The Bulldogs spend the entire month of August in cars, on the road, in hotels, and on the field.
For the players, this is a huge physical test. The long journey and game after game will make everyone exhausted.
But at the same time, it is also a valuable life experience for these young people who have not yet left campus.
They traveled across California along Highway 1, looking at the vast Pacific Ocean and admiring the sunset.
In Arizona and New Mexico, endless red wilderness fills the view, and as we approach Phoenix, the tall saguaro cacti in the national parks are awe-inspiring.
They encountered some trouble in the Colorado Plateau. The car broke down near the Grand Canyon. Everyone in the car had to get out and push it for five miles. Everyone was exhausted, which also caused them to lose to the University of Colorado in the game the next day. .
It was the Bulldogs' first loss on the road trip.
HKUST defender Jay Humphries beat Stockton dizzy. This kind of small black defender with strong offensive power has always been Stockton's nightmare.
Then they went to Kansas. There were three universities with Kansas in their names, the University of Kansas, the University of Kansas City, and Kansas State University.
The most famous among them is the Jays of the University of Kansas, Chamberlain's alma mater, and the place where Dr. Naismith, the father of basketball, coached. It can be said to be the origin of American basketball coaching.
The current coach of the University of Kansas is former UCLA coach Larry Brown.
The unsmiling white coach tried to turn the University of Kansas into a top-notch defensive team in the country. They allowed opponents to average 70 points per game last season, which he felt was too much.
As a result, in this warm-up match, the energetic Gan Guoyang teamed up with Stockton and scored 91 points in Kansas. Gan Guoyang scored 31 points on the head of the 7-foot-1 white center Greg Drelin.
This made Larry Brown wonder if his month and a half of coaching and training work had been in vain.
After leaving Kansas, they headed north, passed through the prairie of Nebraska, played a game with the University of Nebraska coached by Willis Reed, and then headed to Minnesota, the far north, to finish this long game. The last game of the road trip.
John Shasky, the 6-foot-11 white center of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, encountered the same problem as Gray, Crelin and others before him: he had no idea how to defend a center like Gan Guoyang.
In the 1980s, there were many tall white centers active in the NCAA. They had average talent, but were tall, strong, and had solid basic skills. They were the indispensable three-second zone barrier for the team.
Compared with black centers with explosive physical fitness, their advantage is that they have received team basketball training since childhood, have strong tactical awareness, and can better implement the coach's intentions, so they are very popular with college coaches.
Without three seconds of defense and the presence of zone defense, they did not suffer much when facing some powerful black insiders.
But Gan Guoyang is obviously a strange player. He has the strength, intelligence and basic skills of white players, the explosiveness and vitality of black players, and the endurance and cunning unique to Asians.
In the absence of game video and prior research, when the two sides encounter each other, the opponent has no idea how to defend, and past experience is of no use at all.
The center took the ball at the top of the key to provide support, and the defender and forward ran around. Suddenly he made a shot by himself and scored. How do you defend?
The speed of turning around with his back is comparable to that of a small forward. He faces the basket and holds the ball to attack and break through. He then goes outside and makes a big hook. He is quite accurate. How to defend?
What makes these big white centers even more desperate is that you think he is not strong enough or tall enough, so he uses these methods to avoid confrontation with you and take advantage of opportunities?
The fact is not true. In a head-on confrontation, his explosive power is stronger than yours, his effective height is no worse than yours, and he has amazing strength.
The reason why he avoided the fight was because he needed to save energy during the long journey. Besides, it was a warm-up match, so it was more polite to hold back the fight.
Gan Guoyang was very polite throughout the game and did not ask anyone "How was your day?"
After finishing the game against the Golden Gophers, which lasted more than a month and traveled a third of the United States, they achieved an excellent record of 11 wins and 1 loss and embarked on the road back to Spokane.
Starting from Minnesota, follow Highway 94 all the way west, crossing North Dakota, Montana and Idaho, a distance of more than 1,300 miles, and you can return to Spokane.
On the way, they passed through the Rocky Mountains. At the turn of summer and autumn, the magnificent scenery of the western mountains was mesmerizing, with large lush forests as far as the eye could see.
When the vehicle was refueling at a forest gas station, the players discovered that there was a small basketball court next to the gas station, so they got out of the car to play basketball together and then took a group photo.
The car had another problem and broke down while climbing over high altitude areas in Montana. The group pushed down another five miles and arrived at a small town, where they stayed for the night as it was getting late.
At noon the next day, the team played a basketball exhibition match for the residents at the primary school basketball court in the town. More than 500 people in the town, including babies, came to watch this exciting match.
The residents of the town waived their room and board expenses, helped repair their cars, bought some remaining T-shirts and hats, and finally said goodbye to these energetic college students.
The journey is long and tiring, but young people are always far more happy than bored together. The victories along the way make everyone full of confidence in the new season.
Gan Guoyang has become the well-deserved core of the team. His performance on the away trip is like a needle in the sea, allowing his teammates to perform better. As long as he is present, everyone can rest assured.
Of course, the anchor during the journey is Coach Delong, who handles all matters big and small, including laundry, shoes and other small things in life.
On the morning of September 1st, Gan Guoyang’s 20th birthday, they returned to Spokane and the campus of Gonzaga University.
Everyone was deeply relieved when they got off the bus. Stockton said that he wanted to go back to the dormitory now and lie in bed to sleep with him for three days and three nights.
Only Gan Guoyang, after taking a short rest, went to the gym for training in the afternoon.
I was on the road for more than a month, either in the car, competing, or in a hotel, and there was no time to train properly.
Gan Guoyang believes that this is not conducive to maintaining his condition, and he must practice to restore his body to a good state.
He practiced hard on the court and in the gym until dark. When he returned to his dormitory and wanted to turn on the lights, he found that they could not be turned on.
power cut? Or is the light broken?
The lights suddenly lit up, and a burst of cheers came. The dormitory was packed with people, including teammates from the basketball team, roommates, and close classmates. They came to celebrate Gan Guoyang's birthday.
Gan Guoyang was not afraid of the big scene of the competition, but this warm and caring scene left him at a loss.
For the first time, his teammates saw shyness and bewilderment on his face. They became even more enthusiastic and insisted on pulling him to sing.
Gan Guoyang couldn't resist and said: "Then I will sing the song that Coach Delong has been playing on the road, Simon-and-Garfunkel, The Boxer."
The roommate played the guitar and accompanied the accompaniment. Gan Guoyang started to sing. Everyone's ears were filled with excitement, so they sang along:
"...In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down...LaiLaiLai, LaiLaiLai... (standing in the clearing is a boxer, a professional fighter, He remembers every lesson that knocked him down.)"
This song has a beautiful melody and is catchy. It tells the story of a perseverant boxer. Deron wants to tell the players that no matter how many times they fail, they must get up and continue fighting.
However, the cruel thing about the NCAA is that when it comes to the national competition, it will only give you one chance to fail and you will not be able to get up again.
In the blink of an eye, the time has arrived in December. After four months of careful preparation, the Gonzaga Bulldogs officially started their NCAA journey for the 1983-1984 season.
The regular season will last from December to March next year, with a total of 24 games, including 12 games outside the league and 12 games within the West Coast League.
The top team in the West Coast Conference will qualify for the NCAA Western Wild Card Tournament.
The Bulldogs' first game is a trip to Idaho to face Idaho State University of the Big Sky Conference at Holt Arena, which is shaped like a vegetable greenhouse.
It can be used as a basketball court, track and field field, and rugby field. It can be said that it is a multi-purpose hall, which was quite advanced in the 1980s.
Then Gan Guoyang was here, with a shocking performance of 33 points, 22 rebounds and 10 blocks, leading the Bulldogs to beat their opponents 87:63, a 24-point advantage.
The tallest starting player at the University of Idaho is only 6 feet 8, which is much shorter than Gan Guoyang and is no match for him.
It was from this triple-double game that Gan Guoyang officially returned to the attention of the national basketball community. Media people on the West Coast exclaimed, "San Francisco's Oriental Cyborg has appeared again."
