Where the noise did not reach

Chapter 3 So, what’s the price?
Coach Knight didn't look at him again, nor did he yell anymore.

After that chilling threat, he simply made a brief gesture to the teaching assistants, and the training continued under suffocating pressure.

There was no storm as expected, but this sudden, normal "calm" only made all the new students more fearful.

Beside Xu Ling, rookie point guard Charlie Burgess, taking advantage of a break in the dead ball, breathed a sigh of relief as if he had escaped death, and said in an almost inaudible voice, "Eli, do you know how crazy you just did?"

Xu Ling simply looked at him quietly without saying a word.

Burgess said, "No one dares to speak to the general like that!"

“If you’re right,” Xu Ling said, “he wouldn’t have come to TTU.”

On the other side, Knight walked to the sidelines with a dark expression, only to see his son run up to him like a puppy with its tail between its legs, saying, "Dad."

Knight immediately glared at him with an even sharper look.

Little Knight knew that you had to use job titles when you were working.

“Coach, Eli…”

"Stop talking nonsense, give me his information!"

Knight shouted.

Knight immediately handed the completed freshman file to his father.

Knight immediately flipped to Xu Ling's profile page, glanced at it a few times, and said, "A 198cm center?"

"Does he think he's Ben Wallace or Larry Johnson?!"

Knight, who was in charge of overseas recruitment, quickly said, "Although he is not tall enough, Eli has a long wingspan and excellent athleticism. As long as he adapts to the pace of D1, I believe he will become a qualified backup center."

Substitute player?

Knight recalled how Xu Ling had talked back earlier.

How dare a substitute player go against my wishes like this?
What a lousy school!
What a terrible team!
What a terrible era this is!
Then, Knight saw the troublesome freshman walk straight toward the guards' line.

What is he doing there?

Knight frowned, a hint of surprise in his voice.

Just then, Xu Ling picked up the ball and, with almost no preparation, lightly jumped up and shot.

As a modern sharpshooter who could hit consecutive long-range three-pointers when he was on fire, the standard three-point line in the 2006 NCAA felt like a comfortable long two-pointer to him.

Swish!
The ball went into the net through a hollow.

But what caught Knight's eye wasn't the goal itself, but the shooting motion—an almost instinctive fluidity, from gathering the ball to flicking the wrist, the entire movement was seamless, without a single unnecessary pause or hesitation. This was a muscle memory ingrained in his bones, a shooter's instinct honed through thousands of repetitions.

Knight dedicated his life to basketball, and he was never wrong.

He didn't look at Xu Ling again, but suddenly turned to his son beside him, his voice filled with unbelievable anger: "You're telling me he's a paint scorer who can't shoot?"

Young Knight was startled by his father's sudden questioning and hurriedly explained, "The scouting report... that's what it says! I even watched his games in Hong Kong. Back then, he was indeed an inside player who relied on athleticism and wingspan."

"Screw the report!"

Knight cursed under his breath, his gaze once again sharply fixed on Xu Ling.

Now, this freshman, who is said to be the "scorer in the paint," is demonstrating his unparalleled accuracy in long-range shooting right before his eyes.

Knight fell silent, his hawk-like eyes fixed on Xu Ling, his thumb unconsciously rubbing his chin.

In the freshman scrimmage that day, Xu Ling played center, but his playing style was completely that of a guard.

If his shooting is surprising, then his ball-handling ability is simply terrifying.

Pat Knight, who was in charge of overseas recruitment, blushed and assured his father, "He definitely didn't have this skill before he came to the United States! In all the videos I've seen, he never demonstrated it even once!"

“That’s not important anymore.” Knight’s gaze was fixed on the figure on the court, his tone resolute. “Keep an eye on him. Double his training volume. If he wants to play shooting guard, he needs to lose some weight!”

What does a second unit with such technology and size mean for TTU?
It means that a ray of light has finally pierced through the darkness.

Just as core player Jarius Jackson was about to enter his senior year and the team faced a severe generational crisis, this emerging Chinese freshman was exactly the future star that TTU needed most.

This was not part of the planned harvest, but it was a tremendous surprise.

Just as the coaching staff quickly shifted their focus to evaluating Xu Ling, Xu Ling himself was also honing his vague confidence into something sharper and more certain through competition with his peers.

Besides his roommate Roderick Craig, with whom he had already settled the score, there was another freshman who wanted to challenge him: Decensae White SG, who was considered the most promising freshman in TTU's class.

Even before Xu Ling's stunning performance, White was already considered a potential star under Knight's tutelage. His high school was in a less competitive region, and he naturally dominated high school basketball in that area. Due to the lack of regional competitiveness, he didn't catch the eye of college scouts and naturally didn't make it into the top 100 nationally. But this kind of star player buried in a weak region was perfect for a strict coach like Knight to train.

White also saw himself as a new leader.

However, Xu Ling completely defeated him on the first day of training.

In the freshman scrimmage, Xu Ling scored 28 points over White and limited him to 7 points with a shooting percentage of less than 30%.

It was this competition that made Xu Ling realize that he was absolutely capable of making a name for himself in the NCAA.

Confidence takes time to build. Xu Ling's innate talent and the skills from his previous life have created an excellent synergy, but Xu Ling still needs to clarify his future direction step by step.

His peers have already been defeated. Next up are the veterans led by Jarius Jackson, then the strong teams from the Big 12 league, and if there's anything else, then he'll be able to get his hands on the NBA.

This prospect filled Xu Ling with motivation; he craved training and challenges as much as he craved oxygen.

After practice that day, in the locker room, senior center Daryl Dorra looked at Xu Ling with a blank expression and said, "Maybe you really can."

What Xu Ling found interesting about the TTU basketball team was that there were only two senior students on the team, one nicknamed JJ and the other DD. Unfortunately, both of these nicknames have clear connotations of male erogenous zones in China.

"Can what?"

Xu Ling asked.

"Like JJ, becoming a starter on the team as a freshman." After saying that, Dora deliberately winked at another person, "MZ, what do you say?"

Martin Zeno, a junior guard, was a notorious bully on the team, always arrogant and fond of harassing younger students. He scoffed at the words and glanced disdainfully at the freshmen: "What's the point of being king of the trash heap? This year's freshmen are a bunch of hopeless good-for-nothings!"

"What did you say?"

Having been severely punished by Xu Ling in the bullfight, Dessensey White, who was already a powder keg, instantly bristled upon hearing this and was about to explode.

Xu Ling dared to contradict Knight even though he was completely unreasonable in the face of such accusations, so he naturally wouldn't ignore them just because the other party was a so-called senior.

“Hmm,” Xu Ling nodded thoughtfully, as if Zeno had given a valuable insight. “Judging from your confident tone, you must have led the team to a dominant victory last year (15 wins and 17 losses)? My apologies.”

Xu Ling's tone was devoid of any anger, even carrying a hint of pure "curiosity," but the content of his words was like a cold, soft knife, precisely puncturing Zeno's arrogant bubble—everyone knew that TTU had experienced a disastrous season last year.

Zeno's face instantly turned bright red, as if he were being choked. He was already one of the team's key players last year, and Xu Ling's words hit his sore spot.

"you."

Before Zeno's senior's arrogance could continue, Captain Jackson walked in, his aura like a wall, instantly suppressing the sparks that were simmering in the locker room.

“Listen up! As the team leader, I only have one requirement—we must be a friendly team. We don’t have to be the best, but we must be friendly! Understand?”

Zeno swallowed the curse that was on the tip of his tongue and could only shut his mouth in embarrassment. White also snorted and stopped talking.

Xu Ling, as if nothing had happened, naturally turned to Jackson and asked his question: "Captain, why do we have so few upperclassmen on our team?"

Upon hearing this, Dora smiled.

The second-year students in the corner looked on with amusement.

Jackson gave a mysterious smile, as if he were a hardcore Huang Xiaoming impersonator. His greasy, wicked smile, coupled with his face that was far from handsome, puzzled Xu Ling.

Jackson did not give an answer, but instead said, "Because there are too many cowards in the world."

Since the senior students didn't want to give an answer, Xu Ling decided to find it himself.

Back in her dorm, Xu Ling immediately went online to check TTU's recruitment information for the past few years.

Since recruiting Jarius Jackson, a freshman who became the team's starting core, in the class of 2003, Knight actively built the team around him, but unfortunately, the results were not good. When Jackson was a junior last year, TTU was already preparing for the upcoming generational change, so they went out of their way to recruit eight players in the class of 2005.

A year has passed, and of the eight players, five have transferred schools, one has given up basketball, and now only two remain on the team.

It's important to understand that things are very different now compared to a decade or two later, when NCAA players can sign endorsement deals and transfer schools at will. In this era, players are an absolutely vulnerable group. Forget about income; if they accidentally fall for the recruiters' lies and only realize at school that it's nothing like what they expected, most will choose to silently endure it, because transferring schools requires a year-long suspension from the league.

Under this rule, the coach's authority is as unquestionable as that of a king.

Why would those people rather sit on the bench at another school for a year than stay at TTU?
Xu Ling had already witnessed Knight's temper today, and considering the formidable reputation of this vice GOAT in the college coaching world, he believed that what he saw was only the tip of the iceberg.

※※※

The sunlight in Lubbock seemed particularly harsh, but it couldn't compare to the scorching energy gushing from Xu Ling's body.

While his roommate Roderick was still sound asleep, Xu Ling had already quietly gotten up. He would run alone along the familiar red clay path in the dormitory area. The coaching staff had told him that he needed to lose weight; his current weight was too much of a burden for the backcourt players and would also affect his lateral movement and perimeter defense.

He accepted the suggestion.

While most people lose weight through morning runs, athletes need a scientific plan.

For Xu Ling, morning runs are one of the steps to improve her physical fitness.

After running, he would rest for half an hour, then have breakfast, go to get out of class, and then start shooting practice. In the afternoon, he would have team training, and in the evening, he would do strength training.

Strangely, head coach Bob Knight rarely appeared during this period.

His teaching assistant was in charge of planning the training.

But captain Jackson said the coach would be secretly watching them somewhere in Wimbledon (TTU training facility), and those who slack off, make mistakes, or fail to perform will pay the price at the start of the season.

Upon hearing this, Xu Ling had no choice but to ask the classic BBC question: "So, what is the price?"

Jackson said, "You'll find out sooner or later."

Half a month passed in this way.

(End of this chapter)