Chapter 41 City Derby
UCLa (UCLA) has a position in American college basketball equivalent to the Celtics in the NBA, and has won 11 times in NCAA, winning seven championship trophys in 1967-1973, and also has an incredible 88 consecutive wins across seasons. These records are almost insurmountable myths in NCAA.
The team has three starters this year, including Russell Westbrook, who was selected in the fourth place in the first round, but did not make up for the well-known high school player, which made the media not optimistic about the veteran giant before the start of the season.
But after the start of the season, this giant team that has experienced countless glory has shown their background to the outside world. UCL can recruit some practical players to fill the gap every year.
In NCAA history, UCL is the team with the most championships, with a total of 11 championships; the second place is Kentucky, who has won 7 championships; the third place is Indiana, who has won five championships; as for the North Carolina and Duke, which are well-known to domestic fans, they have only won 4 championships and tied for fourth place.
In recent years, UCL has always been able to reach the semi-finals of the country, but in the end it is always a little bit worse than the championship. In the past five years, they have won the second runner-up twice and three times into the semi-finals of the country. Perhaps because the goddess of luck feels that they have won too many championships. Every time they play to the semi-finals of the country, luck will come to other teams.
The game between these two Los Angeles teams in the same city is scheduled tonight at 20:00 tonight. Although it is a away game, USC only needs to take the team bus to the destination, Poly Stadium.
Ucla, the home stadium, can accommodate up to 30,000 fans to watch the game. Tickets were sold out a week ago, and the ticket prices on the black market tripled.
Given that this game is a focus of attention, the two teams held a formal pre-match press conference before the game.
There is no press conference for the ncaa preseason. The regular season depends on the situation. Generally, live broadcasts in the country will definitely hold press conferences, and the same-city derby is the same. Only some small competitions that no one pays attention to will be omitted before and after the game.
UCLa's head coach Ben Holland said before the game: "Even without Westbrook, UCL must be the best team in the country for me." When asked which of UC Wu and Westbrook, who had already participated in the draft, the head coach who helped UCL get out of the trough of the 1990s did not give a positive answer.
"This season, Darren Collison will be the key to our victory. As we all know, the point guard position itself determines its importance, and the experience of a point guard will be the key to how far this team can go in the national championship." Although Ben Holland did not say it clearly, the implication was that he was not optimistic about how outstanding Wu Huang, who was a first-year-old, could perform in the national championship, because of his lack of experience in the competition.
USC head coach Floyd has a fat body. He is not like Ben Holland who belittles opponents and praises his own players in the previous game. Floyd doesn't mention Wu Huang at all and keeps praising his opponents. "Collison is currently the best point guard in college basketball in the United States. He has unparalleled dribbling speed and excellent organizational skills. He is undoubtedly the guarantee that UCL can enter the semi-finals of the country three times. I hope Hugo can learn some valuable experience from him."
Wu Huang is also one of the protagonists today. He just won the Pacific League Player of the Month. In an interview with the media before the game, the Chinese genius was not frightened. He talked freely in the face of reporters' questions: "Collison knows how to lead a team. I think I can do that in this season. He is a well-known leader both on the court and off the court. Today I will face him, hoping to learn how to do it like him."
The two masters and apprentices at the University of Southern California faced the media's provocation and traps at the pre-match press conference. They both smiled, but they were just not fooled, just like two foxes.
Taylor Swift and Emma Roberts came to watch the game away today. Kristen has seen the game less recently. She is familiar with the script at home. At the same time, in order to more conform to the image of the heroine of the original work, Kristen is slimming down.
In the visiting team's locker room, Floyd is emphasizing the details and some precautions of today's game to the players.
"UClade lacks top wing locks. Dwight Lewis is only a good team defender due to his talent. Jack Ship simply doesn't know this. Nikola Dragovic, the inside, is also a tall white pitcher who is good at shooting but not at defense. This configuration leads to them being often trapped in simple one-on-one games. UClade loses this season and is beaten by the opponent's strong points one-on-one. This is what we have to do."
Floyd pointed out the opponent's weakness and continued to emphasize the opponent's strength for the players: "UClah can score 74 points every 100 rounds in the regular season. They rely on an extremely alternative way to complete this. They broke the conclusion that 'the jumper team can only watch the sky and eat'. Except for center Alfred, this team has no shooting ability except the penalty area, and the other four have accurate mid- and long-distance shooting. We must prevent them from using positioning covers and strong side blocking and cutting to obtain open positions. As long as there is a moment of open shooting opportunity, they can hit shots from any place in the frontcourt. So the first thing to do is to concentrate, focus on their opponents, switch defenses in time, and not give them the opportunity to take easy action."
The NCAA game requires a lot of preparations before it is held, which is 70% or 80% similar to the NBA. The team must understand the strength and characteristics of the opponent's main players before the game in order to carry out targeted tactical arrangements and drills.
The coaching staff usually look for the opponent's weaknesses by watching game video a week ago. They must not only analyze the tactics and playing styles of opponents' teams for their head coaches, but also find the opponent's playing habits and technical characteristics for their players, etc.
For example, in today's game, Wu Huang got the video of Collison's game a few days ago. These are some offensive and defensive rounds cut by the coaching staff from more than a dozen games this season. This allows Wu Huang to understand his opponent's abilities very intuitively and prepare for response in advance. For some important games, the team may start such preparations half a month in advance, which is in line with the saying that only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you win every battle.
With the players of the two teams playing, Wu Huang met Colum Darison, the opponent's senior. This person was hailed as the best point guard in the Pacific League before the start of the regular season. However, Wu Huang is now emerging. Not to mention who is stronger and who is weak, at least in the draft ranking, Wu Huang has surpassed his opponent. After all, a first-grade player and a fourth-grade player have the potential to be completely incomparable. Wu Huang's potential is far beyond Coligion.
However, in the college basketball industry, many people still think that Darren Collison will be better than Wu Huang in the national championships. UCL has entered the top four in the country three times in a row. The former's experience is far inferior to Wu Huang.
USC starter lineup: Wu Huang, DeRozan, Bart, Gibson, Barnard.
UCLa's starting lineup: Darren Collison, Dwight Lewis, Jack Ship, Nikola Dragovic, Alfred Oboya.
Wu Huang and Collison made some simple and polite words before the game. They didn't know each other before this. The two were three years apart. When Wu Huang was still playing as a substitute in the first year of high school, they had already entered the university with honors.
Darren Collison is a player who has truly seen the world, but he dare not underestimate the Chinese in front of him. The more experienced he is, the more he knows what a 2668 average per game meant. Not everyone can do it. Westbrook, who was selected by the Thunder last year, was far inferior to that of Emperor Wu in his sophomore year.
In fact, everyone knows that this Chinese is not a big shot by sacrificing the team's record to make data. The start of the 8-game winning streak and the strong strength of the Pacific Division made Wu Huang's personal data extremely valuable. Now some people have predicted that he will be selected in the top three. If he continues to play like this, it is not impossible to become the second Chinese No. 1 pick.
Chapter completed!