Wen Yi's interview was sent back to China, and Su Huan, the editor-in-chief of "Basketball Pioneer", was more interested in this news, but sports newspapers and magazines only have one or two issues a week, and "Basketball Pioneer" has good sales, and it is already very good to be able to publish two issues a week, and Li Chenglong's news will not appear in the newspaper until a few days.

Although he didn't see the newspaper for the time being, Wen Yi still got a call from the editor-in-chief Su Skirt and asked him to continue to follow up on the report, mainly because Da Yao is still injured, and there is relatively little news on the rocket side.

In North America, the NCAA Division I league tournaments, that is, the league playoffs are being played one after another, and the NCAA national tournament is about to begin, but the seeding team rankings must be carried out before starting.

The so-called seeded team ranking is to make a power ranking according to the current season's record of each team, the historical results of the previous two seasons, etc., and then arrange the schedule according to this ranking, and try to make the strong team go to the end.

The NCAA National Championship will be divided into four major divisions, namely the Eastern Division, the Southern Division, the Western Division, and the Central and Western Divisions, and the 64 teams in the country will be divided into four groups, each group of 16 teams will be divided into four major regions, and teams from other regions will not be encountered until the final four.

The top eight teams in the U.S. seeding will be assigned to two teams from each major region, and the other teams will be placed directly into the nearest major region.

The teams in the Ivy League are all located in the southeastern United States, and every year the Ivy League champion automatically enters the Southern Division, and this year's Columbia University is no exception.

In the order of national seeds, Columbia is ranked No. 50 in the United States, which means that the Columbia Lions are considered to be the 50th strongest team among the 64 teams in the United States. This ranking is actually normal, after all, the Ivy League champion Pennsylvania has been ranked in the United States in the past 40 years, Columbia only broke out into the national championship this year, if it weren't for the 13-1 record in the regular season, it is possible for Columbia to be directly ranked around 60, after all, Columbia has not entered the national championship for many years.

In addition to the national ranking, there is also a regional sorting, that is, the four major regions also rank their sixteen teams according to their strength, and Columbia University ranks 12th among the sixteen teams in the Southern Division.

The ranking of the major divisions is related to the schedule, with the first match against the sixteenth, the second against the fifteenth, and so on, and the first round opponent of Columbia University ranked 12th is the University of Tennessee, which is ranked fifth.

The University of Tennessee is the fifth-strongest team in the Great South Division and the 19th in the United States, and almost everyone thinks that Columbia is about to return home after a round of tours, except for Lee Chenglong, who wants to play in the national championship to improve the draft market.

It's certainly unrealistic to take the national championship with Columbia, but you can't be eliminated in the first round either.

Before the start of the national championship, the coaches of various schools within the Ivy League selected various awards for this season, and Li Chenglong unsurprisingly became the best player in the Ivy League, and was selected for the Ivy League best team for a while, but with the Ivy League's reputation in basketball, not many people cared about these awards at all, and Li Chenglong's scheduled agent Hammer said that these awards did not help him in the draft.

Lee Chenglong thought, indeed, according to his memory, Jeremy Lin was the best player and the best team in the league for the last two years at Harvard University, but he still failed to be selected in the draft.

Just like Tom Hammer said, every player who can enter the NBA, they are former geniuses, former geniuses.

※※※

Wen Yi is sending a steady stream of news about Li Chenglong back to China, and on Tuesday, the latest issue of "Basketball Herald" was released, and Li Chenglong's news entered the field of vision of many fans.

In China, the people who read "Basketball Herald" are young people, and many of them are still students, so Li Chenglong, who "studied at Columbia University, a world-famous university, and led the weak basketball level of Columbia University to the NCAA National Championship", naturally made young fans have a sense of substitution, and the name Li Chenglong began to spread among young fans.

The newspaper also said at the end: "Li Chenglong has announced that he will participate in this year's NBA draft, according to the news learned by this reporter, Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue, who are currently playing in the CBA, are likely to participate in this year's NBA draft, and there are likely to be three Chinese faces in this year's NBA draft......

This is also a matter of concern to domestic fans, after all, only Da Yao is still fighting in the NBA, and fans also want to see a few more Chinese faces.

With the middle of March coming and March Madness about to begin, the Columbia Lions are also preparing to fly to the tournament location.

The NCAA National Championship is a 64-team playoff tournament in a different location each year, but at a neutral venue, with the South Division Finals of the 64 and 32 tournaments taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lexington, Massachusetts, and Columbus, Ohio, respectively.

Columbia's competition will be held in Columbus, the capital of Ohio, where Columbia's national top 64 and top 32 will be held, of course, provided that Columbia can pass the round of 64 and then talk about the top 32.

Columbus is said to be a city and the capital of Ohio, but it is not very famous and looks more like a small city. However, this is the case in the United States, except for a few big cities such as New York and Los Angeles, the rest of the cities are like small counties.

If it weren't for the world-renowned lingerie brand Victoria's Secret to set its headquarters in Columbus City, and it was also a state capital, few people would really know Columbus City.

On March 13th, the Columbia Lions arrived in Columbus, followed by several directors and deputy directors of the school's athletic department.

March is NCAA basketball, and almost everyone in North America has turned their attention to the NCAA, and the NBA has to stay out of the way even if it is now the final period of the regular season and the competition for a playoff spot is in full swing. On the day of the NCAA finals, the NBA will also have a holiday and do not arrange games, saying that it is to respect the NCAA, but in fact, I am afraid that not many people will watch the games when they are arranged, at least not many people will watch them in North America.

Coming out of Columbus International Airport, fans from New York and other Ivy League schools have already come to pick you up outside the airport, and you can see many slogans cheering for Columbus University.

"Come on, big brother!"

"Go ahead, Lions!"

However, there are also opponents who come to attack Columbia's morale-disrupting slogans, and Li Chenglong saw a slogan slowly pulled up when he left the airport.

"Nerds, go back to your library, don't be embarrassed!"

This is the norm in March Madness, and soon Columbia fans quarrel with each other, but fortunately, the security guard at the airport appeared in time to separate and solve the problem.

Columbia prepares for the tournament under the leadership of Coach Jones at The Ohio State University's basketball arena. Ohio State is also a favorite team in the NCAA this year, ranking fourth in the nation in seeding, which means that it is considered the fourth favorite to win the championship.

Ohio State is also the strongest team in the Southern Region where Columbia is located, but Ohio State University was assigned to the Lexington game, according to the schedule, if Columbia can pass two levels in a row to enter the round of 16, the most likely opponent is Ohio State.

Of course, there is another point that is attracting attention at OHA University, and that is that Greg Oden, the top pick in this year's NBA Draft, is currently playing at OG.

Columbia's opponent, the University of Tennessee, is not an NCAA basketball powerhouse, the strongest of the University of Tennessee is football, and the University of Tennessee has been one of the NCAA football favorites every year in the past ten years.

At present, the NFL (Football League) hottest star Peyton Manning is out of the University of Tennessee football team, he joined the Indianapolis Colts as the top pick in the NFL draft in 98, and led the Colts to win the Super Bowl in the just ended 06/07 season, Manning has won two league MVPs (equivalent to the NBA's regular season MVP), one Super Bowl MVP (equivalent to the NBA's Finals MVP), There was also a Star Bowl MVP (the equivalent of an NBA All-Star Game MVP).

The University of Tennessee's basketball is not at all comparable to football, but it is also much stronger than Columbia, after all, Columbia is ranked 12th in the Southern Region, while the University of Tennessee is 5th, and the difference in strength is obvious.

(To be continued)