Five minutes into the game, the score was 2 to 13.

"It's very unfavorable. The game is very unfavorable for the University of Connecticut. They fell into a trap designed for them by their opponents on the offensive end." The commentator on the sidelines pointed out the crux of the problem.

Generally speaking, there are only two ways to deal with a giant player: either go around him and prevent him from catching the ball, or double-team him and force him to make a mistake.

Now NBA teams basically only have these two tricks to deal with Yao Ming.

For Yao Ming, because of his good passing ability, the effect of going around the front is obviously better than double-teaming (although the double-teaming effect is actually not bad because of the poor ability of the Rockets' role players).

However, the Devils chose double-teaming tonight, and the reason is simple: Thabeet does not have the passing ability of Yao Ming.

Moreover, up to now in the game, Thabeet has not only proved that he has no ability in this area, but also demonstrated how rough his work is from all angles.

However, as soon as the commentator finished speaking, Thabeet finally showed his ability on the court. He blocked Harden's shot and knocked him to the ground.

Although he is as rough as toilet paper on the offensive end, his blocking awareness and ability are the strongest in this year's NCAA, bar none.

But before he had the time to celebrate, Xu Yong grabbed the blocked ball, jumped into the air before he turned around, and made a side shot!

“Bang!”

The huge impact force pushed Tabit directly out of the baseline, and the cheers at the scene exploded like thunder.

You are a mountain of huskies?!

After Xu Yong completed the dunk, he didn't even look at Tabit, but turned around to pull up Harden who had fallen to the ground.

To avenge a friend, you have to do it on the spot.

One minute into the game, Sandek smiled and replaced Xu Yong and DeRozan.

The divisional finals went much more smoothly than he expected.

Or it can be said that Thabeet's performance was much worse than he expected.

When your star players perform poorly, can you still expect role players to save the team?

Oh, by the way, there was a player on the outside of Connecticut who had the ability to attack with the ball, Jerome Dyson, who was now sitting on the bench in a suit.

So the NCAA organizing committee is still professional!

Xu Yong had just sat down when he saw that Tabit's shot from very close range failed to go in.

And because the rebound was grabbed by Ayers, he also paid for a foul.

Xu Yong couldn't bear to watch it. Let's not talk about how this guy was selected as the second pick. Just looking at his level, who gave him the courage to say "the number one seed in the division belongs to them"?

It was at this time that Kahun seemed to have finally had enough of Thabeet's performance tonight and stood up from the bench.

After a short whistle on the sidelines, Kemba Walker and Gavin Edwards came on the court, replacing Ostry and Thabeet.

Xu Yong's gaze also shifted to Walker.

Walker is only 1.83 meters tall, and about 1.8 meters barefoot, but he is an All-Star level player in the NBA. In his peak season, he averaged 25.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, and was selected as an All-Star starter.

Although he is only a freshman now, he is the only one on the Connecticut team who can change the situation on the court.

Soon, Xu Yong's worries became a reality.

Walker's breakthrough is neither as violent as Rose's nor as fast as Thomas's, but his rhythm is excellent.

His center of gravity when dribbling is very low, which allows him to change direction very quickly and get past the defender with just one dribble and one change of direction.

Cooksix's center of gravity was too high and he couldn't get into position, and Glaser was beaten even more.

Moreover, his mid-range shooting from 8 to 16 feet is very stable and his passing vision is also very good, which makes simple shooting or double-teaming ineffective.

Even Walker is a leader-type player. The team's unfavorable situation did not make him panic, but instead made him more motivated.

He scored 7 points in a row by shooting from inside and outside, and directly stopped the Devils team.

During the timeout, Harden and DeRozan both subconsciously looked at Xu Yong.

Yesterday they thought Xu Yong’s worries were unnecessary, but today Walker slapped them in the face.

It seems that they need to take note of this matter again in their little notebook: "What Xu Yong said is right."

"Coach, I'll go defend him." At this moment, Xu Yong took the initiative to speak.

Sandek looked at Xu Yong.

Xu Yong's center of gravity is higher than Cooksix's, so he won't be very effective against this kind of small defender.

But he still nodded, signaling Xu Yong to come on to replace Cooksix.

Based on his understanding of Xu Yong, Xu Yong must have been sure of what he said.

After the timeout, the Devils have the ball.

Xu Yong held the ball in the frontcourt and signaled Glaser to set a screen for him, then he directly broke through Walker.

When playing against the University of Washington, they couldn't defend Isaiah Thomas, but they won the offense.

The so-called offensive confrontation does not mean a shooting competition between the two sides. That is a scene that only existed in the small ball era.

The current offense is to exploit the opponent's weaknesses. In that game, the three of them took turns to target Thomas.

The head coach of the University of Washington failed to "hide" Thomas Jr., and as a result, they lost more points than they scored when Thomas Jr. was on the court, so the loss was understandable.

Now he came to try the water of Cajon.

Well, although he didn’t test the water in Kahun, he did find out the depth of Walker first.

Walker chose to steal the ball directly, but he lost his defensive position and was easily broken through by Xu Yong.

“Bang!”

Xu Yong's powerful two-handed dunk not only stopped the team's decline, but also reignited the enthusiasm of the Arizona fans at the scene.

Harden and DeRozan also waved their towels excitedly off the court.

At the critical moment, you have to give the ball to the captain!

After Xu Yong dunked the ball, he looked back at Walker and inexplicably thought of the novel he had read before called "Basketball's Invincible King of Gold".

The protagonist of that novel is called Tang Tian, ​​who played basketball at Connecticut during the NCAA period. His technical characteristics are that of a top 3D player with a high basketball IQ.

If Connecticut really has such a player now, even if Kahn fails to hide Walker well, he can still help Walker "clean up his mess" well.

But unfortunately, reality is not fiction, and there is no "Tang Tian" in the real Kangda!

Xu Yong's shot was beautiful, but this is not the key. The key to determining the situation on the court now is whether Walker's offense can be limited.

"Defend! Defend!"

The enthusiasm of Arizona fans was rekindled and they began to cheer for the Devils in unison.

Walker had the ball and when he saw that the person defending him was Xu Yong, he stretched out his hand to signal for a one-on-one play.

At this time, Xu Yong gave Walker a big step.

He has not been able to receive targeted defensive training, and his defensive skills are not very good, but he has awareness and experience.

The reason why he didn't ask Sandek to play immediately was because he needed to observe how Walker played at this time.

After all, every player has different periods. For example, the difference between his two NCAA seasons alone is huge.

Then he found that Walker didn't take a single shot from beyond the three-point line, and he was certain that Walker's outside shooting at this time was not accurate.

Faced with the three-point opportunity, Walker did not choose to shoot. Instead, he shortened the distance between himself and Xu Yong, lowered his center of gravity when dribbling, and tried to change direction to pass Xu Yong.

Xu Yong did not easily change his center of gravity, but gradually stepped back, keeping himself facing Walker.

At this point we have to talk about the differences between Walker and Rose, or Thomas Jr.

Rose is violent and Thomas is fast, so Xu Yong's defensive style won't work against them.

Because people don't tell you this or that, they just force it in.

But Walker relies on rhythm and the experience of the defender.

This is a perfect match for your profession.

Walker saw no chance to get back to the 3-point line and called a pick-and-roll.

But Xu Yong has rich experience in pick-and-roll, and Walker was finally forced to choose a long two-point shot.

"when!"

The basketball hit the rim and bounced out.

Sure enough, Xu Yong's judgment was correct. Walker's shooting ability at this time was limited to mid-range jump shots in the range of 8 to 16 feet.

The rebound was protected by Boateng, and the Eskimo Dogs' counterattack momentum was finally suppressed.

Turning around, Xu Yong continued to hold the ball and look for Walker.

This time the Huskies chose not to switch to the pick-and-roll. Xu Yong's choice was very straightforward. Facing the shooting space created by the pick-and-roll, he just pulled up and shot.

“Swish!”

Mac's dry jump shot has a beautiful posture.

After Xu Yonglian scored these 4 points, the momentum of the Devil team on the field was stabilized.

This caused the lottery scouts in the audience to whisper to each other.

As the saying goes, flowers need green leaves to set them off. Once things in this world are contrasted, the good things will appear particularly dazzling.

Otherwise, why are the female best friends that your girlfriend gets along well with always of average looks?

The more Tabeet plays tonight, the better Xu Yong will be in the eyes of these scouts.

Especially this period of being entrusted with a mission in a time of crisis made them feel that compared to Tabit, perhaps Xu Yong was the person who deserved their attention more.

The game on the field continues.

Walker once again tried to force his way past Xu Yong, and this time he did not call for a pick-and-roll, wanting to use rhythm and speed to force his way through.

However, Xu Yong had a good sense of defensive positioning, and Walker still didn't have a good chance to shoot even after breaking into the basket.

He could only use his flexibility to stop and turn around to jump shot.

But there is a price to pay for doing this in front of Xu Yong.

Especially when you didn't even shake him off.

Xu Yong seized the opportunity and took the initiative. He jumped into the air and pounced on Walker, the little white rabbit, like an eagle.

Although Walker adjusted his posture in the air and raised the arc of his shot, Xu Yong's jumping height and air stay were too outstanding.

“Bang!”

No block, just confiscated!

The scene suddenly erupted with excited cheers and whistles from Arizona fans.

Walker's performance after coming off the bench became a problem for Arizona State University.

But when Xu Yong reappeared, he said: Trouble? What trouble? No trouble!

This also excited the scouts.

As professional scouts, they could naturally see that Xu Yong's defensive skills were not very good, but his defensive effect was still so good.

It's like singing, there's no technique involved, it's all about emotional investment.

But if he can still achieve good defensive results in this way, it means that Xu Yong has great potential on the defensive end.

A ball-handling forward-guard swingman who can attack and defend both offensively and defensively?

When these words are combined together, it's really amazing!

The camera on the scene was given to Xu Yong.

Xu Yong's expression had returned to calmness at this time.

It turns out that what he said to Harden, DeRozan and others yesterday was really nothing but nonsense.

Walker has indeed become a problem for them, but this problem is actually not that big.

Because in just the past two or three rounds, Walker has exposed many problems that freshmen would have, such as gambling-style steals when facing mismatches on the defensive end, and wanting to hit back immediately after being hit by a ball.

These very detailed things are making him less threatening.

If it was the third-year Walker, Xu Yong might not be able to defend him with his current defensive ability.

After all, when you sing with all your emotions, your girlfriend will praise you for your singing when you are in love, but after you get married, your wife will cover her ears when you sing again.

Unfortunately, there is no if. Xu Yong is now sure that he can limit Walker.

Thabeet's performance was far below par, and Walker's surprise attack effect was limited. For Connecticut, they actually had no more cards to play tonight.

At this moment, the balance of victory has begun to tilt infinitely towards Arizona State University.

The dawn of a Final Four is also beginning to emerge in the eyes of the "home" Arizona fans.