The University of Houston, the most famous school in Texas and the NCAA's basketball powerhouse, has contributed All-Star caliber players to the NBA, such as Ervin Hayes, Akim Olajuwon, Drexler and Otis Berdson.

So, every summer, the University of Houston's training hall is always star-studded, and not only Houston Rockets players come here to practice, but also those who have graduated from the academy come back to work their sweat in the arena as they did in college.

"Steady down, steady steady! Don't give him a chance......"

"Bang!"

"Good shot!"

In the basketball hall of the University of Houston campus recreation center, the sizzle of sneakers rubbing against the floor and the shouts of players can be heard constantly, and it is clear that a fierce confrontation training is going on inside.

"Well done, Akim, be sure to find space, space, in the most crowded places, as long as you have space, you have a chance to get out." A tall black man in a red vest and blue shorts stood on the sidelines and said, he was none other than Moses Malone.

After Malone left Portland, he returned to Houston.

Since Malone went straight to the NBA after graduating from high school, he is an outlier in the league, and naturally he does not go back to his alma mater to train like those players who graduated from college, but habitually comes to Houston - although he now plays in Philadelphia.

Back when Malone was still playing for the Rockets, he would come to the University of Houston in the offseason to train with Akim Olajuwon, who was still a college player at the time, and his tremendous power and excellent skills in the low post deeply influenced Olajuwon and laid a solid foundation for the future super center.

Now, Olajuwon is a professional player in the NBA, and the two have become rivals on the court, but this does not prevent them from having a master-apprentice relationship off the court.

"Akim did a good job, and Gan you, your reaction seems to be a little slower, and you shouldn't press forward, if it were me, I would give up this chance to block, because you have lost the most powerful condition for blocking, Akim already has space."

Malone then turned to the center opposite Olajuwon, the biggest enemy of the University of Houston - Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang didn't expect that college fans in the NCAA would hold such a grudge before coming to Houston, so when he was picked up by Drexler to the University of Houston, the number of middle fingers along the way exceeded Gan Guoyang's average of rebounds per game last season.

"It's good that it's a holiday, otherwise the person who gives you the middle finger will outnumber your quarterly total rebounds." When Gan Guoyang heard Drexler say this, he could only be "glad" that he was late.

But when Gan Guoyang made a slight adjustment and came to the training gym the next day to start training, he was no longer "glad" that he was late, because he found that nearly a month of slackness made him start to be at a disadvantage when he faced Olajuwon.

Whether it was during the NCAA period or when he was playing in the professional league, Gan Guoyang could always maintain a certain degree of suppression against Olajuwon.

Although Olajuwon has better bounce, speed and explosiveness, Gan Guoyang is smarter, more solid in technique, and very importantly, in terms of key power, Gan Guoyang has a big advantage.

Even if Olajuwon claimed to be able to compete with Moses Malone in terms of strength when he was in college, it was just a kind of propaganda, Gan Guoyang and Moses were the same level of strength, and Olajuwon was still an order of magnitude behind.

But on the first day of the training camp, Gan Guoyang found that Olajuwon had made great progress in strength, even if it still couldn't reach his level, it was still narrowing the gap.

To make matters worse, Olajuwon's technique has improved significantly from his rookie season, and his pace is starting to become dreamy.

The ball just now, Olajuwon grabbed the rebound in the front court under the basket, Gan Guoyang raised his hands to defend closely, Olajuwon tried to push Gan Guoyang unsuccessfully, but he immediately took his right foot as the axis, quickly turned away from Gan Guoyang's close, and then made a fake move of hooking his right hand.

Although he didn't deceive Gan Guoyang, he immediately stepped back and made a direct jump shot, which not only threw the ball in, but also caused Gan Guoyang to foul his beater.

If it only happens once, it's normal, and it's impossible to take advantage of a player like Olajuwon every time.

However, in today's training, Gan Guoyang was almost completely unable to limit Olajuwon's offense against Olajuwon on the defensive end.

In the offense, Gan Guoyang was also very difficult, in the face of the Chinese player's handy turn-over jumper, replaced by Olajuwon to defend, the completely lost effect, Gan Guoyang even had a difficult shot.

And Gan Guoyang is sure that Olajuwon must have accepted Moses Malone's guidance on how to defend the hook, which makes Gan Guoyang even more difficult on the offensive end. "Okay, let's take a break, we've been playing for half an hour, you can adjust it." Moses Malone clapped his hands and said.

"You're not in a good state, why did you come here so late? I thought you'd been training in Portland. During the break, Drexler said to Gan Guoyang.

In the two-sided match, Drexler and Gan Guoyang were in a group, while Olajuwon had Bertson as an assistant, compared to Gan Guoyang's slump, Drexler's condition was obviously much better, he has been training here for more than a month, and the situation is quite good in all aspects.

"I know, it's me who is too slack, I've been running around this month, I'm not training systematically at all, and hopefully it's not too late to start." Gan Guoyang reflected while drinking water.

The lack of systematic training for a month does not seem obvious on the surface, especially after Gan Guoyang abused the Chinese team, he even felt that he was more stable and mature in terms of strength.

But really against players of the same level, especially after a month of targeted improvement, Gan Guoyang is sure that he will be deflated in one-on-one.

"It's not too late to start, a lot of training camps start at this time, and then there's the team training camp in September, so keep it up." Drexler comforted Gan Guoyang that he himself had made this mistake before.

However, Drexler also understands that with Gan Guoyang's character, slackness is only temporary, and what will follow is bound to be crazy training, you must know that he is the hardest training for the Trail Blazers.

Just when some of the players were resting and some were exchanging experiences with each other, a middle-aged white man wearing a beige T-shirt walked into the training hall and attracted everyone's attention.

"Coach Lewis!" Drexler was the first to step forward, and the man who came was none other than Houston Jaguars head coach, Guy Lewis.

Gan Guoyang is still very impressed with the coach, the legendary coach who graduated from the University of Houston and has been the head coach of the Jaguars since 1956, and has led the Jaguars to the final-four four times four times, and has always been so calm when directing from the sidelines, in stark contrast to the passion of the former coach of the Bulldogs, Bellman.

"Hello, Mr. Lewis." Gan Guoyang also stepped forward to shake hands with the famous head of the church.

Although Gan single-handedly destroyed Coach Lewis' chances of leading the Jaguars to the top NCAA honor, his stunner, coupled with Olajuwon's departure, made Lewis realize that he would never have a chance to touch that trophy again.

But he still admires Gan Guoyang very much, appreciates his ball skills, and the extraordinary feeling of the game.

"Hello Gan, welcome to the University of Houston, maybe the people here are hostile to you, but on the court we respect every opponent. Hopefully you can get better. "Coach Lewis seemed very friendly.

This season, the Jaguars, who lost their outstanding players from the previous edition, did not even make it to the national competition, and Guy Lewis was already a little disheartened and ready to leave the position of head coach.

However, in the offseason, he is still very happy to go to the training ground to guide his former proud disciples so that they can go further in the NBA.

Training quickly continued, this time in groups for one-on-one drills, with Gan Guoyang unsurprisingly separated from Olajuwon, and the two of them had to continue to hone their skills on both ends of the pitch.

"Akim's recent improvement has been really noticeable, and sure enough, as long as there is a target opponent in front of him, his progress will be even faster...... However, Gan's technique doesn't seem to have changed much, and his arsenal is still a bit monotonous, but his ball sense is really good, and it's a little better than Akim......"

Coach Lewis observed the confrontation between Aitu and Gan Guoyang, and he also saw that Olajuwon's hard training for more than a month had improved, and Gan Guoyang seemed to be standing still.

Unlike Coach Bellman and Georgetown coach John Thompson, both of them are good at tuning their players' defensive ability and defensive awareness, especially the latter, and the future Mutombo and Mourning will be his proud disciples.

Coach Lewis is good at developing the offensive potential of players, especially good at carrying forward the offensive advantages and independent offensive awareness of players, so his four disciples, Hayes, Olajuwon, Drexler, and Partson are all offensive strongmen.

Of course, the disadvantage of him is that Hayes and Olajuwon have been called black holes on the court, Drexler is unrepentant of his shooting flaws, and Partson is also a scoring guard who can only attack and not pass, which are all bad habits formed under Lewis's free system.

However, because of this, he is very good at tuning the players' attacks.

"You two stop, come here, I think you should improve your offensive thinking, as well as your offensive skills."

〖