Thornton and Gan Guoyang took off almost at the same time. Thornton is a strong white inside man, 6 feet 10 tall, similar to Gan Guoyang.
But Gan Guoyang's legs were obviously more explosive, and he took less time to prepare for takeoff. He hit the ball first and passed it to John Stockton.
The game officially started, Thornton landed, ready to go to the backcourt to defend.
Then he saw that Gan Guoyang had accelerated to the frontcourt and rushed towards the three-second zone.
"Shet..."
Thornton cursed secretly in his heart, and immediately lowered his head and ran quickly to catch up with Gan Guoyang.
However, Stockton's pass has accurately reached the three-second zone. Gan Guoyang took off directly after receiving the ball and dunked with both hands under the basket!
When Gan Guoyang came down from the basket, Thornton arrived and reached the baseline to serve, arriving just in time.
It started with a lightning-fast attack, and the Anteaters players didn't even react, having already lost two points.
Kennedy Stadium erupted in cheers, and the cheerleaders on the sidelines jumped to their feet.
"A good starting offensive arrangement, unexpected." Fitzgerald said while applauding, he is now the team's assistant coach.
But Behrman said: "It was not arranged, they decided to cooperate like this."
Bellman is quite accomplished at adjusting defense, but he is still learning about offense.
In terms of offense, he fully delegated power to Gan Guoyang and Stockton, allowing them to perform according to the game situation.
They have to memorize hundreds of tactics just so they can adapt to changes on the field.
Bellman's coaching philosophy seems a bit lazy, but it is his optimal solution.
He already knew at Northbridge that when you have a core player with outstanding strength and a smart mind, don't tie him down with too many tricks.
From this point of view, Bobby Bellman was a coach who became enlightened very early. He even began to learn to use data to guide team tactics.
However, this was still a work in progress, and he had not yet formed a mature theory in his mind, let alone put it into practice.
Gonzaga returned to the defensive end, and the Anteaters, like most NCAA teams at the time, began to grind out their positional offense in the face of zone defense.
Even if Bellman's zone defense is not master-level, it is considered to be the best in the United States.
His teacher is the famous coach Teague Phelps of the University of Notre Dame, who is famous throughout the United States for his full-court press and half-court press defense.
In 1974, he led the team to end John Wooden's 88-game winning streak at UCLA. He relied on high-pressure defense and continuous scoring in the final stage to successfully reverse the situation.
He has led his team to comebacks many times in the NCAA and is called the king of comebacks in college basketball.
Bellman inherited his teacher's understanding of defense, high pressure and pressure, and used intense daily training to keep players highly sensitive to defense.
If there is any shortcoming of this kind of defense, it is that it is easy to break when it is too strong, so Teague Phelps' team often loses badly.
If the defense is not on point, or the opponent is in good condition, it can easily fall apart.
Gan Guoyang is very calm and smart when defending. When playing games at Beiqiao Middle School, Gan Guoyang often ignored Behrman's instructions and relied on his own understanding to make defensive judgments.
His characteristics just make up for the shortcomings of Bellman's defensive system.
The Anteaters are very good, and they opened up opportunities on the bottom edge by passing the ball repeatedly.
Guard George Turner shook off Stockton's defense and hit a mid-range jump shot.
Last season the two teams fought, and the Anteaters defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs 75:61, a 14-point advantage.
Gan Guoyang did not actively assist in defense, but squatted under the basket to protect the basket and backcourt rebounds.
At the beginning, both sides' offense and defense were still in the exploratory stage.
But Thornton soon couldn't hold it any longer.
In the second attack, Gan Guoyang caught the ball in the low post and quickly turned around and hit a jump shot.
Different from the slow low-post attackers he had encountered before, Gan Guoyang was extremely fast with his back attack.
He barely pauses, starts the moment he catches the ball, turns around quickly, and then launches a straight-arm shot.
Thornton didn't even have time to jump up and reach out to interfere. The ball had already been thrown out and he made a steady two-pointer.
Then the Anteaters missed a shot, Gan Guoyang went for a fast break, and Thornton felt like a dog running behind.
Just watching Gan Guoyang receive a long pass from Stockton, he made a gliding dunk in the air!
He was as elegant as the 6-foot-10 Dr. J. He easily grabbed the ball with one hand and put the ball behind his head when dunking, pushing the atmosphere of Kennedy Stadium to a small peak.
The Anteaters' offense failed again - they found that the Bulldogs' defensive formation was extremely solid. The Bulldogs would give you a chance to shoot from the outside in the mid-range, but it was very difficult to rush into the formation.
They could only try mid-range shots from the top of the arc, but they missed.
Gan Guoyang firmly controlled the backcourt rebounds and gave the ball to Stockton.
The two completed an easy pick-and-roll at the top of the arc. Gan Guoyang received Stockton's comfortable ground pass and once again succeeded in a one-handed dunk under the basket!
Anteaters coach Bill Mulligan called a timeout. He had no idea that this year's Gonzaga Bulldogs would be in such a situation, completely different from last year.
As the best coach in the Pacific Division in the 1982s, Mulligan certainly knew that Gonzaga's No. 11 brought huge changes to the Bulldogs.
It's just that this change seems a bit too big, and it looks like two teams from last year's Gonzaga University.
"You have to strengthen your defense against No. 11, Thornton." Mulligan reminded Thornton that Gan Guoyang scored too easily in the first quarter.
"I know, I know." Thornton drank water, nodded in agreement, and then kept wiping his sweat.
"Are you hot?" Mulligan asked worriedly, looking at Thornton who was sweating profusely just after he started playing.
"A little."
"But the game has just begun."
"Farke, the game has just started?"
During the timeout, Mulligan emphasized retreating and not being easily beaten back quickly.
The offense also needs to move in firmly and not be "kept out" by Gonzaga's zone defense.
But on the first play after the timeout, Anteaters forward and leading scorer Benjamin McDonald was blocked by Gan Guoyang.
And the ball was firmly controlled by Gan Guoyang. After finding that there was no chance for a fast break counterattack, he handed the ball to Stockton.
Bellman was very satisfied on the sidelines. After a year's rest, Gan Guoyang's control on the defensive end has not changed at all. This was what the Gonzaga Bulldogs lacked the most before.
In the past, the Gonzaga Bulldogs were an all-white team, and their lack of athleticism was their major flaw.
(Gonzaga in 1985, Stockton had graduated, and they welcomed their first black player.)
Under the leadership of coach DeLong, Gonzaga's players have become stronger through strength training, and their static confrontation ability may be the best among the West Coast Conference teams.
However, the lack of dynamic athletic ability makes their game rhythm lack explosive power.
Although Gan Guoyang has yellow skin, as a biochemical man, his speed and explosive power are quite amazing (yellow people are inherently more explosive than white people).
In the process of returning to defense, Thornton felt as if his legs were filled with lead, and he could not keep up with Gan Guoyang's pace.
Gan Guoyang was in the low post. After receiving the ball, he quickly turned around and walked to the baseline, passing Thornton cleanly.
With an easy left-hand dunk under the basket, Gan Guoyang scored 10 points in a row at the beginning, 8 of which came from dunks.
It's good that I'm taller, and dunking is easier than before.
Thornton was frustrated, and even more frustrated when he thought about what Gan Guoyang said to him during the opening jump ball.
It turns out that he didn't lie. What happened to him tonight was really pitiful!
Mulligan stood on the sidelines watching the team's poor start, feeling very depressed.
After a few rounds, he understood the Gonzaga Bulldogs' defensive strategy: solid perimeter defense, and the No. 11 inside man taking over all the defensive work at the basket.
The other four players in the Bulldogs' starting lineup are determined to guard the circle outside the three-second zone. If they cannot hold it, they will let people in and leave it to their center to handle it.
Gonzaga didn't have such an interior role before, making their defense easy to poke through.
Sitting on the bench, Gonzaga's starting center Tim Love last year did not have the defensive power of Gan Guoyang.
The Anteaters were beaten 16:2 by the Bulldogs at the beginning. Gan Guoyang scored 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block and 1 assist, leaving the Anteaters unable to fight back.
The referee probably couldn't stand it anymore and called a defensive foul on the Bulldogs' side, sending their player to the free throw line and scoring 2 points.
After taking the score lead and the field advantage, the Bulldogs entered slow mode.
Gan Guoyang began to cooperate more with his teammates, allowing them to find the offensive feeling so that they could score points quickly.
Stockton is much better than the defender at Northbridge Middle School. As a senior this year, his organizational skills and personal skills have matured, and he can command positional battles with ease.
Once they took the lead, Gonzaga maintained a solid defense and a certain degree of efficiency in offense. The Anteaters were very uncomfortable. Against Gan Guoyang's iron defense line, they obviously lacked preparation before the game and did not know how to deal with it.
In a disadvantageous game, unable to break into the three-second zone to attack, it was an extremely difficult situation for a team that lacked long-range shooting ability in 1983.
Fitzgerald was grinning from ear to ear on the sidelines. Last year they were hung up and beaten by anteaters, but this year they turned over and beat the anteaters violently.
Fitz couldn't help but yelled at Mulligan, who was standing on the sidelines with a frown on the other side of the court, "Think of a solution Bill! The fire is going to burn your butt! Why don't you call a timeout! Is the game so good to watch!" "
Behrman pulled Fitz and said, "Dan, you have some qualities."
"Fuck quality... Hey, Bobby, why do you have the nerve to talk to me about quality?"
The first half lasted more than 10 minutes, and the Bulldogs always maintained a lead of more than 10 points.
When the Anteater player reached the basket and hit a close-range mid-range shot, the score reached 19:33, with the Bulldogs leading by 14 points.
But Bellman was not satisfied with this defense. He believed that the team's defensive urgency was declining, which would give the Anteaters a chance, so he called a timeout and criticized the players' declining defensive attention.
Of course, this is inevitable in the game and no team can stay focused all the time.
After talking, Bellman reminded Gan Guoyang in a gentle tone: "Gan, just now you could have gone up to block the shot to interfere with him, but you didn't move under the basket. Are you tired?"
Gan Guoyang wiped his sweat and said: "Do you understand this strategy? I am the only one guarding the basket. I will not be easily moved out by shooting. I have to control the number of fouls and protect the backcourt rebounds and not give them to them. Easy-ball is my first target, and I just let them go for these mid-range and short-range shots."
Behrman nodded repeatedly, saying that what Gan Guoyang said was right and made sense.
