Champion, please stay!

Chapter 11.11. The school team selection process is also brutal.
During the afternoon coaching session, Yi Shui was assigned to learn two practical combat techniques, which could also be described as targeted reinforcement, because, to be honest, he knew all of these techniques, but he was very rough on them.

One is the off-ball scoring technique for three-point shooting around a 45-degree angle. In terms of movement, it includes cutting and stopping to run, using screens, and spreading out after setting screens for the wings. In terms of shooting, it includes ordinary standing catch-and-shoot, catch-and-turn shot, and turn-and-catch-and-shoot.

Another one is still related to the 45-degree angle three-point shot, but it's about attacking with the ball. This one is simple—fake drive, gather the ball, and pull up for a jump shot.

This was an intensive training program that Clark tailored specifically for him and personally instructed him on.

He took into account Yi Shui's morning test performance, but more importantly, he considered Yi Shui's training in the two weeks before the start of the semester.

Before leaving the school in mid-July with Yad and Thabeet, he instructed his trainers to record Yi Shui's training performance each time. After returning to the school from his summer job, he carefully reviewed Yi Shui's daily training sessions.

For the first month or so, when Yi Shui was focusing on physical training, Clark couldn't see anything special. The only indication was that Yi Shui's body was gradually recovering, and the training volume would be increased every few days.

However, two weeks before the start of the semester, after Yi Shui switched from focusing on physical training to focusing on basic skills, Clark's eyes lit up. The improvement was very obvious, especially in the three-pointers at the 45-degree angle on both wings. The improvement curve was very exaggerated. In just these two areas, Ray Allen in his prime might not have been able to match.

The three-point shooting in other areas also improved the speed quite well. As for why there were two points that were particularly exaggerated, Clark didn't find it strange.

Every player has their optimal shooting angle. For example, Jordan was incredibly accurate at the 60-degree angle, but much less so at the 30-degree angle. Duncan, on the other hand, has become almost as accurate as Nowitzki and Garnett with his mid-range shot at the 45-degree angle in recent years, but he can hardly shoot from other areas.

It wasn't noticed before, perhaps because when Yi Shui first started practicing his basic skills, he didn't focus on practicing three-pointers. Later, when he needed to improve his shooting, Yi Shui had already put all his effort into getting to the bottom of things.

Therefore, he instructed Yi Shui to focus on practicing these two highly practical scoring methods.

The next day, Sunday, Yi Shui continued to participate in the autumn selection activities.

However, after reporting in the morning, he discovered that Jerry Cook had assigned him a different job than others, providing him with a court and two trainers, so he stopped worrying about it.

He was not scheduled to play a training match until the afternoon. His teammates and opponents were the strongest players from the first and second years of college, and Dyson was assigned to be his teammate.

When they were opponents, Dyson would compete with Yi Shui, and when they were teammates, they would still compete. Yi Shui would not give way either and would fight with the opponent.

The three teammates were at their wits' end. The older sophomore point guard AJ Price, who was guarding Dyson, and the local first-year prodigy Johnny Leonard, who was guarding Yishui, were on the verge of collapse. They didn't know what they had done to deserve this. Why did they have to torment them?

Defending against Dyson isn't difficult, but for Yi Shui, who is larger and faster, Dyson remains the team's most versatile ball-handler and one-on-one king who can always get the ball out, even against his teammates.

Yi Shui's one-on-one play is actually easier to defend than Dyson's. The opposing team has Thabeet under the basket, and experienced forwards and guards like senior Frostowski or junior Ostry can definitely limit him. But freshman Johnny Leonard, aside from his 198cm height advantage, is completely outmatched in every other aspect…

...

After two days of selection that were generally very enjoyable, Yi Shui returned to campus mode, attending classes in the morning and training in the afternoon, but with an added element—if there was enough time and energy to train in the afternoon, they would go to the gymnasium after dinner to train for 'Day 7'.

Yes, he increased the intensity!
A balanced campus life allows him to rediscover some of the passion that had dissipated after a summer of torment, but competitions, even just training matches, can ignite his passion for basketball!

Yesterday afternoon, he broke in and got blocked twice by Thabeet, which greatly boosted his training motivation; he wanted to dunk on him.

Five days have passed in the blink of an eye, and it's Saturday again, which also marks the start of a new month: September 1st.

When Yi Shui woke up, she received a system notification.

"Growth Card: Secondary Development in Progress: 3/20. Your height has grown to 194 cm and your wingspan to 208 cm."

Due to changes in your body structure, your speed increases from 91 to 92, while your agility decreases from 93 to 92.

Based on your overall physical condition, the system calculates that you can increase your weight to a maximum of 90 kilograms without affecting your speed and agility. If you require a greater weight, be prepared.

The moment Yi Shui saw that he had 'grown taller', he covered his face, but when he saw that his speed had increased by 1, a question mark appeared above his head.

Can growing taller increase speed? But he didn't understand that either; of course, it would be best if he could grow taller.

The decline in agility was to be expected; as he continued to grow taller, it would inevitably be affected.

The last tip was supposed to be a weight gain suggestion, but he read it the other way around—that exceeding 90 kilograms would affect speed and agility.

However, for him, gaining weight is something he really needs to keep track of. His height keeps increasing, and if his weight doesn't keep up, he might have to gain ten kilograms at once in a single day? That would have a huge impact on his playing style.

In the less than 40 days from the end of June to the beginning of August, his weight changed significantly. It started at 84 kilograms, then dropped to 82 kilograms as he continued to train, and then increased rapidly to 87 kilograms.

During that period, he ate a lot. He analyzed that there were several reasons, such as the 'second growth spurt' and increased training volume. After completing the 'functional transformation', his appetite decreased significantly, and his weight has not fluctuated much in the past month.

He didn't think about gaining weight on his own. After finishing his report at the University of Cornell Gymnasium with Robinson and Yad, he went straight to Clark and told him he wanted to gain 5 pounds.

After learning the purpose of his visit, Clark asked, "Do you want to gain weight because you've grown an inch taller?"

Yi Shui asked in surprise, "How did you know? Are your eyes the ruler?"

Clark was somewhat speechless, and replied, "It's written on the physical test report."

"Uh...oh."

“At your age, although you can theoretically still grow taller, it’s really rare to grow an inch in two months.”

"Could it be that I've gone through a second puberty?"

"That's possible, but if you continue to grow taller so quickly, you should still go to the hospital for a checkup. If it's a pituitary gland pathology, the problem could be quite serious. But don't worry too much, such cases are rare. There's a 99% chance that your growth plates just haven't closed yet."

"Okay, I'll be careful."

"Regarding your weight gain, don't overeat during mealtimes to avoid stretching your stomach. I will prepare a nutritious meal for you every afternoon outside of mealtimes. With your training volume, as long as you control your protein and calorie intake, it will be easy to gain or lose weight within a small range."

"Then I can come here to train every afternoon? That works too, and it'll save me from all that pointless socializing. Thank you so much."

"Why thank me? I didn't make the meals. I just provided the menu to the nutritionist." Yi Shui thanked him twice more before heading to the training ground. Saying some nice things wouldn't hurt him, and besides, he really had a lot to thank Clark for.

When it was time to gather at 9 a.m., Yi Shui noticed that there were far fewer people. He counted and found that, apart from the five seniors who were already on the roster, there were 20 people, including himself, competing for the remaining 11 spots on the roster.

He hadn't noticed when there were many people, but now that there were fewer people, he counted and found that he had taken up one spot, six spots were taken up by the top 100 high school students in the US from the class of 2006, one spot was taken up by the older junior Price, and two freshmen, Little Bird and Local Genius, took up two spots. So all ten spots were gone.

The other three top 3 high school players from the class of 06 besides Robinson, Thabeet, and Dyson are already showing promise, but regardless of how well they play or how they perform in the selection process, they will definitely be able to stay on the team for at least half a season. Even if they are eliminated, they will still get a chance to be selected in the mid-season during the Christmas break.

This is similar to NBA teams selecting lottery picks; after all, these are former talents, and there's always the desire to make a final push.

So, in the beginning, other club members were 20 people competing for one spot? That's just... cruel.

……

Another week passed, and it was Saturday, September 8th. Yi Shui and his two best friends arrived at the Kangda Gymnasium. When the roll call was taken again, he saw that in the training field, in addition to the 15 players, including himself, who were basically confirmed to be on the roster, there were 3 people left.

There is one guard, one forward, and one center, all of whom are seniors and were outstanding second-team players who played in community college games last season.

After a morning of training, in the afternoon, the coaching staff led the players to the stadium that had previously served as their home ground and announced that a standard training match would be held.

Everyone had a happy expression on their faces. There wasn't a single spectator around, but being surrounded by 2000 seats still felt different from playing a match in the training field.

The 18 players were divided into two teams, and the coaching staff took into account the lineup structure and the players' strength was evenly distributed.

Yi Shui and Dyson were once again assigned to two different teams and faced off against each other again.

After the game started, Yi Shui played normally after not playing with Dyson. He cooperated with his teammates when needed and took the ball when necessary.

Regardless of his performance, his teammates certainly had a much better gaming experience than Dyson's teammates.

However, compared to the club members who had never played with him, Dyson's teammates were clearly already used to his style of play and understood what the coaching staff wanted to see. They maintained their enthusiasm and did not give up halfway through the game.

Even so, the difference in overall teamwork between the two teams was still quite obvious.

Fifty minutes later, the training match, which lasted 10 minutes with no stoppage, ended. Team A, led by Yi Shui, Robinson, and Thabeet, defeated Team B, led by Dyson, Frostowski, Yad, and Price, 49-37!
When Jerry Cook blew the final whistle, Yi Shui received a system notification!

"You have completed 1 match, match level: complete intra-team training match. Congratulations on receiving the basic reward: 1 hour of random project double training efficiency card."

You helped your team win the intra-squad practice match. Congratulations on receiving the reward: your base reward has been doubled.

The rewards have been automatically drawn. Congratulations on winning: a 1-hour double efficiency card for ball handling training and a 1-hour double efficiency card for rebounding training.

"Due to the failure to meet the competition standards and the absence of special circumstances, no task was triggered and no individual performance reward was given."

Note: 1. There is a certain probability of triggering tasks when participating in competitions; 2. Individual performance rewards are related to the level of the competition and your individual performance; 3. Reward rules will change according to the change of your league.

Yi Shui was very happy. He had finally played a match of a high enough level. Although the reward was a bit too small, it was better than nothing.

His competition experience was also the best since the start of the fall selection, because his teammates were stronger and his opponents were also stronger.

But he still has one annoying point – after being sidelined for more than a year, he still became the core player in team scrimmages.

While it's true, as Clark said, that several teammates have made great progress, only he and Yad can serve as the core of the tactics. If holding the ball and hitting it until it gets too hard and then passing it to the pitcher is considered a core tactic, then Dyson is one of them.

The 21-year-old sophomore, AJ Price, is decent; his passing and ball-handling are solid, but he lacks scoring threat and the ability to lead the team independently.

A similar case is Los Angeles' "Little Bird," a freshman with excellent physical attributes. He is 206 cm tall, has the mobility of a small forward, excellent ball control, and good passing awareness, but his individual offense relies solely on driving to the basket, and his physique is quite thin for a forward.

Other outstanding teammates are mainly functional players. For example, Thabeet became a rim protector after only one year of adaptation. He played for just over 20 minutes this time and blocked the opponent's shot 6 times. He is already an absolute core rim protector. However, apart from lobs and putbacks, he has no scoring ability. Even when lobs, he relies heavily on his teammates to feed him the ball and lacks independent movement awareness.

...

The next day, Sunday morning, another training match was held.

Calhoun made adjustments to the lineups of both teams, moving Thabeet to the B team, but Yi Shui and Dyson were still on separate teams... He did it on purpose, to let the other players experience firsthand the difference between playing with the two, thereby promoting Yi Shui to the starting lineup and making Dyson the sixth man.

Since the attempt to get the two to acknowledge each other's abilities failed, then it's time to take a hard line.

When Thabeet heard that he would be on the same team as Dyson, his poker face showed a rare look of worry. He didn't need to feel that way. He knew all too well what it was like to play with Dyson. They played 33 games together last season, and Dyson's assists to him could be counted on one hand.

The former B team players who were assigned to Team A were different. For example, the Ukrainians who had a bad relationship with Yi Shui showed joy on their faces when they heard that they were on the same team as Yi Shui.

As a tactical 3D player, Frostowski was still furious yesterday after running around for so long without receiving the ball and only being able to shoot catch-and-shoot balls. Even though he was used to Dyson's style of play, he was still quite angry.

In this game, Yi Shui had a much harder time. Although they had a more experienced backcourt shooter and a teammate in the paint, Yad, who was good at ball-handling and attacking, the opponent had Thabeet, which made a qualitative change in their defense!
However, the game is about which side scores more points, not more blocks, and Team A ultimately defeated Team B 39-34!
Yi Shui, who hadn't rested for a single second the entire match, celebrated wildly with Ya De and others after the final whistle blew, because the victory was hard-won!
Giving it your all and winning the game, even if it's just a practice match or even just a casual game, feels incredibly satisfying. Basketball in school is always simple and pure.

Calhoun looked delighted at Yi Shui's happy expression; Yi Shui had given him another surprise!
昨天，易水打了31分钟，进了1个三分、1次反击扣篮、两个阵地战上篮、一次补篮，9投5中，外加4中3的罚球，拿到14分4板2助攻1盖帽。

今天，易水打满了全场，17投7中，其中三分球6中2，加上5中4的罚球，拿到20分7板3助攻2抢断！

Although it certainly can't compare to the exertion of playing a full match in an official game, it was still a huge surprise to him. Before he completely messed up, Yi Shui's stamina had never been outstanding.

He had thought that after a summer of hard work, Yi Shui had only regained 95% of his previous physical condition and made some progress in developing his shooting skills, because the test report showed that Yi Shui's running and jumping abilities were still a little worse than when he was a freshman.

I never expected my stamina to improve so much! Compared to this, the tiny bit of physical fitness that was 'absorbed' by the bones, flesh, and skin seems insignificant.

But while he was happy, he couldn't help but feel some resentment...

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(End of this chapter)