The Way of the Center

The Kansas State University Wildcats locker room has never been quieter than it is today, except for the heavy breathing of the players, there is no noise of any kind. When Rick Chris opened the door and walked into the locker room, he thought he was in the wrong place.

All the players kept their heads buried, except for Michael Beasley who killed all four sides by himself in the first half. He glanced at his teammates in the locker room with his naturally disdainful eyes, and didn't know what to say for a while.

"What? The other party has beaten you up? We're only five points behind!" Chris suddenly yelled, startling many people.

"Martins! Tell me, are you intimidated by that Asian center!"

"No! I..." Martins wanted to say something, but he didn't seem to have a good performance against An Jie in the first half of the scene. end.

"Don't worry, their suicide attempt in the first half can only open the point difference to five points, but only five points have cost them too much. What you have to face in the second half It's just a bunch of guys who are too tired to move their legs, and by then, you'll have complete control of the game!" Chris began to encourage his players.

"Beasley, you still have to sit on the bench for me at the beginning of the second half. I will naturally send you up when the time is right, and then your task will only be one, to win the game!"

"I know the coach, I will not let you down." Beasley likes to play such a role.

On the other side, the locker room of the Iowa State University Cyclones was still very calm. Everyone knew that there were still 20 minutes to play in the game, and only by persevering could they win the final victory.

"I know that the five minutes just made you all exhausted, but I believe in the results of such high-intensity physical training for all of us. I will let the substitutes play first at the beginning of the second half. I think you have had enough rest." Ricard glanced at the rotation players of his second team.

"We're all strong, boss," Asakin replied truthfully.

"Very good. Beasley will definitely not play at the beginning of the second half. In the first half, his playing time was comparable to that of your starters, so he also needs rest just like you. At this time, I hope that the rotation players can play. Brace yourself. I don't want the Wildcats to settle the fight before Beasley comes on."

"As soon as Beasley comes on the court, the five of you will join me! His physical recovery may not be as good as yours, and his offensive efficiency will definitely drop at this time. Anjie and Morris, you two continue to fight their insides in the second half." , Of course, other people don’t just watch, they all run for me actively.” Ricard drew a few pick-and-roll routes without the ball on the tactical board.

"The strategy for defending Beasley remains the same. Stick to him and block him. No matter how good Beasley is, he's not enough to consume with the five players on the field!"

The coaches of both sides have completed the adjustments to their teams in a short period of time. As for the effect, we will only know when the players return to the court.

………………..

At the beginning of the second half, as Ricard expected, Michael Beasley was still firmly pressed on the bench. Even the Wildcats have three of the five players on the field as substitute players. Ricard let out a long breath, this first move was considered correct.

Although both sides are basically playing in the second team, the process is still intense. It's just that compared with the crazy five minutes in the first half, the viewing experience has naturally dropped a lot.

In the second half, the game went on and off for more than six minutes in a calm and uneventful environment. The Cyclones still maintained their lead with the efforts of substitute players. But Chris is not in a hurry, and Ricard is not complacent.

Finally, after a timeout at 6 minutes and 47 seconds in the second half,

Michael Beasley took the towel off his neck and Chris sent him on!

"Remember what I said! Play more inside! Actively run! Look for physical confrontation! From now on, the game is up to you!" Ricard clapped his hands vigorously and urged his starting five tigers to play, the real decisive battle , from now on.

"Oh? Coach Ricard seems to have arranged a countermeasure long ago. As soon as the Wildcats replaced Beasley, Ricard brought all his starting staff back to the court. It seems that the coaches of both sides are preparing Gave it a go in the last thirteen minutes."

………………..

From the first touch of the ball, Beasley decided to vent all the energy he had held back into the offense. However, when he faced Anthony Ben again, he realized that the intensity of physical confrontation at this time had completely improved by a level compared to the first half.

But Beasley can still find a hundred ways to break through Ben's defense, and another fifty ways to dissolve Morris' help defense. He was still unstoppable in the next few attacks and succeeded again and again. But what he doesn't know is that every time he scores, he needs to consume much more energy than in the first half. Even if you can still score goals, it takes several times more effort than before due to increased defensive intensity.

Beasley kept scoring on the offensive end, while the Wildcats kept dropping points on the defensive end. Facing Anjie, Martins had no confidence in himself. He was no longer as frizzy as in the first half, but seemed timid. He was afraid that An Jie would use another fake move to shake himself like a fool. Who made An Jie's back-up technique comprehensive, Martins couldn't guess which of An Jie's moves was real and which one was fake. As a result, there were often pictures of Anjie making various offensive moves on the court, but Martins did not respond. He just watched An Jie score again and again on his head, not daring to take off rashly to interfere.

Chris is eager to replace Martins and scold him bloody, but his starting center has been beaten like this, who else can he count on. It seems that the problem of weak insiders is much more serious than he imagined.

Apart from An Jie, the other four players also performed well, and their integrity is strong, which may be the biggest feature of this whirlwind team. When Anjie was double-teamed and unable to complete the offense, there would always be a teammate who stood up and scored for him. It made Chris wonder whether he should continue to double-team Anjie.

The Cyclones are attacking with five people, while the Wildcats' offensive burden is all on Beasley's body. He is now doing the work of the other five people alone, and the physical exertion is obvious.

The two sides just come and go, taking the lead alternately. Until there were two minutes left in the game, Beasley finally couldn't hold on anymore.

His shooting percentage began to decline significantly, and due to lack of physical strength, the number of outside shots he chose began to gradually increase. As for the rest of the Wildcats, their fighting spirit and physical strength have long been exhausted by the undead Cyclone players. The psychological pressure has all come to the Wildcats. This kind of helplessness about the imminent failure cannot be broken by one or two shots.

The Wildcats went through another minute in the passive situation of the game. At this time, the score had become 74 to 80, and the Cyclones held a six-point lead. However, he scored 80 points, which is considered a high score in the NCAA arena.

Beasley didn't give up, he still started to get the ball from the baseline and then pushed all the way to the three-point line. He puts Anthony Ben up with a realistic Bow Fake, steps aside, and shoots from outside the three-point line. This was Beasley's fourth shot after missing three consecutive shots, but this time, the basketball flew into the basket accurately.

"Beasley made a three-pointer! He pulled the Wildcats back from the cliff by himself. There are 48 seconds left in the game, and both sides should have a chance to attack! Even if the two teams reach the last moment, The game is still inextricably tied." Philips explained that the speed of the game became very fast, and the whole situation suddenly became tense.

Mike Taylor was also received by the opponent's press this time. He carefully controlled the ball, step by step, and finally succeeded in bringing the ball to the opponent's half. Taylor looked up to find someone, but found that both Anjie and Morris were being taken care of. It seemed that this attack had to think of other ways.

The high-post pick-and-roll with Anjie several times didn't work well, and the shooter Cruz has been suffering from being unable to get out of position and getting shots. As for Anthony Ben, who was more defensive than offensive, he was locked out of the three-point line by Beasley.

With only ten seconds left on the shot clock, the Wildcats could stop the opponent's chance to score as long as they didn't foul. Mike Taylor had no choice but to change direction from left to right, and then a cross step opened up a little breakthrough space. But the opponent's point guard did a good job of defending this time, and before Taylor started, the slight gap was filled back. Taylor had no choice but to force a shot from outside the three-point line before the end of the offensive clock. Mike Taylor was not Beasley, and the ball didn't go in. Instead, it hit the basket and bounced far away. Beasley jumped up and stretched out his long arms to confiscate the rebound. At the same time, after seeing Beasley get the ball, Chris immediately used the last timeout of the Wildcats. He wanted to arrange the final timeout for Beasley Shooting tactics.

"Don't even think about it, Beasley is their only choice. We don't want overtime! I want you to take the victory away in more than ten seconds! They will definitely arrange for Beasley to catch the ball and shoot a three-pointer. We just need Try to contain Beasley, it doesn't matter even if the basket is empty! Anthony, you will continue to stick to Beasley for me later, be careful not to be fouled by him, if he wants two points, give him. Just guard this Three-pointer, the victory of this game belongs to us! Shut up those commentators who don’t understand! We will be the only winners of this game!” Ricard recalled what he saw this morning That review about the Cyclones.

The short pause is so long in the hearts of the fans, as if they have been waiting for a century. They can't wait to see the team harvest their first win of the season. Although the game is not over yet, the performance of the Cyclones players has given their fans enough confidence.

After returning to the court, the sideline ball was sent directly to Beasley. After he got the ball, he has been controlling the ball near the center circle, and it seems that he wants to compress some time.

With ten seconds left in the race, Beasley finally started. But this time his teammates didn't act as spectators anymore, but set up a double pick-and-roll cover for him from left to right.

Anthony wanted to bypass Martins who came up to cover, but was blocked by Martins who moved secretly.

Move the pick and roll! Ben quickly spread his hand towards the referee, but the referee ignored it. His attention was all on Beasley, and he didn't see Martins' illegal action.

"Damn it!" Ben quickly turned around and rushed towards Beasley, but it was too late. Beasley is already holding the ball with both hands at the top arc of the three-point line, ready to shoot.

Just as Beasley was about to release the ball, An Jie suddenly shot out from one side.

"This...where did he come from!" Beasley yelled in his heart that it was not good. Under the threat of An Jie's height and wingspan, he had to increase the arc if he wanted not to be blocked.

Anjie rushed towards Beasley immediately after seeing Ben being blocked. In order not to foul, he didn't really intend to block the ball, but just wanted to interfere with Beasley's shooting as much as possible.

Beasley, who turned up the arc, was a little uncertain. No one would know whether the ball would go in or not. The air at the scene seemed to freeze, and tens of thousands of eyes were fixed on the orange basketball.

""! Due to having to increase the arc, the basketball finally hit the basket's neck. Morris stuck in position and took the rebound steadily. Then, he threw the ball directly to the other side of the court without giving the Wildcats a chance to foul. The end-of-game whistle blew as the basketball flew to the other half of the court.

Immediately! The whole stadium exploded, and the cheering fans let out their biggest shouts.

An Jie saw Morris running over while yelling at him, but he couldn't hear what the other party was yelling.

Morris rushed to Angie and hugged the skinny Asian boy.

"We won! We won!" An Jie heard what he was yelling when his ears came close to Morris's mouth.

Other players also rushed into the court one after another, some hugged each other, some ran aimlessly, and some jumped up and down. Only Rickard was relatively calm. After shaking hands with Rick Chris, he just stood on the sidelines with his waist in his arms and smiled, then turned his head and gave his wife in the audience a thumbs up.

At this moment no one knew where Michael Beasley and his Wildcats had gone, and no one cared. The group of lads who are carnival on the field are the only protagonists on this stage.

This night belongs only to the Iowa State University Cyclones, and this night belongs only to Anjie and all his teammates. This evening belongs only to the winners on the field!

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