On November 1, 2007, the NCAA preseason officially began.

This stage of the competition is actually a warm-up game. The results of the competition are not included in the results of the subsequent leagues, and the main purpose is to run in the team, check the training effect, and inspect the new players. Both sides of the tournament are not university teams from the same region, and the game is played in a home-and-away or conference format. However, when they enter the round of 64 later, it is possible for the teams in the warm-up match to meet each other again, so it is not only to run in and test the team, but also to scout and find out each other, and the importance of the game is no less than that of the official stage.

The NCAA has 308 Major Basketball teams, which are divided into 32 separate divisions.

Stanford University belongs to the "Pacific 10 League", which will not start until December 1, when the regular season will last until March 1, with about 30 games. During this period, the Crimson team must play against all teams in the same division, and the matches will be played on a home-and-away basis. By the end of the regular season in early March, only by winning the first place in the league can you automatically become the top 64 in the country and advance to the knockout stage.

In addition to the first place in the 32 regions, how will the other 32 teams advance?

In order to solve this problem, the NCAA has developed a set of programs that use computers to calculate the strength of teams, mainly to quantify the table xiàn of the 308 first-division teams, assign relative points according to the team table, and then rank them according to the number of points.

This is a set of scientific and complex miscalculation procedures, which can ensure the fairness of the calculation and ensure that the strong teams in the strong competition area can enter the top 64 in the country even if they cannot win the first place in the competition area. Last year, "Stanford University" only ranked third in the division, and finally entered the top 64 in the country. With Zhang Yu joining this year, the López brothers have also improved compared to last year, and "Stanford University" does not need to worry about whether they can enter the round of 64.

In the first game of the preseason, "Stanford University" hosted the "University of North Carolina", which is also the famous NCAA basketball school "North Carolina" and the alma mater of the flyer Mike Jordan. I think that North Carolina also sent someone to China to invite Zhang Yu to join, but unfortunately it was destroyed by the little girl. Now that the recruitment has not been successful, it is obvious that he has come to find out the strength of "Stanford University", a typical reconnaissance to find out.

The "Pacific 10 University Alliance" has always been one of the strongest divisions among the 32 divisions, in addition to the popular "Stanford University", there are also "University of Arizona", "University of California, Los Angeles", "University of Southern California" and other old powerhouses.

"Stanford University"'s next opponent, "University of North Carolina", has excellent players such as JJ Hickson, Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, etc., and the strength cannot be underestimated.

After a month of training and warm-up games in October, "Stanford University" has already determined this year's tactical play, which will focus on blocking and attacking attacks. In fact, pick-and-roll tactics are one of the most common tactics in NCAA universities.

Last year, Stanford University relied on the interior line composed of the López brothers, focusing on the "twin tower tactics", focusing on the strong interior line. However, the team unfortunately stopped in the round of 64 and was swept out of the first round of the knockout round. won the best player in the World Youth Championships Zhang Yu this year, and it is obviously not suitable to focus on the inside line. Zhang Yu has completely established his position in the team with his excellent performance in more than a month.

"Xia Wei, tomorrow is my first game in the United States, this is the ticket, can you come and watch?"

In the evening, Zhang Yu was in the campus cafeteria and solemnly handed over the tickets for tomorrow's game to Xia Wei.

Xia Wei has long stopped acting as a translator for Zhang Yu, and Zhang Yu doesn't expect to fool Xia Wei for long, his purpose is just to make friends with the other party, from this point of view, he has achieved his goal.

The two have known each other for more than a month, and their relationship is not particularly close, they can only be regarded as ordinary friends.

In the past month, Zhang Yu found that Xia Wei hated foreigners very much, and he didn't dare to get to the bottom of the problem, fearing that if he asked the wrong question, he would lose even this little friendship that was not strong.

Speaking of which, Zhang Yu can feel that the reason why he can make friends with the other party is also thanks to his identity as a Chinese. Because he found that Xia Wei had almost no foreign friends, except for mentors, she didn't even take the initiative to communicate with foreigners, and her few friends were almost all Chinese.

"Okay, I'll go cheer you on tomorrow when I have time."

Xia Wei accepted the ticket, and Zhang Yu was happier than winning the game.

"Speaking of which, we've known each other for more than a month, and you haven't seen me play."

Xia Wei nodded, thought for a while, and said: "I have watched Yao Ming's games on TV a few times, and I have the impression that we Chinese who come to the United States to play are tall people, and you are really special." ”

Zhang Yu felt that Xia Wei was praising herself, straightened her chest and said: "Everyone will see tomorrow that we don't necessarily have to be tall to play basketball in the United States." ”

Someone who was in the spring didn't pay attention, and after Xia Wei took the ticket, she accidentally saw that the price was written on the ticket! That's not the point, the point is that the ticket price is as high as $450!

At this time, I saw Xia Wei's eyes, and two large ¥¥ figures lit up at once.

"You can do it, I want to find a few friends to go and see it, do you still have a ticket?"

Zhang Yu was stunned when he heard this, and subconsciously scratched his head: "Do you still want a ticket?" Okay, I'll get you a few more tomorrow, it's a trifle! Zhang Yu didn't think about it, and agreed to come down. Although he actually only has two tickets, this kind of opportunity to show himself in front of his sweetheart, go up the knife mountain and go down to the sea of fire, and he will agree to come down first.

"Okay, then I wish you a victorious start!"

Xia Wei's blue eyes lit up with a brilliant light, and her eyes were full of small gold coins.

Zhang Yu was encouraged by Xia Wei, and returned to the dormitory with a light body, but he was so excited that he couldn't sleep that night, and he lost sleep......

When Zhang Yu came to the team the next day with a yawn, he looked overworked, startling Trent Johnson and thinking he was sick.

"Coach, do you still have tickets?"

Zhang Yu was stunned for a moment, Trent Johnson was stunned, and asked, "Yes, yes, do you have friends who want tickets?" How many do you want? ”

Zhang Yu nodded: "Almost, the more the merrier." ”

Trent Johnson frowned, and he knew that many NCAA players were making pocket money by reselling tickets. But Zhang Yu is a treasure, not to mention selling scalper tickets, and he also turns a blind eye to human trafficking, as long as he plays well.

This year, the "Crimson" regular season home ticket price has risen to an average of $60 a ticket, and the front row position has reached $500 a piece, nearly double that of last year. The ticket price of "Stanford University" is already similar to the tickets of many NBA midstream teams, and even slightly exceeded. But even such expensive tickets are still in short supply. Fans who don't get tickets will have to buy about 50% more if they buy them on the black market.

The reason why "Stanford University" tickets are in short supply is because "Stanford University" is less than an hour's drive from "San Francisco", which has the largest number of Chinese, and more than 9,000 tickets, except for 1,000 low-cost student tickets, are sold in-house, and more than half of the remaining tickets are bought by Chinese in "San Francisco". Everyone knows that these Chinese are completely looking for Zhang Yu to come to see the game, otherwise who would buy such an expensive ticket.

Zhang Yu finally snatched seven tickets from the head coach, two of which were still in the front row.

At noon that day, all seven tickets fell into the hands of Xia Wei, a small money fan.

In less than an hour, all seven tickets were sold to different people, and Xia Wei counted more than 1,500 dollars in his hand, and the pair of criminal peach blossom eyes smiled even more charmingly

Quincy Jones cried and begged: "Boss, leave me one, I promised my girlfriend to give him a ticket, just leave me one, I beg you!" ”

Zhang Yu shrugged: "The tickets have been sent out, you can ask your girlfriend to watch the live broadcast, didn't you say that ** will broadcast live?" By the way, you go and ask Fields if he still has a ticket, I heard that he is still single? Bastard, don't wipe your snot on me, you guys, you guys have girlfriends, what more do you need tickets, you boss and I'm still single, can't you understand the pain of bachelors? ”

"Boss, a ticket costs a few hundred dollars, can't you take it alone?"

Zhang Yu was angry, took out the $250 he had prepared and threw it to him, and said with a dark face: "Comrade Quincy, in our country, 250 is an auspicious number!" ”