Volume 1 Western Cowboy Chapter 028 Is this what it feels like to be a senior?
On the morning of December 2, the day of the game between Oklahoma State University and the University of Texas, Wayne was on his way to class when he noticed that there were many more broadcast vehicles at the entrance of the Gallagher-Eba Arena.
Although the past ten games have been broadcast live on TV, this is the first time Wayne has seen such a large-scale live broadcast lineup.
It seems that for this focus battle, all TV stations have indeed increased the scope of their broadcasts.
Moreover, a few days ago , Coach Zhang also said that he would make a special trip to do interviews for this game, which shows how much attention this game has received.
It's worthy of being a preview of the Big 12 Conference finals, the lineup is exaggerated.
In such a competition, even if there is no reward , Wayne must seize the opportunity to perform well.
Because this is the best springboard to gain fame.
Even NBA players dream of getting a chance to play in a widely broadcast game.
Glenn Robinson, the No. 1 pick in the NBA in 1994, was unwilling to play in the preseason because there was no live broadcast.
As one of the final four teams last season and a team that fought Anthony's Syracuse University to the very end, the University of Texas Longhorns are still attracting a lot of attention.
What the Cowboys have to do today is to grab the attention!
After class in the afternoon, Wayne threw his book directly to Teddy and ran to the gym alone.
Wayne couldn't wait to start shooting warm-ups to see how he felt today.
As a result, when he went on the court to throw the ball, he got 10 bars and 10!
"It's done!" Wayne looked at his hands, ecstatic.
Not only was there no problem with his touch today, but it seemed to be a little hotter than usual.
By the time Tony Allen and others arrived at the stadium, Wayne was already sweating profusely from shooting.
"I say, you don't need to be so nervous, right? Why are you here to warm up so early?" Tony Allen looked at Wayne and thought that this guy was too nervous before the big battle.
After all, when the Cowboys and the Longhorns played against each other last season, Wayne was left with psychological trauma.
Faced with the breakthroughs of Roy Ivey and T.J. Ford, the restricted area guarded by rookie Wayne became a "free zone".
Of course, Tony Allen believes that this situation will not happen again this year. His good buddy is now the league's block leader!
"You don't have to be nervous, Wayne. Today, Roy Ivy's breakthrough will definitely not be so smooth. First of all, there is no way I can let him get past me easily." Teacher Tony acted like a senior and patted Wayne on the shoulder.
He originally wanted to kill him by patting him on the head, but...
Wayne is so tall and hard to touch!
Some people, after playing for a while, really think they are 1.96 meters tall.
"I'm not nervous, Tony. By the way, can you pass me a few more balls today?" Wayne held teacher Tony's head and smiled sideways.
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"I feel like I have a great shooting touch today, I'm sure I can score high! What do you think? Didn't those guys who made the draft predictions say that you have poor organizational skills? I'll give you a chance to get assists today!"
"Tsk, I would have passed the ball to you even if you didn't tell me. You had the height advantage against P.J. Tucker today. But that guy defended Carmelo Anthony pretty well in high school. Are you so confident?"
Facing teacher Tony’s “soul-searching”, Wayne spread out his hands.
"I'll let that rookie know that the college league is completely different from the high school league."
Because Tucker is a freshman, strictly speaking, Wayne is also a veteran in front of Tucker.
It turns out that being a senior feels so exciting.
It turns out that teaching a newbie how to behave is so exciting.
An hour before the game started, all the members of the Cowboys gathered in the locker room, and old Sutton began to make final arrangements for everyone.
When Old Sutton introduced P.J. Tucker, Wayne was so confused that he even doubted whether the Tucker in this world was the same person as the Tucker in his previous life.
"Tucker has great strength and athleticism and is a very competitive player.
He can beat defenders with his tremendous physical strength and play very tenaciously and aggressively.”
"He also has enough strength to finish inside, is very strong one-on-one, is good at breaking through the basket, has the ability to create his own shot, and is a very good defender.
For a guy his size, he’s also a very strong rebounder.”
At first, these few sentences of introduction seem quite normal and fit P.J. Tucker's characteristics.
But after that, Tucker in Sutton's mouth became magical.
“Most of his points come at the rim, with his shooting lacking 3-pointers and range.
His passing ability needs to be improved, and he lacks the ability to find teammates when holding the ball. Sometimes he is a little selfish and only looks for opportunities for himself. "
Can't shoot, mainly attacks the basket, a bit selfish... Are you talking about Tucker?
The reason why Tucker will be able to thrive in the NBA in the future is that he is an extremely high-quality team-oriented 3D player.
Since he is a 3D player, three-point shooting is naturally an indispensable skill.
And as a role player, he doesn't have singles opportunities most of the time.
But now Sutton says that Tucker is not good at shooting, but is good at breaking through?
"Wait..." As a hardcore fan in his previous life, Wayne remembered that Tucker really didn't seem to be able to shoot three-pointers at the beginning.
This guy went to other leagues to gain experience for several years before returning to the league with his three-point accuracy and being reborn.
Therefore, the Tucker at this time and the Tucker who became famous in the NBA in the future were indeed very different, and their playing styles were completely different.
To sum up, he is now a short and strong inside player who likes to rely on his strength advantage to force his way under the basket!
No wonder Tucker's draft pick was so low in the future. A striker who is less than 2 meters tall, can't shoot, and whose impact is not top-notch is indeed not very popular.
"Wayne, although Tucker can attack with the ball by himself from outside the three-point line, you can use a defensive strategy to contain him today. You can let him shoot, but don't let him break through, understand?" After introducing the basic situation, Sutton did not forget to remind Wayne.
Whether Wayne can handle this super rookie of the Horns will be the key to winning the game.
Sutton began to worry about Tucker a few months ago.
Now, it’s finally time to verify the results.
"I'll get it done, coach." Wayne made an "OK" gesture to Sutton.
Isn't this the trick we will use to deal with James in the future?
It’s so easy to get!
At that time, every fan knew that it was better to let the ball shoot instead of break through.
Now, Wayne's confidence has doubled.
Today, on both offense and defense, he had the opportunity to beat Tucker clearly!
※※※
Larry Bird returned home after attending a routine meeting with the team's management and leaned back on the sofa exhausted.
The meeting was supposed to be held earlier, but Carlisle was unable to attend due to training, so Bird simply postponed the meeting.
In Bird's team, he gave head coach Rick Carlisle a high status.
This is not difficult to see from the fact that this meeting was postponed for Carlisle alone.
Strictly speaking, the head coach is also an employee and not a member of the management team, so he will not participate in such meetings.
But Bird insisted that Carlisle attend the meeting, reasoning that "as the head coach, he is qualified to participate in all aspects of team building."
Bird's trust in Carlisle is not unfounded. Their friendship and cooperation have lasted for many years.
Not to mention their playing days, Carlisle and Bird have always had a good relationship.
After starting his coaching career, Carlisle once gave up the opportunity to be the head coach of other teams and followed Bird to become his chief assistant coach.
It was during those three years when the two coached together that the Pacers were brought to a new level.
Bird is very familiar with and trusts Carlisle's coaching level.
In fact, when Bird stepped down in 2000, he wanted Carlisle to take over his position, but Donnie Walsh chose the more famous "Smiling Assassin".
After Bird really took power this year, he immediately promoted Carlisle and fired Thomas with an almost ruthless and tough attitude.
This shows how much Bird values Carlisle.
Bird was lying there when his cell phone suddenly rang.
He picked it up and saw that it was a text message from Carlisle.
"Have you been watching TV? I heard the game tonight will be exciting."
"Game? TV?" Bird scratched his head, remembering the scouting report he threw on the table yesterday and never picked up again.
Yes, the match involving Chinese students seems to be held tonight.
Since he had nothing to do, Bird turned on the TV and tuned to the channel that was broadcasting the game.
Of course, Bird wasn't expecting much from a player who was projected to be a second-round pick in the draft.
He watched the game simply to kill time after get off work.
On the TV screen, the director gave Wayne's average statistics for the last 10 games, and these numbers were as beautiful as those in the scout report.
After the data, the screen turned to Wayne who was warming up.
With just one look, Bird knew something was wrong.
There's no way this guy is only 2.06 meters tall!
This is Bird's intuition as an MVP player and the best coach!
When Bird saw that the coach of the Cowboys was the old man Eddie Sutton, he became even more convinced that Wayne's height was exaggerated.
Old man Sutton, that's an old liar!
If Wayne's real height is over 2.1 meters, then this game would be really interesting.
Because Bird knew that Carlisle particularly liked players at the four position who could shoot, especially those who could shoot three-pointers.
So much so that this season, Carlisle even had O'Neal Jr. practice three-point shooting.
This Chinese student...seems to be very much to Carlisle's liking.
No wonder he sent me a text message asking me to watch the game.
With the referee's whistle on TV, the game officially began.
Bird stared at the TV, hoping to get some surprises.
As soon as the Cowboys players who got the first attack possession approached, they could clearly feel the opponent's toughness on the defensive end.
This kind of toughness is completely different from the previous 10 games.
The Longhorns players really intended to fight the Cowboys to their death, and they seemed to treat this game as a real final.
Wayne looked at Tucker in front of him. My goodness, with this body shape, he doesn't look like a freshman at all.
Although his face looks a lot younger, he is quite big and has the potential to be a player in the NBA.
He is always pestering Wayne, and now, no team in the Big 12 Conference dares to underestimate Wayne's threat.
Therefore, the Longhorns also arranged many defensive strategies for Wayne.
Tucker's close pressure is the first step.
At this time, John Lucas passed the ball to Tony Allen. Teacher Tony looked at Wayne, then at the basket, and had not yet decided whether to pass the ball or go it alone.
He did not forget Wayne's request to do more.
At this time, Wayne suddenly ran outside the three-point line and set a screen for Tony Allen.
But Tucker was not fooled. He knew that if he switched defense rashly, Wayne would get an open three-pointer opportunity.
Therefore, Tucker always stays in front of Wayne.
Sure enough, Tony Aru broke through and passed the ball back to Wayne.
Tucker raised one hand high and used the other hand to interfere with the basketball. His defense was flawless!
But even when being pressed by Tucker, Wayne still pulled up and shot.
"This..." Bird laughed. This guy's shot selection was too bad . Who else except himself could make such a pretentious shot?
"brush!"
The basketball went into the net, 3-0, Wayne scored the first goal for the Cowboys and also gave Bird an answer!
Just as Wayne had expected, due to a series of factors including height, wingspan, shooting action and shooting bag effect, Tucker had no way to interfere effectively!
With the first shot, Wayne ignored the defense and hit the bull's eye!
Tucker was stunned. He thought he had done a very good job on defense.
However, Wayne 's shot was still calm and he made a hollow hit.
For Tucker, who is known for his defense, it was almost humiliating to be hit in the face right at the start.
Wayne looked at the confused Tucker and spread his hands: "Welcome to the Big 12, rookie, this ball is free."
After Wayne finished speaking, he began to retreat actively.
It feels so good, so good, I can feel it!
No wonder there are so many people in the NBA who like to bully rookies, because it’s really too enjoyable!
Moreover, this ball was scored really easily today, and Tucker was completely helpless about it.
Wayne had a hunch that this springboard today would bounce him very high.
