At this moment, Wen Baker didn't know that his life would be ups and downs in the future.
He is in the first peak period of his life:
The 21-year-old is the ace of the University of Hartford and one of the top ten favorites in ESPN's major media predictions for the 1993 draft.
It is also the opponent that the Blue Devils coaching staff focused on in this game.
Lao K chose his opponent for the warm-up match with a very purposeful intention.
The first Golden Eagle team has strong perimeter capabilities, and their style of play is closer to Duke’s style of play in the new season;
The University of Hartford is the complete opposite. Vin Baker is 2.11 meters tall and is the backbone of the Hartford team. The entire team's offensive system is completely centered around him.
Laettner's departure took away Duke's long-range shooting, and also took away Duke's absolute height.
In the new season, Duke does not have an inside man taller than 2.10 meters. He wants to see whether the new version of the Blue Devils can still exert suppressive power against a team with behemoths.
Meng Lang was no longer a substitute in this game, but started as a starter from the beginning of the game.
The big screen flashed close-ups of the five starters in sequence.
Some first-time reporters on the sidelines were surprised to find:
Meng Lang's cheers were not much smaller than those of Hill.
The arrogant Duke actually "forgave" Meng Lang for being "rude" to Leitner?
Last season, they witnessed Duke's enthusiastic pursuit of Laettner.
No wonder they all say "The bitch is ruthless, Duke is ruthless"...
It seems that as long as someone can win the NCAA championship for them, no matter whether he is black or yellow, he can be their father!
The reporters jokingly recorded this scene.
Vin Baker has a strong presence from the moment he comes on.
The easy jump ball helped the team gain the right to attack first, and he continued to exert force at the basket and continuously made strong attacks.
Duke's inside combination of Antonio Long and Von Rank cannot form an effective restriction at all.
"You see, this is the problem without me. Without me, no one at Duke can stop such an inside monster!"
In Minnesota, Laettner was watching the TV set and watching the live broadcast of this game.
There was ugly pleasure on his handsome face.
He had almost forgotten that as "King Duke", he had not allowed even a single stain to appear on Duke's body.
But now, he wanted to see Duke make a fool of himself, to see Duke become miserable without him.
Watch that bastard Chinese become Duke's "sinner"!
Only in the audience, not many DU fans missed him.
While Vin Baker continued to score in the paint, Meng Lang also continued to send basketballs into the basket under Hill's "cannonballs".
The two sides started to gain momentum and refused to give in to each other!
It's too late to be nervous for the home team, so where is the time to think of the Duke "former king" who needs to be remembered?
Hurley, who was suppressed by Kidd's defense in the last game, gradually exerted his strength and showed excellent rhythm driving ability.
Teams that focus on the inside all have the same characteristics:
The pace slows down, waiting for the core of the team to sit inside and hand the ball to him.
This is like stuffing an elephant into the refrigerator, there are fixed steps.
So Hartford relies heavily on landing spots.
Helila accelerated the transition between offense and defense, and the rhythm began to become faster.
It was not until 2015 that the NBA officially entered the "small ball era."
But the "small ball concept" or fast-paced offense and defense - there are some differences between the two, but they can be confused in more places - have already taken shape. In the 1970s, at least five or six teams in the NBA played fast. Rhythm of offense and defense. In the early 1980s, the Pistons and Nuggets even scored an outrageous single-game score of 183 to 182.
In the NCAA, the "small ball concept" is even more popular.
Here and Europe are the cradle of NBA tactical system. 80% of NBA tactical system comes from these two places.
It can be seen from Hurley's response that he is deeply influenced by the "small ball concept."
In addition, in order to better protect the rebounds, Meng Lang and Hill also participated in the task of grabbing rebounds.
Although there is no "towering tree" on this team that is over 2.10 meters tall, except for Hurley, the other four players are all over 2 meters tall.
On the other hand, at the University of Hartford, apart from Vin Baker, the tallest No. 4 player is only 1.95 meters tall.
Others are generally around 1.90 meters.
Duke's average height holds a big advantage.
As long as Vin Baker is blocked, Duke can easily protect the rebound.
For a team that focuses on the inside, secondary scoring is actually also a very important part.
Without offensive rebounds, there is no second offensive opportunity.
Duke slowly took advantage of the situation.
As Meng Lang hit another three-pointer, the score difference reached 10 points. Leitner decisively turned off the TV. He couldn't watch anymore. It was another day of pretending to be mute.
Hartford simply couldn't find a way to limit Duke's scoring. In the second half, Hill and Meng Lang "shooted suddenly" and "double guns" worked together to win the game. At the end of the game, Duke defeated Hartford 70-50 with 20 points.
Vin Baker scored 30 points alone, but it was a pity that others only scored 20 points.
However, Duke's other main players only scored 25 points.
There are only two Dukes as strong as Vin Baker:
Grant Hill scored 21 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in this game; Meng Lang scored a Duke team-high 24 points, in addition to 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. He hit 3 three-pointers in this campaign.
In terms of shooting percentage, Meng Lang made 10 of 16 shots, 3 of 6 3-pointers, and 1 of 1 free throw. Still continuing the good form from the last game!
Old K looked at Meng Lang's post-match statistics and smiled like a mountain flower.
In the next two games, he faced Wake Forest University and the University of Connecticut. Meng Lang experienced the feeling of playing on the road with the team for the first time. ——Although there were away games in high school, everyone was in the same area, and it took maybe ten minutes to get there by car. This time it was different. It was like the away situation that NBA players have to face, and there were tens of thousands of fans of the visiting team along the way. There will be challenges both mentally and physically.
This was an experience Meng Lang had never had before.
Although he had boxed in his previous life, at the level he was fighting, there were only a few hundred spectators per game, and there were often no one-sided cheers. Everyone only cheered for the wonderful punches, knockouts and the final winner.
Meng Lang was not in very good shape in the third game, making only 6 of 16 shots and a shooting percentage of 37.5%.
With his shooting ability at the level of an ordinary NBA main force, this kind of performance can be said to be poor.
However, Meng Lang was not surprised by this.
The value on the system panel only reflects his current ability value, and his performance will still be affected by his status.
He discovered this in high school.
But the higher the value, the faster Meng Lang adjusts.
No, in the fourth warm-up game, he made 5 three-pointers, 14 of 22, and got his first 30-plus game in Duke!
So far, Meng Lang has played all the warm-up matches before the start of the new season.
In these 4 games, he averaged 30 minutes and 13 seconds per game. Except for the first game as a substitute, he started in the other three games. He averaged 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.5 steals in the 4 games.
The shooting percentage was 52.3%, the three-point shooting percentage was 41.25%, and the free throw percentage was 80%! ——He has only made 5 free throws in total so far, making 4 of 5 free throws.
There is no doubt the performance of top NCAA players.
This answer sheet made the silent attention of Meng Lang become even more...
