The victory against the Anteaters gave Gan Guoyang and the Gonzaga Bulldogs a good start to the 1983-1984 season.
Behrman and Dan Fitzgerald realized that this might be the year they could shock the nation.
There are more than 400 Division 1 universities in the country. Only 48 teams can enter the NCAA national competition in one year, and the participation rate is only one-tenth.
Gonzaga University introduced a basketball program in 1907-1908, and entered the NCAA in 1944. It was initially in the Independent League, then moved to the Big Sky Conference, and entered the West Coast Conference in the 1979-1980 season. The team's level is worse than Wang Xiaoer's every year during the New Year.
In the 1960s, they also won the league's regular season record championship, but since then they have been in the middle and lower reaches, and they are not qualified to participate in the NIT.
From 1944 to 1983, in 40 years, they had not appeared in the NCAA national competition.
In fact, Gonzaga's coaching staff is still very capable, and the players they recruit are also very diligent and self-disciplined. Gonzaga is a school with a Catholic background and has requirements for students' conduct, so there are very few black players here.
Unlike some schools that like to recruit black players who are talented but have problematic lifestyles and never study. In order to help them meet their requirements for playing basketball and getting scholarships, they will not hesitate to give money, cheat, and cheat. (The University of San Francisco is an example.)
And as a small school, Gonzaga's influence is limited to the local area. Half of the team's students wish they had grown up in Spokane and attended Gonzaga Preparatory School. They cannot cast a wide net to recruit elites from all over the United States.
This results in the Gonzaga Bulldogs being diligent but lacking in talent, and basketball is a sport that pays great attention to talent.
Dan Fitzgerald seized the opportunity and finally "stole" a talent like Gan Guoyang. It can be said that it not only has a luck bonus, but also reflects Fitz's decisiveness.
As long as Gan Guoyang is a black or native white player who became famous at a young age in California and won the state championship, it is impossible for him to be associated with a school like Gonzaga.
The wonderful thing is that Gan Guoyang is Chinese, with yellow skin and black hair, and he became famous very suddenly. Out of prejudice, Americans have always underestimated this guy's potential.
Fitzgerald, on the other hand, is usually careless and chatty all day long, but in fact he is thoughtful and courageous.
From making a big move and decisively picking up Gan Guoyang from UCLA, to taking over Bellman and resigning as head coach, to "raising" Gan Guoyang without playing a game for a whole year, a series of operations can be said to have taken a lot of risks.
Fitz has been waiting with extraordinary patience for a whole year. Although Fitz knows through daily training and intra-team competitions, Gan Guoyang is definitely not a talent in the pool.
In warm-up matches with some local teams, Gan Guoyang has already toyed with his opponents and even his teammates.
But only by playing against a serious NCAA team like the Anteaters can Gan Guoyang truly show off his magical powers.
After fighting the Anteaters and taking a two-week break, Fitz allowed students who wanted to go home to visit relatives, and those who didn’t want to go back to school to recuperate. At the end of July, the team will have an away warm-up match. .
The destinations are Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska and other places. In short, almost the whole west has been circled.
What supports this long journey is a Greyhound bus retired from the transportation system. The driver is Steve Deron, as well as the physical fitness reserved by the players in their daily training, as well as the endless nonsense and nonsense of Fitz and Behrman. Trash talk.
When setting off, Gan Guoyang asked how long the journey would take, and Fitz said it would take a month.
"It takes a month? Then where will we live?"
"Of course it's the hotel, idiot. Otherwise, do you think Gonzaga University has its own branch campuses everywhere?"
Gan Guoyang doubted whether the team had so much money to stay in a hotel.
The team's first stop is Seattle, and their opponent is Washington State University. The two teams are also old rivals in the regular season.
Sure enough, the team booked the most ordinary motel, which was worse than the one Gan Guoyang stayed in when he played in Los Angeles for CIF.
Moreover, the number of rooms booked by the team is not large. Every three players have one room, and the beds are pushed together to sleep. Then the five coaching staff squeeze into one room. The driver Steve Deron sleeps on the bed. He needs a good rest, and the others sleep. floor.
Only Gan Guoyang had special treatment. Fitz opened a single room for him to sleep alone.
Gan Guoyang felt that this was unfair to his teammates. He didn't want to be treated specially, so he asked Fitz to vacate the room so that he could squeeze in.
"What are you talking about, squeeze in? How can you squeeze in with your height of 6 feet 10? Don't worry, no one will have any objection. You are the core of the team, and we still need to rely on you to sell tickets. You must Get some rest and perform seriously."
Gan Guoyang was speechless for a moment. He was very good at selling tickets when he was in high school. The Water Bell team went to other states to play games. After a game, the ticket revenue was split equally between the two teams, which made a lot of money for the school.
Not to mention the peripherals, snacks and groceries sold, all of which generate income.
Looking at the Bulldogs' hard and simple journey, you know that the team's operating funds are very short.
Deron works multiple jobs and only gets one salary. Assistant coaches Mark, Munson, Greer and others, in addition to teaching at the school, also work outside to earn extra money.
Bellman occasionally goes to a basketball school to get some money to teach children, because the team's salary for them is relatively low.
This warm-up match is not only to accumulate experience for the team, but also to raise some money for expenses. At the beginning of the new season, money will be spent everywhere.
It can be said that the entire team is united in preparing for the new season. Gan Guoyang did not refuse anymore and returned to his single room to have a good night's rest.
The next day, the Gonzaga Bulldogs faced Washington State University at Edmondson Heck Stadium. The two teams met last year and Gonzaga lost by one point.
Washington State University's strength has been further strengthened from last season. In addition to their German star Schrempf (right), they also recruited Schrempf's fellow German Chris Welp (left).
From this point of view, Washington State University's recruiting ideas are the same as Gonzaga's. With their funding and school reputation, they can't recruit any real talents in the United States, so they simply set their sights elsewhere.
Gonzaga stole China's Gan Guoyang, and Washington State brought in German brothers. This is a helpless means for small schools and clubs in the American basketball world to turn to the outside world. However, in the future, as the strength of the external basketball world increases, this will Class strategies have been carried forward and achieved dazzling achievements.
Edmondson Heck Stadium, which can accommodate 7,900 fans, had more than 8,000 people in the afternoon. It is said that it has once accommodated more than 12,000 spectators.
Americans’ passion for sports is evident.
When the Bulldogs players got off the bus, they took out several bundles of Bulldog team T-shirts, hats and simple pendants from the luggage compartment.
Fitz and Deron will be responsible for selling before the game, which is also a means of raising funds.
Of course, if you sell Gonzaga team T-shirts at Washington State's home court, fewer people will buy them.
If it weren't for the copyright dispute, Fitz would really like to print some home team T-shirts and sell them to schools and teams to compete for business.
However, because many Chinese and Asians in the Seattle area bought tickets after hearing the news that Gan Guoyang was coming to the game, many of them bought Bulldog T-shirts and hats.
Because the sales were good, Fitz muttered again, saying that too few were printed, and he was afraid that there would not be enough to sell later.
At 7 o'clock in the evening, Pacific time, the game officially started, and the fans in the stadium were roaring.
It can be said that the entire three states on the West Coast are extremely basketball-crazy areas.
Gan Guoyang, who had a good sleep last night, did not disappoint the fans who came to watch the game.
With a super performance of 31 points, 17 rebounds and 8 blocks, he really turned the Huskies into a Husky.
The 7-foot-tall center Chris Wilp was beaten into a wooden stake by Gan Guoyang. He could not keep up with Gan Guoyang's speed. It was as if the two were in different time and space. This kind of competition had a huge impact on the players' confidence.
When Wilp came off the field, he was obviously depressed, with his head hanging down and sitting on the bench without saying a word - this was almost the standard after playing against Gan Guoyang.
He will crush you both technically and mentally, leaving you with a shadow of fear.
The Bulldogs won 73:63, a 10-point advantage in Seattle.
After leaving the stadium, the team boarded the bus and headed towards their next destination, Portland.
On the way, the players were all too tired to fall asleep, but Fitz and Behrman were too excited to sleep and sat in front chatting.
In addition to being excited about winning, Fitz is also calculating how much profit this away trip can bring to the team, which will definitely be more than expected.
And Bellman said: "Dan, you said we can definitely enter the national competition this time, right?"
Fitz said: "National competition, is your only goal the national competition?"
"Otherwise? Gan is only a sophomore after all."
"Then we must at least get past the first round and enter the top 32."
"In this case, wouldn't it be better to win one more game and advance to the Sweet 16?"
“We’ve already made it to the Sweet 16, and the Elite 8 are just around the corner, why not win one more game!”
"The Elite Eight...forget it, this is the limit of my imagination. When I was at Notre Dame, the team's best result was the top 16. In 1977, we lost to North Carolina by 2 points, otherwise we would have made it. Top 8. Damn Dean Smith. Seven players from their team ended up in the NBA. They made it to the finals that year, but they still lost, to Marquette."
"You made it to the quarterfinals in '79, but lost to Michigan State."
"Yes, but I was no longer in school at that time. The Elite Eight...let's think of this as the script of a recent dream."
Bellman looked out the car window at the night view of Seattle, thinking that this was another sleepless night.
