Chapter Twenty-Four: The Sweet Sixteen
Every March, the NCAA in the United States will enter the most brutal and popular tournament stage, and the arrival of "March Madness" has all the college teams in the United States who have advanced to the round of 64 to start preparing for the upcoming competition.
The UCLA Bruins dropped to fourth place in the NCAA Tournament Western Conference seeding due to a poor regular season record, and their first opponent in the tournament was California State University, Long Beach, a school less than 50 years old. Krent doesn't think this team will cause too much trouble for the Bruins.
The Bruins' game against California State University, Long Beach was played at the Great Western Forum Arena, home of the Los Angeles Lakers. By March Madness, the NCAA has actually surpassed the NBA, and as a base for NBA basketball talent, every NBA team is happy to have their arena used by local college teams.
When Liu Han first saw the Los Angeles Lakers' home arena, the Great Western Forum Arena, he felt that this arena was not as luxurious as he imagined. When Obonor learned from the conversation that NBA stars can make millions of dollars a year, they think that the place where these rich guys play should be super luxurious. The Los Angeles Lakers' Great Western Forum Arena opened in 1967, and it wasn't until four years later that they moved into the new Staples Center.
Bruins head coach George? Krent still scheduled to start the first few games, and the main center George? Zidik was on the bench, and Bruins' number one star Eddie? Obonor is still in the fourth position.
Liu Han started the game with a strong start, hitting three-pointers in his team's first three offenses to give the Bruins a 9-4 start. The players at Long Beach are not yet comfortable with the Bruins' bombardment style of play, and the popular style of play throughout the American basketball world is now dominated by center play.
Liu Han was heavily defended in the next game, but it made the rest of the Bruins start to shine. Brown Bears number one star Eddie? Obonor scored 14 points and five rebounds in five minutes to make it 36-23, and the Bruins' outstanding performance drew cheers from the audience.
The head coach of Long Beach arranged for a substitute after a timeout, and the Bruins' main center began to start his own scoring journey with a group of substitutes, and at halftime, the Bruins once again took a lead of more than 20 points.
LaBeouf and Safina, who were sitting in the audience, were also happy for Liu Han after seeing Liu Han's wonderful performance, this little rookie who was still very "tender" when he first came to their house could already make the audience start to cheer.
"Hey, my little silly girl, do you think Han is cool on the field? Haha, from the first time I saw this kid shoot threes, I knew he was a great guy, but I still wanted to see this kid dunk, and I had to re-educate him when I got home. LaBeouf said to Safina, who was looking at Liu Han sitting on the bench.
"Well, I'd love to see him dunk too, but Dad, you can't let him dunk too much, I've heard that too many dunks will affect the feeling in your hands."
"Wow, are you caring about this silly boy? My cute little silly girl, I don't want another Chinese son-in-law. ”
"Haha, I just don't want to see his last bit of excellence ruined by you and have to learn boxing with you."
Liu Han saw LaBeouf and Safina in the stands when he first came on the field, Li Rui and his wife were watching their children at home, so they couldn't come to cheer Liu Han, but LaBeouf, who had a lovely grandson and granddaughter, thought of this and specially made two signs, which were written in Chinese and English: Han, come on, Sergey and Lily are here. Sergey and Lily are the English names of LaBeouf's grandson and granddaughter, respectively. Li Rui's two children's Chinese names, Li Rui plans to have time to return to China and let his children's grandfather pick them up.
After seeing the sign held up by LaBeouf, Liu Han planned to thank the two elves who had just come to this world with a more wonderful performance. Seriously, if it weren't for the existence of these two elves, I don't know how much trouble it would take for LaBeouf to forgive Li Rui, who "kidnapped" his cute eldest daughter.
Liu Han's projection ability made the opponent feel jealous, and the first thing that the opponent's defender thought of when Liu Han raised the ball in his hand was that this guy was going to shoot again, so the defender would jump up as soon as possible to block Liu Han's shot. In this offense at the beginning of the second half, Liu Han received a pass from the main point guard Teyus in the bottom corner of the left side, and he raised the basketball in his hand as soon as he received the ball, which made the opposing defender panic, because this yellow-skinned guy had hit three points against the defender's defense many times in the first half, and if this guy hit this three-point shot, the gap between the two teams would expand to thirty points, so when he saw this yellow-skinned guy lifting the ball again, the defender flew without thinking about it, I have to admit that the defensive player's bounce is very good, but what everyone didn't expect was that Liu Han took the ball back and let the back dribble towards the basket, because Liu Han's unexpected move neither the Long Beach players nor the Bruins players reacted, Liu Han jumped on both legs when the dribble reached near the three-second zone, and after coming to the United States, Liu Han's physical fitness has changed rapidly after hard training and absorbing sufficient nutrition, and his jump is very sufficient, and the height is enough. Liu Han's right hand holding the ball pulled out a complete circle and smashed it towards the basket after his body reached a certain height. Obonno's move, which was his first attempt at a dunk. The audience was looking forward to a dunk that was enough to hit the top ten balls every month, but what people didn't expect was that Liu Han actually dunked the ball away, he underestimated his arm length, and the basketball that smashed to the basket flew high into the sky after hitting the basket and delaying it, at this time a magical scene appeared, the basketball flying high fell straight into the net in the process of falling, and there was a bunch of crying and laughing faces under the swinging net. And Liu Han held his right hand tightly with his left hand after buckling the blue, and the palm of his hand was really painful just now, which was Liu Han's true reflection.
LaBeouf and Safina in the audience burst into laughter.
"Haha, this guy, I dare say this is definitely the first dunk in this stupid boy's life, but his luck is really good, haha."
George off the field? Krent saw Liu Han covering his right hand for the first time, his heart suddenly trembled, George thought that Liu Han was injured, so he replaced Liu Han from the field as soon as possible.
Liu Han, who was substituted, was still a little confused, he thought that the head coach didn't want him to dunk, so Liu Han was still a little embarrassed when he got off the court.
"Han, how's it going, does it hurt?" Coach George arranged for the team doctor to come over to diagnose Liu Han as soon as he left the field.
After the diagnosis of the team doctor, Liu Han's right hand was only slightly bruised, and it should have been hung by the basket. Relieved George? Krent did not arrange for Liu Han to play again, and the game was played here, and the Bruins had basically determined their place in the top 32.
At the end of the game, the UCLA Bruins won 96-72 against California State University, Long Beach. Liu Han played only 12 minutes, hit all five shots from outside the three-point line, scored 15 points, and his efficient performance also received the attention of the Los Angeles media. But is it still the team's number one star Eddie who has attracted the most media attention from the Bruins? Obonno, who scored a quasi-triple-double of 26 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in the game against Long Beach, also made Eddie Brown? Obonor has received unanimous favors from the media.
After a three-day break, the Bruins will continue to host their next opponent, Santa Clara University, at the Great Western Forum Arena, where they won their game against Mississippi State University.
Liu Han shone in this game against Santa Clara University, which did have an in-depth understanding of the situation of the UCLA Bruins before, but they still despised Liu Han, and in the last game of the Bruins, Liu Han's suspected injury also confused the head coach of Santa Clara University.
In this game, George? Coach Krent did not arrange for Liu Han to start, he put Liu Han on the bench, and the team's number one star Eddie ? Obonor and the main point guard Teus? Edney led the team on the field to play with the opponent's starters, Liu Han and center George? Zidike leads the bench. George's change of formation completely disrupted the arrangement of the head coach of Santa Clara University, and the Bruins' substitutes were in Liu Han and George? Zidike's leadership completely blew up the Santa Clara University bench.
The Bruins only had a narrow lead in the first ten minutes of the game, and the Bruins, who had returned to traditional tactics, only had a slight lead in strength after losing Liu Han, a steady artillery support from the outside.
When Liu Han and George? The situation changed when Zidike came on, George was strong enough to crush the opposition backup center, and Liu Han was good enough to handle simple tactics with ball control and passing skills, and the Santa Clara University substitutes found that they had no way to limit the opposing two players. If the outside line is clamped with Liu Han, the inner line is at an absolute disadvantage, and if the inside line is wrapped with George? Zidike's words were terrifying.
Liu Han and George played the rest of the first half, and in nearly ten minutes of playing time, Liu Han hit five three-pointers. Zidik also went berserk and scored 12 points and added seven rebounds, four of which were frontcourt rebounds. At halftime, the Bruins once again took a nearly twenty-point advantage at 54-36.
At the start of the second half, the head coach of Santa Clara University made a change, but what he didn't expect was George? Krent changed the lineup for the second half to the same lineup as in the previous games, and Santa Clara University collapsed in the Bruins' fast and aggressive run-and-gun tactics, and after less than ten minutes of playing in the second half, the Bruins' original 18-point advantage was extended to 28 points, and the Bruins took over the game in a wave of momentum. Liu Han shot five times outside the three-point line in the game off the court, hit four, and the only ball that missed was the Santa Clara University player who saw Liu Han prepare to shoot three points, and directly pulled Liu Han's arm to stop his shot, but unfortunately Liu Han's free throws were also quite good, and he hit three free throws steadily.
In the end, Santa Clara University was unable to pull off a miracle and they lost to the UCLA Bruins 96-82. In this way, the Bruins secured a place in the semifinals of the Western Conference of the NCAA Championship.
Each year, the final four spots in the four divisions of the NCAA Championship are called the "Sweet Sixteen" because of the fact that each team receives a lot of attention from spectators, media, scouts and agencies in the United States, which means that it is likely that some of these teams will enter the NBA and become new millionaires in the near future.
Liu Han's excellent projection ability has finally attracted a lot of media attention, although Liu Han's scoring and other statistics per game are not too outstanding, but as long as you take a closer look at his close to 100% shooting rate, it is really amazing, and Liu Han does not only take one or two shots per game, he hit 14 shots from outside the three-point line in the two games after entering the round of 64, which shows his outstanding projection ability.
Safina also watched Liu Han's game at the Great Western Forum Arena, and it was not LaBeouf who came with her, but her brother-in-law Li Rui. LaBeouf was reluctant to let his two elves hold his fingers, so he chose to watch the children at home. After watching Liu Han's game, Li Rui decided to find time to take Liu Han to Inglewood High School once, and he had to show his group of boys the power of three points.
Safina laughed at Liu Han's unsuccessful dunk after the game between Liu Han and Long Beach, and then really warned Liu Han not to try a difficult dunk without long-term practice. Liu Han didn't know that he had already qualified for the "Sweet Sixteen", but he felt that it would be very sweet if there were so many people who really cared about him.