Li Liang didn't expect that it was Adolf Rupp who came to teach him a lesson this time.

When he was playing in Kentucky, Li Liang knew this old-timer, the founder of Kentucky basketball.

He led the University of Kentucky to its first NCAA championship in franchise history back in 1947-1948.

In the four years from 1948 to 1951, he led the Kentucky Wildcats to three championships and founded an era in the NCAA that belonged to Kentucky.

He taught at the University of Kentucky for 41 years, beginning in 1930 and continuing until his retirement in 1972.

During his 40 years in the NCAA, Rupp led Kentucky to four championships, five Finals appearances, and 20 national appearances.

But if you look at the list of players that Rupp has coached, you will find that there are no super players.

The most famous are Pat Riley and Dan Isele (Li Liang followed the Hang Chuan).

Riley isn't known for playing awesome, it's because he's a coach and manager.

In other words, Rupp's players have never been great talents.

He's not like John Wooden with Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Wharton, or like Dean Smith with Jordan and Worthy.

He coached some relatively mediocre players.

During his 41 years at the helm of the University of Kentucky, 80 percent of the players he recruited were Kentucky natives.

Of course, there is no way for a state's basketball talent to be compared to the whole of America.

The fact that such an achievement can be achieved in such a situation is enough to show the level of coaching of Rupp.

He also made a name for himself in Kentucky.

Because he had known Rupp in the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame before and knew that this was the grandfather of his school, Li Liang was a little nervous when he entered the system than he had in the previous classes.

As can be seen from the name, Rupp is a German, he is kind-faced, and because he always likes to wear brown suits, he is called "the man in brown".

Seeing Li Liang, Rupu stepped forward and stretched out his hand to shake Li Liang's hand.

Every coach has their own coaching style, Bob Knight is grumpy, John Wooden Chicken Soup, Don Huggins is tough, and Rupp is cold and precise.

Unlike the kind of coach who likes to yell, Roop doesn't like to yell at his players.

But Rupp is very, very demanding of the players, especially in terms of fundamentals and details.

That's why Rup was able to succeed without talent.

He picks out every technical and tactical detail to the extreme, and uses precise tactical coordination to make up for the lack of talent of the players.

Li Liang had heard of this, so when he saw Rupu looking himself up and down, he felt a little hairy for some reason.

"Do you have pins on?" Rupp asked suddenly.

Li Liang was stunned, what is the problem, pin?

Li Liang scratched his head and said, "No." ”

Rupp said: "Next time, bring a pin, this time it will bring you good luck." ”

Li Liang is full of black lines, why do pins bring good luck?

Later, Li Liang figured out that Coach Rupp, like many NBA players, is also a big superstition.

He believes that finding a pin or a hairpin on the field on race day is a sign of good luck.

Also, on race day, he carries a horse chestnut leaf in his suit pocket, which is his lucky thing.

Then there is his brown suit, which he wears until it is very old.

Because once he changed into a new blue suit to coach the game, and the team lost badly.

Since then, Coach Rupp has never changed his suit and has been wearing an old-fashioned brown suit.

It can only be said that in the basketball world, feudal superstition has a very wide spread base.

After that, Li Liang followed Rupp to the training ground, and as expected, met Pat Riley.

Li Liang and Riley have a really good fate.

In reality, I have met talking and laughing, doing counterpoints together in NBA missions, and the cunning duo is embarrassed.

When it came to the tactical training mission, he met Riley, who was young in college, the foul king.

Li Liang joined the Kentucky Wildcats training in 1966.

The Wildcats were called the Rupps Runts, or Rupp's Shorties, because none of the players on the team were taller than 6'5 (1.95m).

But such a short team actually reached the NCAA Finals that year.

Kentucky's opponent that year was none other than Don Huggins' West Texas United, the first all-black team to start.

The last time Li Liang learned the trap tactics was at West Texas United and Huggins.

I didn't expect to come to learn to mark people today, and I met Rupu, this system must be deliberate.

Unlike West Texas United, Rupp is a staunch enforcer of man-to-man defence.

Since he coached Kentucky in the 1930s, he has insisted on a simple but effective man-to-man defense, and is adamant not to use any other defensive strategy.

Even though his team always suffers in height, he still uses a tough and confrontational man-to-man defense and achieves good results.

For man-to-man, which seems to be the simplest and most unskilled way of defense, Rupp has a deep understanding.

"With good man-to-man defense, everything else doesn't really matter." Rupp said to Li Liang.

Li Liang thought, Mike Brown didn't say that.

Coach Brown likes to play tricks on defense the most, anyway, now the league can defend and toss Li Liang in various ways.

For a while, sweep in the middle, 1-4 joint defense for a while, block the edge for a while, and put the flank in the middle for a while.

Li Liang is going to be annoyed to death by Mike Brown.

But Mike Brown's defense does have two brushes, and in the case of the Lakers' overall aging defense, it is indeed useful to use strategy to make up for weaknesses and tactics to make up for physical fitness.

Unlike Rupp, he coaches a collegiate team with no fitness problems with his students.

However, the players have their own characteristics, and the common trait of University of Kentucky players is that they are short.

How can this be done with one-on-one defense?

Before the training began, Li Liang took the initiative to ask, "If you encounter a tall opponent, do you just use one-on-one marking?" ”

Rupp looked at Li Liang and said, "If we meet a tall team, we will use a 1-3-1 joint defense." ”

"Huh?"

Li Liang said hello, you just said that if you use good people to mark people to defend, everything else is not important?

I thought that your boss would have some high opinions, but it turned out that you would also use joint defense!

Rupp saw Li Liang's thoughts and said: "I am the first coach kid in the NCAA to promote the use of joint defense. But man-to-man defense will always be the foundation and cornerstone of NBA defense, do you think there is a problem with this? ”

While Rupp was a staunch man-to-man defensive champion, he also kept up with the times, starting to learn and introduce 1-3-1 in 1963.

Otherwise, "Rupp's Shorty" would not have made it to the finals.

Li Liang listened and hurriedly said, "No problem, what Ning said is right." ”

Facing Master Zu, Li Liang's attitude is still very good.

Then, the formal training begins.

The content of the training is also very clear, and there is no technique practice, because that is the mission goal in [Defensive Ability].

What is practiced here is the awareness and coordination of the human mark.

Li Liang's outside defensive skills are already very good, and the basic skills he practiced in college were good.

After tempering and improving in missions and real competitions, speed, confrontation, and experience have increased in an all-round way.

Li Liang thought that if he practiced the tactical routine of defense again, Nima could be a coach when he returned.

It seems that man-marking is just "staring at your own opposing player", but in fact, there are routines and cooperation.

In the first lesson, one-on-one, two-on-two, and three-on-three situations were conducted, and if you didn't lose your defense, you could still cooperate and help each other.

Because the opponent's offensive tactics must revolve around disrupting the man-to-man deployment, and there are dislocations and gaps.

Therefore, players who mark people to defend must have good defensive ability.

At the same time, it is necessary to pay close attention to the movements of teammates and opponents, predict in advance, and rotate in time.

These things were learned in Kentucky before, and later in the Lakers, and Li Liang.

But the systematics is still a little different, that is, Rupp's picking is too detailed.

He gives clear rules on distance and time when players should move, when to cross-switch, and when to assist when defending man-to-man.

How far apart the players are, Rupp is almost measuring with a ruler.

During training, if the distance between players is not properly controlled, and the timing of the change is not accurate, it will be stopped by Rupp for correction.

After going for half an hour, Li Liang felt a headache.

In the NBA, the coach will not pick so finely, and the only NBA coach in my impression who does this is Larry Brown.

He built the Detroit Pistons in '04.

Li Liang thought to himself, none of these famous coaches in the basketball world are fuel-efficient lamps.

Each has its own perverts.

Thinking about it this way, it's better to have Mike Brown.