Chapter 31: Running Rebels
Saturday, November 30.
The Huskies walked out of their Las Vegas hotel, where they arrived early yesterday to prepare for their second opponent, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to run the Rebels.
The venue for the game is the Thomas Mark Center at the University of Las Vegas.
It takes only 15 minutes to get to the University of Las Vegas by bus, and after leaving the city center, the surrounding area is immediately desolate, and the prosperity is left far behind.
Like all of America's leading universities, the University of Las Vegas is an open university, with no walls or fences, and before you know it, you will find the Thomas Mark Center Arena right in front of you.
Lu Fei came to this arena once, during the All-Star Game in '07.
It's just that I didn't expect that this time, it would come five years in advance.
Lorenzo Roma got off the bus, his mind was still thinking about the tactics proposed by Lu Fei, the combination of running and bombing and existing tactics, this idea had been struggling with him for many days, and the scalp that had been seriously lost suddenly became a serious disaster area.
Lu Fei was holding the phone and Gu Tang were talking on the phone, but he felt that the tactics were not complicated.
In the 2015-16 season, the Golden State Warriors won 73 wins, and the small-ball tactics were all the rage, but they were overturned by the Cleveland Cavaliers after falling behind 1-3 in the finals.
Of course, the impact of injuries and Green's suspension cannot be ruled out, but Lu Fei remembers that Popovich said at the time that if the Warriors can't solve the offensive problem of the position, then it is a matter of time before they lose.
The Golden State Warriors lost the Finals, and in the 2016-17 season, Kevin Durant announced that he would join the Warriors.
The perfect combination of small-ball tactics and positional offense allowed the Golden State Warriors to win the championship in the 2016-17 season.
Lu Fei's idea was simple, to make the Huskies the Golden State Warriors of the NCAA.
But there aren't many opportunities left for the team to practice, and they need to deal with today's opponent before they can think about what comes next, and of course they can try this style of play in the game.
Everything still depends on Lorenzo Romar's arrangement.
Lu Fei didn't bother to worry about this, he hung up the phone with Gu Tang and walked into the Thomas Mark Center.
The Running Rebels of Las Vegas were once an established powerhouse in the NCAA, and they have the fourth-highest win percentage in the NCAA Division I league, behind the University of Kentucky Wildcats, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the University of Kansas Jayhawks.
The glory days of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Running Rebels were also the era of head coach Jerry Takanian, who single-handedly created the team's most glorious history with an overall record of 509 wins and 105 losses and a winning rate of 82.9 percent during his 19 years at the helm. In the early days of his tenure, he introduced bombardment offense and man-to-man press-and-shoot defensive tactics to build a team that was nationally renowned.
This is also the reason why Lorenzo Romaar said that the style of play proposed by Lu Fei is similar to the style of play that the Running Rebels used to play.
Sadly, Jerry Takanian's glory years had a bad ending. In the 1991-92 season, the team won the league regular season again, but Takanian was suspected of violating several NCAA rules, and the team was disqualified from the NCAA tournament, and then-principal Robert Markson forced Takanian to leave the team.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA was guilty of irregularities in its investigation of the UNLV team and that Jerry should be awarded $2.5 million in damages. Takanian was eventually cleared, but the impact on the team was irreparable.
In 2000, the NCAA discovered that the team had committed irregularities in recruiting Ramar Odom, and Benoy was forced to leave the company. What's even more ironic is that Odom finally chose to join the University of Rhode Island Rams, and the team can be described as losing his wife and soldiers.
This year's Running Rebels wanted to bring in a coach, Rick Pitino, but Pitino dismissively declined the invitation.
In desperation, Charles Span, the former head coach of the Saint Louis University Fushen team, took over the coaching whip of the team.
So this team is undoubtedly an underdog among the current NCAA teams.
This time, the Huskies challenged the Running Rebels away from home, which also made the local Las Vegas media and major newspapers sigh: "It's a loss!" ”
The media publicized the high school records of Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson, and occasionally mentioned Lu Fei in the article, using the words of a Chinese player to talk about some of his performances in the last game, but it is estimated that it is also because the NBA has Yao Ming, a Chinese player, anyway, there are only a few strokes, and there is no sense of existence.
In the away team's locker room, Anthony Washington walked over dejectedly: "Lu, I'm out of love." ”
Lu Fei glanced at him in surprise: "When did you fall in love, the fifth girl is not a ......"
"I called a girl I liked, she was a classmate of our class, the girl named Ellie, and I told her that I had been paying attention to her for a long time." Anthony Washington was not in the mood to joke with Lu Fei, and said bitterly.
It took Lu Fei a lot of effort to remember that Ellie was the dark-skinned girl with a huge ass in the class.
"And then? She rejected you? Lu Fei asked.
"She said to me - please don't tell the teacher, I promise not to eat melon seeds in class again." Anthony Washington said helplessly.
“……”
Lu Fei felt that this girl's way of rejecting him was quite literary.
The players warmed up, and when the warm-up was over, the lights on the field dimmed, and the radio began to introduce the home team's lineup, and the whole stadium suddenly boiled.
The frenetic home atmosphere has put the pressure on the Huskies.
Lu Fei sat indifferently on the chair, tightened his shoelaces, and there were not too many waves in his heart, his eyes fell on the members of the running rebel team who came out.
The point guard who came out at the end caught his eye.
"Let's welcome our ace player, No. 3, playmaker ...... Marcus Banks"
Lu Fei recalled what Lorenzo Roma had said at the meeting yesterday.
Marcus Banks, a senior this year, 6'2" tall and 200 pounds, runs the core guard of the Rebels, previously played two years at Dixie State College in Utah, transferred to the University of Las Vegas, and officially competed in the NCAA in his senior year.
His ball handling and defensive prowess are definitely second to none among NCAA players this year.
His shortcomings are also obvious, with poor projection and terrible opportunity selection.
However, that doesn't stop him from being an ace in this underdog team.
The game begins.
The Huskies field their starting lineup -
Defender: Wilconroy,
Shooting Guard: Natrobison,
Small forward: Brandon Roy,
Power Forward: Bobby Jones,
Center, Anthony Washington.
The jump ball was won by Anthony Washington, he dialed the ball to Wilcon Roy, and quickly ran to the frontcourt, at this time he felt countless anger in his chest that wanted to explode, he wanted to wreak havoc on the opponent's inside, he wanted to let the opponent taste the block, he wanted to win the game and let Elle, who was still in class at the University of Washington, see that he was the hero of the school.
Under the strict defense of Marcus Banks, Will Con Roy could only hand over the basketball to Roy, who had already stuck in the position on the inside, Roy held the ball with his back to the center pivot foot as the fulcrum and turned into a face frame attack, and after shaking the shot, the basketball wrapped a capital C in front of him, dropped the ball, accelerated, and before the opponent did not stand firm, he made a stop-and-go jump shot.
Lu Fei sighed, it's short!
Sure enough, the basketball smashed in front of the basket and collapsed, but fortunately, the basketball was picked up by Anthony Washington, who plucked onions on dry ground and dunked with both hands.
Running the Rebels attack, their style of play is extremely simple, block and dismantle!
Marcus Banks began to call for pick-and-roll when he reached the three-point line, and after entering, he distributed the ball to the high post center, and the center shot, and the shot felt good, and the basketball obediently drilled into the basket.
The two sides come and go, and they fight back and forth.
In the middle, Wilconroy saw coach Lorenzo Romaar make a run-and-shoot gesture and tried to play a few quick attacks, but Nate Robinson's hand really stinked today, and several shots hit the neck of the basket.
Lorenzo Roma angrily scolded: "Damn, whoever drinks again before the next game will go back to Washington." ”
Last night, Nate Robinson went crazy at the bar all night.
In contrast, Charles Span, the head coach of the Running Rebels, was much more relaxed, he sat in a chair and watched the game leisurely, although the Rebels were one point behind so far, playing 29-28, but compared to the pre-game downturn, it is really not too good to play like this now.
Pausing time, Lorenzo Roma waved his hand: "Lu, the time below, you are on!" ”