The next afternoon, the team members took the school bus to Tucson, where the University of Arizona is located.
Tucson is the second largest city in Arizona after Phoenix, more than 100 kilometers away from Phoenix and a one and a half hour drive.
The bus stopped directly on campus, and they got off and arrived at the McKell Center, the main arena of the University of Arizona.
The game was at 7pm, about four hours before start.
When Xu Yong got off the car, he saw that there were already quite a few fans at the entrance of the stadium, most of them were students, and there were also quite a few social workers.
And after entering the stadium, they can hear the cheers of the fans.
Following the sound to the entrance of the main stadium, they discovered that the Wildcats were training inside and there were many fans sitting in the stands on both sides.
The University of Arizona is a powerful school, and since there is no NBA team in Tucson, the Wildcats are almost the only home team for local basketball fans and are quite popular.
Just then Pera came over and greeted a few people. Their training ground was in the training hall.
They arrived at the training hall and found the door was still locked. It took them half an hour before someone came to open the door for them.
Moreover, the training hall was also a mess, and they had to clean it up themselves.
The University of Arizona gave them a little bit of the arch-rival treatment.
However, this experience did not discourage the players of the Devil's team, but instead further stimulated their fighting spirit.
After being scolded by Sandek yesterday, they were all holding back their energy.
That night, the stadium, which could accommodate nearly 4,000 people, was packed, and even the aisles and entrances were crowded with fans.
Their excitement was clearly visible on their faces, and they were holding various noise-making tools such as gas sticks and whistles.
The atmosphere in the NCAA is much more intense than that in the NBA, especially when the game reaches the crucial regular season stage.
However, when the players of the Devil's team came out of the player tunnel, including Xu Yong, they were all stunned for a moment.
They saw a large number of spectators wearing T-shirts in the colors of Arizona State University (burgundy and yellow), waving team flags, or holding up team logos, nearly one-third of the audience!
The results of the invitational tournament not only built up confidence for the players of the Devils team, but also gave the fans of the Devils team something to look forward to.
When they saw this, the members of the Devil Team were surprised and eager to give it a try.
At the same time, at the other end of the team, the Wildcats players had already walked out of the player tunnel.
"Guys, let's make big news, okay?" Bellers glanced at Harden and Xu Yong opposite him, and then spoke.
They wanted to avenge the humiliation they suffered that day in Tempe, and they would rather win by 30 points than by 28 points.
Hill and Badinger nodded at the same time. They had been holding it in for long enough in the past two months!
After the warm-up, the scene entered the opening ceremony.
The NCAA opening ceremony is a full-member introduction.
The Devils team had 14 players, and the five starters made their final appearances, namely No. 13 Harden, No. 3 Ayers, No. 12 Derek Glaser, No. 44 Jalen Shipp, and No. 23 Xu Yong.
The Wildcats have 14 players, and the starting five are: No. 13, 1.78-meter point guard Nick Wise, No. 0, Jerryd Bayless, No. 5, 1.93-meter small forward Jawan McLellan, No. 34, 2.01-meter Chase Budinger, and No. 43, Jordan Hill.
After the opening ceremony, the competition was about to begin.
As the starting lineups of both teams came on the field, the cheers at the scene reached a climax.
The opening game of the regular season, a derby match, is a game that both sides cannot afford to lose.
Jump ball between Hill and Ayers in the center circle.
With a whistle, Hill used his arm span advantage to push the ball back to the Wildcats' half, and the game officially began!
Wise controlled the ball and advanced to the frontcourt.
"Go Wildcats!"
Tucson fans showed their passion.
Amid the cheers, Hill set a high screen and Wise went straight in.
With a height of 1.78 meters, he can start in a top team. His speed is his biggest advantage.
The Devils tightened their defense, and after Wise broke into the penalty area, he threw the ball to the top of the arc without even looking at it.
Batinger ran to the top of the arc with the help of continuous screens, and took a three-pointer after receiving the ball.
“Swish!”
The knife falls with a sudden movement!
The cheers at the scene instantly turned into cheers.
The first player to take action for the Wildcats was neither Bayless nor Hill, but Battinger, who had no presence in the baseball inning that day.
They gave the Devils a surprise right at the start!
After scoring the goal, Badinger looked at Xu Yong triumphantly, trying to find a hint of surprise on the other's face, but he soon discovered that Xu Yong's expression was calm.
This made his pleasure disappear completely, and he was secretly amazed.
You know, he didn't perform well that day, so Xu Yong should have been at least surprised to see his smooth three-pointer.
Xu Yong would not be surprised of course, Batinger is a former Rockets player, how could he not know about three-point shooting.
During the Devil's turn, all kinds of interference noises were heard at the scene and the whistles were very harsh. This was much more serious than the away games they played in the invitational tournament.
Glaser took the ball to the frontcourt and organized the offense.
Harden took advantage of Xu Yong's screen to come out and receive the ball, but Battinger immediately switched defense in front of Harden and directly blocked Harden's route to break through to the left.
The Wildcats did a lot of pre-match preparations, with their decisive switching and defensive approach on the left side.
Seeing this, Harden broke through on the right and rushed to the basket, and against Hill's strong move, causing the latter to commit a defensive foul.
The Wildcats were very targeted, but they still underestimated Harden's ability to draw fouls.
The ability to commit fouls here is not the "bumping into porcelain" in the future, but it really causes damage, which is commonly known as destructive power.
Harden's weight plus his breakthrough speed make him an absolute "human bomb".
There was a commotion at the scene, and Hill was ejected for five fouls in the NCAA. It was not a good thing for the Wildcats to get fouled so early.
Because it was a shooting foul, Harden went directly to the free throw line.
Amid the huge noise of interference from the scene, he made the first free throw, helping the Devils to score the first point.
He also had a second free throw, which was equivalent to a goal.
Looking back, the Wildcats used the same trick again. Wise changed direction and broke into the basket and passed the ball, but this time Budinger caught the ball and shot...
"Bang!"
Directly blocked by Xu Yong!
Moreover, the ball hit a Wildcat player and went out of bounds, and the ball was exchanged to the Devils team!
The scene was filled with restlessness. Why did the rhythm of the opening of the game feel a little off?
Badinger's eyes were filled with disbelief. His shot was so high, how did Xu Yong block it?!
Then he looked at Xu Yongshi and found that the latter still had that calm expression.
This look really... made him inexplicably nervous.
The camera was now turned to Xu Yong, whose expression was calm, as if the block just now was insignificant.
It's really not worth mentioning, because the Wildcats used the same tactic twice in a row. Either I am stupid or I think they are stupid.
With Wise's height, he normally doesn't have the vision to pass the ball to Budinger, which is why he failed to defend Budinger in the first round.
Since there is no vision, it is obviously a fixed tactic.
Once you realize this, it becomes much easier to defend.
As long as you go around the pick-and-roll in advance, get in position and surprise the opponent, isn't that a block?
Fortunately, Xu Yong was just thinking and not talking, otherwise Badinger would have vomited blood.
Among these college students, who can normally read the tactics so quickly and make the best response in the second round?
You are reborn, you are noble, you are amazing!
But this is indeed related to Xu Yong's rebirth.
Xu Yong's career before rebirth was a basketball commentator, which greatly improved his ability to read the game. In addition, playing in the United States after rebirth allowed him to put his understanding into practice. Now his reading, judgment, experience, and reaction have all reached a very high level.
In other words, he hasn't practiced defense very deliberately, but his defense has reached a pretty good level.
It was not unfair for Budinger to be blocked.
The game continued, Glaser advanced to the frontcourt with the ball, this time he passed the ball directly to Harden, and then signaled to create space for one-on-one play.
The person defending Harden at this time was McClellan, who was the defensive pioneer of the Wildcats and also blocked Harden's route to break through to the left.
This time Harden decisively broke through to the right, but at the moment when McClellan followed him, he suddenly changed direction and pulled back to the left.
McClellan was knocked down directly!
Compared to speed, Harden's real killer move is rhythm!
There was a lot of commotion at the scene.
Harden has already rushed straight to the basket.
Seeing this, Hill came forward again, but he was not stupid. This time he did not attack again. Instead, he raised his long arms high to interfere with Harden's shooting vision.
Harden jumped up towards Hill, but instead of doing a layup, he turned sideways and pulled the ball up with his left hand...
“Bang!”
The ball was smashed into the basket through Hill!
During the Wildcats' halftime, head coach Kevin O'Neill was stunned.
Although two months ago, Belles brought him a lot of information about Harden and he paid enough attention to it, it was obvious that he still underestimated Harden's ability.
Harden's ability to read the game is completely unlike that of a rookie. It is very difficult to defend such a talented and smart player.
And, there is Xu Yong.
While he was stunned, Xu Yong completed another steal.
Harden was unstoppable on the offensive end, while Xu Yong was omnipresent on the defensive end.
Harden threw the ball to Xu Yong during a fast break, and Xu Yong caught the ball in the air and dunked for a score, also causing a pulling foul by Wise!
Harden and Xu Yong teamed up to launch a 6-0 offensive, giving the Wildcats a bigger surprise.
The little brother from the same state who was previously pinned to the ground and bullied by them is about to rise up!