The collection is really a requirement, watching the number of collections slowly climb up, I feel that Gan Guoyang's strength is improving little by little, and the Vikings are moving forward step by step. So readers come to the bowl!! ）

On March 17, 1982, the California High School Basketball Championship officially opened.

Among them, in the second-level competition where Palo Alto High School is located, in addition to the top 8 teams with the best records, the other 48 teams will fight each other today.

Unlike the NBA, the high school league playoffs do not have a series that alternates home and away, but rather a life-and-death battle at a neutral school. This is the same as the NCAA game, win or go home, which fully reflects the brutality of competitive competition, and therefore full of unknowns and excitement.

Because of this, the last thing that is lacking in high school leagues and NCAA is a big upset, so no matter which favorite team, you must prepare carefully for each round, otherwise you don't know when you will become a victim of an upset.

The venues of the competition are mainly selected in various universities, and the distance of both sides of the competition should be taken into account. Northern California schools will be clustered in San Jose and compete at several universities in San Jose.

The Southern California schools will arrive together in Los Angeles to decide the winner.

Ultimately, this year's California Division 2 team North and South division champions will compete for the ultimate championship in Los Angeles.

Early in the morning of the 17th, the twelve players of the Vikings team, led by the teachers and coaches of the team, took the school bus to San Jose.

The distance from Palo Alto to San Jose is closer to San Francisco, so they can leave on the 17th, instead of having to fly on the 16th, as is the case with schools near Sacramento.

The shuttle bus soon arrived in San Jose, and Gan Guoyang sat in the car and looked out the window at the city, thinking that the cities in the United States are all fucking the same, all planned.

When he first arrived in the United States, Gan Guoyang still felt that the cities in the United States were clean and tidy, well planned, and the greenery was very good.

Later, he felt more and more as if every place was the same, repetitive and monotonous, compared to China's cities, although they were much dirty and messy, but the urban characteristics were very strong, especially some ancient cities.

Thinking of this, Gan Guoyang couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic for the motherland on the other side, and it has been more than half a year since he traveled to the past and came to the United States, and he still occasionally has a feeling of dreaming.

The car was parked in front of a hotel in San Jose, where the organizing committee arranged for the players to live, where one fifth of Northern California's basketball elite will gather this year.

And it's rumored that some of the best players in California this year are students from second-tier schools.

Among them is Gan Guoyang, who led Palo Alto's fish belly to the top and won the regional championship - although Palo Alto's division is not strong.

And this guy is still a yellow race, and he's still a transfer student!

Not only in California, but even in the United States, Gan Guoyang has begun to attract the attention of the basketball community, especially some Chinese groups have begun to pay attention to this amazing Chinese boy.

Because in the United States, yellow people have always been considered weak in sports, and popular sports such as football, basketball, and baseball in the United States have no place for yellow people.

But now, all the other high schools are also staring at Palo Alto High School, staring at Gan Guoyang, and they want to try to see if this Chinese kid is worthy of his reputation at the championship.

Every high school player, especially the center player, also wants to compete with Gan Guoyang, and some people do it purely out of competition and want to beat famous opponents.

For others, it's not so simple, and the smell of race permeates the calm atmosphere before the game.

Gan Guoyang didn't know anything about this, and he was not interested or in the mood to listen to these things.

As soon as he arrived at the hotel room, he packed up his things and lay down on the bed. After a long time in the car, it's time to relax.

"Gan, aren't you nervous at all?" Dippenbrock, who lives in the same room as Gan Guoyang, asked.

"Well, from the moment I made my first shot in the first game, I knew I wasn't going to be nervous in the high school league anymore." Gan Guoyang remembered his embarrassment when he played the first game.

Dippenbrock looked at Gan Guoyang who was lying on the extended bed, thinking that when he first saw him, in the gymnasium, he seemed to be so confident and indifferent.

And today, he is still like this, but Diepenbrock knows that Gan Guoyang's self-confidence is not rootless, but stems from his strong strength and firm belief.

Thinking of this, Dippenbrock also felt full of confidence, and his heart was much less apprehensive before coming to San Jose.

In the afternoon, after lunch, Bellman took the players to their playing field, the gymnasium of San Jose State University, to learn about the scene.

The gymnasium of a university is different from that of a high school. The high school arenas are small arenas, with only one side of the arena and the other three walls. The large venue can seat 500 spectators, and the small one can only seat 2 or 300 people.

The university's gymnasium is a formal gymnasium, surrounded by spectator seats, and a venue can seat thousands of spectators.

A stadium like San Jose State University's stadium can accommodate more than 2,000 spectators, and the atmosphere of such a stadium is full of spectators like the previous regular season.

When the Vikings arrived at the gymnasium, they found that there were already teams on the field for shooting drills.

"It's a Notre Dame High School Crusader player, and their school is in San Jose, which is half of their home field." Dippenbrock says he's always been a jack of all trades in the team.

"They seem to have a predominantly white player." Gan Guoyang found that most of the Crusaders' players were white players.

"Notre Dame High School is a relatively upscale school, so most of the students are white."

At this time, from another passage of the stadium, a group of players wearing blue jerseys walked in through the gate, their formation was scattered, their steps were scattered, and they exuded a ruffian from top to bottom.

And most of them are black.

"It's from Los Altos High School." Dippenbrock spoke in a much quieter voice, as if he was afraid of the fellows hearing it.

These sinister looking guys are the players of the Los Altos High School Conquistadors, and they are also looking at the Viking players, especially Gan Guoyang.

It seems that their next opponent will be the Vikings, not Our Lady of High School.

"I'll go say hi to them." Gan Guoyang said suddenly, startling everyone else.

Greeting a potential opponent before a match can be considered provocative and likely to lead to violent clashes, not to mention that the Los Altos High School players don't look easy to mess with.

Bellman happened to go outside to make a phone call at this time, and no one could stop Gan Guoyang.

The Vikings looked at Gan Guoyang alone, and walked to their side under the wary gaze of the Los Altos High School players.

"If it's not right, we'll rush to it!" Williams said he was afraid that Gan Guoyang would suffer.

However, Gan Guoyang stood there and chatted with the players of Los Altos High School, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong, and he could even see the smiles on their faces.

Soon, Gan Guoyang came back, as if nothing had happened, just a few words with a few old friends.

"Gan, what did you say to them?" Someone asked curiously.

"I told them I was going to kick their ass in the game." Gan Guoyang said with a smile, obviously he was joking.

At this time, Bellman happened to be back, because the Vikings game was the day after tomorrow, so he returned to the hotel with the players, ready to watch tonight's first round match, the Notre Dame High School Crusaders vs. Los Altos High School Conquistadors.

Their winner will be the opponent of the Vikings.

At 7 p.m. on March 17, the California High School Basketball League officially began, with the first round of 24 teams in 12 games at various universities in San Jose and Los Angeles.

San Jose State University's gymnasium is lit up tonight, and the 1,500-seat gymnasium is already full.

In addition to the University of San Jose students, there were also students from Notre Dame High School, as well as a number of other teams, including the Palo Alto Vikings.

"So many Notre Dame High School students? It's like the home of Notre Dame High School. Gan Guoyang looked at the large navy blue in the audience, and sighed that it was good if the school was close.

In comparison, Los Altos High School doesn't have any supporters, but they don't seem to care if they look like they don't care.

There were no gimmicks in the NBA games of the eighties, let alone a high school game, so there was no messy show.

After introducing the players and singing the American national anthem, the game officially began.

The opening game was not as intense as Gan Guoyang imagined, both sides were a little nervous, after all, it was a knockout match that would determine the outcome of the game, and they didn't let it go much.

There were some mistakes on both sides, and the tactics were not clear, and in general it was chaotic.

In this case, it depends either on the coach's ability to adjust, or on whether the ace in the team can step up and use his individual ability to take the lead in holding down the position.

Sure enough, the No. 14 shooting guard of the Notre Dame High School Crusaders took the lead in carrying the banner of the team's offense.

In the case that both offenses were not going well and mistakes were practiced, he relied on his outstanding jump shooting ability and scored many times with the help of simple cover jump shots.

In this kind of chaotic situation, the simpler the coordination, the better, can reduce mistakes, and use effective attacks to stabilize the situation.

In comparison, the Conquistadors looked taller and stronger than the Crusaders, but they were clearly a bit impatient as they failed to hit the basket many times under the Crusaders' tangled defense.

Five minutes into the first half, the Notre Dame High School Crusaders led the Los Altos High School Conquerors by 8 points at 14:6, and the Conquerors had to call a timeout.

"It seems that the conquerors are not so terrible, but the white men of the Crusaders played well, especially the number 14, and the shooting was very accurate."

Los Alto High School didn't look as scary as the Vikings had imagined, and they were a little overwhelmed by the Crusaders' accurate jumpers.

The timeout was fast approaching, and the Conquerors served the ball in frontcourt. They made some changes in personnel, but this attack on the conquerors still did not make a difference, although they were taller and stronger, but they did not have much to do in the face of the combined defense of the Crusaders.

But when the Crusaders players grabbed the rebound and handed the ball to the point guard to prepare for a quick advance to launch a fast break, a figure suddenly blocked the path of the Crusader point guard.

The two collided all at once, like a car crashing into a large truck, but the sedan and the truck both flipped to the ground.

The Crusaders' point guard watched his teammates' movements and dribbled quickly across the halfcourt, not noticing that a man would appear halfway through.

By the time he fell to the ground, his mind was still a little confused.

And the person who hit him was a player who had just changed to the field, and although he also fell to the ground, it was obvious that he belonged to "putting himself down," and there was nothing wrong with it.

This ball naturally condemned the conquistador's blocking foul, or the Crusader's serve.

However, the ball clearly affected the judgment of the Crusader point guard, who made a mistake in organizing the attack and was cut off by the Conqueror.

The Conqueror's players are all black men who can run and jump, and of course they will not let go of the opportunity to break fast, and end the attack with a violent dunk.

As the game continued, Gan Guoyang found that the Crusaders were very characteristic in attacking the position.

They don't have a strong interior line, nor do they engage in more complex tactical runs, but shoot the whole team, relying on small cooperation to open up the shooting space, so that every player has a jump shot.

It worked wonders in the opening period, but after this timeout, when they tried to tear through the Conqueror's defense in this way, they found that it didn't work at all, because the ball couldn't be touched at all.

"Beep!" When the referee's whistle blew, one of the Conquistadors pulled his hand for a foul before the Crusader player could shoot, and he simply raised his hand to obey the decision.

"They committed a foul on purpose." Gan Guoyang saw that this kind of foul was not a last resort when he couldn't prevent it, but deliberately pulled the other party's hand.

"That's right, they want to disrupt the rhythm of the crusaders with fouls." Bellman, who was sitting next to Gan Guoyang, had already seen the conquistador's intentions.

Shooting is very dependent on the feel and rhythm, and the feel is good, so how to shoot and how to have. Once the touch is gone, the rhythm is also disrupted, and the shooting percentage will decrease, and with it, the offensive confidence will decrease.

And once you don't have confidence in shooting, you will only get worse and worse, and you will fall into a vicious circle.

If the team has interior firepower, they can switch and adjust it, but the Crusaders don't have a strong interior line, so the Conquerors send the bench to squander fouls with impunity to ruin the Crusaders' outside touch.

Sure enough, in the next attack of the Crusaders, the conquerors used fouls to cut off the opponent's attack, which was booed by the audience.

They quickly reached the number of fouls, and the Vikings were about to make free throws if they fouled again.

However, at this time, the Conquerors did not need to foul anymore, because the attack of the Crusaders players had been completely disrupted.

This is not only because of the fouls of the Conqueror players, but also because these fouls are very vicious, and every time they pounce, they give people a feeling of "deep hatred", which causes the Crusader players to have a great emotional impact.

"Beep beep!" The referee blew a quick and continuous whistle, and it was clear that there was something special on the field.

It turned out that one of the Crusaders players was on the layup when he was pushed down by the Conqueror's backup center and fell heavily to the ground.

Although the foul guy immediately raised his hand to signal, it was obvious that his behavior was not a simple foul, but a great danger.

The Crusaders' anger at the Conqueror finally exploded, and a substitute center who rushed forward to push the Crusaders gave them a hand, and the players immediately confronted each other under the basket, and the crowd on the court began to boo.

The actions of the Conquerors caused discontent among the people.

Fortunately, with the help of the referee and coach, no violent clashes broke out and the game continued.

But the Crusaders' offensive feeling has long been completely disrupted, the shooting has no touch, the breakthrough is blocked, and the team is in a scoring drought.

By the end of the first half, the Conquerors, who had trailed by eight points in the opening period, had a six-point lead at 33-27, even though they paid the price for nine fouls.

During the intermission, Gan Guoyang got up from his seat and said to Bellman, "Mr. Bellman, I'll go to the bathroom." ”

With permission, Gan Guoyang left his seat to go to the toilet, which was a few minutes before the start of the second half, but Gan Guoyang had no intention of watching this game again.

In his mind, the game was over.

When he went to greet the Conquerors alone this afternoon, he didn't say anything special, except that he hoped to meet them in the next game.

And the words of the captain of the conqueror team surprised him, he not only knew Gan Guoyang, but also had a clear understanding of Gan Guoyang's game data and playing characteristics.

At the same time, he does not seem to be ignorant of the characteristics of the Vikings, and Gan Guoyang really does not know anything about the Conquerors.

Coupled with today's first-half game, Gan Guoyang understands that Los Altos High School is prepared and very well prepared, and it seems that they are determined to win this game.

"It doesn't look like it's going to be easy to play in the next game." Gan Guoyang thought to himself while peeing.

After urinating, Gan Guoyang walked away, thinking about the game the day after tomorrow.

As a result, when I went out, I accidentally bumped into the person who came in.

"Oh, I'm sorry", "I'm sorry~" The two apologized to each other at the same time.

Gan Guoyang glanced at the person he bumped into, who was about 6 feet 1 tall, black, not tall.

But the clothes on his body caught his eye, a purple sports jacket with the words Sacramento High School emblazoned on it.

"Sacramento High School? It seems that he is also here to compete. ”

Gan Guoyang didn't care, apologized a few more words, and walked out of the toilet. Still, he looked back at the little man, and felt that his face was somewhat familiar.

"Sacramento High School? Sacramento ......"