Chapter 38: The Celebrity Backcourt
Reaching the Final Four is a cheer for the entire Villanova team, and they don't need to face two big opponents in advance, with the University of Minnesota and the University of Kentucky both top-seeded in their respective divisions, compared to the University of Arizona, the No. 4 seed in the Southeast Region, which is a better opponent for them to reach the National Finals.
But Chang Wei didn't think so, because he saw the future NBA man of the year in Arizona's roster. As you can see from the team's score-per-game rankings, there are two forwards and three defenders among the top five scorers, and it is not excluded that the opposition will use a small lineup to strengthen the firepower, although it was not a trend in the 90s.
Among their backcourt players are Mike Bibby and Jason Terry.
"White Devil" Bibby, the brains of the Sacramento Kings team in the future, with excellent ball skills but always silently leading the team to victory, will be the star of the year if nothing else. As for Terry, nicknamed "Jets," he was a big-hearted player and a top-level sixth man who didn't participate in the draft until his senior year.
The rest of Arizona's players, Chang Wei, weren't too impressed, but Bibby and Terry combined were enough for Villanova's backcourt to drink. And this time it doesn't seem to be able to simply use Thomas to solve the problem, if the opponent puts five outside players, Thomas will be wasted more than half, and small and big and big are the same dislocations that make the defender collapse.
To make matters worse, Erwin has to focus more on defending Bibi, who is clearly not an easy guy to play against. His style of play is very steady, and the ball quotient is quite high, it is difficult for ordinary people to steal the ball directly from his hands, let alone cut off the passing route, Bibby is not a point guard who can only pass the ball, with his personal strength, he can completely hold the ball and attack, blocking the passing route does not matter to him.
To be honest, Chang Wei is not particularly clear about the tactical trend of the NCAA in the 90s of the 20th century, but he knows that college basketball is the cradle of various NBA tactics, and it is not surprising that the run-and-gun tactics of playing small ball were born in advance. University of Arizona coach Ruth Orson is in his sixties, but judging from the overall configuration of the team, he is not the kind of old stubborn who eats the old, and he can definitely do this kind of thing by putting the top five players on the team's scoring list on the court.
Orson, who has coached the NCAA team since 1973, also sees this, Thomas is both an advantage and a weakness for Villanova University, and the only thing he has to do is make Thomas, an interior strength, become a weakness for the opponent, so it is obviously a good idea not to put the center. And the team's rookie power forward Davidson can contribute 9.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, ranking fifth on the team's scoring list, so he should be able to hold out for a while.
However, Orson is an old man, and he doesn't plan to put this strange-looking lineup at the beginning of the game, he wants to test the strength of his opponent first. The team's center, Bramlet, suffered from the strong Thomas, who was directly blown up on both offensive and defensive ends, and if it weren't for the starting scoring guard Simon throwing two three-pointers from the outside, the difference would have been opened up by Villanova. Even so, Arizona was 6 points behind, and it was clear that Arizona would not be able to use conventional tactics again, and Orson waved his hand and replaced Bramlet with Terry to play a pure small lineup.
Rappers's face changed, it was the worst he could have imagined. He could also console himself with the fact that his opponent might not have enough courage before the start of the fight, but now the nightmare has become a reality. In fact, Lappers is not unable to play a small lineup according to the cat, but the interior must be covered by players who are fast enough and can grab rebounds, no matter how fast and flexible Thomas's speed and movement are, he can only have an advantage among the interior players, which is still far inferior to the outside players.
At this time, he also had to admire Arizona for recruiting players like Davidson. He is not tall, has flexible movements, and looks like a pure wing player no matter how you look at it, but he is the rebounding king of the University of Arizona! In other words, he did what an inside player did as an outside player, and no Villanova player could do that.
What made Rappers even more devastated was that after changing to a small lineup, the University of Arizona had a violent three-point rain with divine help. This made Thomas completely a decoration, and on the offensive end, he couldn't get the ball in the low post due to the entanglement of Arizona outside players; On the defensive end, the opponent directly uses speed to eat, or transfers to the outside, and he has no way at all.
Watching him continue to make futile switchbacks on the field, Rappers had no choice but to replace him, and it was clear that he was wasting his energy needlessly. Replacing Thomas and replacing Celestead, Rappers had no choice but to attack against attack. At this time, Davidson's value is reflected, and Villanova's ability to grab rebounds on the court is not as good as his.
Chang Wei kept an eye on the progress of the game and his own system at the same time. It stands to reason that this game and the next possible national finals are the moment of death for Villanova students, and the system should release relevant tasks, but now it is eerily silent, and even Chang Wei's call is ignored.
At first, Chang Wei thought the system was broken, but soon he thought of the real reason. Villanova's backwardness in this game was tactical, and of course it was also related to the team's staffing. The system can change a lot of things, but it can't go against the basic rules of the real world, which means it can't create a player out of thin air to help Villanova win.
In the face of such a situation, the system has nothing to do, of course, there is no need to issue tasks, anyway, Chang Wei can't do it anyway. After figuring it out, the only thing Chang Wei could do was watch silently from the bench, and if nothing else, Villanova's season would be over.
Through this game, Chang Wei also realized that the system is not omnipotent, it cannot guarantee that you will win every game, perhaps its biggest function is to help you lay the foundation for winning, and then solve some accidents in the game. Seeing that the point difference has reached double digits, Chang Wei is looking forward to the next offseason, he has memories from later generations, and he is more capable of helping Lappers, or Villanova University, build a stronger team.
There are 20 minutes left in the second half of the game, but Chang Wei has already sentenced the team to death......