mountain top

Chapter 52 Crisis Emerges (New book, please collect monthly tickets and recommend tickets!)

After halftime, the Spartans took the initiative to replace Morris Egger, who shot 7-for-1 in the first half.

"Tom, are we going to hurt him too much by doing this?"

On the Spartans' bench, looking at Egger, whose eyes were dull and who had lost all confidence, assistant coach Jonathan said to head coach Izzo.

After hearing this, he took a look at Morris's irritating look.
Isa's expression at this moment was exactly like that of the young cabinet minister in "The Ming Dynasty 1566".

Izzo threw the tactical board in his hand at Jonathan and roared, "I'll hurt your mother's head!"

This is the fucking final four!
As the team's star player, I have given him a half game to prove himself. What else does he want from me?

In the basketball world, the strong prey on the weak.

It's OK, if not OK.
Even if you are the "chosen one", you still have to start from the G League.

On the court, the grumpy old man Izzo used his substitution to prove how much damage Iger had done to the team tonight.

It's just that the star player doesn't behave like a human being
Even though the other Spartans players, who were criticized a lot during the halftime break, used their second-half performance to prove the value of their previous breakthrough from the Austin Division, they were unable to stop Wake Forest from moving forward on this night.

In the second half, Qin Yue and Paul did not underestimate the opponent despite the big lead, and scored 10 points together in the last 25 minutes of the game.

In the end, 90 to 77.

Amid the cheers that resounded throughout the stadium, Wake Forest successfully advanced to the Crazy Three finals.

As a team that has never won the NCAA championship in history, this year, under the leadership of Qin Yue and Paul, Wake Forest continues to refresh the team's history.

Since the beginning of the season, they have been advancing with one victory after another, and now they are just one win away from winning the championship.
They only have one game left.

On April 4, at the Edward Jones Dome, they will face the Illinois Warriors, who narrowly defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 5-81 in another Final Four match, in the Madness Three final.

The Tar Heels, who were "possessed" by Wake Forest, were affected by their previous expedition to the Albuquerque Division.

In the game, they were leading Illinois by 10 points at one point, but at the decisive moment they encountered the "black three minutes" that saddened all North Carolina fans, including Michael Jordan.

Hyde, Deron, and Brown took turns firing in the final three minutes of the game, and under the watchful eyes of the God of Basketball, they teamed up to shoot down the Tar Heels.

Ira Berko of The New York Times published a photo titled "Heaven and Hell" in his report the next day.

On the left side of the photo, there are North Carolina fans crying and holding their heads in their hands, while on the right side of the photo, there are Illinois fans celebrating the victory.

This is the heaven and hell of March Madness.

What is hell to North Carolina people is heaven to Illinois people.

Since the Illinois Warriors have never won the NCAA championship in history, no matter what the outcome of the final is this year, it means that the NCAA will usher in the birth of a new king.

"Will Wake Forest win the championship with its undefeated record?

Or will Illinois continue to write their own exciting miracle? "

A day later, on the evening of the 5th, the Edward Jones Dome officially welcomed this annual drama.

Because the NBA also had to give way during the Crazy Three Finals, so this night, James and Anthony came to the scene to cheer for Qin Yue and Paul.

As for the VIP box.
It's even more like you can hit a superstar by throwing a stone at random.

Jordan, who had just witnessed North Carolina's comeback, was in a bad mood tonight.

Barkley was also depressed because he lost the bet and was unable to say in front of Jordan that Qin Yue was his successor.

On the contrary, Duncan, Qin Yue and Paul's senior, was happily providing shoulder massage service to Yao Ming who was sitting in front of him.

O'Neal, who is in the honeymoon period with Wade, put his arm around Wade's shoulders before the game and complained: "Only players like us who have been to college can understand the fun of college basketball."

At this moment, O'Neal clearly meant something.

In February of this year, as Kobe reached a settlement with the plaintiff, the Eagle County incident was settled. In order to help Kobe gradually wash away the negative impact of the Eagle County incident and also to change the subject, Jerry Buss once again talked about O'Neal's weight in an interview.

According to Buss, O'Neal lost about 60 pounds during the offseason after joining the Heat.

In response, O'Neal said: "Weight and obesity have always been the means by which the Lakers put pressure on me. Asking me to lose weight is fake, and their real purpose is to use this to lower the price."

Moreover, O'Neal also said in his response: "Does weight really have any impact? Before this, didn't I still lead the Lakers to the finals and win the championship? Since Jerry West left, no one in the Lakers management dared to tell the truth. That guy (Kobe) could have stood up and said a few fair words for me, but he didn't say the last word."

Obviously, the feud between O'Neal and Kobe will continue for a long time to come.

On the court, after the entrance ceremony, Qin Yue and Paul, who will both participate in the NBA draft this year, officially ushered in the last game of their college career.

In the center circle of the field, the starting lineups of the two teams stood in place.

Wake Forest continued with their starting lineup from the previous game: Ellis, Qin Yue, Revie, Gray, and Paul.

Illinois also chose to trust their lineup that defeated the Tar Heels: Augustine, Powell, Brown, Hyde, and Deron.

In the jump ball session, Qin Yue won the first attack for Wake Forest with an overwhelming advantage.

Paul dribbled across half court, ready to launch the Flex tactics according to the pre-game arrangement.

But Deron took the initiative to use physical confrontation and almost caused Paul to make a mistake.

Deron is 6-foot-3 and weighs 210 pounds.

In front of him, Paul, who claims to be 6 feet tall, looks like a boy next door.

Seeing this, Qin Yue decisively stopped the Flex tactic and moved up to a high position, using his strong arms to provide Paul with a full sense of security.

Then, Paul, who received the screen from Qin Yue, immediately became a different person, dribbling through Deron's defense zone.

Augustine, who is 6-foot-10, is an offensive center with average defensive awareness and was unable to help Deron complete the delay in time.

Moreover, during this defensive pick-and-roll, Augustine obviously did not explain his defense clearly.

In the middle, Qin Yue took the opportunity to go down and immediately took off near the three-second zone, received the pass from Paul, and made a long-distance slam dunk!

In the stands, seeing this scene, Jordan, who was originally in a bad mood, instantly transformed into Loki in "Thor 3" and shouted: "This is how we have to fight!"

On the side, Barkley wanted to complain that Larry Bird could not complete such a violent dunk.

Can.
As soon as Barkley thought of the six rings that Jordan brought to the scene tonight, he gave up the idea.

Not
Who the hell would wear all six rings to watch the NCAA finals?
Be a human being, Michael!

On the court, Qin Yue's opening attack successfully ignited the whole audience.

But in return, Illinois immediately fought back with their signature pick-and-roll.

Augustine received the ball from Deron and made a steady mid-range shot.

Augustine has a smooth mid-range shooting touch and is known as the mid-range shooting god of the Big Ten League.

In the previous ball, Qin Yue completed the delay very quickly, but after completing the delay, no matter how fast Qin Yue could return to defense, he could not run fast enough to pass the ball.

Deron found Augustine with an extremely hidden assist.

I have to say that this offense and defense after the opening tonight has already made Paul break out in a cold sweat.

Obviously, he and Deron each completed an assist.
But, if it weren't for Qin Yue on his side, Paul wouldn't dare to imagine how passive he would be in this attack and defense.

Next, it's Wake Forest's offensive round.

Powell took the initiative to switch defense with Augustine and successfully cracked Wake Forest's Flex tactics in the low post. Levi's pick-and-roll quality is limited, and it is impossible for him to help Qin Yue complete a one-two in the low post every time.

However, the moment he noticed that the Flex tactic had failed, Qin Yue immediately sat in a low position.

This was a perfect judgment.

The only drawback was that Paul couldn't pass the ball to Qin Yue tonight like he usually does.

Under Deron's strong confrontation, Paul could only pass the ball to Gray and then pass it to Qin Yue.

However, due to the inevitable delay in the transfer process, the moment Qin Yue received the ball, he was almost instantly double-teamed by Augustine and Powell.

For this ball, Qin Yue's best approach was to pass the ball back to Gray, and have the latter look for an open space to pass the ball.

But this approach is too conventional.

With Illinois' tactical qualities, they were able to fully utilize the time when Qin Yue passed the ball back to rearrange their defense.

Therefore, Qin Yue chose a more daring way of dealing with it:

Under the double-team of Illinois, Qin Yue suddenly passed the basketball from Augustine's crotch by hitting the ground.

Under the basket, Reavie, who was unguarded, jumped immediately after receiving the ball.

Bang-dang——!
"This pass" made Jordan's eyes pop out in the stands.

On the side, Barkley muttered quietly: "I've made this kind of pass to my teammates before."

On the court, Qin Yue, who had connected with Levi, turned his gaze to Paul after bumping fists with him.

It's obvious.
Because Paul had problems tonight, Wake Forest had to shoulder more responsibilities on him.

Back to Illinois' offensive round.

Deron did not request a pick-and-roll this time.

Because he kicked Paul out.

There is no technique and no emotion.

On the court, Deron, who ruthlessly chased Paul, successfully attracted Gray's help defense.

Then, after receiving the pass from Deron, Hyde hit his first three-pointer of the night.

In the stands, Yao Ming, who didn't know what would happen in the future, commented in his mind: "What a good pitcher."

Calm and with the demeanor of a general.

Act quickly and never drag your feet.

This is Luther Head in college.

Even in the history of the Big Ten Conference, he is among the top shooters.

Then, Wake Forest had the ball.

Qin Yue pulled to the high position to ask for the ball, preparing to start the hand-to-hand tactic with his teammates.

After circling back to the top of the arc, Paul finally played a role.

Because he was worried that Paul would rush directly to the basket after receiving the pass from Qin Yue, Augustine deliberately moved his feet to leave room for blocking Paul.

But this is where Wake Forest's hand-to-hand tactics are so powerful.

At the top of the arc, taking advantage of the effective containment created by Paul, Qin Yue directly released the ball and accelerated, taking three steps into the Illinois basket.

Powell had no choice but to try to disrupt the attack by fouling.

As a result, Qin Yue carried the ball against the short and strong forward and sent it into the basket.

In addition, penalties will be imposed.

Qin Yue's two-plus-one made the Wake Forest fans at the scene very excited.

In the stands, cheers of "MOP, MOP" suddenly resounded through the dome. (Note ①)

"Tonight, Wake Forest still wants to rely on Qin to secure their victory," said the CBS commentator.

On the sidelines, Anthony, who also played in the Crazy Three Finals, saw that something was wrong and said, "We can't play like this. If we play like this, Qin will be exhausted to death."

On the side, James immediately looked like he was thinking.

However, before James could express his thoughts, Anthony pointed out Wake Forest’s problem: “In the past, they would indeed set the tone through Qin at the beginning of the game.

But in previous games, Qin's attack was not so strenuous."

At this time, James suddenly realized and said: "You make sense, Melo."

Then, James frowned and said, "Doesn't the coach of Wake Forest know that this is not a good way to play?"

In fact.
As early as the team's second offensive round, Prosser showed a worried look on his face.

But tonight
Illinois head coach Bruce Weber took an open approach.

"Defend Qin? No, no, no, I never thought that there is a player in college basketball who can compete with Qin today."

On the Illinois bench, looking at Paul who couldn't make any splash in front of Deron, Coach Webber immediately showed a smug expression.

Coach Weber knew very well that it was inevitable that Illinois' inside players would become toys in front of Qin Yue.

So if that's the case.
Then why did Illinois try to defend against Qin Yue?
Tonight, Illinois' strategy was clear.

That is, find a way to consume Qin Yue's physical energy and attack Wake Forest's outside line.

On the court, after Qin Yue made the free throw
Dee Brown, one of Illinois' backcourt trio, also hit his first three-pointer of the night in the next offensive round.

This season, Illinois is averaging nearly 23 three-point attempts per game.

In the NCAA, where there are relatively fewer game rounds, this number of shots accounts for 40% of their total shots.

In fact, long before the NBA entered the three-point era, using more three-pointers to gain more cost-effective points had already become a consensus among many college teams.

now.

just now.

Qin Yue and his teammates, who wanted to crown themselves with the NCAA tournament title, have already encountered their biggest crisis in March Madness.

Because just as Qin Yue had thought before, Illinois, whose style was exactly opposite to Wake Forest's, was indeed a "serious threat" to them.

"Sure enough, if you want to climb to the top, no step is easy."

On the court, after taking a deep breath, with a smile that reassured all his teammates, Qin Yue stepped towards Illinois' half of the court.
……

Note ①: MOP is the highest individual award in the NCAA finals, which means the Most-Outstanding-Player in the final four.

PS: I’m begging for collection, monthly tickets, and recommendation tickets for my new book!

(End of this chapter)