Junior Basketball says

Chapter 115 Stanford

埃文斯教练召开队内会议的日子是当地时间2008年12月30日，而亚利桑那州大本赛季第一场常规赛的时间则是2009年1月2日，也就是说队员们根本没有多少休息时间。

Fortunately, the schedule is still very friendly to Arizona State University.Although there are many strong opponents in the same district, the first thing they have to face is a relatively weak team-Stanford University Cardinals.

Stanford University's historical record is actually very impressive. They have won 1 national championship, 7 league division championships, 16 NCAA championships, and 4 sweet 16. The team has trained 26 All-Americans. Best player, 74 league division best players.They've made it to the national championship nine times in the past ten seasons.

However, after the Lopez brothers participated in the NBA draft last year, Stanford's strength has fallen off a cliff. It can be said that it has been reduced to the bottom of the Pacific Ten Schools League. It is not difficult for Arizona State University to win.

Even so, Evans still sounded the alarm to the players.After all, Stanford has a tradition of strong teams. If everyone thinks that they can beat their opponents casually, then it is very likely that they will lose the game in the end, which would be embarrassing.

At present, the core player of Stanford is their shooting guard Anthony Gus. As Arizona State University's starting shooting guard, Harden also got an extra task: try his best to limit Gus's offense during the game.

Evans didn't dare to use Harden like this last season. After all, he is the main scoring point of the team. Too much consumption on the defensive end may lead to weak offensive performance.But with Xu Hao, Harden can do other things on the court. Anyway, teammates including Xu Hao and Hayward can share his scoring pressure and help him play a more comprehensive performance.

The only bad news is that this is an away game, and the Arizona State team must go to Palo Alto, next to San Francisco, California, to participate in the game. Such a long journey is a big test for the physical fitness of the players.

In order to allow everyone to adapt as soon as possible, Evans took the players to Stanford University the day before the game, and directly canceled all the training of the day, just to let the players rest and accumulate energy in the hotel room.

At 1 o'clock in the evening on January 2, the game was held at the Maple Leaf Arena of Stanford University.Although Stanford is famous for its academic level, their basketball atmosphere is also very good. The entire arena is almost full, and many Stanford students shouted the names of the players hoarsely in the auditorium. When the Cardinals players appeared on the court, The atmosphere at the scene reached its climax.

Among the cheers of the fans, the Cardinals took the lead in attacking.But Xu Hao was surprised that it was not Gus who first helped the Cardinals score, but their swingman Landry Fields.He forcibly broke through Cooks for two consecutive layups. His movements were so dexterous that Ailes, who was guarding the basket, couldn't find a chance to block the shot, so he could only watch him score.

Xu Hao glanced at the sidelines, and Coach Evans made a gesture to him, signaling him to restrict Fields.Logically speaking, this matter should not be left to Xu Hao, a point guard, but firstly, Xu Hao's height of 1.96 meters is enough to play the second position, and there is not much pressure to match up with Fields; The player with the best perimeter defense on the team, who will he be?
Fields, who had earned a lot of attention in front of the home fans, soon felt tremendous pressure from the Chinese youth in front of him.Xu Hao's defense does not seem to be very aggressive, but his ability to predict is very strong, and his observation is also very meticulous. He can always block Fields' advance route first, forcing him to choose the three-point line A direct pull-up jumper from the outside.

It's a pity that this is the way Fields is least good at scoring.In fact, his three-pointers are still good, but he is more used to catching and shooting from the outside. Let him hold the ball to face Xu Hao's defense to create shooting space, which is really difficult for him.

When Fields was marked to death by Xu Hao, the Cardinals' offense quickly stagnated, and they were unable to stop the Sun Devils' ace backcourt combination on the defensive end.The head coach of the Cardinals, Johnny Dawkins, also tried to let his players fully block Xu Hao and Harden, but he soon found that everything was in vain, and the gap in hard power between the two sides was too great.Not to mention that in addition to them, Hayward and Ayers also took on part of the scoring task, which is almost impossible to guard against.

Seeing that the visiting team quickly took the lead, the students of Stanford University booed Xu Hao and the others without hesitation, but they could not prevent them from occupying an absolute advantage with 49 to 35 at the end of the first half.Xu Hao and Harden, the two scoring arrows, have raised their scoring to double digits, and the Cardinals' defense is basically full of loopholes in front of them.

Dawkins threw a tantrum in the locker room at halftime, but it didn't help.The Cardinals were okay last season; with the Lopez brothers having an advantage in the paint, they don't have any advantage now.Although Dawkins didn't say anything, he has lowered his goal a lot in his heart: as long as the loss is not too ugly, it will be fine.

It's a pity that his wish was not fulfilled. After the start of the second half, the players of the Sun Devils were still killing each other on the field, scoring points like cutting melons and vegetables.Although Gus and Fields also tried their best to get rid of the defense and drive their teammates, the point difference between the two sides soon reached more than 20 points, and even the voices of the fans on the sidelines became weak.

When there were more than five minutes left in the game, Evans replaced all the main players, and he planned to withdraw his troops.The game has been overwhelmed, it is better to let the main players rest as soon as possible, so as not to waste energy.

Even so, the Cardinals failed to narrow the point difference to single digits in the end, and had no choice but to accept the defeat in the first game of the regular season.The final score of the two sides was 80 to 68, and Arizona State easily achieved a big victory.The backcourt combination of Xu Hao and Harden is naturally the hero of the team's victory. The former scored 21 points, 3 rebounds and 9 assists, while the latter scored 28 points and 5 rebounds.In addition, Hayward and Ayers also contributed 15 and 13 points respectively.

When the coaches of the two sides shook hands after the game, Dawkins looked very helpless. He forced a smile and said: "Your backcourt combination is very good. If you can continue to maintain this state, they must be one of the best backcourts this season. .”

Evans said with a smile: "No, in my eyes, they are the best in the country!"

(End of this chapter)