Beating Kansas is easier said than done.
Don't think that just because the University of Texas didn't lose much before, it means they have the strength to challenge Kansas after adjusting their lineup.
In fact, Kansas didn't play its main players in the last match.
You can say that Kansas head coach Self is just as stubborn as Barnes, but the fact is that Kansas did not use its full strength.
Kansas used its full strength in the first half of the first and second quarters, when the University of Texas had no power to resist.
So to achieve this goal, they have to continue to become stronger.
In other words, they have to at least become close to the University of Kansas in strength before they can talk about winning or losing.
After Christmas, Lin Ying and Durant returned to the University of Texas.
They immediately went to Springman and told him their ideas.
"Win the championship?"
Springman looked shocked when he heard the word.
Well, it's like hearing that someone is going to build an elevator to the moon.
You have to know that the Elite Eight that Barnes mentioned before was already a luxury, and winning the championship was simply a fantasy.
However, looking at the serious expressions of the two people, he knew that this was not a joke, not to mention that today was not April Fools' Day.
After the shock, he nodded seriously.
Although he thought that was unrealistic, he could still feel the vitality coming from the two of them.
It is a good thing for young people to have dreams. What he should do is not to break these dreams, but to help them as much as possible.
No one can predict the future, what if it really happens?
"There is no shortcut to success. I will train you more strictly. You must pay more, even several times more sweat and effort."
Spliman's next words gave the two of them a heads-up.
Then he put forward his requirements to the two of them.
"Our current training schedule is two training sessions a day, and I will increase it to three training sessions a day in the future."
From two to three, it doesn't sound like much of a change, but perhaps only professional athletes know what it means.
To give the simplest example, NBA players generally practice twice a day, and very few practice three times a day.
Among those very few people, the one most familiar to fans is Kobe Bryant, and the "four o'clock in the morning" meme comes from here.
Or it would be more straightforward to explain it with numbers.
Everyone's training time is different, but generally speaking, one training session is about 2 hours.
Practice once a day, which means training for two hours a day.
Two training sessions a day is four hours.
If you practice three times a day, that’s six hours.
Maybe you will say that this is not much. The average person works eight hours a day!
But training and going to work are not the same concept.
If you slack off at work, you may only actually work for four or five hours or less.
But training requires full commitment.
Moreover, physical energy recovers more slowly than mental energy, so there must be sufficient rest time in between.
That means they will most likely be training late into the night.
However, Durant and Lin Ying didn't think there was anything wrong with it after listening to it.
After all, the two of them have been going to the training hall every day since high school.
"Coach, can you let us sleep in the training hall?"
Durant made a request.
Because they are students, and students do more than just playing ball.
Especially now that school has started, they have to spend a lot of time in class.
Moreover, now, the other Longhorns only train once a day, but he and Lin Ying train twice a day because they accompany Pittman to lose weight.
The time for the two exercises is now:
The first training session is in the morning. I get up at 5:30 and train from 6 to 8.
The second training session was in the evening. get out of class ended at 5pm and training lasted from 5pm to 7pm.
Because the interval between each training session must be at least 3 hours, this also means that the third training session can only be from 10 pm to 12 am.
From the time distribution, it can be seen that if the time of going to and from the training hall is also counted, even if they take a nap at noon, they will not get enough sleep.
But if you can sleep in the training hall, it will be a different story.
Because that way they can at least get 5 to 6 hours of sleep.
If you make up for one hour at noon, there will basically be no problem.
Springman glanced at the two men.
There are no beds in the training hall, and even in the lounge there are only a bunch of benches.
Sleeping in the training hall means sleeping on the floor.
It would be fine if it were summer, but the weather now at the end of December and almost January is a double test .
As he watched, Lin Ying beside him nodded.
From their eyes and actions, Springman could feel their determination.
He nodded.
Then he made his second point.
"Kansas not only has the individual abilities of its players, but also its tactical qualities. I will also train you specifically in this regard during training, and also..."
When Springman said this, he turned and looked at Lin Ying.
"We need to find a tactic to counter them. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'm sure we will find it."
Springman had something else in mind.
He has been looking for tactics against Kansas, but has no good ideas. He said this in the hope that Lin Ying could think about it.
Because Lin Ying's basketball IQ has been fully demonstrated before, otherwise he would not have passed the tactical manual to him before.
Lin Ying nodded.
But as Springman said, a targeted tactic is not so easy to come up with.
This will require a lot of data analysis and perhaps even theory and practice.
But if he wants to win the championship, he must think about it.
… …
New Year's Day is a major holiday in the United States, second only to the previous Christmas.
On the last day of 2006, people gathered in churches, streets or squares, singing, praying, blessing, confessing, and waiting for midnight to come.
When it was 12 o'clock, the bells rang and the band played "Bon Voyage", the theme song of the classic movie "Waterloo Bridge".
Amid the sound of music, people hugged each other and welcomed the new year together with sadness of farewell and yearning for a new life.
Of course, this has nothing to do with Lin Ying and Durant this year.
Because the school was on holiday that day, their third training session ended earlier than usual.
After training, they moved their bedding from the dormitory to the training hall.
Next to the training hall lounge is a storage room, which is usually used to store sports equipment.
Springman gave them the key to the storage room. They would put their bedding in the storage room during the day and move it to the lounge at night. They would arrange the benches in the lounge in two rows against the wall to make two beds.
Sleeping on it would definitely not be very comfortable, but since it’s winter and you can’t sleep on the floor, this is a good solution.
It was very quiet during training late at night, and the two of them should be able to fall asleep quickly after lying down.
But maybe it was because they moved to a new place, but the two of them tossed and turned for a while after lying down.
"Shadow, are you asleep?"
"not yet."
"You think we can beat Kansas?"
When Durant heard that Lin Ying was not sleepy either, he became alert and sat up.
"it should be OK."
"Of course we can! We didn't play to our full potential last time, and we won't do that again if we do it again."
Durant gritted his teeth when he said this, and he was obviously holding back, and seemed a little impatient.
Lin Ying said “hmm”.
Although Durant can't wait, the next time the two teams meet will be in early March, which is two months later.
Just then, there was light in the darkness.
It was Durant who turned on his phone.
"Ying, do you want us to watch something exciting?"
Lin Ying was speechless when he heard this.
Something exciting, the kind they saw on their first day in the UT dorm.
But there was no woman around at this time of night. How could two big men actually fencing each other?
"Kevin, we have to go all out to beat Kansas."
Lin Ying spoke.
The light in the darkness disappeared, and Durant lay down to sleep again.
After a while, a light snoring sound was heard in the lounge.
Lin Ying, however, couldn't sleep.
It’s not because of Durant’s snoring, but because of what Durant said.
If they lose to Kansas again at home in the next game, it will be a big blow to the team's morale.
It's even possible that they will become completely unsure when facing Kansas in the conference playoffs.
So for them, the next game can only be won and not lost.
Two months is enough time for them to prepare, but as Springman said, they must come up with a targeted tactic.
But this kind of tactic is not so easy to find.
After tossing and turning for a while, Lin Ying didn't know how much time had passed before he fell asleep in a daze.
Just like many office workers, the alarm went off just as I fell asleep.
Especially in winter, getting up is the ultimate test of one's willpower.
But the two of them got up quickly, and their movements were so agile that it made people feel a little distressed.
After a quick wash, they went to the training hall to warm up, and soon Wright "carried" Pittman over.
This scene has been played out countless times since they entered the University of Texas.
The content of the training is basically fixed.
The first hour is basic training, including shooting, shuttle runs, etc., which they can complete by themselves.
Around seven o'clock, Springman also came with some bread in his hands, which was breakfast for others.
The last hour of training is confrontational training.
Springman was not only an assistant coach but also a trainer at this time, using a mat to simulate confrontation to train the two.
Of course, in addition to this, there is also the offensive and defensive battle between Lin Ying and Durant.
When shield and spear are together, there is no better training effect than letting them fight directly.
By the end of the two-hour training, both of them were sweating profusely.
The content of their training will not change much, but Springman will adjust the intensity according to the physical condition of the two to keep them at a "high intensity" all the time .
Don't think it's cruel, because only in this way can they stimulate their physical potential and achieve their goal of defeating Kansas.
When the training was over, Springman told the two men the good news.
The school finally agreed to the team's application to install a TV in the lounge, and the installation will be completed before the New Year's Day holiday.
In other words, they can watch TV during their rest time during this holiday!
When Durant heard Springman say this, he reached out and high-fived Lin Ying.
Normally, they spend most of the day in classes and don’t think about what to do after training.
But now that I'm on vacation, I suddenly have a lot more time.
For two people who enjoy hanging out in the training hall, they really don't know what to do.
Their lives would be much richer if they had television.
Springman didn't fool them, and the guy who was going to install the cable TV came that afternoon.
Durant was chatting with them enthusiastically, while Lin Ying sat aside and continued to think quietly about tactics.
But just like last night, I still have no clue.
It wasn't until Durant brought him back from his thoughts that he realized the TV had been installed, but the person who installed it had already left.
"What do you think about us buying a game console? We play games! Oh, and I can order a pizza and a Coke..."
Durant suggested.
He is a professional when it comes to staying at home.
"Kevin, this is the school lounge."
Lin Ying reminded.
This TV has just been installed. If people at school find out that they are using it to play games, it will probably be taken back in minutes.
Durant looked a little disappointed, but he still turned on the TV and started watching.
Television in the United States is divided into two categories: one is public television stations, which are similar to the one, five, and eleven channels in China.
This type of program has a coverage rate of over 90% in the United States, and has very high requirements for content. No violence or pornography is allowed, and even swear words will be beeped out.
Another category is cable TV stations, which cover more content and are more American in nature.
For example, the currently popular "Song of Killing and Grass" is from this type of program.
This type of program has a low coverage rate and most of them are paid, so many dramas have no restrictions on scale.
After watching public television programs for a while, Durant felt bored and decided to switch to cable TV.
Lin Ying didn't object. Watching programs that were similar to popular science and political news did make people sleepy.
But after entering the cable TV show, he made a suggestion.
TNT.
This is not an abbreviation for Dynamite, but an abbreviation for Turner Television.
The show with Barkley that Lin Ying appeared on before was on TNT.
TNT is a TV station similar to CCTV-5 in China, which broadcasts sports events around the clock, with the NBA being the focus.
In other words, as long as the NBA game is within TNT's broadcast range, you can watch it whether it is live or as a replay.
Nothing could catch the attention of two basketball players more than this.
Once they pay the fee, they can watch the game.
However, NBA live broadcasts are mostly in the evening, so they can only watch replays now.
Fortunately, they were busy with training and didn’t pay much attention to the NBA, so they didn’t know the results of the game. There was not much difference between the replay and the live broadcast.
And they quickly picked a game that had just been played two days ago.
Lakers vs. Mavericks.
The Mavericks are a Texas team. This season, they have performed very well under the coaching of "Little General" Avery Johnson. Nowitzki has also played the best performance of his career and is now ranked first in the Western Conference.
Although the Lakers are not very strong now, they have Kobe.
Kobe scored 81 points in a single game last season and averaged 35.4 points per game this season.