I was a top student in America.

Two days later, on the first day of the basketball season, the Wyndham team bus headed south along the Dan Ryan Highway.

The carriage was noisy, with loud black rap music blasting from the speakers, and a few veteran members in the back row clapping and keeping time excitedly.

Li Ao sat by the window, spreading his competition book and draft paper on his lap, and continued working on the remaining half of the plane geometry problems from yesterday.

This is currently his weakest area, but after several days of intensive training involving doing 30 to 40 problems, combined with the "learn one, apply it to other situations" approach, he has basically mastered everything from the basic properties of a circle to the theorem of four points being concyclic.

A few days ago, he would have been stuck on a complicated auxiliary line problem for a long time, but now, when he opened a new problem about "inscribed quadrilaterals", he glanced at the conditions and naturally thought of similar problems he had done before.

By simply adding auxiliary lines, the key angular relationships were derived in just a few steps.

After solving several problems involving common chords and similar triangles, he went back to look at the problems he had previously marked with an asterisk. The parts that had previously stumped him now became clear.

The weakness in plane geometry has now been completely overcome.

At my current level, I should have no problem handling most of the question types in the AMC.

However, for now, we still need to finish the last few difficult problems in this workbook.

Li Ao lowered his head again and turned to the next page amidst the noise in the car.

The bus only quieted down a little after it came to a complete stop in front of the away school.

Agility: 102.1

Stamina: 101.7

Intelligence: 104.3

Keywords: [Applying knowledge to new situations], [Muscle memory], [Explosive power], [Deep sleep]

-

All four items increased.

Judging from his condition, Li Ao felt that even if there were high-intensity matches tonight, he could definitely handle it.

Ultimately, however, he wasn't working hard on the basketball team to pursue any dream of becoming a star player. After all, with his height of 1.8 meters, it would be too difficult for him to get into the NBA.

At best, this is just a heavyweight stepping stone in your college application materials.

What truly sets him apart from other applicants is his outstanding performance in math competitions.

However, relying solely on practicing regular AMC problems is slowing down his intellectual growth. He did some plane geometry problems a couple of days ago, but now that he's filled in the gaps in his knowledge, his progress is slowing down again.

Fortunately, Brown gave me a math competition preparatory handout yesterday, which is supposedly the core content to be covered in the North District Workshop this weekend.

Although he hadn't had time to translate it yet, judging from Brown's serious tone, it was a step above AMC in terms of difficulty.

That's exactly what he needs right now.

Just as I was pondering this, a series of heavy footsteps came from the corridor, and the door to the changing room was pushed open.

Coach Durant walked in with his tactical board, and the room immediately fell silent.

"Today is the first game of the season, and it's an away game, so everyone better be alert..."

He stood in the middle of the room, his face long. "Simon Academy made it to the top four in the South Division last year. They're not pushovers. Let's focus on defense from the start, don't rush into offense, play our own rhythm, and seize opportunities during transitions between offense and defense."

"If anyone gets hot-headed and charges into the crowd as soon as they get the ball, I'll immediately put them back on the bench to watch the water bottle."

Durant is known for his strict leadership style, and given the atmosphere of the first game, he added a few more words of advice.

"In short, once you're on the field, run the plays well and defend relentlessly. Now, let's read out the starting lineup."

He pulled out a slip of paper, unfolded it, and glanced at it. "Tyshawn, Daryl..."

Then they selected three more veteran players.

The Wyndham basketball team never had much bench depth, so this starting lineup was exactly what everyone expected.

After reading out the names, Durant casually put the note back in his pocket and glanced at the substitutes:

"Those who weren't called out, don't just watch the show. Go back and work on your positioning and tactics, and be ready to be substituted at any time."

After giving his instructions, he turned and gestured with his chin towards TySean, then proceeded with the final pre-match procedure.

"Captain, say a few words to everyone."

Tae-Sean stood up from the bench and glanced at his teammates.

He was as concise as ever: "Just fight our own people, don't back down."

As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of applause erupted in the locker room.

Then the team members stood up, formed a circle, put their hands together, and counted down "three, two, one!" while shouting:

"Wyndham Eagles, go, go, go!"

That shout finally warmed up the atmosphere in the locker room.

No matter how carefree these guys are in training, when it comes to the real competition day, adrenaline still takes over.

As the door opened, everyone walked out with their heads held high.

Jamal followed next to Li Ao, his hands constantly rubbing the seams of his basketball shorts, his forehead covered in sweat.

Jaylen Washington, walking ahead, kept his neck taut, staring intently at the exit of the passage, not daring to turn his head even once.

The moment I stepped out of the locker room tunnel, the stadium lights and the noise of the audience rushed in.

After warming up, the starting five jogged onto the field, while the substitutes sat down one by one on the benches on the sidelines.

Li Ao consciously chose the seat closest to the side and casually stuffed his schoolbag at his feet.

Jamal couldn't sit still after only two minutes of the game starting.

He gripped his knees with both hands, leaned half his body forward, stared intently at the field, and kept muttering, "Good shot!" "Pass it quickly!"

Taking advantage of a brief lull in play, he suddenly turned to look at Li Ao and asked out of the blue:

"Leo, do you think we have a chance today?"

Li Ao didn't respond.

His eyes were fixed on the floor, his mind already elsewhere.

He only completed half of the last plane geometry variation problem on the bus. The given conditions were all imprinted in his mind, and he had been thinking about how to draw auxiliary lines ever since he sat down.

It wasn't until Jamal nudged him that he snapped out of his daze and casually replied:

"Let's see how it goes."

Jamal stared at him for two seconds, then turned back to glance at the field, and when he turned back, he was a little amused and exasperated.

"Leo, were you not even watching the game?"

"I've looked at it," Li Ao said, then paused and added, "I'm also thinking about the questions."

"Thinking about math problems?" Jamal's voice rose a half-octave. "This is a competition, and you're sitting here thinking about math problems?"

Li Ao nodded.

Jamal swallowed hard: "Brother Leo, you're really something. After training for more than half a month, I'm exhausted like a dog. Every day after training, I go back and fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, but when I get up the next day, my whole body is still sore."

"You're acting like nothing's wrong. Not only do you have endless energy, but you even have the leisure to ponder math problems while sitting on a bench."

"I'm truly impressed by their physical fitness and mentality."

Li Ao chuckled and said, "Everyone's constitution is different."

Jamal muttered "Awesome!" and turned back to continue watching the game.

With the noise subsiding, Li Ao finally focused his attention on the arena.

To be honest, this was the first time he had ever seriously played a basketball game in both his lifetimes combined.

In his past life, he was a miserable office worker who revised documents and had nothing to do with competitive sports except to go to the gym on weekends to work up a sweat.

But with the help of the term "learn by analogy" and his training over the past few days, he quickly figured it out.

Wyndham's playing style, to put it nicely, is expansive and wide-open; to put it bluntly, it's incredibly rough.

On the defensive end, Tayshaun is indeed a pillar of strength.

He excelled at positioning, helping on defense, and blocking shots. Several times the opponent tried to force their way into the paint, but he single-handedly stopped them. The title of "South Division's Best Defensive Player" is truly well-deserved.

But when it came to the offensive end, the scene was simply appalling.

The Wyndham players had no concept of half-court offense. They would just run a couple of plays after getting the ball and then head down and charge into the crowd.

Simon College plays a zone defense, and their tactical awareness is clearly superior.

Aside from Ty Shore using his physical strength to break through a few defenses, the rest of the Wyndham team was basically just blindly hitting their way through.

They either force a shot under pressure and miss, or they commit a turnover.

Running tactical coordination?

For these guys, it's probably as difficult as learning calculus.

This is no one's fault but theirs. Someone who can't even pass an exam has no interest in learning complicated tactics.

Coach Durant has managed to mold this group of troublemakers into the same level of fundamentals and discipline as they are now; he's already incredibly lucky.

Of course, the consequence of having no tactics was that the score was suppressed throughout the game.

They managed to keep the game close in the first quarter, trailing by only four points.

However, in the second quarter, the head coach of Simon Vocational College changed his strategy and began to target Tayshaun as the sole offensive option.

As soon as Tayshaun gets the ball, he is immediately double-teamed.

Taking advantage of Wyndham's series of missed shots and mistakes, Simon Academy launched a counterattack, disrupting the rhythm of the game in one fell swoop.

The situation collapsed instantly.

The halftime whistle blew, and the scoreboard showed 38 to 24, a fourteen-point deficit already in the first half.

The starters walked dejectedly toward the locker room.

The dozen or so Wyndham family members scattered in the stands fell silent, making the Simon cheerleaders' music on the other side seem particularly jarring.

The substitutes also silently got up and followed. Li Ao picked up his schoolbag with one hand and walked at the very back of the group.

The somber locker room door slammed shut, and the room remained silent for a full seven or eight seconds.

Durant stood in the middle of the room with a dark expression, slamming his tactical board onto a chair with a "thud."

"Substitution for the second half."

……