From sparring to superstar

Chapter 72. 70. Enjoying the Madness of March

"I didn't tell him to say that!" Trepagnier firmly denied.

Henry Bibby asked rhetorically: "Although Leo fights, has a bad temper, is troublesome, lustful, and loves to show off his wealth...but he can tell lies?"

"..."

Trepagnier was very sad and angry.

He was wrong, he shouldn't have made an appointment with Li Ao to have lunch, starting today, he quits food... Forget it, what is he doing with the food, he should stay away when that guy is interviewed in the future!
He just gave Li Ao a look, God knows this guy can understand that.

The key is that he believes that Li Ao understands it that way, just like what Henry Bibby said just now, this guy has always told the truth, and sometimes he can make people angry.

After the interview yesterday, he took a fluke mentality, didn't he just say hello, what can he do.

In the end, it was a reporter from Time Warner, who graduated from UCLA. What Li Ao said that night was on TV, and there was also a video of the two of them being interviewed. Shocked by the words, I didn't notice the camera at all.

At the beginning of March Madness, they publicly stated that their goal is to win the championship. Originally, their "dark horse Trojans" were extremely popular, but now they have become the most topical team in North America.

On the night of the 18-game winning streak, they also yelled 'we want a championship', but that time they did win the 'championship', the pac10 league championship, officially certified by the NCAA. In that atmosphere, no one thought it was wrong to yell.

This time is different, it has reached the crazy third, and at this time it seems arrogant and arrogant.

Fortunately, although there are a lot of mocking voices, such as the Bruins fans taking the lead in criticizing, there are many people who feel that they are ambitious and courageous, and there are more people who support them.

Just like the fans of the Trojans responded proudly: As a super dark horse, we have won all three and entered the crazy three. The goal is to win the championship. What's wrong?
Therefore, although the head coach blamed him a few words, he let him go without saying anything serious.

Trey Pagnier returned to the training field, listening to Li Ao, Shelby Jordan, and Sam Clancy leading his teammates to shout "Championship, championship, we want championships", and felt the teammates' higher fighting spirit, With more surging enthusiasm, his thoughts changed.

Trepagnier felt that Li Ao had long wanted to declare that he would compete for the championship. This guy took his eyes as encouragement and interpreted it subjectively.

'If it were me, even if the head coach asked me to say something like that, I wouldn't dare to say it, would I?It is not a concept at all to win the division...'

I felt the gap again, the gap in heart and energy.

Although it is still a bit uncomfortable to be blamed by the head coach, Trepagnier feels at this moment that he may have nothing to follow such a teammate in his future basketball career.

Thai pants are hot!
...

As Crazy Three approaches, Los Angeles City Hall goes full steam ahead.

March Madness brings, in addition to the NCAA's ticket revenue and broadcast revenue, it also brings a lot of opportunities to make money for the host city.

A large number of basketball fans flocked to Los Angeles.

The seven teams on the same promotion line as the Trojans have a lot of supporters.

The most important thing is the college basketball fans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Bruins went to East Lansing, Michigan to participate in a game. It is the Trojans who are currently representing college basketball in Los Angeles.

Not only the college basketball fans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, but also the college basketball fans in the whole of California flocked in large numbers.

This huge flow of people has brought Los Angeles a surge in income from multiple industries such as hotels, catering, and transportation.

The time came to March 3th, and March Madness officially kicked off.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the first game of each competition area started.

In the main arena of the Memorial Stadium, Li Ao quietly led Vivienne and Liam out of the player tunnel and watched from the bench of the home team, the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

纪念体育场承办了64进32、32进16两轮当中的6场比赛，17号和18号各进行两场64进32的比赛，20号和21号各进行一场32进16的比赛。

Today's two games are the Big Ten's University of Wisconsin College Badgers and the Super Western Conference's Fresno State University Bulldogs, Trojans and Tigers.

In the morning, the Trojans had finished the pre-match meeting and tactical review training. Li Ao took the two of them to watch the game during the lunch break.

The players and coaches of the Academy Badgers noticed the three of them, but they didn't say anything. Seeing the beautiful women, the players sitting next to them moved to the side, and then, Li Ao sat down loudly.

The player who gave up his seat was furious.

Is it for you to sit?

Vaco!

The beauty stood next to Li Ao, and they all leaned on it. From the looks of it, if there were not too many people, they would all want to sit on their laps.

More angry!
However, he has heard of Li Ao, a wealthy family, strong fighting ability, irascible personality, lustful and playful... bear with it!
Li Ao felt the eyes of the little defender next to him wanting to eat people, and wondered: Is the temper of that surname so weird?Get angry at a disagreement?

As soon as he came out of the player tunnel, he noticed the last name of the player who might become a second-round opponent-Bryant.

I don't know why, but when I saw a basketball player with this surname, I thought he was a good player.

The atmosphere at the scene was completely different from the training stage of the Trojans. In those few days, the tickets for the games that the Trojans did not participate in were extremely difficult to sell.

But tonight, the audience is full!

The fans of both sides of the game were almost evenly divided, cheering for their respective teams.

Maybe today's game is the last game of the season.

But it is also possible to continue!
Not to mention facing opponents with similar rankings, even facing the first place in the group, they still feel that their team may continue to move forward.

March Madness, a decisive match, is full of infinite possibilities, and everyone feels that they are special.

Li Ao turned his attention to the game that had already started on the court.

The Academy Badgers are also a dark horse!
In the civil war stage of the Big Ten League, the College Badgers only got a record of 11 wins and 11 losses, ranking only sixth in the division. In the competition of strong teams, the College Badgers scored 6 wins and 20 loss, and unexpectedly won the 12th place in the crazy three-group.

Just because the Trojans are there, the Academy Badgers' dark horse performance isn't much discussed.

The Bulldogs on the opposite side are also strong, ranking 9th in the crazy three-point group, which is already a rare ranking for the No. 2 team in the minor leagues.

Judging from the off-court rankings, the media and experts generally believe that although the Bulldogs are ranked lower, they have a better chance of winning. They have 11 wins and 3 losses in the division stage, 14 wins and 3 losses in the invitational match and the competition for places, and the overall strength of the Super Western Conference. , 23-year-old mature senior player Courtney Alexander and sophomore talented power forward Melvin Eli are two stars who are bound to enter the NBA...

考特尼-亚历山大本赛季打了30场，场均24.5分6板3.5助攻1.3抢断；梅尔文-伊莱打了31场，场均13分11板1.7盖帽。

The team averaged 92 points per game, and the offensive firepower was ferocious...

As for the Academy Badgers, there is no player with NBA prospects. There is only one player who averaged double figures per game, and he only averaged 11.8 points per game.

But the game was not like that. The College Badgers continued their frenzied performance in the spot competition stage. In the first 7 minutes, the opposing Bulldogs failed to score a single point!
Although the College Badgers only scored 7 points in 6 minutes, these 6 points are the point difference!
The Bulldogs are fierce offensively, with sharp outside shots and cuts, and very good running positions, but the College Badgers are similar to the Duke's defense, Tianke the Bulldogs!

半场打完比分31比23，全场打完58比49……学院獾队继续黑马表现，率先挺进32强！
After watching the game, Li Ao quietly left with the two who were playing together.

The three came to the fast food restaurant, and Li Ao ordered a hamburger to replenish his energy.

"The Bulldogs are too unlucky. They are obviously very strong, and they just met a team that restrained them." Vivienne could see this.

Li Ao nodded and said, "The Bulldogs have fast speed, strong counterattacks, good shots, and good offensive players at the basket. We may not necessarily win when we meet them, but their shortcomings are obvious. They are strong offensively and weak defensively. The College Badgers With such a poor offense and a deadly defensive style of play, the Bulldogs lost 58 points.

However, the College Badgers can win mainly because of their strong defensive strength, and their defensive state is too good. After watching their game, I no longer feel surprised that they can come here. "

"Will we win when we meet them in the second round?" Li Ao praised the Academy Badgers, and Vivienne was a little unconfident.

"Of course! Our goal is the championship, it is impossible to fall here!"

...

At 6:[-] in the evening, Li Ao and his teammates entered the stadium.

Playing at home is still beneficial.

Memorial Stadium of course supports its own team. When the tickets are sold, they have added ticket sales points in various universities in Los Angeles. Those ticket sales points are more than the ticket sales points of the Memorial Stadium, and they are only sold to local students and Tigers fans. When you come to Memorial Stadium to buy tickets, you have to compete with the locals.

As a result, Li Ao looked around, and at least [-]% of the fans on the scene were wearing the new crazy three jerseys of the Trojans!

The fans were extremely enthusiastic, and Li Ao also saw players from the rugby team coming to the scene.

There is something in the American sports world-March belongs to college basketball.

This is true.

Shelby Jordan leaned next to Li Ao: "Look at Leo, she doesn't seem to be wearing anything except the jersey, she's really big and exciting!"

"I do not watch."

"Why? Don't you like big ones?"

"I'm afraid of being distracted. It would be embarrassing if the two ends are big."

"That's right, don't be distracted, I won't watch it... I won't watch it after two more glances."

If you don't look at it, don't look at it, Li Ao glanced sideways.

How should I put it, it was unnatural, probably cheap, and he quickly looked back.

He is used to playing games, but now he feels his heart is surging, just like the feeling when he played for the first time.

Expectation, excitement, anxiety... Emotions are complex.

He took a deep breath and turned on the system.

After seven months of hard work, his comprehensive evaluation finally reached 75!
In the past few days during the preparations for the game, he had to practice extra every day after the team's training. After unremitting efforts, he successfully improved his mid-range shooting to 82, his catch and turn shooting skills also reached 70, and his basic turning skills also reached 69. In terms of basic defensive skills, he went around to 85, reaching a first-class level!Other basic defensive skills have also improved somewhat.

In addition, the improvement of his offensive running position and the improvement of his defensive coordination with his teammates cannot be reflected in a comprehensive evaluation.

Glancing at the opponent's player evaluation, the strongest player, Vincent Jones, has a comprehensive evaluation of 87.

211 cm, a senior graduate, but it is the third season, the freshman did not make the big list, but that year the player grew from 3 cm to 190 cm, became a backup center, averaged 210 points per game in the sophomore season 3 rebounds, showing his talent, took off in his junior year, averaging 3 points and 13 rebounds per game.

However, in his senior year, the data declined instead, averaging 12 points and 10.5 rebounds per game this season.

The performance has not continued to improve. The junior season has attracted the attention of many professional teams. He participated in the draft last year and may enter the second round. Now he has disappeared from the draft prediction list.

The opponent's overall strength is average, much worse than the two teams Li Ao saw in the afternoon.

But he didn't despise the other party, he didn't want to overturn the boat in the gutter.

With the system off, he came to the field and shot hot.

He is ready, next, let's play the game!
Enjoy March Madness!

...

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the game between the Trojans and the Tigers started.

The head coach of the Tigers, Andy Stoglin, is a well-known coach with a strict coaching style and a traditional style of play.

He led the Tigers, which has only been established for more than 20 years, to compete in various small leagues. In the past 10 years, he has won 4 division championships. His disciplined coaching style is indeed suitable for leading a new army to become stronger.

But it was the first time for the Tigers to make it to the NCAA.

It is obvious that the players of the Tigers are very nervous. Fortunately, although their traditional style of play has no bright spots, it is very stable.

Point guard Lawrence Myers, who is 183 cm tall and has a comprehensive rating of 77, and the star Jones' pick-and-roll offense, cooperated with his teammates to pass and cut, and played neatly.

The defensive end is also very traditional, 2-3 zone defense, flanking, and contraction.

To deal with such an opponent, the best choice is to use the simplest way to break the defense - three points!
That's exactly what the Trojans are good at - the White Mamba is out!

开局白曼巴5投3中，进了俩三分球，外加2中2的罚球，8分钟时间拿到10分2板1助攻，带队打出了21比14的开局，打停老虎队。

Henry Bibby chased after the victory, replaced Li Ao and Brusenthal, partnered with Granville, Trepagnier, and White Mamba, and the offense was full.

There is no such thing as hiding one's clumsiness in the first round and saving one hand for the following games.

In March Madness, anything can happen, the difference can be widened as much as possible, and the opponent cannot be given any chance!

After Henry Bibby changed players and adjusted his tactics, Li Ao moved his body and walked onto the court.

Mission reminder is here!

(End of this chapter)