Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 9 Opportunity
In the middle stands, ESPN reporter Jamal Kalil kept his eyes fixed on Hansen.

It was an NCAA invitational tournament, and one of the teams was from the second division. If it weren't for Toyes, he wouldn't have been here.

After looking for a while, he looked away.

Han Sen's physical condition seems to be good, and the three-point touch he showed during the warm-up was also quite smooth.

But that's about it.

And this is a yellow man.

If the opponent is an inside player like Yao Ming or Yi Jianlian, he might be interested, but there are too many such forward-guard swingmen in the United States.

The warm-up was over quickly and the scene entered the opening ceremony, with the starting lineups of both sides announced one after another.

Barry University: Chris Rondo, Hansen, Will Atkinson, Dan Hiam, Aaron O'Neal;

Michigan State University: Kalin Lucas, Travis Walton, Delvin Rowe, Remar Morgan, Goran Sutton.

After Hansen came on the court, he found that Walton, who was facing him, was half a head shorter than him, probably only about 1 meters tall at most.

It seems that his and Toews's hunch yesterday was correct, Michigan State didn't take them seriously at all.

Both sides jumped the ball, and Sutton easily passed the ball back to half court, and the game officially started.

When Sutton reached the frontcourt, he sank to the baseline to ask for the ball. After receiving the ball, he forced O'Neal to put the ball into the basket.

"Your name is O'Neal, which is an insult to this name." After scoring, he directly criticized O'Neal.

O'Neal's face flushed and he was helpless.

Michigan State's offensive was fierce at the beginning, especially Sutton's overwhelming performance in the interior.

They are obviously using Bari University as a tool to vent their anger.

However, Barry University did not fall behind in the score because they responded on the offensive end.

The height difference made Walton useless when defending Hansen's shooting.

What is even more incomprehensible is that even ordinary fans could see that Walton could not defend Hansen, and Michigan State University neither replaced players nor used double-teaming.

This is obviously not a problem of coaching level. Michigan State University's head coach Tom Zoe is a famous NCAA coach. He led his team to win the 2000 NCAA championship and is also the head coach with the most wins in school history.

The only explanation is that he doesn't care at all.

The evenly matched opening did not affect the final result. The gap in strength between the two teams was such that they could widen the score with just a little effort.

On the contrary, allowing the players to vent their emotions on the court can help them get out of the shadow of the crushing defeat.

At the end of the first half, the two teams unexpectedly tied at 31.

Hansen scored 14 points in the first half, while Sutton scored a game-high 16 points for Michigan State University.

During the half-time break, the Barry University players were very excited.

They certainly knew that Michigan State University was stronger than that, but the fact that they were evenly matched with a team ranked in the top five in the NCAA in the first half was enough for them to be proud of.

"You will be double-teamed in the second half, so pay attention to your ball speed." Before the start of the second half, Toyes pulled Hansen aside to remind him.

Han Sen nodded and glanced at Tois. He saw a kind of desire in the latter's eyes.

The game continued in the second half.

NCAA games are divided into two halves, but each half is only 20 minutes long. In the second half, Barry University will attack first.

When Hansen got to the frontcourt, he saw that his defender had changed from Walton to Darrell Summers.

Summers is 1 meters tall, has both good size and movement speed, and his physical condition is similar to his.

Han Sen did not attack with the ball as he did in the first half. Instead, he made an eye contact with O'Neal and moved directly from the baseline to the top of the arc.

O'Neal moved to the high position and seized the opportunity to block Summers' shot.

Rondo saw the opportunity and passed the ball directly over.

This is a classic pindown pick-and-roll tactic.

Han Sen caught the ball and quickly jumped up to shoot.

"Shh!"

The basketball hit the net.

"Why are you moving slower than O'Neal?"

Han Sen slowly asked Su Dun who had just come up to defend.

And after saying this, he even high-fived O'Neal in person.

This time it was Sutton's turn to blush.

Hansen attacked from the face, but Sutton turned around and did not continue to ask for the ball in the low post. Instead, he played a pick-and-roll with Lucas.

Lucas is not tall, only 1 meters, but he is extremely fast. He can break through the defense almost instantly after the pick-and-roll, and go into the inside for a quick layup to score.

After returning to the second half, Michigan State University made adjustments from offense to defense. This was a clear signal that they were ready to end the game.

When Hansen received the ball on the offensive end again, Michigan State University double-teamed him.

Fortunately, Hansen was prepared and passed the ball back to Rondo before the double-team.

After receiving the ball, Rondo accelerated to the basket and took advantage of the fact that Sutton was not in the interior to successfully score a layup.

At this time, Tois also stood up and stood on the sidelines, shouting and signaling to the players who were retreating.

Barry University adjusted its defensive strategy from man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone defense.

Zone defense is a powerful weapon for weak teams when playing against strong teams, because it can create a two-on-one defense situation in a local area, thus avoiding the disadvantages of one-on-one defense.

The 2-3 zone defense is a type of zone defense, and its main function is to protect the basket.

However, as a Division I powerhouse, Michigan State University will naturally break the zone defense.

After continuous transmission of the strong and weak sides of the outside line, Sutton suddenly mentioned the three-point line pick-and-roll, and Lucas successfully got a three-point opportunity at the 45° angle on the right.

This move to break the double team defense was extremely beautiful, except... Lucas failed to hit the three-pointer.

Lucas' three-point shooting percentage this season is 39%, which is good enough for a guard who mainly breaks through.

However, the key point is that Michigan State University's offensive focus in the first half was on the inside. Lucas rarely attacked with the ball and did not even attempt a shot from the outside. In this case, it would be very difficult for him to hit a three-pointer.

Most players need to shoot to find and maintain their touch.

Toews excitedly pumped his fist on the sidelines.

The reason why he waited until the second half to make tactical adjustments was to prevent Michigan State University's outside players from finding their touch.

After Toews used a zone defense and the Michigan State University players were unable to make shots from the outside, the situation on the court took an unexpected turn.

The key to breaking the double-team defense is the outside three-pointer. The more Michigan State University failed to make the shot, the more determined Barry University used the double-team defense, which put them into a scoring drought.

On the other hand, for Barry University, Rondo used the offensive space created by Hansen to break through and score points one after another.

After a while, Barry University was slowly widening the score!

About 7 minutes into this quarter, Barry University was leading Michigan State University 41 to 34!

Zoe had to reach out and call a timeout.

When the Barry University players left the field, Toews stood at the front of the technical table and high-fived each of the players.

Han Sen could feel Tois's desire more and more at this time, and his heart was full of respect.

Although the current situation was largely due to Michigan State University's underestimation of the opponent, Toews's ability to take advantage of the situation was extremely brilliant.

There is no JJ Redick in this era. Anyone who can become an NBA head coach must be very capable.

During the timeout, Hansen was sitting on the bench listening to Toyes's tactical arrangements.

But soon, he and everyone else around him turned their heads to look at the next half of the court.

Zoe's high-decibel voice echoed in the arena.

You can totally feel how angry he is.

After the timeout, Michigan State University made a beautiful attack, with Sutton breaking the scoring drought with a dunk at the basket.

The most effective weapon to break the double team defense is the three-pointer, but there are more ways to break the double team defense than just outside shooting. There is also local multi-player defense.

密西根州立大学在暂停回来后就摆出了破2-3联防的针对性阵型1-3-1站位。

After the pass from the outside, the ball was sent to Moore at the free throw line, which was the weak point of the double team defense.

Moore's shooting ability allows him to take penalties at the free throw line and forces Barry University's inside players to help defend outside, which gives Sutton opportunities under the basket.

In addition to tactical adjustments, the Michigan State University players' on-field execution has also greatly improved.

Zoe even stood on the sidelines, waving and shouting at the players who were retreating.

Obviously, even a crushing defeat to North Carolina is within their acceptable range. After all, losing by 35 points and losing by 1 point are essentially the same.

But losing to a second-tier league team that they had originally used to vent their anger was something they could never accept.

MSU’s defensive intensity was increasing, and Barry’s offense ultimately failed to score.

This round continued, and after Zoe's outburst, Michigan State University showed the strength of a top-five team in the Division I league.

当比赛时间已经进行到下半场15分钟的时候，密西根州立大学已经打出一波15比3的高潮，以49比44反超了比分。

During this period, no one from Barry University scored except for a three-pointer by Hansen, and they had been in a scoring drought for nearly four minutes.

Toews was forced to call another timeout.

There were still 5 minutes left in the game, but these 5 minutes were the 5 minutes that sentenced them to death.

When the zone defense couldn't limit Michigan State's scoring, their chances of winning were gone.

(End of this chapter)