Defeating the University of Kansas is easy to say, but not so simple to do.
Don't think that the University of Texas didn't lose much before, just think that they now have the strength to challenge Kansas after adjusting their lineup.
In fact, the last time they played against Kansas, they didn't even play the main team in the end.
You can say that Kansas head coach Self is as stubborn as Barnes, but the fact is that Kansas did not use its full strength.
The time when Kansas used all its strength was in the first half of the first and second quarters, when Texas had no power to resist.
So to achieve this goal, they have to continue to become stronger.
Or in other words, they must at least become close to the University of Kansas in terms of strength before they have the capital to talk about victory or defeat.
After Christmas, Lin Ying and Durant returned to the University of Texas.
They immediately went to Springman and expressed their thoughts.
"Win the championship?"
Springman was shocked when he heard this word.
Well, it's like hearing that someone is going to build an elevator to go to the moon.
You must know that the elite eight that Barnes mentioned before are already a luxury, and winning the championship is simply a fantasy.
But looking at the serious looks of the two of them, he also knew that this was not a joke, not to mention that today was not April Fools' Day.
After the shock, he nodded seriously.
Although he thought it was unrealistic, he could still feel the vitality coming from the two of them.
It is a good thing for young people to have dreams. What he should do is not to break such dreams, but to help them as much as possible.
No one can predict the future, what if it happens?
"There is no shortcut to success. I will train you more strictly. You must put in more effort, even several times more sweat and effort."
Spliman's next words gave the two of them a thorough explanation.
Then, he put forward his request for the two of them.
"Our current training schedule is two practices a day, and I will increase it to three practices a day in the coming days."
From two to three, this may not sound like a big change, but perhaps only professional athletes know what this means.
To give the simplest example, NBA players generally practice twice a day, and very few practice three times a day.
Among those very few people, the one most familiar to fans is Kobe, and the "four o'clock in the morning" joke comes from here.
Or it would be more straightforward to explain it with numbers.
Everyone's training time is different, but generally, a training session lasts about 2 hours.
Training once a day means training for two hours a day.
Practice twice a day, which is four hours.
If you practice three times a day, that's six hours.
You may say that this is not much. Ordinary people work for eight hours a day!
But training and going to work are not the same concept.
If you just fiddle around at work, the actual work you do may only last four to five hours or less.
But training requires full dedication.
Moreover, physical exertion recovers more slowly than mental exertion, so there must be adequate rest time in between.
That means they'll probably have to train late into the night.
However, Durant and Lin Ying didn't think there was anything wrong after listening to it.
After all, the two of them have been going to the training center every day since high school.
"Coach, can you let us sleep in the training hall?"
Durant made a request.
Because they are students, students do more than just play ball.
Especially now that school has started, they have to spend a lot of time in class.
And now, the rest of the Longhorns practice once a day, while he and Lin Ying practice twice a day because they are accompanying Pittman to lose weight.
The current two practice times are:
The first training is in the morning. I get up at 5:30 and train from 6 to 8 o'clock.
The second training is in the evening, get out of class ends at 5 o'clock, and training is from 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock.
Because the time interval between each training session must be at least 3 hours, this also means that the third training session can only be from 10 pm to 12 pm.
It can be seen from the time distribution that if the time to and from the training hall is also included, even if they take a nap at noon, they will not have enough sleep time.
But if you can sleep in the training hall, the situation will be different.
Because that way they can guarantee at least 5 to 6 hours of sleep.
If you make up for another hour at noon, there will basically be no problem.
Springman glanced at the two of them.
There are no beds in the training hall, and even the lounge only has a bunch of benches.
Sleeping in the training hall means having to make a bed on the floor.
It would be fine if it was summer, but the weather now at the end of December and soon into January is a double test for people's body and spirit.
As he watched, Lin Ying on the side nodded.
From the eyes and actions of the two men, Springman could feel their determination.
He nodded.
Then, he said the second point.
"Kansas has not only the personal abilities of the players, but also the tactical qualities. I will also train you on this in training, and..."
When Springman said this, he turned to look at Lin Ying.
"We need to find tactics that can target them. I haven't thought about this yet, but I believe we will find it."
Springman had something else to say.
He has been looking for tactics against Kansas, but has never had a good idea. He said this because he hopes Lin Ying can think about it.
Because Lin Ying's basketball IQ has been fully demonstrated before, otherwise he would not have passed the tactical manual before.
Lin Ying nodded.
But as Springman said, a targeted tactic is not so easy to come up with.
This will require a lot of data analysis, and perhaps even theory and practice.
But if he wants to win the championship, he must think of it.
…
New Year's Day is a major holiday in the United States, second only to Christmas in importance.
On the last day of 2006, people gathered in churches, streets or squares, singing, praying, blessing and repenting, waiting for the arrival of 12 o'clock at midnight.
At 12 o'clock, the bells rang and the band played the theme song "Have a safe journey" from the classic movie "The Blue Bridge".
Amidst the sound of music, people hugged each other and welcomed the new year together with the sadness of farewell and the yearning for a new life.
Of course this year these have nothing to do with Lin Ying and Durant.
Because of the school holiday on this day, their third training session ended earlier than usual.
After training, they moved the bedding from the dormitory to the training hall.
Next to the lounge of the training hall is a storage room, where sports equipment and the like are usually stored.
Springman gave them the key to the storage room. They would put the bedding in the storage room during the day, and then move it to the lounge at night. They lined up the benches in the lounge in two rows against the wall.
Got a bed.
It will definitely not be too comfortable to sleep on it, but in the winter when you can't lay a floor on it, this is already a good idea.
It was very quiet late at night during training, and the two of them should fall asleep soon after lying down.
But I don't know if it was because they moved to a new place, but the two of them tossed and turned for a while after lying down.
"Ying, are you asleep?"
"not yet."
"Do you think we can beat Kansas?"
When Durant heard that Lin Ying was not sleepy, he felt refreshed and sat up.
"it should be OK."
"It can definitely be done! We didn't show our strength last time, and we definitely won't do that again if we do it again."
Durant gritted his teeth when he said this, obviously holding back his energy and a little impatient.
Lin Ying said "hmm".
Although Durant can't wait, the next match between the two teams will not be until early March, which is two months from now.
Just then, there was light in the darkness.
It was Durant who turned on the phone.
"King, do you want us to watch something exciting?"
Lin Ying was speechless when he heard this.
The exciting stuff is the kind they saw on the first day they arrived at the University of Texas dormitory.
But there was no woman at night, so how could two men still fencing?
"Kevin, we have to go all out to beat Kansas."
Lin Ying said.
The light in the darkness disappeared, and Durant lay down to sleep again.
After a while, a slight snoring sounded in the lounge.
Lin Ying couldn't sleep.
It's not because of Durant's snoring, but because of what Durant said.
If they lose to Kansas in the next home game, it will definitely have a huge blow to the team's morale.
It's even possible that they will lose confidence when they face Kansas in the conference playoffs.
So for them in the next game, they can only win but not lose.
Two months is enough time for them to prepare, but as Springman said, they must find a targeted tactic.
But this tactic is not so easy to find.
After another period of tossing and turning, I don't know how long it took, before Lin Ying fell asleep in a daze.
Just like many office workers, the alarm sounds as soon as they fall asleep.
Especially in the winter, getting up is simply the ultimate test of personal willpower.
However, the two of them got up quickly, and their movements were so swift that it made people feel a little distressed.
After briefly washing up, they went to the training hall to warm up, and soon Wright "carried" Pittman over.
This scene has happened countless times since they entered the University of Texas.
The content of training is basically fixed.
The first hour is basic training, including shooting, running back and forth, etc. They can complete it by themselves.
When it was about seven o'clock, Springman also came, carrying some bread in his hand as breakfast for the others.
The last hour of training is confrontation training.
Springman was not only an assistant coach but also a trainer at this time, holding a mat to simulate confrontation to train the two.
Of course, in addition to this, there is also the offensive and defensive battle between Lin Ying and Durant.
Shields and spears are put together, and there is no better training effect than letting them confront each other directly.
By the time the two-hour training was over, the two of them were sweating profusely.
Their training content will remain roughly the same, but Springman will adjust the intensity according to their physical conditions to keep them at "high intensity."
Don't feel cruel, because only in this way can they stimulate their physical potential and allow them to complete their goal of defeating Kansas.
When the training was over, Springman told the two people some good news.
The school finally approved the team's application to install a TV in the lounge, and the installation will be completed before the New Year's Day holiday.
In other words, they can watch TV during their break this holiday!
When Springman said this, Durant reached out and gave Lin Ying a high-five.
Normally, they spend most of the day in class and don't think about what to do after training.
But now that I'm on vacation, I suddenly have a lot more time.
For two people who enjoy going to the training gym, they really don't know what to do.
If they had TV, their lives would be much richer.
Springman did not fool them, and the person who installed the cable TV came over that afternoon.
Durant chatted enthusiastically with them, while Lin Ying sat aside and continued to think about tactics quietly.
But just like last night, I still have no idea.
It wasn't until Durant pulled him out of his thoughts that he realized that the TV had been installed and the person who installed it had left.
"What do you think we should buy a game console? Connect it to the TV and we can play games! Oh, by the way, I can order a pizza and coke..."
Durant suggested.
He is professional when it comes to staying at home.
"Kevin, this is the school lounge."
Lin Ying reminded.
This TV has just been installed. If someone from the school finds out they are using it to play games, it will probably be recycled in a matter of minutes.
Durant looked slightly disappointed, but he still turned on the TV and started watching.
Television in the United States is divided into two categories: one is public television, which is similar to the domestic TV stations with five or eleven TV stations.
This type of program has a coverage rate of more than 90% in the United States and has very high content requirements. No violence, pornography, or even dirty words are allowed and will be beeped out;
The other type is cable TV stations, which cover a lot of content and have more American characteristics.
The now popular "Song of Killing and Fucking" is one of these types of programs.
Such programs have low coverage and most of them are paid, so many dramas have no scale restrictions.
After watching public television for a while, Durant felt bored and wanted to switch to cable TV.
Lin Ying didn't object. Watching programs similar to popular science and political news was indeed a bit drowsy.
But after entering the cable television program, he made a suggestion.
TNT.
That's not the abbreviation for Dynamite, it's for Turner Network.
The Buckley show that Lin Ying was on before was on TNT.
TNT is a TV station similar to China's CCTV 5. It broadcasts live sports events around the clock, with the NBA being the focus.
Or in other words, as long as it is an NBA game that is broadcast by TNT, you can watch it whether it is live or replayed.
Nothing captures the attention of two basketball players more than this.
After paying the fee, they can watch the game.
However, NBA live broadcasts are basically at night, and they can only watch replays now.
Fortunately, they were busy training and didn't pay much attention to the NBA. They didn't know the results of the game. There was not much difference between the replay and the live broadcast.
And they quickly picked a game that had just been played two days ago.
Lakers VS Mavericks.
The Mavericks are a Texas team. They have performed very well this season under the coaching of "Little General" Avery Johnson. Nowitzki has also played the best performance of his career and now ranks first in the Western Conference.
Although the Lakers are average now, they have Kobe.
Chapter completed!