There are only two days left until the regular season begins.

At eight o'clock that evening, Herb Sandek came to the stadium office and took out the video of the University of Arizona's invitational tournament to watch.

He used his connections and went through great pains to get the video. It was not easy to get such a thing in this era.

And from his focused eyes and tense body, you can feel the pressure on his shoulders.

Before coming to the Devils, he coached at North Carolina State University for ten years, with a record of 22 wins and 10 losses in his last year, but after coming to Arizona State University last season, he went directly to 8 wins and 22 losses.

Although this is partly due to the talent of the players, the team's record is worse than the previous season (11 wins and 17 losses), and he, as the head coach, is also to blame.

Although the NCAA head coaching position is much more stable than the NBA, if he fails to improve this season, he will also be fired.

So last summer, he first went to Seattle to find Xu Yong and observed Xu Yong's games for two and a half months. When other schools still had prejudices against Asians and put Xu Yong at the last priority, he decisively offered a full scholarship and a starting commitment to win Xu Yong.

Then, he performed another wave of "atmospheric operations". While others were trying to persuade Harden, he directly persuaded Pera and then successfully won Harden.

Judging from his performance in the invitational tournament, the work he did met or even exceeded expectations.

But he knew that wasn't enough.

So before asking his players to do better, he must do more himself.

Two hours later, he turned off the video and left the office.

As he passed by the team's training hall, he heard the sound of dribbling inside.

He looked at his watch and it was already past ten o'clock in the evening.

Driven by curiosity, he walked to the door and saw the scene inside through the half-open door.

Xu Yong was engaged in a one-on-one attack and defense with Cooksix, and the two men's muscles were colliding with great intensity.

He looked relieved that someone was already working hard before he opened his mouth.

But soon, his mood changed from relief to surprise.

After the one-on-one offense and defense, Xu Yong directly started three-point training.

It is difficult to guarantee the shooting accuracy immediately after such a high-intensity confrontation, but as a result, Xu Yong's shooting accuracy remained quite good.

He knew that Xu Yong's three-point shooting was not very stable, but when he thought about it carefully, Xu Yong's three-point shooting was indeed much more stable in recent times, but it was not noticeable because he did not shoot much and the volume did not increase.

He nodded with satisfaction at the end. He had put Xu Yong's "priority" first, even before Harden.

As it turned out, his choice was absolutely right.

…

The next day, in the Devils' locker room, half an hour before practice was about to start, Ship was playing like crazy in front of his Xbox 360.

"Jay, did you go out with your girlfriend to practice ball handling last night? Your touch is so good!"

Ayers, who had just been defeated, put down his controller and stood up to complain.

Before Ship could answer, his teammates began to whistle and heckle.

Because Harden sat down.

"It looks like your winning streak will end here." Glaser, who also has rich ball control experience, said.

Harden also looked calm. He started playing the Halo series since it was released in 2001, and he is even more familiar with this game than basketball.

Xu Yong was also standing aside at this time. Although the images that looked very advanced to others looked like .mp4 quality to him, he was also curious about the outcome of the battle between the two.

The two people played in a battle mode, similar to the future CS, with split-screen battles and two wins out of three.

In the first game, Shipp maintained his hot hand and attacked Harden. After Harden failed to dodge continuously, his health bar soon dropped to the bottom and he was defeated.

Everyone shook their heads as they watched. There really was no one who could cure Ship today.

The second game was extremely intense. The two players used their dodging skills to the extreme and the fight lasted for nearly ten minutes.

In the end, Harden showed his absolute strength, killing Ship with a sliver of health left and winning the second game with difficulty.

The moment Harden scored, the locker room was boiling with whistles and cheers coming one after another.

This scene gives you the same pleasure as killing a game boss.

But this was only the second game, the third and decisive game, and everyone was staring at the screen.

This time, Shipp came up recklessly and charged directly at Harden.

Harden was caught off guard and started the game with little health, so he gave up directly.

Just like Ayers said, this guy Ship had a really good touch today.

After winning, Ship also jumped up from his seat excitedly.

Compared to him, Harden is the real boss of this game.

This is the first time someone on the team has defeated Harden.

"Let's play another round. I was careless and didn't dodge just now." Harden said immediately.

"James, if you lose, you lose. Don't make excuses." Ship complained.

"One more game, I can definitely beat you," Harden continued.

"Guys, training is about to start." Xu Yong reminded them. He knew that Sandek was a very strict person.

"It won't take a lot of time, five minutes at most." Harden began to use provocation.

After hearing this, Ship sat down again. This was a bit humiliating for Harden.

"What if you lose?" But before picking up the game controller, Ship looked at Harden and asked.

"I'll treat everyone to dinner," Harden said.

As soon as he said this, the other teammates immediately became interested.

No student can refuse a free meal!

"Let's start quickly!" Harden urged.

After hearing this, Ship didn't hesitate and picked up the game controller again.

The fight between the two was still very intense, and Ship really performed above his level today.

However, Harden played much more seriously this time than in the previous game. In the end, relying on his hard power, he defeated Ship 2-1 and cleared his name.

"One more round!" Ship was also a little excited.

But before Harden could say anything, the locker room door was pushed open.

Sandek stood at the door with bloodshot eyes and a serious expression.

Seeing this, Harden and Ship were so scared that they immediately dropped their game controllers and stood up.

The power of the NCAA head coach is much greater than that of the NBA. It is no exaggeration to say that he can completely decide the future of most players.

Under the gaze of his teammates, Sandek walked to the TV and began to disassemble the Xbox 360.

But maybe he was not familiar with Xbox 360, he tried to take it apart for a while but failed, so he just pulled it off.

Everyone looked at each other, not daring to speak.

Sanders pulled off the Xbox 360 and left the locker room without saying anything, leaving the players at a loss.

"Ahem!" After a while, Pera walked in and motioned for the players to go to the training hall.

"Will the Xbox be damaged?"

"Even if it wasn't broken, the coach would have probably taken it apart..."

"It's all Jaylen's fault!"

…

After leaving the locker room, the players came to their senses and started talking about it.

"Scott, why is the coach so angry today?" Harden asked Pera, trying to find out something in advance.

His question also made others stop talking and look at Pera.

You know, even though they went a little too far, it wouldn't make Sandek so angry.

Pera shook his head. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, but that he didn't know either.

So, everyone came to the training hall with trepidation.

After a while, Sandek also came to the gym.

Pera gathered everyone together.

"How confident are you that you can make it to the championship in the new season? James." Sandek didn't talk about Xbox 360, but suddenly asked the question.

Harden didn't know why Sandek asked that. After thinking for a while, he replied, "Seven points."

Sandek nodded and then looked at Xu Yong.

"very."

Sandek was stunned for a moment, then looked at Ayers.

"Eight points."

"Seven points."

…

Most of the team members answered seven points or above, and the results of the invitational tournament gave them great confidence.

"So, do you think you can beat the University of Arizona, or the University of Southern California with OJ Mayo and Taj Gibson, or the Lopez brothers' Stanford University, or UCLA with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love?" Sandek continued to ask in a calm tone.

The players were all silent. Regardless of whether they had played against these teams before or not, no one dared to say that they were absolutely sure of defeating these players and the background of these powerful teams.

Or in other words, Sandek's words made them realize their situation.

They are in the Pac10 league, the strongest league in the NCAA Division I league, bar none!

The most direct evidence is that six of the league's ten teams made it to the final tournament last season.

Perhaps this number will be more striking if we compare it horizontally. There are 32 minor leagues in the first-level league and 36 wild-card team spots in the championship, which means there is one wild-card team in each league on average.

But the Pac10 league had five last season!

This does not mean that they have a greater chance of entering the championship in this league, on the contrary, they are born in "hell".

"If you make it to the tournament, I'll give each of you an Xbox, but before that, your Xboxes will be with me. This is the price you pay for not being able to attend training on time." After Sandek finished speaking, he directly signaled Pella to lead the training.

This training session was unusually dull, not only because of Sandek's attitude, but also because of what he said.

If the results of the invitational tournament made them soar to the sky, then Sandek's words pulled them down from the sky and threw them heavily to the ground.

After the training, Harden went to the cultural class with Xu Yong. He pulled Xu Yong to sit in the last row of the classroom.

"Xu, is Coach Sandek too strict?" Harden put the book on the table and leaned over to ask.

The team was playing well in the invitational tournament and their morale was high, but this training session destroyed all the morale.

Xu Yong shook his head, stood up his book, and replied, "I used to think Sandek was strict, but after today, I think he is a wise coach."

Harden was startled and his head knocked the book over. He immediately stood up again and asked in confusion, "Why?"

"James, don't you think the strength of our opponents in the invitational tournament is average?" Xu Yong asked back.

Harden thought about it, then nodded.

The University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University, the University of Texas, and Indiana University are not the strongest teams in their respective leagues, and the others are even mid- and lower-level teams.

"After all, we were a team that didn't win many games last season. We need games like this to build confidence," Xu Yong continued.

The opponents for the invitational tournament are negotiated between the schools themselves. Who to play against depends entirely on one's own wishes and the other party's wishes.

In other words, you can choose to play against a strong team as long as the other team is willing. If you win, your impression points with the NCAA organizing committee will increase greatly, but you may lose many games.

On the contrary, if you choose a weaker team, it will be like the Devils now, the record will look good, but winning is just winning.

Harden reacted immediately: "Coach Sandek used the invitational tournament to build our confidence, but because we won so many games, we were a little too confident, so he found a chance to pour cold water on us?"

Xu Yong nodded, Harden is very smart.

He went on to say, "Even if there was no Xbox thing, there would be other things. Don't you want to prove yourself now?"

Harden suddenly realized that although he felt that Sandek was very strict, he did have a strong desire to play.

"We will make it to the tournament," Xu Yong said with a firm tone, and put the book down.

The team has the strength on paper and the head coach is of good standard, so they can even set their goals further ahead.

Harden also put down the book, his eyes full of anticipation.