The Way of the Center

The high-intensity physical training lasted for half a month. Of course, the content was not just monotonous back and forth running.

Rope skipping, push-ups, squats, dumbbells... all items related to physical training have been added by Ricard, but the players still haven't touched the ball once in the half-month training.

Due to boring and a lot of training, another seven people voluntarily gave up and quit, and now only 20 people are still insisting on coming to the basketball court to report every day.

After half a month, most of the players have already adapted to this kind of training intensity. Only a few players still feel very strenuous in these events, and An Jie is one of them who has not yet adapted.

He was able to grit his teeth and insist on completing the goals arranged by Ricard, but it was very difficult to complete.

There is still one and a half months before the start of the new season, and the team roster has not yet been finalized, and Ricard can't wait for everyone to meet the standards, so he has to speed up the progress of training.

………………..

As usual, the first training session of the day was still a one-hour shuttle run. After the run, the players sat casually on the floor of the basketball court and chatted, waiting for the push-ups after the break. But today, Ricard's words aroused all the enthusiasm of the players.

"Get well, guys." Ricard yelled loudly and clapped his hands.

"We're not doing push-ups. Today, we're going to practice defense."

"Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo~!"

An Jie also let out a rare roar. He was really suffocated and needed to vent his emotions. After each training, he didn't even have the strength to walk, let alone go to the field to play. If he didn't touch the basketball, he'd already been suffocated.

"Go get the basketball over there, gentlemen." Ricard pointed to a basket of basketballs that was pushed in by Moore when everyone was not paying attention. Who knows what kind of energy these hungry wolf cubs can burst out of? Come?

………………..

Double-teaming, full-court pressing, zone defense, zone double-teaming, misplaced defense, defensive posture... Ricard tried to explain tactics in the most vivid and popular way. For example, before talking about full-court pressing, Ricard Speaking of a pet dog he raised in college. The young guys below had never heard anyone talk about tactics like this, so they listened more seriously one by one.

"Maya, that's a pure black Labrador Retriever. It looks loyal, honest, and majestic, and it can attract the attention of many girls when you take it out." Ricard had a smirk on his face.

"But one thing about this dog is just giving me such a headache. He's always staring at everything I do, like he has nothing else to do. I don't finish my drink, and he keeps barking, and I I forgot to turn off my computer, and it kept barking. Even when I was making out with a girl, it would never let me go. God, this big dog is really noisy when it barks, and being stared at by it all the time makes me manic Uneasy." Ricard scratched his hair, as if he was going crazy just thinking about this past event.

"So when I call Maya on the sidelines, it means we have to press the whole court. We have to stare at the opponent from the beginning to the end like Maya, making them irritable and unable to play their own rhythm and smooth offense." It was only here that Ricard began to talk about the various demands of the audience.

The young people below were not bored by hearing the tactics at all, but remembered them very firmly. Because Ricard has prepared a short story for each tactic, and each story can always correspond to their tactic. This kind of explanation impresses the players and will not forget them.

"Okay!" After explaining all the tactics, Ricard dropped the tactical board in his hand.

"I think you can't wait any longer."

"Yes, Coach.

Let's get started. "The players are already gearing up.

"Now, I'll divide you into groups, and then we'll start training with the ball. The offensive side can play in whatever way you like, and the defensive side has to do what I just said. After ten shots, the offensive and defensive sides switch. If I am not satisfied, the confrontation will stop immediately until I finish explaining the problems that arise. So if you want to play more smoothly and enjoyable, you'd better follow my request. I hope to see what I just said in the confrontation All the content." After speaking, Ricard picked up the list and began to group.

His grouping has no special purpose, but is randomly distributed according to the positions the players occupy on the field. There were only two exceptions, Andrew Morris and An Jie, he deliberately put them in the same group. One is the tallest in the team, and the other is the strongest in the team. One of the first positions is the fifth position, and the other can be changed to the fourth position. Ricard is eager to see what effect the combination of the two of them will have.

………………..

Morris was a little disappointed when he was read to be in the same group as An Jie. Since the duel between the two of them was not decided on the first day of training, and Morris firmly believed that he could defeat this thin tall man with three successes, so he had been waiting for the opportunity to prove it. It's good now, after finally getting through the stage of training without the ball, when the opportunity came, he became An Jie's teammate.

"Don't get in my way later!" Morris said to An Jie angrily, and ran to warm up alone.

"You brute, thank God if you can remember half of what the coach said." This was the first time An Jie responded to Morris' words.

The long-lost sound of the basketball colliding with the wooden floor sounded again. During half a month of physical training, the basketball court had never heard such a sound. People who didn’t know thought the basketball team had disbanded.

Twenty players were divided into four teams to practice in two halves, zone defense, pressing, and double-teaming. Ricard wanted to see everything he said today in the rehearsal.

An Jie's team started the first round of group confrontation as the defensive side. In addition to the defensive side where Anjie and Morris are, the first team as the offensive side also has a starting candidate that Rickard is very concerned about, Mike Taylor, who is already a junior.

Cropped cuts, sporty headbands, dark skin, toned muscles. Taylor's appearance is very ordinary and has no characteristics. With a height of 1.88 meters and a weight of 75 kilograms, he is quite satisfactory in the position of point guard. Taylor transferred to Iowa State University this semester due to family reasons. In his freshman and sophomore seasons, he represented Chipalo University in 64 games, averaging 9.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. It's not good or bad data, but in Ricard's view, his scoring and assisting abilities have yet to be developed. As long as he guides the correct data, he can go to another level.

In addition, Taylor's reaction speed is very fast, and stealing is also a potential killer of Taylor. With the existence of these three people, the confrontation in this group can be said to be a lot to watch in the eyes of Ricard.

The confrontation began, and it was indeed Mike Taylor who was on the offensive side to control the ball. He is more experienced than everyone on the field, advancing unhurriedly, observing the running positions of his teammates.

Suddenly, with a flick of his wrist, the basketball quickly passed through the crowd and flew towards the three-second zone. The white center named Asakin just got to the position to receive the ball. An Jie didn't dare to slack off, and immediately stretched out an arm to support Asakin's back.

Asakin may be the heaviest player on the team, although he doesn't look as strong as Morris but he is huge. He leaned against An Jie like a big white bear leaning on a small branch, feeling that as long as Asakin exerted a little force, the small branch behind the white bear might be broken at any time.

Asakin clapped the ball with both hands, and then leaned back. The strength may not be great, but the weight does take too much advantage.

Sure enough, An Jie was knocked to the ground directly, Asakin did not hesitate, he easily jumped at 2.16 meters and completed a dunk. In the final analysis, the ball is still due to An Jie's being too thin to withstand the impact. If Morris were to defend, Asakin would not be able to succeed so easily.

"Damn." Morris looked dissatisfied at An Jie who fell on the ground, and didn't even think about going up to help his teammates, but Asakin himself pulled An Jie up.

In the attacking side's second attack, Mike Taylor repeated his tricks and quickly passed the ball to Asakin's hands. But this time Morris will not just watch the opposing player score easily in the penalty area. He helps defend to the basket and prepares to double-team Asakin with Anjie.

Asakin is not the kind of player who pushes the show, he is a typical representative of the good boy of the academic school. Therefore, instead of trying to force his way in the face of a double-team, he passed the ball to Taylor who had already sneaked into the corner.

Due to Morris' help defense, the opponent's fourth position went out unscrupulously and played an off-ball pick-and-roll cooperation for Taylor, blocking Taylor's matchup in front of him, and Taylor also ran to the unguarded area as he wished. Received a pass from Asakin and got an open shot outside the corner three-point line.

Without hesitation, as a player who has played in the NCAA for two years, he is full of confidence in this kind of ball. Sure enough, the basketball shot into the net accurately and hollowly.

"What's wrong with the bottom corner...Damn it!" Realizing that the point was lost due to his choice of double-teaming, Morris let out angrily. Now they are two goals behind, all because of the poor defense of the inside players.

"There won't be a next time, my fault." Although Morris is competitive, he never shirks responsibility if his opponent scores due to his own poor performance.

"Don't worry about me here, I'll try my best to resist." An Jie saw that Morris lowered his posture, and felt that there was no need to fight him anymore. After all, they are teammates now, and the person who really wants to beat is now five. It's ahead of zero.

"Come on!" Morris growled, and the third round of the contest between the two sides began.

Mike Taylor and Asakin played a pick-and-roll, which was good quality. After the pick-and-roll, Asakin did not stand still and wait, but quickly went down.

Taylor slammed east and west and prepared to break through, but actually hit the ball to the ground with a no-look pass to Asakin who was running down.

Due to the high quality of the pick-and-roll just now, Taylor's matchup was completely blocked, and Anjie had to dislocate and defend in front of Taylor. So it is An Jie's point guard who is chasing Asakin now, which cannot pose a threat to Asakin rushing to the basket at all.

Seeing Asakin coming in with the ball, Morris immediately went to defend and blocked Asakin's path. Asakin wanted to squeeze Morris away and force a layup. Although Asakin had an advantage in weight, Morris was too strong, and he was full of strength. After half a month of devil training, he is now tougher than when he confronted An Jie.

Seeing that Morris did not move an inch, Asakin passed the ball to the power forward teammate who had run to the basket and was left unattended. The basket was already empty, and their third goal seemed to be a certainty.

The offensive power forward held the ball with both hands and took off. Seeing that his hands were getting closer and closer to the basket, at the moment he was about to dunk the ball into the basket, a big hand slapped the ball away from behind and nailed it firmly. On the backboard, the opponent's power forward can only hang the frame empty-handed and return without success.

It's Anjie! When Morris went to make up defense, he saw the opponent's 4th player running towards the basket while asking for the ball, and Anjie rushed over like crazy. With a height of 2.19 meters and a wingspan of 2.34 meters, this height is enough for Anjie to block the ball before it is dunked.

The feeling of successfully blocking a shot is what An Jie likes the most, not to mention that it is such a wonderful pegboard cap. At this moment, the blood in his whole body is burning, so An Jie waved his fist unconsciously.

"Nice job boy!" Morris rushed over and patted An Jie on the head. This defense was the result of the joint efforts of the two of them. He first helped An Jie defend, and An Jie took care of his back. The two of them ensured the safety of the penalty area.

If you do well on the court, you will earn the respect of others, and actions are everything. After this wonderful block, Morris seems to have forgotten how much he hated the tall, yellow-skinned man before. He just couldn't help but want to celebrate with the creator of the block.

Although the advantages of Anjie's height and wingspan are shown, the disadvantage of insufficient confrontation is also infinitely magnified.

Asakin can still do whatever he wants when playing one-on-one with Anjie. The attacking side didn't need any tactics at all. As long as Taylor fed the ball safely to Asakin's hands, the attack would be sure.

An Jie's attitude was very positive, and he did not give up lightly and was desperately fighting against Asakin. But with a height of 2.19 meters and a weight of only 87 kilograms, to fight against Asakin who is 124 kilograms, such a physical gap cannot be made up with a positive attitude.

The opponent's ten shots were finally finished, and Anjie and the others only defended four of them. Mike Taylor did not disappoint Rickard, he handled the offense very well, and it was even when the whole team hadn't rehearsed the offense.

Even if the inside has a great advantage, it is not an easy task to comfortably feed the ball to the center.

For example, Yao Ming, who is playing for the Houston Rockets, has been lacking a teammate who can feed him comfortably.

Although the impact is slightly worse, Taylor's shooting is very stable. At the position of point guard, there should be no one who can compete with Taylor, who has two years of NCAA experience.

……………….

Next, the offense and defense were switched, and it was Anjie's turn to attack.

"It's okay, they still can't guard us." Morris stared at the basket, ready to fight.

Morris took the ball, and he was going to retaliate the way the other side treated Anjie. Although it is true that no one can stop his advancement, Morris' shortcoming is his rough technique. Except for a dunk directly at the basket after squeezing the matchup, he failed to hit two consecutive hooks.

Morris, who had already wasted two opportunities, received a pass from his teammate again, but the opponent was not stupid. This time, the defender of Morris was replaced by Asakin who could fight against him.

Morris still tried and pushed back hard. But Asakin was like a hill, standing motionless behind Morris.

Seeing that Morris could not continue to advance to the basket, he passed the ball to his small forward, Anthony Ben, who was also a freshman.

Ben is a three-position player with poor shooting accuracy but excellent athletic ability and defensive ability. He had no doubts after receiving the ball, took the ball and went straight to the penalty area.

Ben flew past his defenders like a gust of wind and plunged into the already crowded paint. But... There seems to be one less person in the three-second zone.

Everyone knows Anthony. Ben's excellent physical fitness and athletic ability, as long as he is given a gap, he may stage a wonderful dunk. So no one dared to slack off, his breakthrough attracted three people to defend in the penalty area, including the opponent's power forward who was supposed to defend Anjie.

As a center forward, An Jie didn't squeeze under the basket. He had wandered to the 45-degree position on the right side of the mid-range while Ben broke through. This is his favorite shooting point. He only hopes that his teammates can see his Opportunity rather than a brain reckless.

Ben didn't disappoint Anjie, he didn't try to force a layup in the crowded paint, but in the process of breaking through, he sent the ball to the open with a very entertaining no-look pass in the hands of An Jie.

"Damn it!" The opponent's power forward rushed out immediately, but it was useless.

"Shua!" An Jie finished the shot unhurriedly, and the basketball went into the net without any suspense, and the net didn't even roll over.

The shooting center is the type of defense most post players hate the most. They are used to always want to stay near the paint to protect the penalty area and the rebound, so this type of center will always find an open shot or two opportunities.

Off the field, Ricard couldn't help but laugh. This team showed a good offensive talent, but today's defense is not ideal. However, he does not plan to change the training plan for offense. He still firmly believes that a solid defense is the cornerstone of all success.

On the field, the teams of Anjie and Morris have scored four goals in a row. Among them, An Jie used his footsteps to pass Asakin in the paint to score an easy hook, and the other goal was still him, facing Asakin, he turned around and made a close-range jumper, which was still hit.

Anjie can be said to use his strengths and avoid weaknesses. He does not confront his opponent head-on, but uses his excellent shooting and post-up skills to score.

And with Anjie's restraint, Morris was even more overwhelmed inside. He faced the one-on-one defense of his own matchup, unscrupulously using his physical advantage to stalk the basket again and again in the interior.

On the offensive end, the combination of Anjie and Morris can be said to be the most efficient in this team. Asakin can be a very useful blue-collar player, but he can only make a difference on the offensive end when facing an insider of Anjie's weight.

Ricard had seen enough, he picked up the whistle hanging on his chest, put it in his mouth, and blew it vigorously.

"Okay! Stop it for me!" His loud voice remained the same. "I said that you can't keep your mouths idle when you are defending. You have to keep making noises to interfere with me. You start making noises the moment you post them, but I didn't hear a few people come as required. You think this is Playing on the field? We are training!"

"Keep your back straight and keep your butt down. This hand defends the pass line. This hand keeps interfering with his dribbling. It's okay to raise your hands high, but don't just raise your hands high." Ricard made a defensive posture with his hands Disqualified player, adjust his posture.

"Rest for ten minutes now, and then prepare your push-up meal. Anjie, come here." Ricard waved at Anjie.

An Jie didn't dare to neglect, and trotted a few steps to Ricard.

"What do you want from me, boss?"

Ricard patted An Jie on the shoulder. "You played well and were very aggressive."

"but?"

"But you are too skinny, I will ask Moore to give you a nutritional menu, you eat according to the menu and strengthen your training. If you want to play in the NCAA, you have to gain weight, and at the same time you have to maintain Your current weight is only a little heavier than some guards, let alone compared with inside players." Even if you haven't found a suitable center coach candidate, let's put Anjie's obvious lack of confrontation first. Let's solve it.

"As long as I can stay and play NCAA games, I'm willing to do anything." Without money or honor, Anjie just has a special dedication to basketball.

"Very good, let's go back to training." Rickard looked at the thin An Jie, and the appearance of Yao Ming when he first entered the NBA appeared in his mind...

………………..

The day of high-intensity training was over again, and Morris dragged his tired body on the forest path of the campus. All he could think about was the short-term cooperation with the tall and thin Asian guy today, and it made him feel very refreshed to play with him on the inside. Anyway, tomorrow is a rare day off, so forget about the damn training for now.

Morris is going to take out his phone and invite a few friends to go out and relax tomorrow. But when he put his hand in his trouser pocket, he found nothing.

"Oh shit!" He left his phone in the gym locker room.

It was dark when we walked to the entrance of the gymnasium, and there were only pedestrians walking around.

It stands to reason that there should be no one in the gymnasium, but Morris saw that the lights in the equipment training room were still on.

He gently pushed open the gate of the gymnasium. The door was unlocked, and the security guard in the duty room was also gone.

"What the hell?" Morris went straight to the equipment training room curiously, forgetting about getting his phone back.

The door of the equipment room was ajar. Morris poked his head in. There was only one person inside.

It was An Jie. He was naked on his upper body and was already dripping with sweat. At this moment, he was struggling to lift the dumbbells, and he didn't realize that Morris had already walked to the door.

"That's cheating, you bastard."

"Scared me to death, what are you doing back?" An Jie put down the dumbbell, picked up the handkerchief on the side and put it around his neck.

"You actually secretly practice here alone, you cunning guy. Tell me, where did you hide the guard's body?" Morris joked.

"He didn't want to work overtime because of me, so he gave me the key when he was off work, and told me to lock the door when I left." An Jie spread his hands, pretending to have a particularly innocent expression.

"Didn't you say that you have to work part-time at night?"

"I'm quitting. I have to gain weight. If I want to gain weight, I have to train more. I don't have any other time except at night."

"You lunatic, don't you think the abnormal training during the day is not enough for you? Practice slowly, I don't want to help you carry Asakin's meat mountain all the time." Morris got up, ready to take his mobile phone and leave.

"Don't worry, partner. I won't let you worry about it forever."

"Ha, are you a partner?" Morris didn't say anything, but smiled silently with his back to An Jie.

At twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, even the moon was covered by thick clouds, the streets were already empty, and there was not even a shadow under the street lamps. Most of the blocks in Ames City are already dark, and the last building of Iowa State University that emits light has also retreated into the darkness. Only at this time, the lights of the gymnasium are finally willing to go out...

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