Chapter 33: The Quarterfinals
In the stands, all the fans have already stood up, and this kind of one-on-one at the critical moment is simply crazy.
"Come on, your uncle is still your uncle!" Hayward leaned over and clapped his palms, secretly cheering himself up. On his other side, near the top of the horn area, Shervin Mark was eyeing him, ready to come over at any moment.
Tang Wenlong smiled slightly, and the situation on the field was in full view.
There were only forty seconds left, and nineteen seconds left until the end of this attack.
Tang Wenlong began to do a simple crotch dribble, his body and shoulders shook non-stop, and the whole person slowly approached Gordon Hayward, who began to maintain a standard defensive posture outside the three-point line.
This step-by-step approach was like stepping on Hayward's heart, which made him can't help but beat wildly in his heart, and he couldn't help but move backwards with small broken steps, obviously afraid of Tang Wenlong's breakthrough to the extreme.
"Left or right?" Hayward's expression was extremely focused.
Half a step away from the three-point line, it was already within Tang Wenlong's attack range at this moment, Hayward hesitated, not daring to retreat further, and at the moment when he stopped retreating, Tang Wenlong's right foot suddenly took a step to the right!
This step is really lightning fast, and the right hand in possession of the ball reaches forward, and the body is diagonally about to break to the right.
Tang Wenlong grasped the timing too well, Hayward was taken aback, and the defensive actions that had been strictly guarded to this point were immediately a little deformed, and even his steps were a little confused.
But between this lightning and flint, Tang Wenlong's body turned, his right hand quickly dialed the ball back, handed it over to his left hand, and actually completed an extremely large change of direction in front of his body, and suddenly he was in a more advantageous position, and pulled Hayward nearly a position in parallel!
When Shervin Mark saw this, he shouted badly, and immediately abandoned the defender and pounced on Tang Wenlong.
Tang Wenlong's corner of his eyes saw a black shadow rushing towards him, his body was slammed as if it violated physical movement, his left hand controlled the ball a little on the floor, and after receiving the basketball, he immediately took a big step to the left with his left foot, and then when he was in the air, he had already grabbed the basketball with both hands and made a preparation to shoot!
He had a natural lean back in the air, and at the top of the arc near the three-point line, he gently pulled out the basketball in his hand.
"It's impossible to get in!" Shervin Mark and Hayward arrived almost at the same time, and the two of them jumped up angrily, their long arms covering Tang Wenlong.
From the audience's point of view, Tang Wenlong suddenly burst out, a rapid change of direction in front of the body on the three-point line, and then shook Hayward's wrong step, replaced with a left hand from the middle line, and at this moment the left side of Shervin Mark forced in, the two seemed to form a pinch attack on Tang Wenlong, but at this moment Tang Wenlong used an oblique step-back jumper, shook off a lot of space, and then leaned back sharply and threw out the basketball.
The difficulty seems to be very high, and the arc seems to be very high.
"Huh!"
"Huh!"
"Huh!"
The basketball in the arena pierced through the heart, making a pleasant grinding sound with the net.
Syracuse fans in front of the TV raised their hands, hugged the fans next to them, and cheered loudly.
In the dormitories of countless universities in China, the sound of ghosts crying and howling wolves was heard at the same time, and college students who were idle to watch the game became Tang Wenlong's most enthusiastic fans.
"There is no victory yet, let's hurry back to the defense!" Tang Wenlong stopped his teammates who came to celebrate, and was the first to run near the Butler University players who were about to serve the sideline, interfering with their baseline serve.
At this time, Coach Brad hurriedly asked the referee for a timeout, and there were only 35 seconds left in the last 35 seconds, just enough for Butler to complete the last offense.
"It's okay, we haven't lost the game yet, and we can get back on the game if we take advantage of this attack!" Coach Brad communicated with his disciples with a pleasant expression before he took out the tactical board in his hand and began to lay out the half-court tactics with a marker.
On the other hand, Tang Wenlong was sought after by everyone, and they stretched out their claws to scratch his hair.
"The last offense of the opponent will most likely go to Gordon Hayward, followed by Shervin Mark, and our defense against them is mainly about catching these two guys. The good news is that after this time, there will be no timeout at Butler University, and once they get their hands on it, we'll do it," Coach Jim gave a little bit of a defensive touch, mainly in the next wave of offense.
The coaches of the two teams quickly explained the tactics, and as time passed, the referee immediately blew the whistle for the game to be played again.
In this situation, both sides are in and out of the holes, and Coach Jim is not wrong about Butler's judgment at all, as soon as Shervin Mark passed half court, he handed over the basketball to Hayward for organization, like this time, he will no longer pretend to organize the offense, in fact, he still does some individual singles things.
The biggest difference between the college league and the NBA is that even at the last moment, the game will not be completely handed over to the individual individual star.
After receiving the ball, Hayward gestured with his right hand to signal his teammates to run.
At this point, Coach Jim has changed the lineup back to his regular state, with Wesley Johnson defending Hayward and Tang Wenlong defending Shelvin.
Hayward tried to break through with the help of pick-and-roll, but found that his center's movement ability was very average, which put him in the embarrassing situation of being caught by Wesley and Blake, and his passing routes were cut off to death. He had to pass it back to Shervin Mark, who was almost pulled into the middle circle.
"I'm going to kneel!"
After a tactic that was not successful, Syracuse University was excited, and cursed Butler University badly in his heart for playing iron, three non-sticks, and even mistakes, and a lot of boos immediately sounded in the arena, drowning out the few Butler University fans.
Butler's run was timely, and after Sherwin controlled the ball, Matt Howard immediately mentioned the high post and coordinated with him.
With a no-ball run, Hayward went from 45 degrees to 30 degrees on the left, with Wesley Johnson close behind.
Sherwin took a step into the inside line with the help of blocking and dismantling, Tang Wenlong was entangled with him, and the bodies of the two people kept in contact, Shervin felt the physical pressure that Tang Wenlong gave him, and knew in his heart that the hit rate must not be high under such a simple attack, and at the critical moment, he cleverly threw the ball, and actually passed a beautiful pass.
Outside Hayward re-received the basketball, and at this moment the time has entered the countdown of tens of seconds, and many viewers began to count down the time: "Ten, nine, eight"
The pressure was on Hayward, but he couldn't care so much about it at this point, bobbing after receiving the ball, and then dribbling along the right side of the route.
Wesley Johnson dared to relax at this moment, and stuck to Hayward every step like a dog skin plaster.
In desperation, Hayward dribbled the ball and pulled it back to the crotch, stopped in place and then pulled out a jumper. This technical move is very difficult, even Wesley Johnson was shaken out of a bit of space, Hayward was overjoyed, his fingertips gently flicked the basketball, and after the wrist was pressed down, the basketball was thrown out of his hand!
"This ball is here!" Hayward's shooting felt really good.
At this moment, Hayward's ears heard the exclamation of his teammates, "Be careful, Gordon!" ”
Be careful with myself? Hayward was a little confused.
"Smack!"
The basketball, which had just been set aside less than ten centimeters away from him, was like being hit by someone with a fly swatter, and it went off track at the speed of an emergency U-turn.
"Damn, who did that!" Hayward's eyes almost didn't pop out!
He turned his head and saw a huge number nine jersey, running wild outside the half
Syracuse University won Butler University in a thrilling way, and the two teams went on an 83-79 run, which showed what kind of offensive battle it was.
Fans who watched the live broadcast were hooked, and fans who had not watched the live broadcast watched the game overnight.
Tang Wenlong scored 11 points in a row in the final moments, and his performance of 34 points shocked the entire NCAA league, and even the NBA had a big reaction, and he became the scoring champion of the day's sweet round of 16 game, followed by John Wall, the first pick in the draft list, and Gordon Hayward of Butler University.
The prediction order for the 2010 draft was adjusted immediately after this round. Wesley Johnson dropped one place to fourth, Tang Wenlong rose a big step to seventh place, and Gordon Hayward, the guy who rose instead of falling after the loss, actually rushed to the last 14th place in the lottery area. Andy Rustin, who didn't have any outstanding performance, fell below the first round and re-ranked to around the 40th pick.
Many NBA team leaders have become unstable, and they have begun to rub their hands together to find out whether Tang Wenlong intends to participate in the 2010 draft. And there are also a group of people who are also very keen on Tang Wenlong, that is, the NBA's player agent, these people saw the potential commercial value of Tang Wenlong at a glance, and they came to Syracuse University to contact Tang Wenlong to see if they could sign this little gold owner.
However, these people were blocked by the official NCAA, and for the sake of the purity of the game, the NCAA has always prevented players from having too much contact with the NBA during the tournament period, although the NCAA claims to be the cradle of NBA talent.
It didn't take long for the hustle and bustle, and a few days later, Tang Wenlong's Syracuse University began its journey to the elite quarterfinals.
The opponent is the traditional powerhouse Michigan State, who is ranked as the fifth seed.