The Golden Age of Basketball.

Chapter 63 A Difficult Journey
The victory against the anteaters gave Gan Guoyang and the Gonzaga Bulldogs a good start to the 1983-1984 season.

Bellman and Dan Fitzgerald realized that this might be the year they could shock the entire nation.

There are over 400 Division 1 colleges in the country, but only 48 teams make it to the NCAA national championships each year, a participation rate of one in ten.

Gonzaga University introduced basketball in 1907-1908 and joined the NCAA in 1944. Initially, it played in the Independent Conference, then moved to the Big Sky Conference, and in the 1979-1980 season, it joined the West Coast Conference. The level of the conferences declined year by year, and the team's performance deteriorated.

They won the league's regular season championship in the 60s, but afterwards they were always in the middle to lower ranks and were not even qualified to participate in NIT.

From 1944 to 1983, a period of 40 years, they had not yet appeared in the NCAA national competition.

In fact, the Gonzaga coaching staff is quite capable, and the players they recruit are all hardworking and disciplined. Gonzaga is a Catholic school that has high standards for students' character, so there are very few Black players there.

Unlike some schools that prefer to recruit talented but morally questionable Black athletes who never study, resorting to bribery, cheating, and other illegal means to help them meet the requirements for playing and obtaining scholarships (the University of San Francisco is an example).
Moreover, as a small school, Gonzaga's influence is limited to the local area. Almost half of the team's students grew up in Spokane and attended Gonzaga Prep School, so they cannot cast a wide net to recruit elites from all over the United States.

This results in Gonzaga bulldogs being hardworking but lacking natural talent, while basketball is a sport that highly values ​​talent.

Dan Fitzgerald seized the opportunity and finally "stole" a talent like Gan Guoyang, which can be said to be both a stroke of luck and a testament to Fitzgerald's decisiveness.

If Gan Guoyang were a Black or native-born white player who achieved fame at a young age in California and won a state championship, it would be impossible for him to be associated with a school like Gonzaga.

The brilliance lies in the fact that Gan Guoyang is Chinese, with yellow skin and black hair, and his fame came very suddenly. Due to prejudice, Americans have always underestimated this guy's potential.

Fitzgerald was usually carefree and talkative, but in reality he was meticulous and decisive.

From the bold move of acquiring Gan Guoyang from UCLA, to taking down Berman and resigning as head coach, and then "supporting" Gan Guoyang for a whole year without him playing, the series of actions can be said to have involved a great deal of risk.

Fitz waited patiently for a whole year, even though he knew from regular training and intra-team scrimmages that Gan Guoyang was no ordinary person.

In warm-up matches against some local teams, Gan Guoyang has already outmaneuvered his opponents and even his teammates.

However, only by playing against a proper NCAA team like the Anteaters could Gan Guoyang truly unleash his full potential.

After defeating the anteater and resting for two weeks, Fitz allowed students who wanted to go home to visit their families, while those who didn't want to go home could stay at school to recover. At the end of July, the team will embark on an away preseason tour.

The destinations included Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, and other places, basically covering almost the entire western region.

What sustained this long journey was a retired Greyhound bus from the transportation system, driven by Steve Delon, the players' physical reserves from daily training, and Fitz and Bellman's endless nonsense and trash talk.

When they set off, Gan Guoyang asked how long the journey would take, and Fitz said it would take a month.

"A month? Where will we stay?"

"Of course it's a hotel, you fool. Do you think Gonzaga University has branch campuses all over the place?"

Gan Guoyang doubted whether the team had enough money to stay in a hotel.

The team's first stop is Seattle, where they will face Washington State University, two teams that are also regular season rivals.

Sure enough, the team booked the most basic motel, even worse than the one Gan Guoyang stayed at when he played CIF in Los Angeles.

Moreover, the team didn't book many rooms. Three players shared a room, pushing their beds together to sleep. The five coaching staff squeezed into one room. Driver Steve Deron slept on the bed because he needed to rest, while the others slept on the floor.

Only Gan Guoyang received special treatment; Fitz gave him a private room to sleep in alone.

Gan Guoyang felt that this was unfair to his teammates. He did not want to be treated specially, so he asked Fitz to cancel his room reservation so that he could squeeze in.

"What are you talking about, squeezing in? You're 6'10", how are you going to squeeze in? Don't worry, no one will have any objections. You're the core of the team, we need you to sell tickets, so you need to get some rest and perform well."

Gan Guoyang was speechless for a moment. He was very good at selling tickets when he was in high school. When the Water Bell team went to other states to play games, the ticket revenue was split 50/50 between the two teams, which made a lot of money for the school.

Not to mention the merchandise they sell, as well as snacks and miscellaneous goods, all of which generate revenue.

Looking at the Bulldogs' arduous and frugal journey, you can tell that the team's operating funds are very scarce.

Deron Williams held multiple positions but only received one salary. Assistant coaches Mark, Monsen, Greer, and others, in addition to teaching at the school, also worked outside to earn extra money.

Berman would occasionally teach kids at a basketball school to earn some money, since the teams paid them relatively low salaries.

This warm-up match is both to give the team experience and to raise some money for expenses, as the new season will start with money to be spent everywhere.

The entire team was united in preparing for the new season, and Gan Guoyang didn't refuse again. He returned to his room and got a good night's rest. The next day, the Gonzaga Bulldogs faced Washington State University at Edmondson Heck Field. The two teams had met last year, with Gonzaga narrowly losing by one point.

Washington State University has further strengthened its roster compared to last season, recruiting not only its German star Schremf (right) but also his fellow German, Chris Wilp (left).

In this respect, Washington State University's recruitment strategy is the same as Gonzaga's. Given their funding and school reputation, they can't recruit any real geniuses across the United States, so they simply turn their attention elsewhere.

Gonzaga stole Gan Guoyang from China, while Washington State brought in the German brothers. These are all desperate measures taken by small schools and clubs in the American basketball world to seek help from outside. However, as the strength of the external basketball world improves in the future, this kind of strategy will be carried forward and achieve remarkable results.

Edmondsen-Heck Stadium, which can accommodate 7900 fans, had more than 8000 people in the afternoon. It is said that the stadium has once held more than 12000 spectators.

This demonstrates the passion Americans have for sports.

When the Bulldogs players got off the bus, they took out several bundles of Bulldogs team T-shirts, hats, and simple little pendants from the luggage compartment.

Fitz and Deron will be responsible for selling tickets before the start of the season, which is also a way to raise funds.

Of course, if you sell Gonzaga team T-shirts at Washington State's home stadium, fewer people will buy them.

If it weren't for the copyright dispute, Fitz would have loved to print some team T-shirts and sell them to whichever school he was going to, competing with other teams for business.

However, because many Chinese and Asian people in the Seattle area bought tickets after hearing that Gan Guoyang was coming to compete, many of them bought bulldog T-shirts and hats.

Because sales were good, Fitz grumbled again, saying that too few were printed and he was afraid there wouldn't be enough to sell later.

At 7 p.m. Pacific Time, the game officially began, and the roar of the fans in the stadium was deafening.

It's fair to say that the entire West Coast region, encompassing three states, is a region with an extreme passion for basketball.

Gan Guoyang, who slept well last night, did not disappoint the fans who came to watch the game.

With a phenomenal performance of 31 points, 17 rebounds, and 8 blocks, he truly turned the husky into a husky.

Seven-foot center Chris Wilp was completely outmatched by Gan Guoyang, unable to keep up with his speed. It was as if the two were in different times and spaces. This kind of competition is a huge blow to a player's confidence.

When Wilp left the field, he was visibly frustrated, sitting on the bench with his head drooping and not saying a word—this was almost the standard reaction after playing against Gan Guoyang.

He will crush you both technically and psychologically, leaving you with a shadow of fear.

The Bulldogs secured a 73-63 victory in Seattle, a 10-point margin.

After leaving the stadium, the team boarded a bus and headed towards their next destination, Portland.

On the way, the players were all too tired to sleep, but Fitz and Berman were too excited to sleep and sat in front chatting.

Besides the victory, Fitz was also excited about how much revenue this away trip would bring to the team, which he believed would be more than expected.

Meanwhile, Bellman said, "Dan, you said we'd definitely make it to the national competition this time, right?"

Fitz asked, "The national championships? Is the national championships your only goal?"

"Otherwise what? Gan is only a sophomore after all."

"Then we need to at least get past the first round and into the top 32."

"In that case, why not win another game and make it into the Sweet Top 16?"

"We've already made it into the Sweet Top 16, and the Elite Top 8 are just around the corner, why not win one more game!"

"The elite quarterfinals... Forget it, that's the limit of my imagination. When I was at Notre Dame, our best result was the top 16. In 1977, we lost to North Carolina by 2 points, otherwise we would have made it to the quarterfinals too. Damn Dean Smith. Seven of their players went on to play 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 wasn't in school anymore by then. The top eight elite teams... let's just consider this the script of my recent dream."

Looking out the car window at the Seattle night view, Bellman thought to himself that this was going to be another sleepless night.

(End of this chapter)