The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 67 The Boxer
The Bulldogs spent the entire month of August in cars, on highways, in hotels, and on the field.

For the players, this is a huge test of physical endurance; the long journey and one game after another will leave everyone exhausted.

But at the same time, it is also a valuable life experience for these young people who have not yet left school.

They drove along Highway 1 through the entire state of California, gazing at the vast Pacific Ocean and admiring the afterglow of the sunset.

In Arizona and New Mexico, endless red wilderness fills the view, and as you approach Phoenix, the towering saguaro cacti in the national park are breathtaking.

They encountered some trouble on the Colorado Plateau when their car broke down near the Grand Canyon. Everyone had to get out and push it for five miles, leaving them exhausted. This ultimately led to their loss to the University of Colorado in the race the following day.

This was the first game the Bulldogs lost on their away trip.

USTC's guard Jay Humphries completely overwhelmed Stockton; this type of high-scoring black guard has always been Stockton's nightmare.

Then they went to Kansas, where there are three universities with Kansas in their names: the University of Kansas, the University of Kansas City, and Kansas State University.

The most famous of these is the University of Kansas Jays, Wilt Chamberlain's alma mater and the place where Dr. Naismith, the father of basketball, coached. It can be said to be the birthplace of American basketball coaches.

The current coach of the University of Kansas is Larry Brown, formerly the coach of UCLA.

This stern-faced white coach is trying to mold the University of Kansas into one of the nation’s best defensive teams, which they allowed an average of 70 points per game last season, he thinks is a bit too much.

In this warm-up game, Gan Guoyang, who had rested up well, teamed up with Stockton and scored 91 points in Kansas. Gan Guoyang scored 31 points over Greg Drelling, a 7-foot-1 white center.

This made Larry Brown wonder if his month and a half of coaching and training had been wasted.

After leaving Kansas, they headed north, passing through the Nebraska prairie, where they played a game against the University of Nebraska, coached by Willis Reed, before heading to Minnesota in the far north to play the final game of their long road trip.

John Shasky, the 6-foot-11 white center for the Minnesota Golden Mole, is facing the same problem that Gray, Claylin, and others have encountered before: he has absolutely no idea how to defend a center like Gan Guoyang.

In the 80s, the NCAA was full of tall white centers like these. They had average talent, but they were tall, strong, and had solid fundamentals. They were indispensable barriers in the paint for their teams.

Compared to Black centers with explosive athleticism, their advantage lies in receiving team basketball training from a young age, having a strong tactical awareness, and being able to execute the coach's intentions better, making them very popular with college coaches.

The absence of a defensive three-second rule and the existence of zone defense mean they are not at a significant disadvantage when facing some strong black interior players.

Gan Guoyang is clearly an anomaly. He possesses the strength, intelligence, and fundamentals of white players, the explosiveness and energy of black players, and the stamina and cunning unique to Asians.

Without any match footage or prior research, when the two sides clash, the opponent has no idea how to defend, and past experience is of no use at all.

The center receives the ball at the top of the key to facilitate the offense. The guards and forwards run around the perimeter, and then he suddenly shoots and makes it. How do you defend against that?

His back-to-the-basket turn speed is comparable to that of a small forward. He drives to the basket with the ball, then walks out and makes a hook shot that is quite accurate. How can you defend against that?
What makes these big white centers even more desperate is that you think he's not strong enough or tall enough, so he's using these methods to avoid direct confrontation with you in order to take shortcuts?
That's not the case. In a head-on confrontation, he has more explosive power than you, his effective height is no less than yours, and he possesses astonishing strength.

The reason he avoided fighting was simply because he was tired from the long journey and needed to conserve his energy. Besides, it was a warm-up match, so it was more polite to play conservatively.

Gan Guoyang was very polite throughout the competition and never asked anyone "How was your day?"

After playing against the Golden Mole, and after more than a month of traveling across a third of the United States, they achieved an excellent record of 11 wins and 1 loss, and embarked on their journey back to Spokane.

Starting from Minnesota, head west along Highway 94, crossing North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, a distance of over 1300 miles, and you'll be back in Spokane.

Along the way, they crossed the Rocky Mountains. In late summer and early autumn, the magnificent scenery of the western mountains was breathtaking, with vast expanses of lush forests stretching as far as the eye could see.

While refueling at a forest gas station, the players noticed a small basketball court next to the station, so they got out of the car to play basketball together and then took a group photo.

The car broke down again while crossing high-altitude areas in Montana, and everyone got out and pushed it for another five miles until they reached a small town. It was getting late, so they decided to stay overnight. The following noon, the team played an exhibition basketball game for the residents at the town's elementary school basketball court. More than 500 people from the entire town, including babies, came to watch the exciting game.

The townspeople waived their room and board fees, helped repair their car, bought them some leftover T-shirts and hats, and finally said goodbye to these energetic college students.

The journey was long and tiring, but the joy of being together as young people always outweighed the boredom, and the victories along the way filled everyone with confidence for the new season.

Gan Guoyang has become the undisputed core of the team. His performance on away games is like a stabilizing force, allowing his teammates to perform better. Everyone feels at ease as long as he is on the field.

Of course, the pillar of the journey was Coach Delong, who handled all kinds of matters, big and small, including daily chores such as washing clothes and shoes.

On the morning of September 1st, Gan Guoyang's 19th birthday, they returned to Spokane and to the campus of Gonzaga University.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief the moment they got off the bus. Stockton said he just wanted to go back to his dorm and sleep for three days and three nights.

Only Gan Guoyang, after a short rest, went to the gymnasium for training in the afternoon.

For more than a month, I was either on the road, in the competition, or in the hotel, and I didn't have any large blocks of time to train properly.

Gan Guoyang believes this is detrimental to his condition and that he must train to get his body back to a good state.

He trained intensely on the court and in the gym until dark. When he returned to his dorm and tried to turn on the lights, he found they wouldn't turn on.

Is there a power outage? Or is the light broken?
Suddenly the lights snapped on, and a burst of cheers erupted. The dormitory was packed with people—teammates from the basketball team, roommates, and close friends—all there to celebrate Gan Guoyang's birthday.

Gan Guoyang was not afraid of the big competition, but he felt out of place in this warm and caring scene.

For the first time, his teammates saw shyness and bewilderment on his face, which made them even more enthusiastic, and they insisted on dragging him to sing.

Gan Guoyang couldn't refuse, so he said, "Then I'll sing the song that Coach Delong has been playing on the way, Simon-and-Garfunkel, The Boxer."

My roommate plays guitar and accompanies me. Gan Guoyang started the song, and we'd all heard it so many times we were sick of it, so we joined in the singing:
"...In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down...LaiLaiLai, LaiLaiLai..."

This song has a beautiful and catchy melody and tells the story of a tenacious boxer. Deron Williams wants to tell his players that no matter how many times they fail, they must get up strong and keep fighting.

However, the cruelty of the NCAA lies in the fact that once you reach the national championships, it only gives you one chance to fail, and there's no way to get back up.

Before they knew it, it was December. After four months of careful preparation, the Gonzaga Bulldogs officially began their 1983-1984 NCAA season.

The regular season will run from December to March of next year, consisting of 24 games, including 12 games from outside the league and 12 games from within the West Coast Conference.

The top seed from the West Coast Conference will qualify for the NCAA National Championship Western Conference Wild Card Game.

The Bulldogs' first game was an away game in Idaho against Idaho State University in the Big Sky League, at Holt Arena, which is shaped like a vegetable greenhouse.

This venue can serve as a basketball court, a track and field stadium, and a rugby field, making it a multi-purpose facility that was quite advanced in the 80s.

然后甘国阳在这里，用一场33分22个篮板球10次封盖的震撼表现，率领斗牛犬87：63，24分的优势狂胜对手。

The tallest player in the Idaho starting lineup is only 6 feet 8 inches, much shorter than Gan Guoyang, and is no match for him.

It was from this game where he achieved a triple-double that Gan Guoyang officially returned to the spotlight of the American basketball world, with West Coast media exclaiming, "The Oriental bio-engineered man from San Francisco has reappeared."

(End of this chapter)