, and even changed his address.

"Me too." Xu Yong also hugged Harden.

Although Harden is quite different from him in character, he is still a good person in essence.

Among other things, as long as he wakes up so early every day, Harden is occasionally woken up and has never lost his temper with him. People with this kind of heart can get along.

……

Time flies, and January has passed in a blink of an eye. At this time, the NCAA season has ushered in the final stage.

After two months of invitational tournaments and one month of regular season competitions, the strengths of the colleges and universities have been fully revealed.

This is evident in the latest polls.

The top team has changed from the University of Kansas to the University of Memphis.

The most direct reason is that the University of Memphis was undefeated in March!
This includes the invitational game and the regular season. You must know that their opponents in the invitational game include the University of Connecticut and Georgetown University.

球队的头号得分手克里斯·道格拉斯·罗伯茨场均能贡献18分4板2.1助攻，命中率和三分命中率更是分别高达57.7%和41.3%。

In addition to him, the outsider of the University of Memphis, who is considered to be the most popular freshman in the 2008 draft, Derrick Rose, also averaged 14.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

In addition, Antonio Anderson and Joey Dorsey are all players with NBA prospects.

And more importantly, 8 players in the team averaged more than 5 points per game. This is a team with outstanding core ability and top overall level.

Kansas slipped to second because of two losses in the regular season, but they are still the strongest team overall this season.

There is only one reason, the talent they have accumulated over several seasons allows them to have Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Darryl Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Sheron Collins, Sasha Cowen, Cole Aldridge, a total of 7 NBA prospects!
This is equivalent to the World Series. Other teams have only a few strong points, but they are already a dream team.

The third place is North Carolina. The situation in North Carolina is similar to that of Kansas. It also lost two games, but it has strong players such as Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, and Ty Lawson. They are still the favorites to win the championship.

UCLA slipped to fourth place. They lost to Washington State and USC one after another. The team, especially Westbrook on the back line, has not been in a good state recently.

In this list, Arizona State University has risen all the way to the 11th position!
After defeating Stanford University, their performance is getting better and better. The record is second only to UCLA and Stanford, ranking No.10 in the pac3 league.

Although the team has many first-year players, everyone can feel that they are becoming a more and more mature team.

As long as they perform normally in the next game, they will get the wild card spot, and it is already a certainty to enter the championship.

Even as Xu Yong thought at the beginning, their goal can be changed to play further in the championship.

Of course, now is not the time to "consider opponents in the next round". Playing well for the rest of the season is still their first goal.

The survey list is updated once a week, and they can go from no one on the list to 11th, and of course they may fall off the list again.

For a team with dark horse attributes like theirs, those in the organizing committee will instinctively have a harsh view.

The opponent of the Devils in the next game is UCLA, which they lost before.

And this time they are going away to Los Angeles to challenge their opponents.

This is a crucial battle for both sides.

The overall performance of the Devils has improved, and they need revenge against UCLA to complete the final rectification.

UCLA has been in poor form recently, and they also need a game to regain their form and improve morale. The Devils, who performed well, are obviously the most suitable targets.

On the morning of the game, the players boarded a plane to Los Angeles.

Harden seemed very active on the plane because his home is in Los Angeles.

Sandek did not want to put too much pressure on the players before the game, and did not arrange any training in Los Angeles.

It was this arrangement that gave Harden time to go home.

But just before departure, Harden invited Xu Yong to his home as a guest.

Since they defeated Stanford last time and called Xu Yong as friends, the relationship between Harden and Xu Yong has been heating up rapidly, and now it has reached the stage of "meeting the parents".

However, in the United States, this kind of invitation to go home has broken away from the polite "brother" or "friend" of black people, but really regards Xu Yong as his friend.

(End of this chapter)