Champion, please stay!

Chapter 37. Shame Prompts Courage

On the last day of 2007, Yi Shui slept until the teaching assistant called to announce the assembly, and only then did he get up.

He took a shower, packed his luggage, said goodbye to the sleepy female student from Tianyou University, and then went to the parking lot to board the team bus to go to the airport.

He won three pairs of shoes yesterday, and in his excitement, he accepted the invitation from two of his best friends to attend a social event hosted by a female classmate from Tianyou University.

Even after losing a game, they would still socialize with players from the opposing team... This often happens at Tianyou University, a school with two characteristics—it's rich and has few male students.

The Monks' team was able to stay in the top division league purely because of political correctness.

He originally just went to join in the fun, but unexpectedly met a freshman girl who caught his eye. She invited him to dance, and after the dance, she wanted to talk to him alone and confide in him about her confusion. He was definitely not attracted to this freshman girl because of her pretty face and her curvaceous figure that was still undeniable even in her monk's robes... He simply wanted to save the soul of this lost young female monk, so he took her back to the hotel for a deeper conversation.

However, he did not expect the nun to be so wild in private, which was not at all like the image in European and American movies. But now that he thought about it, he realized that maintaining such a rigid image in public must have been stifling for a long time, so it was normal for her to be a little wild in private.

Robinson was quite shrewd; he changed the standard room arranged by the team to a single room on another floor in advance, and then booked another room. He and Yi Shui only needed to split the cost of one room, focusing on saving money wherever possible.

Yi Shui and his two best friends returned to the Stamford campus. They could already see some classmates, but there weren't many people yet. He went back to his dormitory and turned on his newly bought computer... On the afternoon of the 26th, he and Robinson, who had returned to school, went to buy a computer. He spent all the money he had painstakingly saved on this, but he didn't feel bad about it. It would be useful for both studying and looking up information related to basketball.

Unlike Yad and Robinson, who both had laptops, he did his research and knew the prices of parts these days. He went to the market, collected the parts, and built his own desktop computer. The price was much cheaper than the laptops with the same specifications, and the performance was even better. He wanted more power and a bigger screen so he could play games like World of Warcraft and Fantasy Legend.

But the reality is that apart from playing a few rounds of CS:GO on the night I got the computer fixed, I haven't opened the game since. After the team assembled, there was no time to play games.

Fortunately, it didn't have a big impact. I did save some money, and the larger monitor made watching DVDs and browsing the web much more comfortable.

He turns on his computer not to play games, but to browse the news, as he has training in the afternoon.

However, an unexpected situation arose as soon as I opened the nearest website, The New York Times Sports.

Last night's game against the Monks was definitely not a popular match; it was only broadcast live on Connecticut Public Television, and not many media outlets attended. He thinks it made the news only because he got a triple-double.

As a result, he made the front page on the New York Times sports website!
But the headline wasn't about his triple-double; it was about his affair with a female nun, accompanied by a picture of him and the girl passionately kissing outside a hotel!

The story begins with a picture, followed by a fabricated tale of what he and the female nun did, some of which are true. For example, he brought the female student back to the team's hotel and made a scene in Providence, where it was almost 4 a.m., saying that his teammates in the next room were kept awake all night by the noise.

But he and Robinson were on different floors, so there were no teammates in the next room. There was only one possibility: a reporter from the New York Times opened the room next to theirs and eavesdropped until 4 a.m.!
For some reason, Yi Shui felt inexplicably proud, but also uneasy, as if the entire clapping process had been overheard. She really wanted to call and complain about the hotel's soundproofing!
When he read the photos and descriptions in the first half of the news, he was puzzled. What was so special about this that made the headlines? Isn't it perfectly normal for college athletes to hook up with other men? He'd done this kind of thing countless times before, and it had made the news before, but this was the first time it had made the headlines on the New York Times' sports website.

But after reading the second half of the news article, he knew what the New York Times was trying to do—to smear him!
This time it's really bad. They say he pretended to work hard for half a season, but after he became famous, he couldn't control his lower body and started to act recklessly!

Moreover, he was compared to his freshman season—he showed his talent in team selection and warm-up games, became a key player at the beginning of the new season, played better and better in the first half of the regional stage, and had a highlight performance before the end of the halfway point, which greatly increased his fame, and then he was lured into bed by Bone & Meat.

Based on this, it is speculated that he has started to let himself go again during the holiday, and after turning back 180 degrees, he has turned back 180 degrees again and gone back to the old ways.

Finally, there was a concern that he might repeat his freshman season pattern, where his peak was the last game of the first half of the season, and he would only get worse and worse afterward, becoming a prime example of wasting talent by his senior year.

After reading the entire news article, Yi Shui almost believed it himself! It was written so realistically! The analysis was so logical and insightful!
But he had his best performance of the season on paper last night, so how come he's considered to be at his peak in the last game of the first half of the season?

When he saw the comments section full of negative comments about him, his first reaction was anger, but he also felt that something was wrong. The neighboring New York was always the one who praised him the most. What was going on this time?
He checked other media websites, and then another unexpected situation occurred.

A few media outlets also hyped up his meeting with a female student last night, but they were clearly just following the New York Times' lead in reporting it. Some even reprinted the New York Times' headline without changing a single word.

However, he wasn't the main focus of most media outlets yesterday. NCAA leagues resumed operations in the past few days, and yesterday there were two more popular games broadcast live across the United States: the UCLA Bruins vs. Stanford Cardinals and the North Carolina Asphalt Heels vs. Duke Blue Devils. For most media outlets, these two games were the hot topics and headlines.

He made the news last night by playing against the Monks, one of the weakest teams in the top six leagues, thanks to his triple-double... and the fact that several teams' management expressed interest in him!
Two team executives even explicitly stated in interviews this morning that they wanted to draft him!

One is Rockets owner Alexander – “I am very optimistic about Brook’s talent. We have been following him for a long time and believe that he has the talent to play in the NBA. He will be our target in the draft.”

Another source is Nets general manager Billy King: "We've been watching Brook for a long time, and I think we'd need a first-round pick to have a chance of getting him. We'll continue to monitor his performance."

Yi Shui was excited when he saw these reports, but... when did he start attracting the attention of these teams? After playing against the Amazing Team, he didn't see any talk about his draft prospects. All he saw was people saying that Thabeet wouldn't fall out of the top five picks whether he planned to enter the draft in 09 or finish his four years of college.

After some analysis, Yi Shui came up with a plausible yet unbelievable guess—'Are my neighbors deliberately trying to lower my draft stock? Do they actually want to draft me?! A New York nursing home? Don't come any closer!'

...

The impact of that New York Times headline on the Yi River quickly became apparent.

In the following days, he received more phone calls and text messages from strangers. He hadn't had any female classmates blocking his way for a while, but now it started again.

While training at the University of Cornell University gymnasium, he often noticed that one of the coaching staff members was watching him train. It took about three days for this to start to decrease.

His resentment towards his neighbor grew stronger and stronger.

However, with the arrival of a new round of competition, he put this matter aside and devoted himself to preparation and the competition.

On January 4, 2008, the first game of the new year, the Huskies hosted the Louisville Cardinals.

1小时58分钟的比赛过后，红雀队靠着泰伦斯-威廉姆斯的9分7板6助攻、厄尔-克拉克的11分5板7助攻，阿根廷国家队投手胡安-帕拉西奥斯投进5个三分球拿到21分……以84比69击败哈士奇队，报了热身赛时的一箭之仇！
Yi Shui scored a career-high 28 points tonight, making 10 of 23 field goals and 8 of 8 free throws. However, he missed all 3 of his three-point attempts, marking the first time this season that he has failed to make a single three-pointer.

The opponent defended him very well on the perimeter. Not only him, but the whole team made only 3 of 15 three-point attempts, a shooting percentage of only 20%.

The Cardinals fully demonstrated their advantages of outstanding individual player abilities and extremely deep roster in this game.

The Husky's six-game winning streak was ended, leaving them with a record of 8 wins and 3 losses. They were overtaken by the Cardinals and Warriors, who also had 8 wins and 3 losses, and dropped from second to fourth in the Big East League!

After the game, the local Sperm Whale newspaper gave a sharp review: Although the Huskies had won six straight games, three of their opponents were weak teams like the Monks, Bulls, and Pandas; although they defeated the Amazings, it didn't mean the Huskies were better than the Amazings, they just happened to be able to beat their arch-rivals; tonight the Huskies were too confident, they thought they were the best team in the Big East, but the Cardinals showed them how a real powerhouse plays.

Losing the game and being harshly criticized by the local media, it would be a lie for the Husky players to say they weren't affected, but they were certainly awakened by it.

Indeed, they got a bit cocky after returning from their break. Their shooting was incredibly unrestrained when they played against the monks. At the time, I thought it was a sign of confidence, but now, looking back, it can only be described as careless. They also made similar shots in the game against the cardinals!
On January 6th, the Huskies traveled to the Peterson Activity Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to play against the University of Pittsburgh Panthers.

As a team that is already on the rise, the Huskies are not so easily defeated.

Led by Yi Shui and Ya De, the Husky team players overcame the frustration of their winning streak being ended and dispelled the doubts about their own abilities caused by public opinion.

As the saying goes, if you make a mistake, admit it; if you get beaten, stand up straight; and if you know shame, you will be brave!

The Black Panthers have three players with NBA potential: DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, and Keith Benjamin, and their overall strength is formidable. Facing this opponent, the Huskies played with more focus and patience, remaining calm and resilient when behind, and steadily and surely when ahead.

The game was very intense throughout. The Black Panthers, who had a record of 7 wins and 4 losses and ranked 6th in the Big East League, showed that their strength was no less than that of the Huskies, especially their frontcourt. Fortunately, the Huskies withstood the pressure and kept the score close.

In the final moments of the game, the Huskies took a 54-53 lead over the Panthers with a block by Thabeet and a follow-up dunk by Yad.

Then Thabeet made a crucial defensive effort, disrupting Blair's drive to the basket.

In the transition between offense and defense, Price and Yad initiated the attack with a pick-and-roll, and Yi Shui made a back cut to receive the ball at a 45-degree angle.

Yi Shui's three-pointers were heavily defended tonight, and he missed all four of his previous shots. Therefore, when he made a back cut in this possession, the opponent did not immediately block him. Instead, Sam Young only came over from the free-throw line when Price passed him the ball.

Facing Sam Young's menacing lunge, Yi Shui didn't hesitate at all. He jumped, raised his hand, and shot... and the three-pointer went in!
Yi Shui hit a crucial three-pointer to extend the lead to 4 points, helping the Husky team secure the victory!

The game ended with the Panthers' senior captain and top shooter, Keith Benjamin, who averages 18 points per game, missing a three-pointer under tight defense at Yi Shui. After grabbing the rebound, Yad, who was tactically fouled, went to the free-throw line and made both free throws.

易水21投8中，其中三分球5中1，加上3中2的罚球，拿到19分12板2助攻2抢断2盖帽；亚德16分10板；塔比特6分7板3盖帽……力压13分21板的布莱尔、17分的基斯-本杰明、12分7板的萨姆-杨。

The Huskies narrowly defeated the Panthers 59-53, sweeping away the gloom of their winning streak being ended!
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(End of this chapter)