UCLA was the strongest team in the NCAA. No team had more championships than UCLA.
However, compared to the status of the NCAA, Kansas was even more prestigious.
This was because the history of the Kansas Pine Hawks was roughly equivalent to the history of basketball!
A hundred years ago, Dr. Naissmith brought basketball to Kansas.
Then, it was Forrest Allen, Adolf Rapp, Adolf Miller, Dean Smith, and Larry Brown, who passed down from generation to generation and finally created the towering tree of the NCAA.
In 1957, Wilt Chamberlain led the Pine Hawks to play all the way to the third overtime in the NCAA final against North Carolina. In the end, they won by a narrow margin of 54-53. This game was also considered the greatest game in the history of the NCAA.
It was also in Kansas that Chamberlain, the basketball emperor, embarked on an unusual basketball path.
In 1988, Kansas won its second NCAA championship under the leadership of Larry Brown. At that time, Danny Manning, the core of the team, became the NBA's top scorer, and Larry Brown became the only coach to win both the NCAA and NBA championships.
However, the glory of Kansas ended in 1988. After that, although there were still many star players in Kansas, such as Pierce, Lafrenz, Hinrich, and so on, Roy Williams also led the team to the NCAA semi-finals four times and entered the championship twice. However, they were always close to the championship.
In 2003, Bill Sheff, who had been Larry Brown's assistant for a long time in Kansas, took over the teaching position. Unfortunately, Kansas had no chance of entering the NCAA semifinals.
It was widely believed that Roy Williams was the best coach who had never won a championship, while Scheffe was the best coach who had never made it to the semifinals. Ever since he coached Kansas, Scheffe had only led the team to the semifinals this year.
Then, in the semi-finals, he eliminated Roy Williams 'team and entered the finals.
Although he didn't have good results before, Sheff was still a very famous coach. His ability to recruit students was reflected when he was at Eleanor University. He gathered the three musketeers, Hyde, Delon, and Di Brown.
This year, he had assembled a very deep lineup for the University of Kansas.
Rasul Robson, Mario Chalmers, and Brandon Rush were in the backfield, while the front field had a powerful forward, Darryl Osel, and two seniors, Darnell Jackson and Corne.
Although only Chalmers and Rush had NBA prospects, the others could not be underestimated.
Unlike Roy Williams 'traditional fast-attack system, Sheff, who had been learning from Larry Brown, liked to use slow to counter fast positional warfare. Every attack and defense of the University of Kansas was a hand-to-hand fight with the opponent.
There was no absolute core in Kansas City. The team was made up of many players, and they were like the Raptors in the NCAA.
This was Kansas.
This was the last opponent of the University of Memphis in the NCAA this season!
.......
April 8th!
San Antonio, a small city, became very lively. Basketball fans from all over the United States gathered in the city.
These basketball fans weren't here to watch the Spurs game. They were here for the NCAA finals.
Tonight, the NCAA finals between the Griffin Tigers and the Kansas Pine Hawks would begin at the Alamo Stadium.
Zhang Luo followed the team to San Antonio two days in advance for closed-door training.
Although the city was small, the basketball atmosphere was very strong. The entire city was talking about the NCAA and the popular rookies such as Ross, Zhang Luo, and Rush.
For this final, the NBA also chose to give way to the NCAA!
When the game officially started, there were no NBA games on TV. There was only the NCAA. The finals attracted the attention of hundreds of millions of fans.
Zhang Luo, Ross, Robert, and the others didn't care about the discussion about them. They were fully immersed in training.
Even Zhang Luo would feel nervous when he encountered such a final. This was the first time he had participated in the finals in his life.
Zhang Luo's brilliant performance in the top eight and the final four would undoubtedly attract enough defense for him.
How would the so-called NCAA Raptors deal with Zhang Luo? No one knew.
However, Coach Calipari, who was watching the training, had full confidence in Zhang Luo.
Zhang Luo had a lot of scoring methods, and they were comprehensive. It was not easy to hold him down. At the very least, Calipari could not think of any NCAA player who could stop Zhang Luo.
The training in the morning was not intense. It was mainly a warm-up to ensure that everyone was in the best physical condition.
"I won't emphasize how important tonight's game is.”
"This will be the last university competition for many of you. It will also be the last time you will fight side by side!”
"Some people will enter the NBA to become opponents, some will leave professional basketball and have other developments.”
Calipari scanned the faces of Ross, Zhang Luo, Robert, Dorsey, and a group of seniors.
Year after year, he still had to leave. Calipari paused.
"But we have fought together for such a long time, and we have defeated powerful opponents one after another to reach this point. Then let's use tonight's victory to send each other off!!”
"Coach, don't be so emotional. Dorsey is crying.”
"Hey, I didn't."
" Liar, there is. Hahaha."
A group of burly boys surrounded Dorsey and started playing around.
Everyone knew how important tonight's game was. They had already made their final preparations. This kind of fighting was just to cover up their nervousness.
Zhang Luo was both nervous and enjoying this kind of competition.
In the afternoon.
The University of Memphis players got on the bus from the hotel and headed to the Alamo Arena.
Arriving at the stadium, conducting pre-match interviews, entering the locker room, changing equipment, warming up
The pre-match preparations were carried out in an orderly manner!
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。