There are only two days left until the start of the regular season.

At eight o'clock that night, Herb Sandke came to the office of the arena and took out the video of the University of Arizona invitational game to watch.

The video was obtained by him with a lot of effort, and it is not easy to get this thing in this era.

And from his focused eyes and tense body, you can feel the pressure on his shoulders.

Before coming to the Devils, he spent 10 years at North Carolina State University, where he had a 22-10 record in his final year, but went 8-22 last season when he came to Arizona State.

Although there is a reason for the talent of the players, the team's record is worse than the previous season (11 wins and 17 losses), and he is not to blame as a manager.

Although the NCAA head coach position is much more stable than that of the NBA, if he can't improve this season, he will also be fired.

So this past summer, he first went to Seattle to find Xu Yong, observed Xu Yong's two-and-a-half-month competition, and when other schools were still prejudiced against the yellow race and put Xu Yong's "priority" last, he decisively threw out a full scholarship and a starting promise to win Xu Yong.

Then, he came to another wave of "atmosphere manipulation", when others persuaded Harden, he directly persuaded Pera, and then successfully took Harden.

Judging by the performance of the invitational, he has done all of this work to meet or even exceed expectations.

But he knew that wasn't enough.

So he had to do more before he could ask his players to do better.

Two hours later, he turned off the video and left the office.

As he passed by the team's training gym, he heard the sound of dribbling inside.

He raised his hand and looked at his watch, it was already past ten o'clock in the evening.

Driven by curiosity, he walked to the door and saw through the hidden door.

Xu Yongzheng and Cook Six's one-on-one offense and defense, the two collided with various muscles, and the intensity was very high.

He looked relieved, and before he could speak, there were already people working on it.

Soon, though, his mood changed from relief to surprise.

Because after one-on-one offense and defense, Xu Yong directly started three-point training.

It's hard to guarantee a shooting percentage immediately after this high-intensity confrontation, but as a result, Xu Yong's shooting percentage is maintained quite well.

He knows that Xu Yong's three points are not very stable, but if you think about it carefully, Xu Yong's three points have indeed stabilized a lot recently, but because he didn't shoot much, he didn't feel like it was going up.

Seeing that he nodded with satisfaction at the end, he had put Xu Yong's "priority" first, even before Harden.

As it turned out, he was right.

……

The next day, in the locker room of the Devils, half an hour before the start of training, Shipp went crazy in front of the Xbox 360.

"Jay, did you go out with your girlfriend to practice ball control last night, and it feels so good!"

Ailes, who had just been defeated, put down his handle and got up and complained.

Before Shipp could reply, a group of teammates began to whistle and heckle.

Because Harden sat down.

"Looks like your winning streak is going to end here." Glasser, who also has a lot of experience in possession of the ball, spoke.

Harden is also calm, he has been playing the Halo series since its release in 2001, and he is even more familiar with the game than basketball.

Xu Yong was also standing aside at this time, although the pictures that others looked advanced looked like .mp4 quality to him, he was also curious about the outcome of the battle between the two.

The two play a versus mode, similar to CS in the future, split-screen battles, and two wins in three games.

In the first game, Shipp maintained a fiery hand and output against Harden, who quickly bottomed out after Harden's continuous dodge failures.

Everyone also shook their heads when they saw it, and no one really could cure Shipp today.

Then the second game was extremely intense, and the two played the dodge to the extreme, and they were stunned for almost ten minutes.

In the end, Harden showed absolute strength, killing Shipp with blood and winning the second game with difficulty.

The moment Harden took it, the locker room was boiling, with whistles and cheers coming one after another.

This scene has the thrill of slaying the boss of the game.

But it was only the second game, the third game tiebreaker, and everyone was glued to the screen.

Shipp came up recklessly this time, and it was a direct confrontation with Harden.

Harden was caught off guard, had a bloody start, and gave up directly.

Like Ayers said, this guy Shipp feels really good today.

Shipp also jumped up from his seat excitedly after winning.

Compared to him, Harden is the real boss of this game.

This is the first time someone on the team has beaten Harden.

"One more game, I was careless just now and didn't flash." Harden said right away.

"James, a loss is a loss, don't make excuses." Shipp complained.

"One more game, and I'm sure I'll win you." Harden continued.

"Guys, training is about to begin." Xu Yong opened his mouth to remind that he knew that Sandek was a very strict person.

"It won't take a lot of time, five minutes at most." Harden began to use the Agitation method.

Shipp also sat down again when he heard this, and Harden was a little humiliating to him.

"What if you lose?" But before picking up the gamepad, Shipp looked at Harden and asked.

"I'll invite you to dinner." Harden spoke.

When he said this, the other teammates immediately became interested.

No student can refuse to rub rice!

"Let's get started!" Harden urged.

Shipp didn't hesitate any longer and picked up the gamepad again.

The two are still fighting fiercely, and Shipp is really playing at a super level today.

However, Harden played much more seriously this time than in the previous game, and in the end, with hard power, he still defeated Shipp 2-1 to make a name for himself.

"One more game!" Shipp was also a little upset.

But before Harden could speak, the locker room door was pushed open.

Sandek's eyes were bloodshot and he stood in the doorway with a serious face.

Seeing this, Harden and Shipp immediately threw away the gamepad and stood up.

The head coach of the NCAA has more power than the NBA, and it is no exaggeration to say that he can decide the future of most players.

Under the watchful eyes of the team members, Sandek walked up to the TV and began to disassemble the Xbox 360.

But maybe he was not familiar with Xbox360, he didn't tear it down for a while, and he pulled it off directly.

Everyone looked at each other and did not dare to speak.

Sanders didn't say anything after tearing off the Xbox 360 and left the locker room, leaving the overwhelmed group of players.

"Ahem!" After a while, Pera walked in and motioned for the team to go to the training hall.

"Will the Xbox be broken?"

"Even if it wasn't broken, the coach probably dismantled it when he took it......"

"It's all Jay's fault!"

……

When they got out of the locker room, the team members who came back to their senses talked about it.

"Scott, why is the coach so angry today?" Harden stepped forward and asked Pera, trying to find out what to do in advance.

His question also made the others stop talking and look at Pella.

You know, although they are a little overplayed, they are not enough to make Sandek so angry.

Pera shook her head, not that she didn't say it, but that she didn't know either.

So, everyone came to the training hall in a nervous mind.

After a while, Sandek also came to the arena.

Pera gathered the crowd together.

"How confident are you in the new season that you can make it to the tournament? James. Sandek didn't say anything about the Xbox 360, but suddenly asked questions.

Harden didn't know why Sandek was asking, and after thinking about it for a while, he replied, "Seven." ”

Sandek nodded, then looked at Xu Yong.

"Ten points."

Thorndecker froze for a moment, then looked at Ayers.

"Eight points."

"Seven points."

……

Most of the team members answered with a score of seven or above, and the record of the invitational tournament gave them a lot of confidence.

"So, you now think you can beat the University of Arizona, or O.J. Mayo and Tay Gibson's University of Southern California, or the López Brothers' Stanford, or Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love's UCLA?" Thorndeck continued to ask in a calm tone.

The players are silent, whether they have played against these teams or not, these players and the heritage of these giant teams, no one dares to say that they are absolutely sure that they can beat them.

Or to put it another way, Sandek's words made them aware of their situation.

They're in the Pac10 league, the strongest league in NCAA Division I, and there's no one!

One of the most direct proof of this is that six of the league's ten teams made it to the final tournament last season.

Perhaps the number is even stronger when compared to the rampant, with 32 minor leagues and 36 wildcard slots in the tournament, with an average of one wildcard team per league.

But the Pac10 league had five last season!

That's not to say that they have a better chance of getting into a tournament in this league, on the contrary, they were born into hell.

"If you make it to a tournament, I'll give each of you an Xbox, but until then, your Xbox will be with me, and that's the price you pay for not being on time to train." After Sandek finished speaking, he directly signaled Pera to lead people to train.

It was a dreary session, not only because of Sandek's attitude, but also because of what Sandek said.

If the results of the invitational tournament made them float into the sky, then Sandek's words dragged them from the sky and slammed them to the ground.

After the training, Harden followed Xu Yong to the cultural class, and he pulled Xu Yong to sit in the back row of the classroom.

"Xu, isn't Coach Sandke too harsh?" Harden asked, standing his book on the table, leaning his head.

Originally, the team's invitational tournament was playing well and morale was high, but this training session wiped out all the morale.

Xu Yong shook his head, also put the book up and replied: "I used to think that Sandek was strict, but after today, I think he is a wise coach." ”

Harden was startled, his head knocked the book down, and he immediately helped him up again, asking suspiciously, "Why?" ”

"James, don't you think the strength of our opponents in the invitational tournament is average?" Xu Yong asked rhetorically.

Harden thought for a moment, then nodded.

The University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University, the University of Texas, and Indiana University, none of which are the strongest teams in their respective leagues, and the others are even middle and lower teams.

'We were a team that didn't win a lot last season and we need games like this to build confidence. Xu Yong continued.

The opponents of the invitational tournament are negotiated between the schools themselves, and who to fight depends entirely on their own wishes and the wishes of the other party.

In other words, you can choose to play against a strong team, as long as the opponent wants to, and if you win, you will have a lot of impression points on the NCAA organizing committee's side, but you can lose a lot of games.

On the other hand, if you choose a weaker team, it will be like the Devils now, the record will be good, but if you win, you will only win.

Harden reacted immediately: "Coach Sandike used invitational tournaments to build confidence for us, but because we won too many games, we were a little overconfident, so he found an opportunity to pour cold water on us?" ”

Xu Yong nodded, Harden is smart.

He continued: "Even if there is no Xbox thing, there will be other things, don't you want to prove yourself now?" ”

It dawned on Harden that although he felt Sandek was tough, he did have a strong desire to play right now.

"We're going to make it to the tournament." Xu Yong said in a firm tone, and put down the book after speaking.

The team has the strength on paper, the manager is on the line, and their goals can be even more long-term.

Harden also put the book down, and his eyes were full of anticipation.