Chapter Twenty-Eight: Advance to the Final Four
The UCLA Bruins have attracted the attention of major media and NBA teams in the United States after advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship, and every year after the NCAA competition enters the "March Madness", the attention of the whole country will be focused on this "cradle" where legends were born.
Liu Han's outstanding performance has also received the attention of some media and NBA teams, and his excellent projection ability and quite good single defense ability are the main points that attract attention.
The Bruins will face next up against the University of Connecticut Huskies, and their number one star is Ray Allen, a stellar pitcher who is hailed as Reggie Miller's successor.
Bruins' head coach George Krent made a special arrangement for the opposing team's Ray Allen in the pre-game set-up, and he asked Liu Han to pester the excellent pitcher on the court. George Krent has a lot of trust in Liu Han's ability, in his opinion, although Liu Han's ability to assist in defense is not very good, but his excellent physical fitness and strong will can ensure that Liu Han can effectively follow Lei Allen in the single defense, George does not ask Liu Han to completely freeze Lei Allen, only Liu Han can affect Lei Allen is enough.
The UCLA Bruins and UConn Huskies game was played at Connecticut's "home stadium", and since Connecticut, where Connecticut is located, there are no NBA teams, so the game between the two teams was played at the Celtics North Shore Garden Arena in Boston, Massachusetts, which is very close to Connecticut.
As soon as the UCLA Bruins entered the court, they were "warmly welcomed" by the UConn fans, and a stretching middle finger and a full body of boos gave the boys from the West Coast a taste of the "enthusiasm" of the fans on the East Coast of the United States.
"Hey, Liu, look, they all greet you so 'warmly', haha, I hope you won't be frightened by such 'enthusiasm'." Liu Han, who saw the middle finger for the first time, thought that someone else was greeting him, this joke had been mentioned many times, and now Edio Bonno was using this to adjust the atmosphere.
"Uh, Add, I know it's a bad gesture, but I think they have really good voices to be so noisy." Liu Han answered Ao Bangnuo's ridicule seriously.
After four years of NCAA competition, Edio Bonno and the old players are basically used to this kind of 'enthusiasm', but Eddie is afraid that Liu Han, the Oriental boy who has always looked "stupid", will be frightened by such a scene, what Edio Bonno didn't expect was that Liu Han's reaction looked calm.
Liu Han didn't feel uncomfortable because of such a scene, he had spent time in the discrimination and abuse of others since he was a child, so such a scene just made him feel a little noisy.
Eskimo coach Jim Cahon, who studied the Bruins' first few games before the game, believes that the Bruins' weakness is point guard Teyus Edney, whose height flaw makes the fast, accurate passing guard a defensive hole on the court. Coach Jim Cajon also attaches great importance to Liu Han, but he believes that his disciple Ray Allen can make this Oriental kid gain knowledge.
The Bruins were in trouble from the start of the game against UConn, with the team's main point guard, Teus Edney, getting into foul trouble less than three minutes into the game. The Constanta Huskies grabbed Teus at the beginning and started to attack, causing Teus to draw two fouls in the space of three minutes, and the Bruins' head coach George had to quickly replace the main point guard.
The Bruins can only let Liu Han start to control the ball on the court, although Ray Allen of Kangda is not very aggressive in defense, but his solid basic skills and excellent physical strength ensure his defensive quality, for Liu Han A rookie who is not very experienced in ball control, Ray Allen's defensive intensity is enough.
The Bruins trailed the Huskies by 7 points in less than five minutes of the opening game with 9-16, and although Liu Han's defense caused a lot of trouble to the Huskies, Ray Allen was not the kind of player who used the pass to connect the team well, while the Bruins who lacked the main point guard Teyus only relied on Liu Han's three points to make the opponent not widen the score gap to double digits.
Lei Allen was very surprised by Liu Han's three-point ability, he had never seen such an accurate player, and every time his defense was in place, but Liu Han threw the ball into the basket twice through his defense, and once Lei Allen felt that his hand was about to poke the opponent's eye, but Liu Han still threw the ball into the basket accurately.
George Krent, the head coach of the Bruins on the sidelines, saw that the situation on the court was not right, and quickly called a timeout, he felt that he had underestimated the opponent a little, and the Bruins who lacked effective organization were very chaotic on the court.
"Alright, boys, I think you're getting a little nervous? Well, I'll admit that I was a little nervous, haha, I can't be blamed for that, I'm sure every manager who led the team to the 'Sweet Quarterfinals' for the first time was nervous, including Mr. John Wooden. Well, let's forget about everything that happened before, and at the same time let's not think about what will happen in the future, just one thing is needed now, win this game. George's words made the Bruins players begin to relax a little, and it is undeniable that in such a game, whether it is a rookie or an old bird, even if they don't feel too much tension in their hearts, their muscles will still be in a tense state.
"I'll play Teyus in the next game, Teus, you don't need to stop the opponent's attack from now on, I just need you to organize our attack, and follow up properly on the defensive end. Liu, I need you to fully play your strength in the next games, just follow Ray Allen on the defensive end, your main task is to score, we are still behind. Adeo Bonno, don't be forceful, pay attention to the ball, and wait for the opponent to stop holding you before you start to play your game. ”
After the timeout, the Bruins, who had Teyus to organize the offense, scored three points each in the next two attacks by Liu Han and Edio Bonno, chasing the score to just one point.
The UConn Huskies are a little weak in the face of the Bruins' shrinking defense, and the team's main three-point pointer, Ray Allen, has a hard time receiving the ball under Liu Han's defense, while the other players' three-point ability is really poor.
Kangda's offense, Liu Han followed Lei Allen all over the field, and always paid attention to the players who avoided the opponent's cover halfway, which made Liu Han, who was originally very physically strong, feel a little tired, because in the previous game, Liu Han had not met a player with such a similar style to his own, and his defensive Lei Allen shot very fast, and his physical fitness was also quite good, and the opponent would seize the opportunity if he relaxed a little. Lei Allen relied on his teammates' non-stop cover to finally receive the ball smoothly, he received the ball at 45 degrees on the left side of the court and made a shooting feint, and the inexperienced Liu Han immediately jumped up and tried to block the opponent. Ray Allen found that the inside line of the Bruins was empty after dribbling through the out-of-position Liu Han, so he directly dribbled the ball into the opponent's hinterland, and flew up after approaching the three-second zone to make the atmosphere of the whole court instantly climax with a violent dunk, his physical fitness is actually very good, but the better projection ability makes it easy for many people to forget that he is actually still a dunk.
Liu Han was very unhappy with his defense, and he allowed his opponent to break through easily. The Bruins' offense, Teyus passed the ball directly to Liu Han, who had fallen to the bottom left corner after dribbling the ball past half court, and Liu Han didn't have any feints after receiving the ball. Lei Allen, who was defending Liu Han, realized the opponent's intentions, but Liu Han's shot was too fast, so he could only watch Liu Han throw the ball into the basket, and the two teams were tied at eighteen.
Liu Han's resolute shot responded to the opponent's violent dunk, which also made the atmosphere on the court stagnant.
In the next game, the two teams fell into a back-and-forth stalemate, the Bruins had no way to completely stop the opponent's attack, and the Constanta Huskies did not have a very effective way to crack the Bruins' close combination of inside and outside attack.
At the end of the first half, the two teams were tied 49-47, and the substitutes on both sides were also half-hearted, and neither side could completely open the score.
At halftime, Liu Han felt more tired than usual, and he began to realize that he was still a little far from some of the top NCAA players.
On the side of the Constantia Huskies, Lei Allen also felt that he was very tired in this game, he kept running with Liu Han, and the opponent's excellent shooting ability made Lei Allen feel a little helpless.
At the beginning of the second half, after the halftime break, Liu Han recovered some of his physical strength, and he began to run all over the field again, this time he felt that the opponent began to be a little unable to keep up, and the defensive movements began to be a little deformed. Liu Han, who seized the opportunity, hit three points in succession in the two attacks at the beginning of the second half, and successfully overtook the score by four points.
UConn's head coach Jim Cajon found that his proud disciple Ray Allen on the field was a little unable to run, so he changed to a substitute and let Ray Allen rest off the field and wait to come back to chase points with a substitute. George, the head coach of the Bruins, also immediately replaced Liu Han, so that Edio Bonno was the main attack point on the field, and Liu Han's task today was to entangle Ray Allen to death.
Without Ray Allen, the Constanta Huskies began to be a little chaotic, unable to effectively open up space in attack and unable to defend against the physical and experienced Adio Bonno, and the score between the two teams began to stretch. The head coach of Kangda, who had no choice, could only replace Ray Allen, who had only rested for less than three minutes, on the court again, and at this time the score of the two teams had become 54-63, and Kangda was nine points behind.
As soon as Ray Allen returned to the court, he faced Liu Han who was stalking him again, and George Krent replaced Liu Han as soon as Ray Allen came on the field.
"You can really run, were you a long-distance runner before?" Ray Allen began to try to distract Liu Han with words.
"Thank you, I used to be a herder." Liu Han couldn't remember how to express the word "herding sheep" in English, and his "honesty" return made Lei Allen a little devastated, it turned out that he was prevented by a "herdsman".
Lei Allen, who has been running with Liu Han for a long time, looks a little "lazy" on the court because of excessive physical exertion, and his shooting has become unstable because of this.
Liu Han also felt very tired, but the feeling in his hands seemed to be there all the time, and there was no unstable shooting due to too much physical exertion.
The score gap between the two teams began to gradually widen, the score of the two teams became 75-89 in the second half of the fifteen minutes, seeing that the general trend has gone, the head coach Jim Cajon replaced Ray Allen, who has begun to walk on the court, George also replaced Liu Han, who could barely run, and finally, the UCLA Bruins won the game with a gap of 96-81 fifteen points, Liu Han made 7 three-pointers in the whole game, all hit, and the Bruins successfully reached the final four.