Where the noise did not reach

Chapter 2 Not Necessarily
In the days leading up to the official start of the semester and the team's assembly, Xu Ling became the first ghost to arrive and the last to leave the Texas Tech University basketball gym.

He would practice the most basic dribbling in an empty court, focusing on feeling the unparalleled control his enlarged hands had over the basketball, and the new rhythm brought about by the lowered center of gravity due to his increased height. Then, he would use a lot of jump shots to recalibrate his "aiming scope." He stood at the various shooting spots he was familiar with from his previous life, shooting again and again, carefully experiencing the power generation and shooting arc that needed to be adjusted due to the changes in wingspan and height.

Over the course of a few days, a clear and exciting feeling gradually replaced the initial awkwardness.

Xu Ling could feel that he was getting more and more used to this new body.

※※※

Since the beginning of the new century, the outstanding performances of many foreign players such as Yao Ming, Nowitzki, Ginobili, and Parker have proven that world-class basketball players can be cultivated outside the United States.

The globalization that the NBA has been promoting since the 90s has finally taken a crucial step – globalizing player selection.

A few years ago, the NBA management even made the mistake of favoring foreign players, preferring to ignore the local college athletes they knew better and instead select foreign players who seemed talented but had completely rudimentary fundamentals, thus winning one "thank you for your patronage" lottery ticket after another.

The NBA draft pool is open to the world, and the NCAA's recruitment efforts have also begun to shift overseas, especially to secondary schools that have struggled with domestic recruitment.

For example, Xu Ling's school—Texas Institute of Technology.

TTU's basketball program is weak, with its best historical result being the Sweet Sixteen.

Indiana University's legendary coach, Bob Knight, was fired after triggering the school's zero-tolerance policy by giving a "etiquette lesson" to an impolite student on campus. Knight took a year off before returning to the fold, accepting an invitation from TTU to become the head coach of Texas Tech University. In the past five years, he led the team to March Madness three times and reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2005, tying the team's best record.

But that's all.

This is a very good result for TTU.

This is not the case for Knight.

For a coach who had won every honor in college basketball by the mid-1980s and led the U.S. team to an Olympic gold medal, the sweet Round of 16 was bittersweet.

Knight had to admit that his era was over, and he could no longer persuade the parents of those child prodigies with the promise, "Come to my school, and I'll make sure your son leaves with a degree."

Because in this era, a degree is not important to prospective NBA players; they just want to get into the NBA as soon as possible and make a lot of money.

This is a contradiction between the old era and the new era.

If Knight remains stubborn, he will be unable to recruit top players who are willing to commit to playing three or even four years in college.

Therefore, in order to solve this persistent problem, TTU must shift part of its recruitment focus overseas.

This is why Xu Ling and his family chose TTU.

TTU's academics are above average among American universities, and they have legendary coaches like Knight who not only teach kids how to play sports but also how to be good people. More importantly, if a kid's grades don't meet the standards, they can't play sports—isn't that great? With such a good mentor, even if there's a real risk of being choked, it's worth it, right?
It's back-to-school season again, and after a devastating 2005-06 season, TTU desperately needs to regroup.

"Coach, how are this year's rookies doing?"

On the court, a senior player who was doing stretching exercises asked an assistant coach a question.

"I believe that some of the freshmen will become the future of the team." The assistant coach's words lacked confidence.

The veteran who asked the question jokingly said, "I hope they have more backbone than those bastards from last year!"

This topic will be left at that.

Within TTU, "last year" has become a taboo word.

Soon, new students appeared.

Xu Ling and Roderick Craig were the first freshmen to arrive. Immediately afterward, they saw a man who looked like Chandler Bing from the later episodes of Friends, whose appearance changed drastically due to the actor's drug use in real life, walking towards them.

He is Pat Knight, the assistant coach in charge of TTU's overseas recruitment, and also the son of head coach Bob Knight.

“You guys look great!” Knight warmly led them to the veteran who was stretching. “This is our captain, Jarrius Jackson (SG/PG).

Jackson casually replied, "Just call me JJ."

"Hello, Captain, my name is Roderick Craig, from Potola Valley, California. You can call me whatever you like!" Craig said excitedly. "I still have a lot to learn, and I will definitely learn from you all!"

This old black man is so humble, he doesn't seem like an old black man at all.

Xu Ling quickly rolled her eyes and then said, "My name is Xu Ling, I'm from China, you can call me Eli."

Jackson replied with a nonchalant, "Nice to meet you all."

Clearly, TTU's current captain is not a passionate person.

Knight Jr. said, "You guys really should learn from JJ, because he's not only our captain, but also 'The General's' most prized disciple at Lubbock, and the best scorer in the Big 12 Conference!"

Jackson felt comfortable with Knight's flattery; he didn't react at all, just smiled.

Craig looked on with admiration, while Xu Ling wondered: Who is the general? The question only flashed through his mind for a moment before Xu Ling's memories quickly made him realize who the "general" was.

Of course, it's that legendary NCAA coach, Bob Knight, who is also the Puerto Rican prison truce master⑴, the godfather of donkey hat fashion⑵, the flying chair ballistics expert⑶, the signatory of the unilateral ceasefire agreement for warm-up games⑷, the female humiliation philosopher, the flogging performance artist, the NCAA fine philanthropist, and the vice GOAT with a historical status of second to first among college basketball coaches⑸.

Then came the meeting between the new and returning students.

Besides captain Jackson, who has already been introduced, TTU has another senior, Darryl Dora (C/PF), who is expected to become a key rotation player in the team's frontcourt next season. Then there are only two juniors: Damir Suljagic (C), a white center from Arizona, and Martin Zeno (SG), the team's second-leading scorer. Finally, there are only two sophomores on the team: Alan Voskuil (SG), a Dane, and Michael Prince, a white forward.

What exactly happened to this team? Why is the team's personnel structure so unhealthy?
Although there is a huge gap between Chinese and American basketball, the development of a talent pool in college basketball is essentially the same thing: senior core players, junior backbone players, sophomore potential stars, and freshmen fresh blood.

Generally speaking, senior students will occupy most of the starting positions.

Only schools with extremely high admission standards, such as Kentucky, Kansas, and Duke, will admit a large number of freshmen.

For a team like TTU, which aims for March Madness every year, it's normal for seniors to take the lead. However, the second-year team, as the future of the team, should normally make up one-third of the team's personnel and be used to cultivate future core players. But this year's TTU team is almost "wasted," with only two players.

With such a top-heavy personnel structure, the team will face the predicament of having no one available once injuries or non-combat losses occur.

The coaching staff clearly recognized this potential problem, which is why TTU recruited a total of seven freshmen this year.

However, after they were introduced to each other, Xu Ling found that there didn't seem to be any particularly capable people in their class.

The most direct evidence is that, apart from the two players from community colleges and Xu Ling, an international student, none of the other three freshmen from the United States were selected as the top 100 high school students in the class of 2006.

In other words, there wasn't even a single nominally four-star high school student among them.

It seems that the Bob Knight brand no longer holds appeal for today's players.

Formal training began soon after, with all players, led by assistant coaches, participating in TTU's most famous training program – the "Inferno Circuit." Reportedly brought from Indiana University by Bob Knight, it includes full-court sprints and shuttle runs, quick lateral defensive slides, dribbling sprints, specific dribbling drills for guards, and an additional strength training exercise for centers, repeated 1-3 times.

The senior students barely managed to hold on, but the freshmen fared much worse.

Xu Ling was originally full of confidence. Although the university he attended in his previous life had a much worse student body than those top universities, it was able to make it into the national competition every year thanks to its grueling training. His physical fitness was definitely not a problem.

Yes, he's fine, but Xu Lingbenling is the problem.

After a series of "purgatory cycles," Xu Ling was almost exhausted, much like Xiang Shanyu, who challenged ten female teachers to their peak without rest.

The other freshmen weren't much better off. The only one who could stand steadily was Roderick Craig, but that wasn't because he was physically strong. Rather, it was because he was still carrying some injuries and couldn't give it his all.

The coaching staff did not disclose the specific nature of the injury.

Then, Bob Knight walked into the arena, wearing the same sweater he always wore, as rumored. Although he was in his twilight years, he was still in good health, his white hair was neatly combed, and his eyes gleamed with a sharp, all-knowing light.

"Kids, forgive my bluntness," Knight said coldly, "you are the worst! The worst! The fucking worst freshmen in TTU history!"

"not necessarily."

Knight strode towards Xu Ling, almost touching his face, and roared, "What did you say?!?"

Xu Ling didn't back down an inch, calmly meeting Knight's almost spitting fire gaze, and repeated what he had just said: 'We're not necessarily the worst, Coach.'

"Oh?" Knight laughed angrily, his voice even colder. "What makes you think you're more qualified than me to judge a player's skill level?"

“No.” Xu Ling shook his head, but his words carried a certainty. “You made a judgment without even watching any of us play. That’s not the kind of judgment a great coach should have.”

“Give us a chance, Coach. Give us a chance to prove you’re not wrong in training. Otherwise, you’re not just criticizing us, you’re criticizing yourself and TTU’s recruitment efforts.” Xu Ling ignored Knight’s increasingly cold expression and continued, “It was you and your team who recruited this batch of the ‘worst’ players.”

For a moment, the arena fell silent. For the first time, veteran JJ Jackson's face showed a genuine expression of surprise, not a mocking one.

Knight stared intently at Xu Ling, his gaze seemingly intent on devouring him alive. Though only a few seconds had passed, it felt like an eternity.

Suddenly, Knight's rage subsided like a receding tide, and he spat out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Very well. Rookie, you better pray your ball skills are half as good as your talk."

After saying that, this notorious tyrant, who was famous throughout the NCAA, turned around and roared at the entire team: "What the hell are you looking at! Keep training! I want to see if there's anyone among you damn freshmen who isn't the 'worst'!"

(1) He was wanted for attacking Jing Ge in Puerto Rico in the 1970s.

(2) In order to humiliate their arch-rival Purdue University, they brought a donkey on a TV show and put a Purdue University hat on it.

(3) Everyone should know about the chair-throwing incident during the 1984-85 season.

(4) He led his team in a warm-up game against the Soviet Union men's basketball team at home, but was ejected by a referee with whom he had a grudge, and then led his team to strike.

(5) The above is only a portion of his publicly recorded deeds.

　For some reason, Knight cut out the part about the protagonist's hair dryer when he posted this chapter; it has been corrected.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)