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Chapter 48. You?

North Carolina thrashed the American University White Hawks 103-70, a 33-point blowout, prompting media and fans to marvel at their status as a college powerhouse.

The Bruins thrashed the Devils 80-39, a 41-point blowout, earning praise from the media and fans who said they truly deserve their reputation as the top college basketball team, always brimming with talent.

Who would have thought that the Huskies would then crush the Vikings by 52 points!
3支种子球队的‘屠杀竞赛’引爆篮坛热议，人们把目光放到比哈士奇队晚1小时开始首轮比赛的堪萨斯大学松鹰队身上……87比69，松鹰队‘只’赢了俄勒冈鸭子队18分。

Mario Chalmers, the star player of the Predakings: Are we now the worst seeded team?

Head coach Bill Self looked at the statistics sheet and saw that the three key players only had 15 minutes of playing time: So we're the only ones who should be rotating players?
Do those three teams still have any shame?
Late at night, Yi Shui was browsing news on the computer that Ya De had brought to her hotel room.

他今晚打了33分钟，10投6中，其中三分球1中1，加上3中3的罚球拿到16分8板3助攻2抢断8盖帽。

In the third season of the Madness tournament, the competition and individual rewards were doubled compared to the competition zone stage and the qualifying stage. I advanced to the first round and received 10 hours of long-range shooting training cards, 10 hours of mid-range shooting training cards, 2 hours of shooting training cards, 2 hours of rebounding training cards, 2 hours of passing training cards, 6 hours of interception training cards... a total of 32 hours of training cards. I was very happy.

The media and fans also praised his performance.

So what's the meaning of Los Angeles media calling him and Thabeet, who had 10 points, 10 rebounds and 7 blocks, the "Twin Towers"?
They even used a photo of him with Yad, who scored a game-high 20 points, and Thabeet, who nearly had a triple-double, during a post-game interview as the cover photo for the headline! Just looking at their heights, you'd think he was a power forward and Yad was a small forward. They should have included Robinson in the photo too!

However, when he saw media reports saying that "the Husky's golden decade is not over yet, and a new golden decade is beginning," he tolerated the "Twin Towers" term.

North Carolina's massacre of the Bald Hawks was actually a fairly normal, big win. As the first team to play in the opening game of the third season, North Carolina definitely had to play seriously. The gap in strength between the first and sixteenth teams in the division is the biggest, with a difference of 20+ or ​​30+ points being quite common.

The Bruins' subsequent massacre of the Devils was a result of their rivalry with North Carolina. North Carolina had produced Michael Jordan and had become the most famous college team in the last decade or so. As the "strongest powerhouse," the Bruins had always disliked North Carolina and always wanted to be the best.

The Husky team's massacre of the Viking team was the target that Yi Shui and his teammates had discussed.

This goal was unrelated to his system tasks. He did receive a task before the match against the Vikings team. There was only one goal: to reach the top 1 in the Sweet Round, with a reward of 1 self-selected physical attribute point.

It's the team's need!
The statement that the Intromen team was pushed to that point by the Yellow Flash team and was provoked, so they played very hard... was just a joke that Yi Shui made to Clark, and he never expected that the top trainer would actually take it seriously.

They played so hard tonight because they wanted to show the spirit of the seeded teams in the region!
The night before last, besides the negative news about the Husky team, including the three members (yellow, white, and black) being criticized for taking photos at Lincoln's grave, there was another issue: they saw a media report claiming that the Husky team was only a seeded team because they were lucky enough to beat the Tigers.

Creating buzz by criticizing a team is a common tactic.

However, the Husky team had the worst record among the four seeded teams in the regional stage, and their regional first place became a laughing stock in the qualifying stage. The media's claim that they were just lucky was accepted by many fans.

Such public opinion can indeed be ignored, but Yi Shui is a cautious person.

He analyzed that such public opinion might lead to two outcomes, one of which would be favorable to them—their opponents would underestimate them and be thoroughly defeated by them.

But what if the opponent becomes overconfident and unleashes even greater strength? That would certainly not be a good thing for them.

The reason why 3 Madness is regarded by sports fans as the 'most exciting' event is because it is a 'one-game-win' event, and all sorts of unexpected situations can always occur.

It is impossible to completely eliminate all unexpected factors, but it is feasible to reduce the conditions under which unexpected events may occur.

So he and his teammates discussed making a big splash in the first round!
Asking teammates to use their brains might be difficult for most people, but when it comes to making them stand out in the third year of madness, they are all incredibly enthusiastic!
And so came this shocking 50+ point massacre that reverberated throughout the United States!

As for the miserable Vikings team... you can only say they were unlucky. What team that beats weak teams would care what the beaten team is thinking?
...

On the evening of March 18th, all three days of the first round of matches concluded.

College basketball players once again ignited a ratings frenzy in March, surpassing the popularity of the NBA playoffs in the first half of the year and the NFL playoffs at the beginning of the year.

This year's first round was full of talking points, including the crazy "seed team massacre competition" for basketball fans, as well as the upsets that fans love to see!
Three of the top eight teams lost in the first round this year.

Drake University's Beasts, ranked fifth in the Western Conference, were upset 101-99 by Western Kentucky's Mountain Men, ranked twelfth. Courtney Lee hit a game-winning three-pointer, leading his team to the All-Star Game.

The Davidson Wildcats, ranked tenth in the Central Division, defeated the seventh-ranked Kansas Wildcats 92-86. Michael Beasley had an excellent performance with 23 points and 13 rebounds on 9-of-15 shooting, but he didn't steal the spotlight. Stephen Curry scored 40 points on 8-of-10 shooting from three-point range!
Media assessment of the game: The North Carolina Wildcats are no match for the Kansas Wildcats, they just have Stephen.

The most surprising result was the upset by the Dukes, who were second in the Western Conference, and the Western California Big Mountain, who were fifteenth in the conference, losing 73-67!

Joe Alexander dominated Kyle Singler, the nation's sixth-ranked high school player, with 27 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. After the game, he declared his idol was Shawn Marion and stated that he was just as good as Marion, excelling in scoring, rebounding, and defense. Yi Shui watched the Duke vs. Hill Climb game live; he spent the money because of the Duke name, but he didn't expect Joe Alexander to be so dominant! However, to be in the lottery, he must have real talent.

Seeing Joe Alexander so readily detach himself from "The Big Bird" and forcefully associate himself with "All-Round Warrior," Yi Shui was impressed. Just like how Alexander dared to directly "demand" a seeded team status, the winner gets to say whatever he wants.

The elementary school students are lacking, not in performance, but in intelligence. If they shouted, "Ray Allen and Reggie Miller are no match for me," wouldn't their popularity explode?

This is the first 40+ point game in this year's Third Madness!

His eight three-pointers in a single game are second only to Hornets legend Glen Rice's nine three-pointers in Third Madness.

People who are thin-skinned are indeed prone to wasting opportunities.

After the first round, on the 19th, the third season of the Madness took a day off, but the media and fans couldn't stop typing.

After celebrating the exciting first round of matches, they began discussing the upcoming second round.

In the Eastern Conference, the matchup between Blake Griffin's Oklahoma City Czechos and Terrence Williams' Louisville Cardinals was highly anticipated. The two had known each other for a long time; back in the 04-05 season, 12th-grader Terrence Williams dominated 10th-grader Blake Griffin. It wasn't just about basketball; it also involved fighting. Near the end of the game, the two started throwing punches, and the two-year-younger Griffin was pinned to the ground and brutally beaten...

In the Western Conference, the Hill Climbers, who upset Duke to advance to the second round, are also attracting a lot of attention in their game against the Arizona Wildcats. Alexander commented: "When you're out in the world, you have to earn your own dignity!"

In the Southern Division, the Memphis Tigers, who finished second, received the most attention.

In the Central Division, two matches have garnered exceptionally high attention.

While Curry may not be as adept at self-management as Alexander, a 40-point game still generates considerable buzz, making the Davidson Wildcats vs. Georgetown Amazings matchup one of the key second-round matchups.

After reading the predictions, Yi Shui felt sorry for Hibbert, who was already being underestimated before the match even started.

This is also related to the Davidson Wildcats' playing style. The North Carolina Wildcats are good at attrition-based play, which is suitable for kiting big centers.

The most anticipated match of the entire second round was undoubtedly the showdown between the Husky team and the Trojan team!

Rising star Yi Shui faces off against "Super Jordan," OJ Mayo, the top high school student in the nation's class of 07!

...

March 20th marks the first day of the second round of the Madness Tour.

At 6:30 p.m., the Springfield University Metropolitan Arena was already packed with tens of thousands of seats.

Unlike the two matches held here on the 16th and 17th, most of the fans who came tonight had a specific team they supported, and the stands were divided into sections by different colored jerseys and T-shirts.

The Huskies had just gone through their 'golden decade' and had a large fan base. The Trojans... were big city teams, and they also had Mayo, who was famous throughout the United States in high school, so they had a lot of supporters.

When Yi Shui and his teammates entered the field, they heard cheers, boos, curses, and insults directed at the opposing players.

He loved the atmosphere; this was the feeling of the game! The NCAA didn't schedule the Third Madness games at the participating universities' home courts, partly because they wanted to make more money, but also to create this kind of atmosphere—to give ticket-buying fans a greater sense of participation, and to let TV viewers feel the electrifying atmosphere just by listening to the sounds… That's how fan cohesion is built.

Just as Yi Shui was counting which had more 'fan pieces' worn with dog heads on their chests and 'wooden horse pieces', someone suddenly came up to him. He looked down slightly and saw... Super Jordan!
Mayo raised his chin and asked with a disdainful tone, "You're Brook?"

Yi Shui replied, "Yes, it's me, you..."

Seeing that the live camera was already pointed at him, Mayo interrupted Yi Shui before he could finish speaking, saying, "You should feel honored to have come this far and meet me, but tonight is your end. Remember, the person who defeated you is called OJ-Mayo!"

Mayo felt he looked incredibly cool on camera at that moment! He'd been thinking about these words for a long time, and they're sure to go viral across America after this game!

However, he found that the tall Eastern defender's reaction was different from what he expected. There was neither anger nor fear, but rather confusion, bewilderment, and finally... disgust?
Then came the sound that nearly made Mayo explode on the spot.

"just you?"

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(End of this chapter)