New Century Basketball Frenzy

Chapter 181 64-Strong Knockout Tournament
Robert had to run to the teachers to try and beat the test completely.

Wacker thought that the most troublesome thing would be Escalio, after all, he never went to class.

But unexpectedly, in a make-up exam, he actually got a perfect grade.Even Wall-E, the schoolmaster, is ashamed of himself.

"Hey, are you cheating?" Robert asked in a low voice.

Escal glanced at him, and replied blankly, "No, I failed the last exam just because I didn't take it."

"The questions in the exam are very simple, isn't it easy to pass?"

Hearing this, Robert really wanted to die.

In his opinion, how can a person fully utilize the talent points of learning ability and athletic ability.

Now Escarius slapped him in the face with practical actions.

In addition to everyone on the UCLA Bruins team, many elite basketball schools also have the tradition of making up for their grades at the last minute.

After all, for many of them, it is enough to play basketball well, and they have not paid much attention to study since high school.

But there are also many learning geniuses like Wally and Escalio.For example, Varanda, who is pursuing a double degree while playing ball, and Sean, who has excellent grades in all subjects.

Although the NCAA has put forward the rule that academic performance affects competition, in fact the standard set is extremely low, as long as children who do not completely disobey the school rules can pass.

At the draw ceremony in March Madness, Wacker, as the head coach of the first team in the league to win a division championship, took the stage to draw numbers.

"No. 1!" The first one to come on stage actually got number one.The corner of Wack's mouth raised, it seems that this is God's will.

Entering the upper half, the newly promoted top 64 players are all among the best.

Just like the Pacific League where the Bruins are located, apart from him and the second-ranked Trojans, even the third-ranked Wildcats failed to appear.

Moreover, many strong teams in previous years have also stumbled, and there are many dark horses entering the knockout round.

At the end of the lottery round, the upper half where the Bruins are located has the defending champions, the NCAA's No. [-] giant, the Duke University Blue Devils, and the traditional strong team, the University of Kentucky.

As for the lower half, it can basically be regarded as the University of Memphis Tigers, but the result of the knockout round is hard to say. For example, the momentum of North Carolina this year is also very strong.

The reason why it is called March Madness is precisely because of the ups and downs in the competition.An underdog result could happen every night.

As the number one team in the upper half, the Bruins took the lead in the game, and Wacker was lucky that the game venue was also his home stadium, the Polly Garden Arena.

Their opponent was the University of Florida Gators who met for the first time.

The overall strength of this team is not weak. It is in the Southern League and advanced as No.2.

And with 18 points, they only lost to the University of Kentucky Wildcats twice.

It's just that when the number two was drawn, the head coach of the Gators almost cried.Because their opponent in the first round last year was the Duke University Blue Devils.

If the Bruins win the championship this year, they will be eliminated by the championship team in the first round for two consecutive years.

Even if the two teams did not have any intersection before, no critic or audience thinks that the Gators may be upset.

On the day of the game, Polly Garden Arena became a sea of ​​UCLA home fans, and even legendary superstars Kobe and James played together again.

These two seem to have bought tickets for all games this year, which directly drove the media enthusiasm for the Bruins.

Originally, the top 64 games were only broadcast in the region and online channels.But in order to get off to a good start, the NCAA deliberately led the game to be broadcast live across the United States.

The University of Florida, the second-best player in the Wannian Southern League, has never had the experience of live broadcasting in the United States. The game has not yet started, and all the players are nervous.

On the other hand, the players of the Bruins have long been accustomed to facing the camera.Even during training, Wali and the others did not forget to play tricks with Zhang Yi to attract attention.

From the state of the two teams, it can be seen that there is an obvious gap in strength.

If the madness of March Madness comes from lore and counter-lore again and again, then the premise must be that the scores of the two teams can be played so anxiously.

For example, in the game between the Bruins and the Gators, at the beginning, Wally played against the opponent's center Frankie.

Moreover, the opponent's star player happened to be the small forward Fox who was facing Zhang Yi, so he couldn't find any opportunities to play.

Already nervous, the Bruins' defensive intensity was very strong when they came up, and their state was naturally in chaos.

However, all the coaches who can lead the team to the round of 64 have their own special methods.

So did Gators head coach Redd, who, through a timeout, redeployed the roster.

In response to the lack of strength of the Bruins' power forwards, a fast-moving twin-tower combination was used.

Brad's speed is good, but there are problems with his height and wingspan, so he was also targeted by opponents defensively.

After a wave of chasing points, the Gators finally brought the score back to within ten before the end of the first half.

But even the audience could see that the Bruins didn't make any effort at all, because they only had one trump card, Zhang Yi, and Escalo hadn't played yet.

As soon as the second half came, with the main shooting guard on the field, the game was immediately unwatchable, and it fell to the Bruins overwhelmingly.

Escalo cooperated with Zhang Yi to take the game away with a wave of 5:22 within 0 minutes.

The Alligators didn't have any temper when they were abused. Who made the difference in the strength of their core players too big.

Although they also recovered some points before the end, they still lost by 20 points.

When shaking hands after the game, Reed still whispered in Wacker's ear, "Congratulations, I hope you can finally win the championship."

"What's wrong?" Because the opponent's head coach had tears in his eyes.

"If you met a future champion team in the first round every year, you'd cry too!"

For such words, Wacker was speechless.He could only pat Reed on the shoulder distressedly, "Come on in the coming year..."

Although it was a massacre with a big score, the audience did not feel disappointed, because they were used to watching the Bruins game.

The interaction between Kobe and James under the stage also attracted everyone's attention.

Everyone is guessing who is Zhang Yi's real godfather, and even supporters on both sides of the Internet started a fierce battle of abuse.

Zhang Yi has never really expressed the status of these two stars in his heart before the media.

On the contrary, all people know is that he was once a disciple of the Lakers legend Wang Long.

Such a complex identity just satisfies the masses' desire to eat melons.

So after the round of 64, the attention of the Bruins once again heated up to unprecedented heights.

Almost at the same time as him, the Duke Blue Devils and Kentucky Wildcats both won easily.

And the two teams will meet in the next round, and the opponent of the Bruins is the slightly weaker Loyola University Chicago Ramblers!

(End of this chapter)