I really play basketball

Chapter 57 Elite Eight
In the blink of an eye for 40 minutes, Florida State was just a little better than Memphis for Long Beach.

The main lineup of the main Long Beach branch has only two defensively qualified players.

Florida State has an offensive trident. The aliens Cassell, Bob Sura and Doug Edwards are all 18+ scorers per game this season.

Two defenses and three defenses, no matter how you defend, you must miss one.

As a result, Doug Edwards, who was missed, scored 26 points and did not let the score stretch too far.

UC Long Beach finally defeated Florida State University with a score of 91 to 75 and advanced to the Elite Eight!

"33 points, 8 rebounds, 12 assists and 5 steals. In this game, Star-Lin is like a madman. The deeper the madness, the better his performance is surprisingly!"

After the game, Lin Chui's commentator also slammed Lin Xing like a madman.

Next to him, Tony Guy, who was in charge of the field, also added: "Compared to the first two games of Crazy Three, this game is Star-Lin's more representative Crazy Three performance..."

33 points is the highest score of Lin Xing in a single game in the third and third battles of Crazy Three. His 12 assists and 5 steals are also new highs.

Of course, the most important thing is that Lin Xing dunked ten dunks in this game.

The fans at the Charlotte Stadium enjoyed it, but the owner of the Hornets was terrified, and regretted renting the home court to the NCAA to hold such a crazy three-elimination game.

If this buckles the basket, it will not be worth the candle.

From Lin Xing's point of view, this game was played with no difference from the previous two games, it was very easy.

In such an easy game, the contest on the court is not important, and the stories outside the court are more important.

As soon as the game was over, Lin Xing extended a friendly right hand to the alien whom he had been staring at.

Although Lin Xing stared at Kassel to death, and Kassel was uncomfortable defending, the confrontation between the two has always been a normal game confrontation.

Therefore, Cassel also touched his right hand in a friendly way, and shook hands with Lin Xing.

He also said: "Your defense impresses me, Star."

For this, Lin Xing thanked him.

He originally wanted to exchange jerseys with Kassel, but soon, he realized that there was still a little fan waiting to be trained on the sidelines.

So, he gave up the idea of ​​exchanging jerseys, turned around, and found Dell Curry who hadn't had time to leave the court.

At this time, Dell Curry is at the peak of his career.

So far this season, he has averaged 15.3 points per game and has never started. He is a strong contender for the best sixth man.

Although the status of the team is not as good as that of Mourning and Larry Johnson, but because the Hornets team was first established, Dell Curry joined the Hornets in the expansion draft, and it has been five seasons so far.

Time trumps everything, and Dell Curry has more loyal fans in Charlotte than Mourning and Larry Johnson.

After the game, on Charlotte's territory, Lin Xing asked him to pay tribute, which is also reasonable.

Just like that, Lin Xing and Dell Curry shook hands on the sidelines.

Old Curry's face was as bright as a flower when he heard Lin Xing's compliments.

But he didn't know that Lin Xing was a drunkard who didn't care about drinking.

"Are these two lovely children your sons, Dale?"

As Lin Xing asked, he rubbed Jinzhou LaVine's head.

Old Curry still grinned and told Lin Xing with a smile:

"Yes, the older one is called Stephen, and the younger one is called Seth... Stephen, Seth, Uncle."

Lin Xing opened his mouth when he heard that he was called uncle.

On the road to rebirth, he directly became the uncle of the Curry brothers, can you believe it?

Lin Xing was not polite, and directly accepted the title of uncle.

Then he said: "I noticed that they watched the game very seriously..."

"Yes, they are all fans of basketball, since childhood."

"I have nothing to give them, this jersey, and this pair of sneakers, just give them as gifts..."

In this way, Lin Xing took off his jersey and sneakers while talking, and gave them to the Curry brothers.

What Lin Xing didn't expect was that Stephen Curry directly rejected his jersey and chose sneakers by accident.

Old Curry asked him why, and he said: "This uncle wears these sneakers and keeps flying. I think it's the sneakers. So, I want to study..."

Looking at Curry's innocent big eyes, Lin Xing stroked his chin.

Sure enough, he is a man who aspires to be the dunk king. Sure enough, he is not interested in three-pointers, and prefers dunks.

……

Back in the locker room, Lin Xing immediately asked, "Have the opponents from the top eight come out?"

Seth Greenberg replied: "No, the game between Kentucky and Wake Forest will not start until tomorrow."

Lin Xing knew very well that Wake Forest, without the Flying Devil, must not be Kentucky's opponent.

Therefore, in the battle of the elite eight, their opponent must be Kentucky.

For Kentucky, Lin Xing only knows that there is a Jamal Mashburn in the opponent team.

Mashburn is also a popular rookie in the NBA this season, and once overwhelmed Lin Xing in the mock draft of Sports Illustrated.

Of course, the reason why he can overwhelm Lin Xing can only be that the butt of the draft expert of Sports Illustrated is crooked.

But judging from Marsh's ability to overwhelm Lin Xing, his strength should not be underestimated.

Regardless of his later achievements in the NBA, at least in the NCAA, he is in the same gear as Grant Hill and Anfernee Hardaway.

Except for Mashburn, Kentucky's biggest star is not a player.

It's their head coach, Rick Pitino.

Rick Pitino at this time has not yet experienced his fiasco in charge of the Celtics.

And, he didn't lead Kentucky to an NCAA title.

At this time, his best result was to lead Providence College to the final four.

And briefly coached the New York Knicks, leading the Knicks, who had only won 20 games in the previous season, to the playoffs, and achieved an excellent record of 52 regular season wins in the second season.

Just the addition of these achievements is enough for him to overwhelm Seth Greenberg who is still alone at this time.

……

The next day, Lin Xing and Seth Greenberg watched the game between Kentucky and Wake Forest.

As Lin Xing expected, Kentucky won the game with ease.

With a score of 103 to 69, they won by 34 points.

这一战，马什本的表现很出色，三分5投5中，以13投8中的高效命中，掠下了23分5个篮板5个助攻1个抢断。

"Another offensive kaleidoscope..."

After Lin Xing finished watching the game, he only choked out this evaluation for Mashburn.

Mashburn's performance in this game reminded him of UNLV's Isiah Ryder.

The two are very similar, and they have many offensive methods.

The difference is that Ryder's physical fitness is outstanding, and the offensive kaleidoscope relies more on physical support.

Marsh is different. His running and jumping ability is average. The so-called offensive kaleidoscope relies on pure skills.

Compared with Ryder, Mashburn's shooting is more stable, one-handed post-up singles, very like Pierce or Anthony.

In fact, the templates for Pierce and Anthony in the draft are both Mashburn.

Isn't this the right taste...

Lin Xing immediately felt a lot of pressure. This time, the opponent seemed to be really not that easy to defend against.

Before he defended Ryder easily, it was because Ryder's mid-range and long-range shooting stability was too poor, and he withstood it with a little interference.

His defense against Grant Hill also took advantage of Hill's lack of long-range shots at this time.

The same goes for anti-penny...

But at this time in Mashburn, the three-pointer may not be so stable, but the CIC has already been able to kill in the NCAA.

"It's hard..."

Lin Xing focused on Mashburn, but Seth Greenberg was different.

At the end of the game, he watched Rick Pitino accept the ovation of the audience, and he was suddenly a little sour.

Lin Xing comforted him: "Don't worry, Seth, when we win the next game, your coaching achievements will be comparable to Rick Pitino's."

This is absolutely true. After winning the Elite Eight battle, the Long Beach branch will enter the final four.

By then, won't Seth Greenberg be on par with Pitino?

……

Time flies, and it's the day of the Elite Eight Finals.

The game was still held at the Charlotte Stadium in Charlotte, and Lin Xing saw the Curry brothers on the sidelines again.

So before the game, he leaned over again.

Old Curry shook his head helplessly: "I didn't want to bring them to watch this game, but Stephen has been clamoring to come."

Then, Lin Xing heard Little Curry shouting: "Uncle Si Da, I want to watch you dunk, I want to watch you dunk!"

Seth Curry on the side didn't understand so much, he only knew to follow behind his brother and shout: "Deduct one, detain one!"

Of course Lin Xing couldn't refuse, he immediately returned to the court and wanted to pass the basketball.

In front of the audience and the Curry brothers, he tossed and buckled one.

The audience cheered, and the Curry brothers even joined in, all kinds of cheers.

The tension before the battle was immediately lost by the Curry brothers.

……

Soon, the game begins.

Facing the 2-meter-tall Rodney Dent, Chris Tavor lost the jump ball without any suspense.

The 1-meter-tall point guard Travis Ford controlled the ball and advanced to the frontcourt, but found that Lin Xing did not switch to Jamal Mashburn.

It was Byron Russell who stood in front of Mashburn.

In fact, before the game, Seth Greenberg did intend to hand over Mashburn to Lin Xing.

But Lin Xing refused.

He gave a good reason——

"Let me focus on offense, Seth, if we want to win this game, we have to rely on offense."

In this 49ers team, sometimes Lin Xing's words are more effective than the head coach, and this time is no exception.

Kentucky's first down, Travis Ford held for a while, then handed over to Mashburn.

Then, Marsh used a slow breakthrough, turned around and swayed a position in the middle distance, and succeeded in the mid-range shot.

"Mashburn is the real offensive kaleidoscope, Ryder or something, it's all counterfeit and shoddy."

Lin Xing sighed, and it was his turn next.

On the defensive end, his opponent is Travis Ford, a short point guard who doesn't need much attention.

So in this game, he was really able to focus on offense.

But on the offensive end, it was Jamal Mashburn who came up to defend.

Rick Pitino is not stupid, of course he knows that using Travis Ford to defend Lin Xing is tantamount to giving points.

And looking at the entire Kentucky, except for Mashburn, no one else can match Lin Xing.

So Mashburn switched defenses.

But the problem is, even Mashburn can't stand Lin Xing.

In this wave of offense, Lin Xing took control of the ball as soon as he reached the frontcourt, and immediately picked up speed and rushed in directly.

Mashben retreated in various ways, but still couldn't keep up with Lin Xing's footsteps.

After two or three steps, he could only turn around and watch Lin Xing gallop away.

Rushing to the basket, Lin Xing thought of Curry who only wanted to be the slam dunk king on the sidelines, and immediately forcibly dunked one.

With a bang, the audience cheered again.

Next, Kentucky's offense.

Long Beach's man-to-man defense is very tight, and Kentucky can't find any great opportunities with various cooperation.

To say that they are strong, in fact, is only strong in Mashburn.

Apart from Mashburn, they have no other hot spots.

So, control came and went, and basketball was given to Mashburn again.

In the singles at the waist, this time, Marsh couldn't shake Russell away.

Russell gave a solid interference, and with a bang, Long Beach defended a ball like this.

"Rebound, rebound!"

When the audience was shouting for rebounds, Tavor got stuck, and Lin Xing rushed in and jumped up, grabbing the rebound directly.

Turning around, there was a wave of counterattack immediately.

Travis Ford, who retreated the fastest, wanted to block that one, but his height simply didn't allow it.

Lin Xing faced Travis Ford directly, and unstoppably made another buckle.

"Slam dunk, or dunk, Star-Lin in this game continues his dunk performance!"

After the opening two dunks, Kentucky stepped up its defense against Lin Xing.

All kinds of joint defense and pinch defense methods have been used in one go.

In the end, Lin Xing was still unstoppable.

Mashburn's pace was too slow to keep up with Lin Xing.

They did have a big center inside, but Lin Xing, who focused on offense in this game, spared no effort on almost every ball.

The big center wanted to hit the top, but he didn't dare to hit it.

They also watched Long Beach's top [-] match, and they still remember Lin Xing dunking Florida State University's center.

Kentucky's big center knows very well that if he goes up, there is a high probability that he will be the next one to be dunked.

Seeing Lin Xing rushing so hard in this game, he was even afraid and became a more miserable existence.

So, in the face of Lin Xing's impact, even Rick Pitino persevered and shouted from the sidelines: "Go up! Go up!"

Lin Xing still overwhelmed Kenta's basically unremarkable line of defense...

Looking at the offense of the University of Kentucky, Mashburn is indeed difficult to defend, but Russell stuck him on the outside, and he can only take various mid-range shots.

He can score in the mid-range shot, and his shooting percentage is not low, but compared to Lin Xing, his efficiency is much worse.

In this way, at halftime, the Long Beach branch took a double-digit lead 50 to 38.

Then in the second half, they maintained that lead.

In the end, with a score of 99 to 80, Kentucky beat Kentucky and won the battle of the Elite Eight!
The moment the end-of-game timer beeped, Seth Greenberg simply raised his hands and cheered from the sidelines.

"We won, we broke out of the Midwest, we made it to the Final Four!"

Charlotte Stadium, cheers.

Everyone knows that this is the end of a phase.

Everyone also knows that this is the beginning of another stage...

(End of this chapter)