Durant nodded after hearing this. Lin Ying's mind is really good.
After resting, they left the arena to find something to eat. When the team bus arrived, they followed it into the arena together.
Barnes made them a thick chicken soup every day before the game, and the players rushed straight to the field with enthusiasm.
Allen Arena was already packed.
Although the University of Texas' performance has been mediocre since the start of the game, it is, after all, the team that was the finals team of last year's Big12 Championship and an old rival of Kansas.
And Durant's reputation is not small.
When the team was introduced before the game, the season performances of Chalmers and Durant were shown on the TV screen.
Chalmers averaged 14 points, 4 assists and 3 steals per game, and Durant averaged 21 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.
The data looks very different, but it actually represents the characteristics of the two teams.
Kansas has many players who can play, and the scoring is very average.
As for the University of Texas, Durant basically relies on himself to score points.
After the opening ceremony, the starting lineups of the two teams came out one after another.
Kansas side, Russell Robinson, Chalmers, Darnell Jackson, Julian Wright, Sasha Cowan.
For the University of Texas, Randy Williams, AJ Abrams, Damai James, Durant, Wendell.
"Longhorn!"
The University of Texas players folded their hands and shouted slogans before taking the field.
Do you have a chance to reach the top three or even go further? You will have the answer after this game!
Wright and Durant's jump ball at midfield.
Wright's physical talent is very outstanding, with a height of 2.03 meters and a wingspan of 2.16 meters, and he is especially good at jumping.
However, in front of Durant, who is 2.08 meters tall and has a wingspan of 2.28 meters, he feels like he is being crushed by his talent.
Durant jumped slightly and moved the ball back to half court. Williams controlled the ball and Texas got the opportunity to take the lead.
The University of Texas' first attack is of course looking for Durant.
Durant caught the ball in the high post, but Wright followed closely. He had no chance to take action, so he feinted and broke through with the ball.
The choice of this ball was correct, but Kansas reacted very quickly, shrinking collectively almost in an instant.
Durant was immediately surrounded.
As shown in the old-freshman competition, Durant's ability to handle the ball when double-teamed was relatively poor.
He failed to pass the ball, but chose to make an emergency stop.
It's just that he was surrounded and faced with many confrontations, so his shooting point was too low.
"Snapped!"
As a result, he was directly beaten by Wright!
The Allen Arena erupted instantly.
Although the jump ball did not skip, this block was much more igniting than the jump ball!
Lin Ying frowned at this time.
It would be difficult for Wright to cover Durant in a one-on-one situation, but Durant had too many things to consider when double-teaming, which gave Wright a chance.
But this is not the reason for his frown. The real reason for his frown is Kansas' tactical quality.
The training he saw before at Kansas was just the tip of the iceberg. Compared with Kansas State and Missouri, which they had played against before, Kansas was much better.
The University of Texas' defense retreated quite quickly and did not give Kansas a chance to initiate a fast break.
Falling into position, Chalmers directly gave the ball to Wright in the low post.
Wright hit Durant one-on-one, giving him a confrontation, and then turned around and hit a close hook.
Durant didn't have the upper hand in the confrontation. After losing his defensive position, it was too late to block the shot.
"Whoosh!"
The ball scraped against the edge of the basket and fell into the net bag.
Wright hit Kansas' first field goal of the night.
The Allen Arena was once again filled with excitement, and some fans even stood up and raised their hands in cheers the moment the ball was scored.
There is a certain gap between Wright's performance in his freshman season and their expectations. You must know that fans' expectations for him are at the NCAA star level.
But by his sophomore year, Wright had made great progress.
Especially in the past offense and defense, Wright completely suppressed Durant, which can be regarded as realizing the talent of the former McDonald's high school student.
And this also brought out Wright's confidence. He returned to the defensive end and began to physically confront Durant, but Durant couldn't catch the ball.
Abrams finally stepped out to catch the ball. He was very quick and rushed to the basket from the Kansas double team.
But it's a pity that Kansas has a big center named Cowen standing under the basket.
Cowen covered the sky with only one hand, and Abrams' layup failed in the end.
And Kansas once again showed their excellent tactical qualities.
When Abrams rushed inside, others knew that Cowan could defend the basket and had already turned around to prepare for a fast break.
After Cowan defended him and got the rebound, Chalmers had already passed the center line.
A long pass, Chalmers got the ball and avoided Williams' steal, rushed to the frontcourt and scored a fast break layup!
4 to 0!
The situation at the beginning was completely one-sided.
Whether it is player talent or tactical quality, Kansas is at least one level better than this University of Texas.
After playing for more than four minutes, Durant hit a difficult three-pointer against Wright from beyond the three-point line to open the scoring for the University of Texas.
But at this time, the University of Kansas had already scored 10 points.
This seems to be a bit of a dimensionality reduction blow.
But this is actually normal.
As Randy Williams said, most of the main players on this Kansas team stayed on after last year.
This means that in addition to talent and tactical literacy, his tacit understanding is also far behind the University of Texas.
The well-deserved strongest team in the big12 league.
And like the previous two games, Texas' defense was too poor.
Durant's body is still too thin to play the fourth position, and Abrams is also a cash machine.
To use an inappropriate metaphor, the University of Texas is a dam that has burst twice.
Even if the defensive abilities of Wendell and James are not bad, they can't make up for one thing or another.
The first half lasted almost 10 minutes, and the score was 20 to 5.
This score is a bit exaggerated.
Barnes called Lin Ying and Pittman up with a serious look.
The two came on to replace Durant and Wendell.
Durant gave Lin Ying a habitual high-five when he came off the court, but his face was expressionless.
Lin Ying didn't say anything. What he was thinking about now was how to bring the situation back a little bit.
It is a bit unrealistic to talk about winning now, but if the situation can be brought back a little, there is no chance of reversal.
Before he and Pittman came on, Texas had already had other rotations.
The current lineup on the court is Augustin, Tool A, James, Lin Ying and Pittman.
Substitution comes back, Texas has the ball.
Augustin organized a wave, but just like before, Kansas' tactical quality was too high, and Texas' tactics could not give it a chance.
Augustin saw it and shook it directly outside the three-point line before taking a shot.
At this time, Kansas' two main guards have already taken a rest, and facing him on the court is backup point guard Sherron Collins.
Collins is only 1.78 meters tall, shorter than Augustin.
But his reaction was not slow, and when Augustine took off, he also took off and interfered.
"when!"
Augustin's three-point shot failed.
And the ball was a long rebound. Darrell Arthur got the rebound and threw it directly to Collins.
Collins was also prepared early, grabbed the ball in advance, received the ball and ran to the frontcourt to score a fast break layup.
22 to 5!
The point difference has reached 17 points.
Allen Arena has been completely boiling.
They knew the University of Texas was getting weaker, but they didn't expect it to be that weak!
Barnes reached out and rubbed his forehead, his face looking indescribably ugly.
In fact, let alone Barnes, most of the University of Texas players were confused when the game ended in this situation.
The gap between ideal and reality is like a blow to the head.
Augustin took the ball to the frontcourt and didn't know what tactics to use.
At this moment, Lin Ying took the initiative to move to the high position, made a gesture to let him break through, and then directly moved up to the pick-and-roll.
Augustin was at a loss. When a pick-and-roll came up, he took the ball and dug in without even thinking about it.
Kansas' contraction was still very fast. Augustin took one step inside the free throw line and was basically blocked.
Fortunately, his ability to handle the ball in double teams is much better than Durant.
Before he was double-teamed, he observed the movement of his teammates, and then noticed that Lin Ying bounced outward after the pick-and-roll, and at this time he landed outside the three-point line.
After a summer of training, he certainly knew that Lin Ying could shoot three-pointers.
So after realizing he was being double-teamed, he immediately returned the ball to Lin Ying at the top of the key.
Lin Ying got a very good open three-point opportunity.
But Kansas' reaction was really fast, Arthur pounced on Lin Ying almost immediately.
Kansas is indeed prepared!
Then, Lin Ying passed the ball!
If Lin Ying's three-pointer was expected by Kansas, then this pass was definitely an accident.
The target of Lin Ying's pass was Pittman under the basket.
After receiving the ball, he turned around and put the ball into the basket.
After finishing the score, he reached out and pointed at Lin Ying, with a smile on his plump face.
Lin Ying is usually taciturn, but because the three of them have been training together all summer, this kind of cooperation no longer requires communication.
The reason why Lin Ying didn't shoot a three-pointer was not only because of Arthur's quick attack, but also for other reasons.
When Pittman is on the court, his movement speed is a huge disadvantage.
He made a three-pointer and said that if he failed to make a three-pointer, he would most likely be counterattacked like he just did.
Even if the first wave of fast attacks is defended, the University of Texas will fall into a 4-to-5 defense situation in a short period of time, and the defense will still be very difficult.
Unless he is really confident about making a shot from a wide open space, he will not make a hasty shot.
A simple tactic, but with a lot of data analysis, this is how Lin Ying plays now.
22 to 7.
There was still a 15-point difference on the court.
But after breaking the scoring drought, it can be clearly felt that the morale of the University of Texas players has improved.
The change brought about by the improved morale is that the defensive enthusiasm of the University of Texas has also returned on the field.
Although, they still failed to prevent Collins' breakthrough.
Collins and Augustin have a lot in common. They are both freshmen and undersize.
But what makes him better than Augustin is his breakthrough ability, and his footsteps are like an ankle terminator.
Augustine was passed by him almost instantly.
However, he did not choose to shoot, but rushed to the basket, took the initiative to confront Lin Ying and then took action.
So far, this has been expected by the Kansas fans in attendance.
This is also the way Collins plays that they are familiar with.
Although he is only a substitute, Collins relies on his excellent ball control and outstanding confrontation ability.
So far this season, he is averaging 11.5 points per game and is the sixth man for Kansas.
"boom!"
But the next second, the fans at the scene were stunned.
There was no unexpected confrontation and he scored calmly. Collins' goal was risked!
"How...incredible!"
This goal even surprised the home commentators.
Because Lin Ying didn't jump very high, but took advantage of Collins's confrontation, and then accurately shot and blocked the ball.
This sentence does not mention the scene, but it sounds very calm.
In fact, this is indeed the case. Lin Ying may know Collins better than the coaching staff at the University of Texas.
After all, Collins is also a player who has played in the NBA in history.
And as mentioned before, Collins is Kansas' sixth man. It is not difficult to get some Kansas game videos through Durant and find out the opponent's playing style in advance.
After all, the definition of data is very broad, it is not just numbers.
Photos, videos, and videos are all in the category of data.
Collins is good at ball control and strong in confrontation, but his shooting is poor, so he likes to break to the basket and use physical confrontation to create shooting space.
This is what Lin Ying analyzed.
Of course, to block the ball just now, you must have a foundation, and the most basic one is confrontation.
The moment Collins rushed to fight was like putting on a motorcycle charging at full speed. It would be difficult for ordinary college players to withstand it.
Then there is the judgment of the timing of action.
Thanks to Collins' unfamiliarity with Lin Ying, he was blocked without warning.
At this time, James rushed over and flew to grab the blocked ball, and then directly dribbled the ball and ran towards the frontcourt.
His fast break speed is very fast.
"Bang!"
After continuously passing the defense of Kansas players, he rushed to the frontcourt and took a step into the air, directly hitting the frame!
The person named James may not be LeBron, but the physical talent is definitely the same!
The dunk set the Texas bench on fire.
The team members stood up and shouted, completely different from the dejected look in front!
At this time, Barnes turned and looked at Springman, and then they both looked at Lin Ying on the field.
Although they only played a few rounds, they could clearly feel the changes in the situation on the field.
Or to put it another way, Lin Ying has the ability to influence the game.
This was already reflected in the previous game against the University of Missouri.
Now against the stronger Kansas City, the even more unfavorable situation makes Lin Ying's ability more obvious.
This is extremely valuable for a college player!
Barnes turned his head again and glanced at Durant, who was shouting the most enthusiastically on the sidelines.
Chapter completed!