Volume 1 Western Cowboy Chapter 035 The Gamble Between Two Spring People
In mid-March, when Korean media were still predicting that Waiwaihe Shengzhen would enter the first round, beat Wayne and become a world-class center.
On the NCAA side, the March Madness schedule that everyone has been waiting for is finally released.
As we all know, the NCAA March Madness tournament has 64 teams participating.
Except for the 32 conference champions who are directly qualified to participate, the rest are called wild card teams and are selected by NCAA officials.
But in fact, there are actually 68 teams participating in the competition every year.
However, before the main tournament begins, there is a play-off round.
That is, the four lowest wild card teams and the four lowest teams among the 32 league champions must first play each other, and the winners can finally enter the top 64.
The Cowboys' first opponent in this year's March Madness tournament is the University of Washington Huskies, who made it to the round of 64 through the play-in tournament.
That’s right, it’s the Huskies again, sharing the same team name as No. 1 overall pick Emeka Okafor’s University of Connecticut.
In his previous life, Wayne always complained about the names of CBA teams, saying that they were either tiger or leopard, which were tacky, uncreative and ugly.
Now after experiencing the baptism of the NCAA, Wayne will no longer complain about the names of CBA teams.
Because the Americans are not very good at naming things.
In the entire NCAA Division I league, Wayne didn't even know how many teams were called Wildcats, and there were even more teams called Rhinos, Buffalos, and Oxen.
Even the team name, the Huskies, has some repetitions.
In order to make it easier to distinguish, Wayne gave the University of Washington a team name that was both easy to remember and nice to hear - the Huskies.
The English pronunciation of Eskimo dog is Husky.
And the logo of the University of Washington basketball team...is more husky than the Timberwolves.
It’s a real dog!
Although the Timberwolves' logo resembles a Husky, the wolf head is actually drawn to look quite fierce, with bared teeth.
And the University of Washington’s team logo even has a tongue sticking out!
Just looking at this team logo makes you feel it's so stupid.
As soon as the matchup schedule came out, Sutton studied the University of Washington's game videos overnight.
One of the exciting things about March Madness is that most opponents know nothing about each other.
This is not like the NBA. Before the NBA playoffs begin, everyone has already played against each other many times in the regular season, and it’s always the same teams, so overall they are quite familiar with each other.
Before March Madness begins, you and your opponent have never played against each other this season.
There are even some teams that have never played against each other in their entire team history.
The University of Washington and Ohio State University belong to the latter category.
The University of Washington is not a traditional powerhouse. In the team's history, it has only played in the semi-finals once, the quarter-finals twice, and the round of 16 twice.
In other words, the University of Washington is an uncommon presence in the March Madness tournament.
This is the first time in five years that they have entered the championship through the play-offs.
Therefore, Sutton was extremely unfamiliar with this opponent.
Who are their key players and how do they play?
These are all completely unknown and you can only make temporary preparations after getting the schedule.
This is also the reason why the NCAA always produces upsets. When facing an opponent that you don’t know, the outcome is decided in one game, and there is no chance for trial and error.
If you make a mistake, you lose. No one can really predict what will happen in the game.
The day after the schedule was announced, Sutton, who stayed up late to watch the video, urgently convened a tactical meeting.
He must first let his players understand the opponent before he can prescribe the right medicine.
What surprised Wayne was that he actually heard two very familiar names in this unfamiliar Husky team.
"The University of Washington is a team-based team, but they still have their core, which are the two guards Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy."
Wayne: ???
Let’s not talk about “Little Potato” Robinson for now, what about Brandon Roy?
As we all know, Roy only entered the league in 2006 and only became famous at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.
His appearance heralded the beginning of a brief period of glory for the Trail Blazers.
But now, the Trail Blazers have just begun to rebuild.
So subconsciously, Wayne always felt that it was very strange that Roy's name appeared in early 2004, and he did not seem to be a player of this era.
Besides, that's Brandon Roy!
He almost entered the league with a max level, averaging 16.8 points per game in his rookie season and was already one of the best shooting guards in the league in his junior year.
It is believed that if it were not for injuries, he would have a high chance of becoming the next superstar player!
In his previous life, as Chairman Yao and a Lakers fan (hei ), Wayne was terrified every time he saw the Mavericks and the Lakers face the "Yellow Mamba" killer in the Rose Garden.
The most classic one was a regular season game in November 2008 when the Mosaic visited the Rose Garden.
In that battle, both sides were in a tense stalemate until the end of overtime. At the critical moment, Chairman Yao stood up, withstood the defense of two people, and completed a turnaround jump shot in an almost unreasonable manner, hitting a near-game-winning shot and causing the opponent to foul.
After the free throw, Chairman Yao's three-pointer gave Mosaic a crucial 1-point lead, leaving the Trail Blazers with only 0.8 seconds.
It can be said that it was a night that belonged to Yao Ming. Wayne can still recall how excited he was at that time.
Off the court, the Mosaic players also began to celebrate, and everyone thought that the buzzer-beater would be one of the highlights of Yao Ming's career.
The result? The young man wearing the number 7 in white from the Trail Blazers calmly caught the ball and shot the ball two steps outside the three-point line, brutally killing the game!
The night that belonged to Yao Ming was ruined by Brandon Roy. The highlight moment of Yao Ming's career was also taken away by Roy.
Since then, Wayne has been deeply attracted to Roy. Although he is not a Trail Blazers fan, he has a good impression of Roy.
Even many years after he retired due to injury, Roy was often mentioned by people, which shows that Roy's popularity is really no less than those superstars.
Perhaps, it is a loss and regret for all fans that they cannot see a healthy "Yellow Mamba" write his own wonderful story in the league.
Well, just like Yao Ming.
Wayne shook his head and thought about it.
In short, Brandon Roy is by no means an ordinary person.
If he is so good in the NBA, he must be even more awesome in the NCAA.
After all, a guy like Tony, who couldn't score at all after entering the league, could score nearly 20 points per game in the NCAA as easily as cutting melons and vegetables.
Logically speaking, a team with Roy shouldn't have to rely on the play-in rounds to get into March Madness.
With curiosity, Wayne continued to listen to Coach Sutton's introduction.
"Nate Robinson is less than 1.8 meters tall, but he is very athletic and is a double-edged player in football and basketball."
Short, athletic, proficient in both basketball and football... Why does Wayne feel more and more like the famous guy in Philadelphia?
In fact, the template that experts gave to Nate Robinson at this time was really Iverson.
You can just take a look at the templates of each player before the draft, but don't take them seriously.
A few days ago, Wayne was bored, so he borrowed Teddy's computer to search for Howard on the Internet.
As a result, Wayne discovered that the template they gave Howard was Duncan + Garnett...
Because of his strong athletic ability and the fact that he once made eight consecutive three-pointers in a high school game, he is a combination of perfect touch and beastly body.
This report is ... so fucking outrageous!
"Pay attention to Nate's breakthroughs. His jumping ability is beyond your imagination. The best way to stop him is to prevent him from rushing."
"Next, let's talk about another guard, Brandon. His independent attacking ability is not as strong as Nate's, but he plays smartly and is a very good team player. He will seize every defensive gap to create scoring opportunities for his teammates and himself."
"Brandon doesn't have any particular strengths, but he also doesn't have any obvious weaknesses, so you have to be careful."
"This...how come it's the opposite of Tucker?" Wayne curled his lips after listening to old Sutton introducing Roy.
This was not the Roy he had imagined.
Tucker is now playing like a super giant, just wanting to rush in with the ball, but in the future he will be a team-oriented 3D player.
Roy is a team player now, but will he be an All-Star guard in the future?
What kind of people are they?
Looking at Roy's current average statistics, 11.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists, isn't this one of the "two black holes of the draft" and a two-guard who can do both.
Seeing that Roy's data was lower than his in all aspects, Wayne found it magical.
Since his highest single-game score in college was comparable to Anthony's, Wayne has surpassed Roy!
You know what, it's quite satisfying to bully them as much as I can before they grow up.
Well, it seems that in this world, apart from people like Duncan who reach the maximum level directly, there are actually people who practice from level one to the maximum level in college and then go to the NBA.
In fact, Roy also experienced social beatings before he became a team player in the NCAA.
As early as 2002 when he graduated from high school, Roy signed up for the draft and had even participated in the tryout.
As a result, within the two hours of the tryout, almost everyone who came to the tryout could beat Roy.
Roy knew at the time that he was not holding Kobe's script. After all, Kobe was able to beat NBA-level Stackhouse when he was in high school.
After that, Roy gave up the draft and chose to return to college to study hard.
He no longer thinks highly of himself and is now willing to be a team player.
Looking at the information of the two defenders in front of him, Wayne touched his chin.
One is short but has good jumping ability, and the other is just a role player...
So, isn't this okay for the next game?
The current strength of the University of Washington does not seem to be outstanding.
After introducing Robinson and Roy, old Sutton wanted to introduce the Huskies' starting small forward Bobby Jones, a guy with the same name as the famous star of the 76ers in the 1980s.
But when I think about the fact that even P.J. Tucker couldn't cause any big waves against the Cowboys, Jones, who has a similar style to Tucker and can only rely on his athletic ability to attack the basket, probably won't be able to do anything either.
What's more, he has the athletic Joey Graham to take care of him.
But Jones, who is far away at the University of Washington, does not think he is at a disadvantage.
After finally making it to March Madness, the playful Bobby Jones and Nate Robinson both wanted to do something.
So, after the training, they made a bet with Wayne, the recently extremely popular best defensive player in the Big 12 Conference - whoever could dunk on Wayne in the game against the Cowboys would get $500.
For college students, $500 is a considerable amount of money to gamble, so Nate and Bobby were eager to give it a try.
Bobby Jones and Nate are very confident in their own jumping ability. They think they are not afraid of a mere floor-moving power forward. Just dunk to your heart's content!
Roy watched the two older brothers making a bet with great interest and wanted to step forward to dissuade them.
But Nate and Bobby disagreed and instead asked Roy if he wanted to participate.
Roy, who is not yet a star, waved his hand and said, "Forget it, we still focus on winning."
"Don't worry, Brandon. We will get both victory and slam dunk." Nate Robinson showed his white teeth and patted Roy on the back.
It’s March Madness, so of course I have to do something to make people remember me.
The two spring men are eager to try.
