The preseason begins soon, and USC’s opponent in the preseason opener is the University of California, Irvine Anteaters.
The University of California, Irvine, belongs to the Big West Conference and ranked fifth in the Big West Conference last season. The University of California, Irvine was very weak before and is also very weak now.
How weak it is specifically, let’s put it this way, it has never entered March Madness before, and it has never produced an NBA star.
And most of the players are juniors or seniors with average talent.
Playing against such an opponent in the opening game is, in a greater sense, for USC to train its troops and fine-tune its lineup.
The game was held at the USC Galen Center Basketball Competition Venue, not the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as everyone often calls it.
Many people think that the basketball competition venue of the University of Southern California is the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In fact, it is not. As the main venue of the two Olympic Games, the significance of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to the University of Southern California is self-evident. But the Memorial Coliseum is
Outdoor sports venues are not suitable for use as indoor basketball competition venues.
The University of Southern California has a dedicated basketball competition venue-the Galen Center.
Memorial Stadium is mainly used as a venue for outdoor competitions at the University of Southern California, such as the home stadium for USC football games, baseball games, football games, and track and field games. Its function is more like the Bird's Nest Outdoor Stadium.
Although the Galen Center is not as large as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, it can accommodate 9,000 to 18,000 people and is a standard basketball venue.
The starting lineup for the opening game is: Marcus Simmons, DeMar DeRozan, Dwight Lewis, Taj Gibson, Keith Wilkinson.
In the first game, DeRozan was the starting shooting guard and Gibson was the starting power forward.
This game is an away game. As soon as you enter the arena, you can see that the auditorium is basically full of people. The arena is full of people, with whistles and shouts coming one after another. This scene is not comparable even to the NBA.
Give more.
The game hasn't even started yet, but the atmosphere alone is already making people excited.
When it started, the cheers and shouts of the fans on site were so loud that my eardrums hurt.
This is the basketball culture in the United States. This is still at the beginning of the season. If it is March Madness, the scene will be bigger than the NBA. Even on the day of the NCAA Finals, all NBA teams did not play to make concessions for the NCAA Finals.
This is the first time Lian Dao has walked into the arena since his rebirth. Walking into the NCAA arena again, he once again felt the strong basketball atmosphere. Lian Dao was still very excited.
"The NCAA tournament has started, and the second task for newbies is released:
1. Won the "Parker Ten League" division championship.
2. Defeat the opponent in the division game and get a game jersey (must be a player who can enter the NBA, or an active NBA player)
award:
1: Randomly increase the potential of a talent value to 94.
2. A jersey talent lottery.”
Hearing the sound of the system again after more than two months, Lian Dao's consciousness went deep into his mind to check the task.
Task one is easy to say, this is the goal of Lian Dao and the team, but task two is not easy to do. It must first defeat the opponent. First, the team must win, and secondly, the data must be better than the opponent, and the opponent must enter the NBA in the future.
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"Hey, sickle, what's wrong, are you a little nervous? Relax, buddy, you can do it!" DeRozan saw Lian Dao stunned, so he patted Lian Dao on the shoulder and encouraged him.
"Um, I'm fine, I'm just too excited."
Lian Dao pulled his consciousness out of his system and followed DeRozan to the bench.
At the beginning of the game, Wilkinson won the ball through a jump ball. DeRozan went directly to the basket and jumped high, dunking successfully. In turn, Gibson's defensive end blocked the opponent's layup with a big block and turned it over.
After collecting the ball, it was passed to Marcus, who directly passed a long pass to assist Lewis for a layup.
The fans at the scene were stunned. Is this the top 15 seed in the country? So strong!
This defensive counterattack is the epitome of the entire game.
The entire game was conducted in this kind of defensive counterattack. Although the opponent's coach deployed tactics after the timeout, the strength gap between the two teams was really too big.
Although the opponent is also scoring, the score continues to grow. Although the opponent has sufficient defensive experience, the breakthrough points after physical confrontations have shattered the opponent's defense line. This game perfectly illustrates: experience lies in
It's really worthless in front of absolute talent.
They scored 80+ points on the Anteaters.
An NCAA offense lasts 35 seconds, and the entire game lasts 40 minutes, with 20 minutes each at the end of the game.
The result of this kind of game rules is slow pace and low scoring. In NCAA competitions, few teams reach more than 70 points, and most of them are around 50-60.
In the end, USC won 85:52 and won the opening match.
All 4 members of the USC team scored in double figures, and other players also scored. DeRozan scored a team-high 24 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Except him, Gibson scored 21 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks.
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Lian Dao played as Lewis' substitute and played 15 minutes. He made 4 of 5 3-point shots and scored 12 points and 6 assists. He had no rebounds or blocks.
The goalkeeper in the opening game gave all the players confidence, and they were followed by consecutive victories.
The team's strength in the first four games of the preseason was relatively weak, possibly because of the need to adjust the lineup. In these three games, Lian Dao averaged 15 minutes per game, averaging 8.4 points, 2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and 2.3 blocks per game.
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Until the fifth preseason game, USC met its opponent the Missouri Tigers.
At the beginning of this game, the opponent adopted a 23 zone defense. DeRozan was blocked by the opponent's power forward for two consecutive shots, and the outside shooter never missed.
To break the zone defense, you need 3 points from the outside. The outside feels cold. Just strengthen the defense and cut off the opponent's offense.
However, USC's defense was not good today. It was blocked by the opponent's small forward DeMarre Carroll. In the first half, the opponent showed confidence and kept firing from the outside. As a result, USC ended the first half 25:
42, 17 points behind.
In fact, the overall strength of USC is stronger than the opponent. The reason why it fell behind in the first half was because the first four games were too smooth, and it basically led all the way until now. As a result, all the players were a little arrogant. The offense had no feel and the defense
He was careless and the score continued to expand.
Back in the locker room, Tim was furious and started to spray.
"Your defense is worse than an old lady sweeping the street. Lewis, are you sleepwalking on the court?"
After Tim finished speaking, he took out the tactical board and said, "Sickle, in the second half, when you go on the field, I only have two requirements for you: guard the opposing forward. Second, I will give you unlimited firing rights, but you have to let me chase the score.
Come back. Do you understand?"
"Yes, don't worry, coach, the guy on the opposite side can't stop me." Lian Dao was also excited when he heard that he had unlimited fire rights. He patted his chest and confidently assured coach Tim.
Finally I can let go and have a go.
…
During the timeout, the two commentators in the commentary box were not idle, and were talking and analyzing the current situation for the fans at the scene.
"So far, the Missouri Tigers are in the lead, but the USC Trojans have never been in a good state. They seem to have been disrupted by the opponent's zone defense, and their outside touch seems to have been frozen." The commentator said.
Member Smith analyzed.
"On the offensive end, they rely too much on holding the ball to break through, and no one on the field steps up to organize the offense. It feels like they are constantly playing in isolation. This method is okay when encountering a team with weak defense, but once it encounters a team with strong defense,
, that will create a mess!" Another commentator, Hasko, also echoed his old partner.
"The most important thing is that USC has not been doing very well on the defensive end. He has allowed the opposite forward DeMarre Carroll to break out. DeMarre Carroll's current data is 6 of 8 shots.
He scored 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks, the efficiency was amazing!" Smith then analyzed and supplemented the defense of both sides.
"I wonder what kind of tactical adjustments coach Tim will make during the halftime break in the second half? I think we can wait and see." Hasco also continued.
"The game is about to start. Let's take a look at the adjustments made by both coaches." Smith watched the players from both sides begin to enter the field and sat up straight.
"The Missouri Tigers are still the same team. They haven't made too many adjustments to the lineup. However, USC replaced their starting small forward Lewis and replaced him with an Asian player Lian Dao." Haas
Ke said while looking at the lineups of both sides in the first half.
"I have seen this No. 1 player in previous games. He has good three-pointers and passing skills. Coach Tim should want this kid to break the deadlock through outside shooting and three-pointers." Smith handed it over to the staff.
player information, looking at Lian Dao’s statistics from the past few games.
"Yes, he is also a pretty good dribbler. He graduated from Walnut High School, but his high school head coach's evaluation of him was: he has good dribbling and three-pointers, but poor physical confrontation ability. He did not mention that he can also organize
Pass the ball." Commentator Harkes also added.
"Hahaha, maybe this kid has some tricks up his sleeve."
"Well, I hope this magical boy can help USC open up the situation."