035: A gamble between two spring men
In mid-March, when the Korean media was still in the crooked Ha Seung Town, they would enter the first round and beat Wayne to become a world-class center.
On the NCAA side, the long-awaited Crazy March schedule has finally been released.
As we all know, the NCAA March Madness tournament has 64 teams participating.
With the exception of the champions of the 32 leagues who directly qualify, the rest are known as wild card teams and are officially selected by the NCAA.
But in fact, there are actually 68 teams participating in the competition every year.
It's just that before the tournament starts, there is a play-off part.
The four teams with the lowest wild card order and the four teams with the lowest seed order of the 32 league championships will have to play each other first, and the winner will be able to qualify for the round of 64.
The Cowboys' first opponent in the March Madness tournament this year was the University of Washington Huskies, who reached the round of 64 through the play-offs.
That's right, it's the husky again, and the champion candidate Emeka . Okafor's University of Connecticut has the same team name.
In his previous life, Wayne always complained about the names of CBA teams, either tigers or leopards, cheesy, uncreative and ugly.
Now after the baptism of the NCAA, Wayne will no longer complain about the name of the CBA team.
Because Lao Mei's skill in choosing a name here is actually not good.
As far as the entire NCAA Division I league is concerned, Wayne doesn't know how many teams called the Wildcats, what rhinos, buffaloes, and old scalpers, and even more grab.
Even the team name of the husky dog is repeated.
To make it easier to distinguish, Wayne gave the University of Washington a team name that was both memorable and catchy - the Huskies.
The English pronunciation of huskies, that's not huskies.
And the logo of the University of Washington basketball team...... It's really more husky than the Timberwolves.
It's a real dog!
Although the Timberwolves' team logo looks like a husky, the wolf head is actually quite fierce, grinning with teeth.
And the team logo of the University of Washington, Nima still sticks out her tongue!
Just looking at this team mark, you feel like you're good enough.
As soon as the table was lined up, Sutton spent the night studying footage of the game at the University of Washington.
One of the very exciting things about March Madness is that most of the opponents don't know anything about each other.
It's not like the NBA, where everyone has played each other many times in the regular season before the NBA playoffs start, and it's just those teams that go around and around, so they're still familiar with each other in general.
And before March Madness begins, you've never faced each other this season.
In fact, some teams have not played each other in the entire history of the team.
The University of Washington and the University of Ohio fall into the latter category.
The University of Washington is not a traditional powerhouse, having played only once in its history in the Final Four, twice in the quarterfinals and twice in the round of 16.
In other words, the University of Washington is an unusual figure in the March Madness tournament.
This is the first time in five years that they have reached the tournament through the play-offs.
So, Sutton couldn't be stranger to this opponent.
Who are their key players? How do they play?
These are completely unknown, and you can only prepare on the flyout once you get the schedule.
This is also the reason why the NCAA is always an upset, facing an unknown opponent, it is still a game of victory and defeat, and there is no chance of trial and error at all.
If you get wrong, you lose, and really no one can predict what will happen in the game.
The day after the schedule was announced, Sutton, who had stayed up late to watch the video, urgently convened a tactical meeting.
He first has to let his players understand the opponent before he can prescribe the right medicine.
To Wayne's great surprise, in this strange team of huskies, he actually heard two very familiar names.
"The University of Washington is a team that plays as a team, but they still have a core of their own, and that is two guards, Nate. Robinson and Brandon. Roy. ”
Wayne:???
"Little Potato" Robinson won't talk about it yet, Brandon. What's up with Roy?
As we all know, Roy only entered the league in '06 and made a name for himself at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.
His appearance heralded a brief and glorious beginning for the pioneers.
But now, the Trailblazers are just beginning to rebuild.
So subconsciously, Wayne always felt that Roy's name appeared in early 2004, which was a very strange thing, and he didn't seem to be a player of this era.
And, that's Brandon. Roy!
He was almost a full-time player in the league, averaging 16.8 points per game in his rookie season and already one of the best shooting guards in the league in his third year.
It is believed that if it weren't for injuries, he would probably be the next supergiant!
In his previous life, Wayne, as Chairman Yao and Lakers fan (HEI), was terrified every time he watched the two teams of Mosaic and Lakers face the "yellow mamba" killer in Rose Garden.
The most classic is a regular season game in November 2008, when Mosaic visited the Rose Garden.
The two sides of the battle were anxiously deadlocked until the end of overtime, and at the critical moment, Chairman Yao stepped up, withstood the defense of two people, and completed a turnaround jumper in an almost unreasonable way, hitting a quasi-lore and causing the opponent to foul.
After the free throw, Chairman Yao's three-pointer gave Mosaic a crucial one-point lead and left the Trail Blazers with just 0.8 seconds to play.
It can be said that it was a night that belonged to Yao Ming, and Wayne can still recall how excited he was at that time.
Off the field, the mosaic players also began to celebrate, and everyone thought that the stunner would be one of the highlights of Yao Ming's career.
The result? The Trail Blazers' white-clad boy in No. 7 was two steps away from the three-point line, calmly catching the ball and shooting, brutally killing the game!
Belonging to Yao Ming's lore night, he was forced to be killed by Brandon. Roy gives destruction. The highlight moment of Yao Ming's career was also snatched away by Roy.
Since then, Wayne has been drawn to Roy. Although he is not a Trail Blazers fan, he has a good opinion of Roy.
Until many years after retiring due to injury, Roy was often mentioned by people, which shows that Roy's popularity is really no worse than those superstars.
Perhaps, not being able to see a healthy "Yellow Mamba" write his own wonderful story in the league is a loss and regret for all fans.
Well, it's the same as Yao Ming.
Wayne shook his head, thinking far ahead.
In short, Brandon. Roy is no ordinary person.
It's so powerful in the NBA, and this thing is so awesome in the NCAA.
After all, a guy like Mr. Tony, who doesn't know how to score at all after entering the league, can score a small 20 per game in the NCAA.
It stands to reason that a team with Roy should not have to rely on the play-offs to enter March Madness.
Curious, Wayne continued to listen to Coach Sutton's introduction.
"Nate. Robinson is less than 1.8 meters tall, but he is very athletic and is a double player in football and basketball. ”
Short, athletic, basketball, rugby...... How does Wayne feel more and more like the one in Philadelphia?
In fact, the experts at this time gave Nate . Robinson's template is really Iverson.
The templates before the draft of each player, you can just look at it, but don't take it seriously.
A few days ago, Wayne was bored, so he borrowed Teddy's computer to check Howard on the Internet.
As a result, Wayne found out that the template they gave Howard was Duncan + Garnett......
Because he's athletic and hit eight straight three-pointers in a high school game, he's a combination of the perfect touch and the body of a beast.
The report is well written...... It's outrageous!
"Beware of Nate's breakthrough, his bounce is something you can't even imagine. The best way to stop him is to keep him from rushing. ”
"Let's talk about the other defender, Brandon, who doesn't have as much of an autonomous attack as Nate, but plays smartly and is a very good team player. He will take every gap in the defense and create scoring opportunities for his teammates and himself. ”
"Brandon doesn't have any particular strengths, but he also doesn't have any obvious weaknesses, so be careful."
"This ...... How did it reverse with Tucker. After listening to Old Sutton's introduction to Roy, Wayne pursed his lips.
This wasn't the Roy he imagined.
Tucker is a supergiant now, and he wants to rush inside with the ball, but in the future he is a team-oriented 3D player.
And Roy is a team player now, but an All-Star guard in the future?
Who are they?
Looking at Roy's current average data per game, 11.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists, isn't this one of the "two black holes of the draft".
Seeing Roy's stats lower than his own in all aspects, Wayne felt very magical.
Since the highest single-game scoring in college is on par with Anthony, Wayne has stabilized Roy again!
Don't say it, this feeling of being bullied when they haven't grown up is quite enjoyable.
Well, it seems that in this world, in addition to Duncan's direct full level, there are really people who practice from level 1 to full level in college and then go to the NBA.
In fact, Roy also experienced social beatings to honestly become a team player in the NCAA.
Back in '02 when he graduated from high school, Roy signed up for the draft and had already tried out.
As a result, within two hours of that trial, almost as long as anyone who came to participate in the trial stood up and beat Roy out.
Roy knew at the time that he was not holding Kobe's script. After all, Kobe Bryant was already able to beat NBA-level Starker House when he was in high school.
After that, Roy gave up the draft and chose to come back to college honestly.
He no longer thinks highly of himself, and he is willing to be a team player at this time.
Looking at the information of the two defenders in front of him, Wayne touched his chin.
One isn't tall and bounces to make up, and the other is now just a role player......
So, isn't that the next game appropriate?
The current strength of the University of Washington does not seem to be top-notch.
After the elder Sutton introduced Robinson and Roy, he originally wanted to introduce the Huskies' starting small forward, Bobby. Jones - a guy with the same name as the famous star of the 76ers in the 80s.
But when you think that even P.J. Tucker can't make any waves in front of the Cowboys, Jones, who is similar to Tucker's style and only relies on athleticism to attack the basket, shouldn't do much.
What's more, there's Joey. Graham, an athlete, took care of him.
But Jones, who is far away at the University of Washington, doesn't see himself at a disadvantage.
Finally came a trip to March Madness, the fun-loving Bobby. Jones and Nate. Robinson wanted to do something.
So, after practice, they made a bet on Wayne, the biggest 12 league defensive player of the year, who has been extremely hot lately, that whoever could dunk one on Wayne's head in the game against the Cowboys would get $500.
For college students, $500 is a lot of money, so Nate and Bobby are eager to give it a try.
Bobby. Both Jones and Nate are very confident in their own bounces, and they are just a floor flow power forward, so they don't have to be afraid to dunk!
Roy watched the two big brothers bet with great interest and wanted to step forward to dissuade them.
But Nate and Bobby don't think so, and instead ask Roy if he wants to participate.
Roy, who is not yet a star, hurriedly waved his hand: "Forget it, we still focus on victory." ”
"Don't worry, Brandon, wins and dunks, we won't lose any of them." Nate. Robinson bared his white teeth and patted Roy on the back.
March Madness, of course, you have to do something to make people remember you.
The two spring people are already eager to try.