In the United States, no matter how the NBA develops, how many games there are each year, how many honors, money, and status players can earn, college basketball has an extremely strong position, which can be seen from March Madness every year.

Even before the NCAA National tournament has begun, and schools are playing regional leagues and inter-regional challenges, a college game is no less fanatical than a normal NBA game, and even more so than some bad teams vs. bad teams.

Gan Guoyang still remembers that when he played his first game at Gunzaga University, it was just a warm-up match between Los Angeles and UCLA, and the scene was full of UCLA students, and the sea of gold and pink made him unforgettable.

Not to mention the all-time record NCAA Finals in '84.

Last night, I rushed to Notterdam to rest for the night, and the next day Gan Guoyang and his party went to the University of Notre Dame to watch the game between the two teams, which was played at 3 p.m.

When I arrived at the arena of the University of Notre Dame, the feeling of being lost for a long time struck again, and it was different from the grandeur of the NCAA Finals, which was a medium-sized gymnasium filled with uniformed student fans, and the stadium was clean and tidy, with no billboards, no cameras, and no crowds of reporters, which was a simple basketball game.

Gan Guoyang's arrival also caused a lot of commotion, no one, the league's hottest new star at the moment, would take the time to run so far to watch a college game, and many fans came forward to ask Gan Guoyang for autographs.

But soon, the protagonists in the arena became the players from the University of Maryland and the University of Notre Dame in the center of the stadium, and Gan Guoyang's arrival was just a small episode.

The process of the game is very fast, so fast that the current Gan Guoyang is a little uncomfortable, the 40-minute game is divided into two halves, the referee does not blow the whistle much, there is no official timeout in the game, and both sides play very smoothly.

Relatively speaking, the University of Maryland has a greater advantage in strength, but the University of Notre Dame sits on the home field, and the cheers of the fans are full of tsunami, and even Gan Guoyang and Paxson Colt are infected and start a human wave with the fans.

The great thing about college basketball is that they play authentic team basketball, and in '86 college basketball also introduced a rule to limit the time of offense, so the game became more compact and beautiful.

And Gan Guoyang and Paxson came this time, mainly to see the core small forward of the University of Maryland, Len Baias.

Len "Horse" Byas was the ACC (Atlantic League) Player of the Year last season, and with Len Baias playing halfway through the season, he could have won the accolade – something Jordan did in 1983 and 1984.

"Wow! It's so fast, if he gets into the NBA, you'll be like crossing the road in the morning, isn't Jim? Gan Guoyang watched as Baias got past the defender with the ball in one step, burst inside and made a layup before the two closed the door.

At this time, the game was at a critical moment, and the University of Notre Dame was still two points behind Maryland, and this breakthrough by Baias also gave the team a reassurance.

"Don't learn from Bird, he does have a good chance of going to the draft next year, and Jordan is said to be no match for him when he first entered college."

"No kidding, he's not as good as Jordan, but he's a good guy, but he's a bit lazy on the court, I don't like it." Gan Guoyang looked at the situation on the court, the University of Notre Dame relied on active frontcourt rebounds to scramble and scored a goal under the basket, while Baias stood outside and watched for a long time, but he didn't rush inside to grab it.

"Geniuses always have some privileges."

"The more privileges you have, the more you have to do and the more responsibilities you have."

In the end, the University of Maryland was stronger, defeating the University of Notre Dame by 77-73, 4 points on the road, Baias scored a game-high 28 points, and even scored 10 points in the last 5 minutes, becoming the brightest star of the game.

There was no post-match press conference, no large number of reporters rushed to harvest, and the game was over, as if the movie was over, and the fans left the stadium one after another, but it didn't seem that everyone was very sad, and everyone was very happy.

That's the beauty of basketball, even if the result isn't perfect, it's fun enough.

After the game, Gan Guoyang and the three of them went to the locker rooms of the two teams together, and the college players on both sides were very enthusiastic, and they found Gan Guoyang when they played on the field, and many of them also claimed to be Gan Guoyang's fans.

However, Gan Guoyang mainly wants to see Len Baias, he is the brightest star of the game, although his enthusiasm on the defensive end is not so good, but he is really talented, very impactful, his style of play is quite advanced in Gan Guoyang's opinion, his position is between small forward and big forward, the speed is faster than the average big forward, and the physique is stronger than the small forward, which is completely the standard of the 21st world forward player.

There is a precedent for NBA players to contact college players in advance, and Johnson, the famous Magic player in the United States, met the ABA-NBA superstar Dr. J Irving early, and under the leadership of Irving, he saw the NBA locker room for the first time, which strengthened his determination to end his studies early and enter the NBA to become a professional player.

Like the magician, Baias also has a big smile, and he talks appropriately and is quite a star, which allows him to quickly have a good conversation with Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang told Baias a lot of interesting facts about the NBA, as well as some knowledge about the inner workings of the team, and the other players in the locker room were a little fascinated by the NBA, and the head coach of the University of Maryland, Ledesell, had to remind Gan Guoyang not to say too much about it, which would make his players unwilling to stay in school.

Either way, it was a good contact, and Gan invited the students from both teams to the best restaurant in Notterdam for a big meal in the evening.

With the next day's game, the trio didn't stop at Nottedam and rushed back to Indianapolis overnight, by which time the rest of the Trail Blazers had already left Indiana for Portland in the morning.

Gan Guoyang and Paxson were very excited along the way, and to be honest, the life of the players during the league may not be much better than that of those white-collar workers, endless games, a lot of time spent on transportation, half the days have to live in hotels, and the work pressure is actually very huge.

The advantage is nothing more than making a lot of money, and in the eighties, the salary of players did not reach the point where they could earn someone else's lifetime money a year, especially ordinary players.

So just going to the university and having fun with the students made Gan Guoyang feel very happy, anyway, he is not the kind of guy who likes to go in and out of places of sound, and his life is really boring on weekdays.

Of the three, only Colter seemed somewhat silent, and on the way back.

"Hey Steve, what's wrong? Sulking at not having a fan asking you for an autograph? Don't do that, come on, sign me, Mr. Colt! Your recent performance has been fantastic! Gan Guoyang looked at Colt without saying a word, so he took out a small notebook from his pocket and stepped forward to tease him.

After experiencing a drug abuse incident, Colt finally got rid of the temptation of marijuana and got back on the right track under Gan Guoyang's "close monitoring".

In the previous period, Colter had a number of good performances in the game, contributing 22 points and 5 assists in the game against Boston, and in the game against the Warriors, he scored 26 points and 5 assists.

With Valentin's injury recently, Colter has become the starting point guard and has become more consistent and reliable, and he has come from behind to take the lead against Porter.

Hearing Gan Guoyang's words, Colt glanced at Gan Guoyang while waiting for his dead fish eyes, ignored him, and said: "In their team, I mean the University of Maryland team, there are people who take drugs. ”

"What?" Gan Guoyang felt as if he had misheard.

"Of course, I don't see any of them taking drugs ... But I've smoked marijuana, and I know the state of people who smoke marijuana, or other drugs, and the smell of their bodies, and I can feel that there must be people in them who take drugs, and there is more than one. Colter said with a serious face.

Gan Guoyang knows that since Colt got rid of marijuana, he has also had a deep awakening and knows that drugs, even soft drugs like marijuana, can cause great harm to people, especially professional athletes.

"It's true that there are more and more players taking drugs right now, which is not a good sign and sooner or later it will hurt the whole league. Thankfully, no one in our team is on drugs. Paxson on the side also said.

Hearing Paxson say that no one on the Trail Blazers took drugs, Colter couldn't help but blush, but fortunately his face was so dark that he couldn't see it at all.

Hearing about drug use, some memories popped up in Gan Guoyang's mind.

He has the impression that in the mid-to-late 80s, there was indeed a player in the NBA who died due to a drug overdose, which eventually led to an anti-drug storm in the league.

But who is this person and what year was selected for the NBA, Gan Guoyang really has no impression in his mind at all, and pseudo-fans like him just know a rough idea.

"Len Byas? Len Baias? It seems to be a bit like ah, could it be him? Gan Guoyang read the name of Len Baias, and the more he read it, the more he felt that this seemed to be the player who had died of drug addiction.

Gan Guoyang was right, Len Byas was the one who died of a heart attack while smoking cocaine after the 1986 draft.

I don't know if the fate of this tragic figure will change in this time and space.