There are just two days until the start of the regular season.
At eight o'clock that night, Herb Sandeck came to the arena office and took out the University of Arizona invitational game video to watch.
He had gone through a lot of effort to get the video through his connections. It was not easy to get this thing in this era.
And from his focused eyes and tense body, you can feel the pressure on his shoulders.
Before coming to the Devils, he coached at North Carolina State University for ten years, with a record of 22-10 in his last year, but after coming to Arizona State University last season, he went 8-22.
Although there is a reason for this due to the talent of the players, the team's record is worse than the previous season (11 wins and 17 losses), and he, the head coach, cannot escape the blame.
Although the NCAA head coaching position is much more stable than the NBA, if he cannot be promoted this season, he will also be fired.
So this past summer, he first went to Seattle to find Xu Yong and observed Xu Yong's games for two and a half months. When other schools still had prejudices against yellow people and ranked Xu Yong at the bottom of their "priority" list, he decisively gave up. He won Xu Yong with a full scholarship and a starting commitment.
Then, he performed another wave of "atmospheric operations". When others were persuading Harden, he directly convinced Pera, and then successfully captured Harden.
Judging from his performance in the invitational tournament, the work he did met or even exceeded expectations.
But he knew that wasn't enough.
So before asking his teammates to do better, he must do more himself.
Two hours later, he turned off the video and left the office.
While passing by the team's training facility, he heard the sound of dribbling inside.
He raised his hand and looked at his watch. It was already past ten o'clock in the evening.
Driven by curiosity, he walked to the door and saw the scene inside through the ajar door.
Xu Yongzheng and Cooksix were in a one-on-one attack and defense. The two of them collided with each other with great intensity.
He looked relieved. Before he spoke, someone was already working on it.
But soon, his mood changed from relief to surprise.
Because after one-on-one offense and defense, Xu Yong directly started three-point training.
It is difficult to guarantee the shooting percentage immediately after this kind of high-intensity confrontation, but the result is that Xu Yong's shooting percentage is maintained quite well.
He knows that Xu Yong's three-pointers are not very stable, but if he thinks about it carefully, Xu Yong's three-pointers have indeed become much more stable in recent times. It's just because he doesn't make many shots, and the volume is not up, it doesn't feel good.
At the end, he nodded with satisfaction. He originally put Xu Yong's "priority" first, even before Harden.
Facts have proved that his choice was right.
…
The next day, in the Devils' locker room, half an hour before practice started, Shipp went crazy in front of the Xbox 360.
"Jaylen, did you and your girlfriend go out to practice ball handling last night? You feel so good!"
Ayers, who had just been defeated, put down the controller and stood up to complain.
Before Shipp could answer, a group of teammates began to whistle and cheer.
Because Harden sat down.
"It seems that your winning streak is going to end here." Glasser, who also has rich experience in handling the ball, said.
Harden also looked calm. He has been playing the "Halo" series since its release in 2001. He is even more familiar with this game than basketball.
Xu Yong was also standing aside at this time. Although the pictures that others looked advanced looked like .mp4 quality to him, he was also curious about the outcome of the battle between the two.
The two of them played in a battle mode, similar to future CS, with split-screen battles and best-of-three games.
In the first game, Shipp maintained his fiery touch and dealt a burst of output to Harden. After Harden's continuous dodge failures, his health bar bottomed out and he was defeated.
Everyone shook their heads as they watched. No one could cure Heep today.
Then the second game was extremely intense, and the two of them used their dodge to the extreme, and the fight lasted for almost ten minutes.
In the end, Harden showed his absolute strength, killing Shipp with a trace of blood, and won the second game with difficulty.
The moment Harden won the game, the locker room was in an uproar, with whistles and cheers coming and going.
This scene is quite a bit like killing a game boss.
But this was only the second game, the third game was the deciding game, and everyone was glued to the screen.
Shipp was reckless this time and had a direct conflict with Harden.
Harden was caught off guard, and he gave up immediately as he was left with little health at the start.
Just like Ayers said, Shipp's touch was really good today.
Shipp jumped out of his seat with excitement after winning.
Compared to him, Harden is the real boss of this game.
This is the first time someone on the team has defeated Harden.
"One more game, I was careless just now and didn't dodge." Harden said immediately.
"James, if you lose, you lose, don't make excuses." Shipp complained.
"One more game and I will definitely beat you." Harden continued.
"Guys, training is about to start." Xu Yong reminded him. He knew that Sandek was a very strict person.
"It won't take a lot of time, five minutes at most." Harden began to use aggressive methods.
Heap also sat down again after hearing this, and Harden was a bit humiliated.
"What if you lose?" But before picking up the game controller, Shipp looked at Harden and asked.
"I'll treat everyone to dinner." Harden said.
When he said these words, the other teammates suddenly became interested.
No student can refuse to eat!
"Start quickly!" Harden urged.
Hearing this, Shipp didn't hesitate anymore and picked up the game controller again.
The two still fought fiercely, and Shipp really performed at a super level today.
However, Harden played much more seriously this time than in the previous game. In the end, relying on his hard power, he defeated Shipp 2-1 to rectify his name.
"One more game!" Shipp also got a little excited.
But before Harden could say anything, the door to the locker room was pushed open.
Sandek's eyes were bloodshot and he stood at the door with a serious face.
Harden and Shipp were so frightened that they threw away their game controllers and stood up.
The power of the NCAA head coach is much greater than that of the NBA. It is no exaggeration to say that he can decide the future of most players.
Under the watchful eyes of all the team members, Sandek walked to the TV and began to dismantle the Xbox 360.
But perhaps because he was not familiar with the Xbox 360, he took it apart for a while and then pulled it off directly.
Everyone looked at each other and dared not speak.
Sanders didn't say anything after tearing off his Xbox 360 and left the locker room, leaving the players at a loss.
"Ahem!" After a while, Pera walked in and motioned the team members to go to the training hall.
"Will the Xbox be damaged?"
"Even if it wasn't damaged, the coach would probably have torn it apart..."
"It's all Jaylen's fault!"
…
When they came out of the locker room, all the team members who had recovered their senses were talking about it.
"Scott, why is coach so angry today?" Harden stepped forward and asked Pera, trying to find out something in advance.
His question also caused others to stop talking and look at Pera.
You know, although they went a little overboard, it didn't make Sandeck so angry.
Pera shook her head. It wasn't that she didn't say anything, but that he didn't know either.
As a result, everyone came to the training hall with anxiety.
After a while, Sandek also came to the arena.
Perla called everyone together.
"How confident are you that you can reach the championship in the new season? James." Sandek did not talk about the Xbox 360, but suddenly asked a question.
Harden didn't know why Sandek asked that, and after thinking for a while, he replied: "Seven points."
Sandek nodded, then looked at Xu Yong.
"very."
Sandek was stunned for a moment, then looked at Ayres.
"Eight points."
"Seven points."
…
Most of the team members' answers were seven points or above, and their results in the invitational tournament gave them a lot of confidence.
"So now you feel like you can beat Arizona, or USC with O.J. Mayo and Taj Gibson, or Stanford with the Lopez brothers, or Russell Westbrook and Kevin... Love's UCLA?" Sandek continued to ask in a calm tone.
The players were all silent. Regardless of whether they had played against these teams or not, no one dared to say that they could beat them with absolute certainty due to the background of these players and these wealthy teams.
Or in other words, Sandek's words made them aware of their situation.
They are in the Pac10 league, the strongest league among the NCAA Division I leagues, bar none!
The most direct evidence is that six of the ten teams in the league reached the final championship last season.
Perhaps a side-by-side comparison of this number will be more intense. There are 32 minor leagues in the first-level league and 36 wild-card team spots in the championship. On average, there is one wild-card team per league.
But there were five teams in the Pac10 last season!
This does not mean that they will have a better chance of entering the championship in this league. On the contrary, they were born in "hell".
"If you make it to the tournament, I will give each of you an Xbox, but before that, your Xbox will be at my place. This is the price for your failure to participate in training on time." Sandek finished speaking and directly Signaling Pella to lead people for training.
This training session was extremely dull, not only because of Sandeck's attitude, but also because of what Sandeck said.
If their results in the invitational tournament had made them soar to the sky, then Sandek's words pulled them down from the sky and threw them heavily to the ground.
After the training, Harden followed Xu Yong to the cultural class. He pulled Xu Yong to sit in the last row of the classroom.
"Xu, is Coach Sandeck too strict?" Harden put the book on the table and leaned his head to ask.
The team had been playing well in the invitational tournament and their morale was high, but this training completely destroyed their morale.
Xu Yong shook his head, put the book up and replied: "I used to think Sandek was harsh, but after today, I think he is a wise coach."
Harden was startled and knocked the book over with his head. He immediately picked it up again and asked doubtfully: "Why?"
"James, don't you think the strength of our invitational opponents is average?" Xu Yong asked.
Harden thought for a moment, then nodded.
The University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University, University of Texas, and Indiana University are not the strongest teams in their respective leagues, and the others are even mid-to-lower teams.
"After all, we were a team that didn't win much last season. We need games like this to build confidence." Xu Yong continued.
Opponents in the invitational tournament are all negotiated between schools. Who you choose to play depends entirely on your own wishes and the wishes of the other party.
In other words, you can choose to play against a strong team as long as the opponent is willing. Once you win, your impression points with the NCAA organizing committee will increase greatly, but you may lose a lot of games.
On the contrary, if you choose a weaker team, it will be like the Devils now. The record will be very good, but a win is just a win.
Harden reacted immediately: "Coach Sandeck used the invitational tournament to build our confidence, but because we had won too many games, we were a little overconfident, so he found an opportunity to pour cold water on us?"
Xu Yong nodded, Harden is very smart.
He continued: "Even if there is no Xbox thing, there will be other things. Don't you want to prove yourself now?"
Harden suddenly realized that although he thought Sandek was harsh, he did have a strong desire to compete now.
"We will enter the championship." Xu Yong said with a firm tone and put down the book.
The team is strong on paper and the head coach is on the line, so their goals can even be set in the longer term.
Harden also put down the book, his eyes full of anticipation.
