Chapter 41: The Derby in the Same City

UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) is the equivalent of the Celtics in the NBA in American college basketball, winning the NCAA 11 times, winning seven championships in a row from 1967 to 1973, and an incredible 88-game winning streak across the season, these records are almost insurmountable myths in the NCAA.

This year, the team took three starters, including Russell Westbrook, who was drafted in the fourth round in the first round, but did not add a well-known high school player, which made the media unfavorable to the old club before the start of the season.

But once the season began, the team showed off their heritage, and UCLA was able to recruit some useful players to fill the voids every year.

In NCAA history, UCLA is the team with the most championships, with a total of 11 championships; In second place is the University of Kentucky, who have won the championship seven times; In third place is Indiana University, who have won five championships; As for North Carolina and Duke, which are well known to domestic fans, they have only won the championship four times, tied for fourth.

In recent years, UCLA has always been able to reach the national semi-finals, but in the end it is always a little bit away from the championship, in the last five years they have won two runners-up and three semi-finals, but perhaps Lady Luck thinks they have won too many championships, and every time they reach the national semi-finals, good luck will befall other teams.

The match between the two rivals in Los Angeles is scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight, and although it is an away game, USC only needs to take the team bus to the destination - Poly Stadium.

UCLA's home arena, which can accommodate up to 30,000 fans, sold out a week ago, and tickets on the black market have tripled a few days ago and are now sold out.

In view of the fact that this match is the focus of much attention, the two teams held an official pre-match press conference before the game.

There is no press conference for the NCAA preseason, and the regular season depends on the situation, and generally the national live game will definitely hold a press conference, and a similar city derby will also be held, only some small games that no one pays attention to, and this link will be omitted before and after the game.

UCLA head coach Ben Holland said before the game: "Even without Westbrook, UCLA would have to be the best team in the country for me. When asked who had the better talent between USC Wu Huang and Westbrook, who had already entered the draft, the head coach who helped UCLA get out of the 90s slump did not answer positively.

"This season, Darren Collison will be the key to our success. As we all know, the point guard position itself determines its importance, and the experience of a point guard will be the key to determining how far the team can go in the national championship. Ben Holland didn't say it explicitly, but the implication was that he was obviously not optimistic about how well the first-year Wu Huang would perform in the national championships, citing his lack of experience in major tournaments.

USC head coach Floyd has a fat figure, he is not like Ben Holland in the pre-game belittlement of opponent players, praise of his own players, Floyd did not say a word to Wu Huang, a fierce praise of the opponent's core, "Collison is currently the best point guard in the United States college basketball, he has an unparalleled speed with the ball, coupled with excellent organizational skills, he is undoubtedly the guarantee that UCLA can break into the national final four three times, I hope Hugo can learn some valuable lessons from him. ”

Wu Huang is also one of the protagonists of the day, he has just won the Pacific Conference Player of the Month, and in an interview with the media before the game, the Chinese phenom was not afraid of the stage, and in the face of reporters' questions, he said eloquently: "Collison knows how to lead a team, and I think I can do that this season." He is a well-known leader both on and off the pitch. I'm going to face him today and hopefully learn from him what it takes to be like him. ”

The two masters and apprentices of the University of Southern California were all smiling in the face of the media's provocation and traps set at the pre-game press conference, but they were just not fooled, just like two foxes.

Taylor Swift and Emma Roberts came to watch the game away today, Christine has been watching the game less often lately, she is reading the script at home, and at the same time, in order to be more in line with the image of the original heroine, the cold girl is losing weight, although she is not fat, but she still has to become thinner to fit the role.

In the away dressing room, Floyd was highlighting the details of today's game and some precautions to the players.

"UCLA lacks top-tier wing locks, Dwight Lewis is only a good team defender due to his talent, Jack Shipp is simply not good at this, Nikola Dragovich on the inside is also a tall white shooter who is good at shooting but not good at defense, this configuration causes them to often be stuck in simple one-on-one, UCLA has lost games this season by the opponent's strong point one-on-one, and that's what we have to do."

Floyd pointed out his opponent's weaknesses and continued to highlight the opponent's strengths for his players: "The UCLA regular season is capable of scoring 74 points per 100 possessions, and they did it in a very different way, and they broke it." The jump shooting team can only watch the sky to eat', this team except for the center Alfred does not have the ability to shoot outside the restricted area, the other four have accurate mid-to-long-range shooting, we have to prevent them from using positioning cover and strong side blocking to get open space, as long as there is a momentary open shooting opportunity, they can hit the shot anywhere in the front court, so the first thing to do is to concentrate, focus on their opponents, change the defense in time, and do not give them the opportunity to shoot easily. ”

The NCAA game requires a lot of preparation before the game, which is already similar to the NBA, and the team must find out the strength and characteristics of the opponent's main players before the game, so as to carry out targeted tactical arrangements and drills.

The coaching staff usually looks for the weaknesses of the opponent by watching the game video a week beforehand, not only to analyze the tactics and playing styles of the opposing team for their own head coach, but also to find out the playing habits and technical characteristics of the opposing players for their own players...... For example, in today's game, Wu Huang got the video of Collisson's game a few days ago, which are some offensive and defensive rounds cut out by the coaching staff from more than a dozen games this season, which can allow Wu Huang to understand his opponent's ability very intuitively and prepare to deal with it in advance. For some important games, the team is likely to start such preparations half a month in advance, which also responds to the sentence, only by knowing oneself and knowing the other can one win a hundred battles.

The players of the two teams played, Wu Huang met the senior Colon Darrison opposite, who was known as the best point guard in the Pacific League before the start of the regular season, but Wu Huang is now a sudden force, not to mention the question of who is strong and who is weak, at least in the draft rankings, Wu Huang has surpassed the opponent, after all, a first-year player and a fourth-year player, the potential is completely different, Wu Huang's potential is far more than Collisson.

But in college basketball, many people still think that Darren Collison will be better than Wu Huang in the national championships, and UCLA has reached the top 4 in the country three times in a row, and the former has far less experience than Wu Huang.

USC starting lineup: Wu Huang, DeRozan, Bart, Gibson, Barnard.

UCLA starting lineup: Darren Collison 183cm, Dwight Lewis 195cm, Jack Shipp 195cm, Nikola Dragovich 206cm, Alfred Oboya 208cm.

Wu Huang and Collison were simple and polite before the game, the two of them didn't know each other before, the age difference between the two was three years, and when Wu Huang was still a substitute in the first year of high school, he had already entered the university with an honor.

Darren Collison is a player who has really seen the world, but he doesn't dare to underestimate the Chinese in front of him, the more experienced he is, the more he knows what it means to average 26+6+8 data per game, that is not everyone can do it, they were selected by the Thunder in the fourth place last year, Westbrook's data in the sophomore year was far less than Wu Huang.

In fact, everyone knows very well that this Chinese is not a big brush to brush up on data by sacrificing the team's record, the start of the 8-game winning streak at the University of Southern California and the strong strength of the Pacific Division make Wu Huang's personal data extremely high, and now some people have predicted that he will be selected in the top three, if he continues to play like this, it is not impossible to become the second Chinese champion.