Chapter 15: We Are Looked Down Upon
"Haven't found a way to do it yet?" Holland looked at the players on the court who were constantly running tactics and asked worriedly. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Blake, who was standing next to him, shook his head and said helplessly: "Kevin's play doesn't need to be too worrying, he has already played a top-level interior role." But Russell and Ye's cooperation is always a little awkward. ”
Holland sighed: "The worst thing is that I haven't figured out where to put the leaf yet. Obviously, putting him in the number three position will maximize his attacking ability, but that would be a waste of his talent on the defensive end, when in fact he and Russell's backcourt could make the opposition desperate when defending. ”
While the two coaches were scratching their heads off the field, the shouts on the field also came and went, and anyone with a discerning eye could see the cooperation of Ye Feng and Westbrook when the biggest problem, because it was they who shouted the most:
"Russell, can you brake the car and pass the ball out? Watching you hit the center directly on me really worries about your happiness for the rest of your life, and I feel like I've seen a sports car smashed to pieces. ”
"Stupid, didn't you see that my breakthrough attracted two people? And you didn't run out of the empty seats, I passed to the outside line, there is a ghost? Anyway, do you want to **** the other side? ”
……
"My God, Ye you are so shameless, you obviously passed the ball to me, and you still snatched it stubbornly, in vain I usually invited you to eat so many times, is this how you treat me?"
"You actually threw this pot to me! Who is about to be caught by someone else and has to be passed by a teammate? If I didn't intervene in the middle, I would just send a wrong rhythm, believe it or not? ”
……
"Russell, what are you a point guard running in to grab a rebound? Hurry back to the defense, in case someone beats a fast attack, the responsibility is all yours, no matter how fast you run, it's useless! ”
"Hehe, don't I want to brush up on a triple pair? And Ye, aren't you also waiting to grab a rebound? Our eldest brother doesn't say second brother, why can't I rob if you can rob it? ”
……
Holland frowned and announced the suspension of training, and then called Ye Feng and Westbrook aside alone: "Russell, Ye, can you tell me what is going on with the two of you?" Obviously they are all very powerful and unselfish players, why do they play as ugly as **** on the field? Well? ”
The two were silent for a while before Ye Feng whispered, "This is my responsibility." I wasn't very familiar with Russell's style of play and habits in the team, and as a newcomer, I didn't understand the team's tactics very well, so I made all sorts of mistakes when I was working with Russell. ”
Westbrook gritted his teeth and said loudly: "It's not all Ye's problem, I'm also at fault, as the captain of the team, I didn't take the initiative to lead Ye into the team, and my style of play that rushes to the end is really a big problem." ”
Seeing that the two disciples took most of the responsibility on themselves, Holland was very satisfied, but he didn't show it, and still said with a straight face: "Then tell me, how should you change this situation?" You know, the level of chemistry between you is going to determine how far we can go this season. ”
"But coach, isn't it something you have to think about how to bring the two of us together?" Westbrook raised his hand as if he were in class, and said weakly.
Holland knocked his head hard: "Russell, of course the tacit understanding between the two of you has to be solved by the two of you, by the way, I plan to let Ye continue to play point guard this season, and the two of you will be the team's backcourt partners in the future." It's up to you how you set up chemistry. ”
Looking at Ye Feng and Westbrook, who were sad, Blake whispered to Holland, "Are you really relieved to let the two of them figure it out on their own?" Two days later, it's the first warm-up game, and maybe by that time they won't be able to play a decent game. "I know, but there's really nothing I can do but give them a little tactical guidance," Holland said quietly. The real combination should have a high tacit understanding, not to mention that the relationship between the two is usually good. ”
However, Ye Feng and Westbrook discussed it for a whole day and a half, and they had not yet discussed any results. The night before the warm-up game, Westbrook specially invited Ye Feng to dinner, and the two finally decided to play the most traditional inside-out tactics in the first game, with Westbrook breaking through, and Ye Feng looking for open shooting opportunities outside, which was a good way for them to temporarily solve their urgent needs.
Holland's warm-up match for UCLA was the Big Ten Spartans of Michigan. When it comes to the university's basketball history, the most famous is the "Michigan Five" led by Chris Webb and Juwan Howard, who made a name for themselves in the entire NCAA at the time. Historically, they have won two NCAA championships, in 1979 and 2000, and set a record for the most viewers in basketball history with 78,129 when they competed for the Basketball Cup with the University of Kentucky on December 13, 2003.
As one of California's premier basketball schools, even a warm-up game attracted a large number of reporters to watch the game, and of course, interviews with players and coaches were inevitable. This time the team was led by Michigan coach Tom Izo, the head coach born in 1955 does not have any bad reviews, and when interviewed by reporters, he is also avoidance of the important and basically does not make too extreme remarks.
However, the manager's low profile does not mean that his players are equally humble, and when asked if he would develop a special strategy for UCLA, Drew Nizel, who was selected to the first team of the Big Ten League in 2006-07, said arrogantly: "No, we don't need to deliberately target them, because we are far superior to them." It is true that the Spartans are nowhere near as good as the brown bears in history, but now we are the stronger ones! ”
Sutton, the team's starting center, even made a big splash in front of the Los Angeles press corps: "We don't worry about their point guard at all, if he dares to burst to the basket, I swear I'll make him look good." As for who...... Oh yes, Ye, I don't believe in how high an Asian can be, believe me, our defenders are much better than them. ”
Fortunately, Ye Feng and Westbrook have been busy cultivating a tacit understanding, and if they saw these remarks, they might jump out and beat these people up.
The media in Los Angeles were in an uproar about the "high profile" of Michigan, and in their opinion, no matter how weak UCLA is, it represents the face of California, not to mention that the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse. In fact, what they don't know is that their ideas are not much off, and UCLA is really not a strong team until they solve the problem in the backcourt.
Before the start of the game, Izzo came to the UCLA coach's bench to find Holland: "I'm sorry Mr. Holland, I apologize to you for the inappropriate remarks of those stinky boys under my command. Holland smiled bitterly: "What they said is basically true, the problem in the backcourt is a bit big, and I have let them solve it themselves." Izzo smiled playfully: "Aren't you afraid that I will deliberately arrange tactics to directly catch your loopholes and beat you hard?" "It doesn't matter, I have to thank you if you can get them to cultivate a tacit understanding in the midst of a crisis, it's just a warm-up game."
While they were talking, the game had begun. In addition to Ye Feng, Loew also started the game, but he was pressed into the center position by Holland in this game, and the team's third and fourth positions were Josh Shipp and Luke Richard Bamott, both of whom have been on the school team for at least two seasons.
With Loew's hard work, UCLA won the ball in the first round. According to the pre-game plan, unless Westbrook comes up, he will be the first point of possession. Ye Feng obviously didn't think about fighting for anything, he trusted Westbrook's ability to control the ball, so he didn't think about responding to it on the sidelines, and came to the front court by himself.
But before he could start running, Westbrook ran over the opposite point guard like a sports car with the accelerator pedaled to the bottom. Ye Feng was full of black lines: Are you playing with me? Let's just pull away and give you a single! Complaining is complaining, Ye Feng still used Bamot to block the defender and came to the bottom corner by himself. But he instantly felt like he had done something useless: Westbrook had gone straight to the basket and wanted to make a cool backhand layup.
However, when he jumped, Sutton's old fritter was already scheming to jump from the side, and his long arms completely obscured Westbrook's vision. In a panic, Westbrook forced a shot, but the result was not unexpected - the ball was directly slapped off the field by Sutton, and the Bruins sideline ball.
After Shipp sent the ball out, he passed it a few times and then to Westbrook, this time he didn't dare to break through casually, but gestured for Ye Feng to go to the inside line to meet him. Ye Feng looked at the situation on the court, and asked Bamot to make a no-ball cover outside the three-point line, and he himself squeezed in directly from the right side of Bamote. However, Westbrook didn't expect Ye Feng to call for a block, and he had already repeated the mistake of breaking through directly, the direct consequence of the lack of communication between the two was to compress the space under the basket, and in the confusion, I don't know who touched it, the ball went directly out of the bottom line, and the referee gave the Spartan backcourt ball.
The Brown Bears' backcourt blamed each other while retreating. "Ye, wouldn't it be better if you came in directly? Why is it called a no-ball pick-and-roll? "You think I'm your pervert? Of course, you have to be a little lazy when you can conserve your strength, and you don't wait for me to go in and break through on your own. "You're so slow, what should you do when people start to make up for it? It's better for me to just go in! ”……
Holland covered his face helplessly off the court: forget about the mistakes, these two bastards are still arguing openly, what a shame! In the subsequent game, the cooperation between Ye Feng and Westbrook did not improve much, and the two "contributed" an astonishing 5 turnovers in the first quarter, without their support, and Loew was also difficult to support alone on the inside, and the team fell behind by double digits 10-21.
The second quarter continued to improve, and the margin widened widely, but Holland kept them on the court in addition to his normal rotation. In the end, Ye Feng and Westbrook had no choice but to score points through frequent individual singles, and the other team members also had helpless looks on their faces, after all, Michigan is not a weak team. In the end, the team lost by 21 points 69-90, which is not so unexpected, after all, in the final quarter, Izzo still replaced a few substitutes, and he did not plan to kill them all, but UCLA only scored 69 points in the whole game is something that many people did not expect, and their offense is not a big problem.
As soon as the final whistle blew, Ye Feng and Westbrook lowered their heads in frustration and shuffled into the players' tunnel. Behind them, Nizel, who had 21 points and seven rebounds, said loudly to reporters: "Look, I'm right, right? They are not our opponents at all, especially their backfield, they are simply weak! ”
Ye Feng turned his head and saw the same blazing flame in Westbrook's eyes: We are flattened!