Chapter 650: Ranking Competition II
Fast forward to April 2007, and the situation is getting tense ahead of the playoffs.
The NBA is divided into several tiers, with top teams competing for championships, league powerhouses fighting for a playoff spot, young teams fighting for honor, and teams wiping their tears for next season.
Meanwhile, the NCAA March Madness is over and the National Championship is reaching the Final Four.
Georgetown vs. Ohio State and Florida vs. UCLA.
Among them, Florida and UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) are also rivals in last year's NCAA Finals, where Florida defeated UCLA 73-57 last year.
Last year, Yang Di also watched the finals in Phoenix with Byron Davis, who is an honorary UCLA alumnus.
UCLA has long sent too many talents to the NBA, such as Matt Barnes in the Warriors, who is now a UCLA graduate, and before that, Bill Wharton, Reggie Miller, and Abdul-Jabbar, all of whom are famous and have left a strong mark on the history of the NBA.
Yang Di is very concerned about this game, and he wants to see what changes will happen to UCLA when he meets Florida, which defeated them the following year.
He remembers when he left the Phoenix arena and met two new UCLA freshmen who were looking for autographs that would be on the UCLA team if they had done well.
But he doesn't care about a small thing like this, maybe it's just two very ordinary basketball students?
There are also Georgetown University and Ohio State University Yang Di is not very familiar with it, only that Georgetown University seems to be the alma mater of Aaron Iverson and Mutombo, maybe this is the reason why these two people have worked together for a while and have played excellent results.
As for Ohio State University, their star player Greg Oden is known as a once-in-50-year supertalent, a superstar who combines power, jumping, reach, low post offense, high post playmaking, mid-range jumpers, and ball-handling defense to help defense, and has been considered to be the NBA's champion as long as he participates in the NBA draft in '07.
Yang Di hadn't heard of this player at first, and it wasn't until the white-hot stage of the NCAA that he knew that there was such a god.
How famous is Auden?
In his sophomore year of high school, he was assumed that he would be the best choice for the draft any year after that. You know, there is only one person in history who has received such praise: Alcindor, a four-time NCAA champion, who later became known as Abdul-Jabbar.
The most amazing thing about Auden is his reach, which is said to be 8 feet! He averaged 3.3 blocks per game in college, and this year, Oden averaged 15.7 points per game while playing with his injured right hand, and many believe that Oden came to college to recuperate.
ESPN recently published an article that made everyone look forward to this big man even more. The article said: "This 7-foot giant will become the next ruler of the NBA." He is a mix of O'Neal, Olajuwon, Duncan and Jandy. ”
As a result, Oden has become a high-profile star, and no one knows if he will participate in this year's draft, especially OJ Mayo, who is now known as the No. 1 high school student in the United States, is worried.
On April 1, both matches were held at the same time.
As a result, UCLA still lost to the University of Florida, and Yang Di watched the game at home.
The core of UCLA's lineup is Afflalo, center Mata, power forward Mu Tie, point guard Darren Clison, and the two players Yang Di saw also appeared in the lineup, one is Russell Westbrook and the other is Kevin Love, but both are still only substitutes.
In the crucial game, neither of them had any chance to play, so they could only sit on the bench and watch the team step by step into the abyss, losing to their fateful rival again.
The leaders of the University of Florida are Joakim Noah and Al Horford, especially Joakim Noah, who is extremely good at defense and is simply a man of choice on the inside. Their head coach Donovan praised his two disciples and believed that they would become NBA All-Stars in the future.
Of course, both of these current draft projections are also in the lotto zone, especially Joaquin Noah, who is in third place, behind Auden and the University of Kansas' unsolved freshman Kevin Durant.
Last year's University of Florida starters chose to stay on campus and fight for the next All-American championship, and with one more win, they could become the first team to win two consecutive championships since Duke in 1992. Although many people think that Donovan's coaching has been very successful this year, it will be difficult to successfully defend the title.
UCLA was constrained by the University of Florida's tight defense from the beginning, and when Corey Brewer began to threaten and hit two three-pointers in a row, the University of Florida led 26-16, and in the following games, UCLA was basically difficult to threaten the University. Brewer's game on the offensive end was impressive, but the University players were even more impressive on the defensive end.
UCLA had one fast-break chance and a couple of good scoring opportunities, with Horford holding the basket and fanning off Afflalo's one. It didn't take long for Noah to stand resolutely in front of him in front of an attack from Mutie to try to stop him, and he used a step-back shot to try to avoid Noah, but Brewer, who was on the weak side, easily covered the ball.
The University of Florida's Corey Brewer scored a game-high 19 points, Horford grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds, and the University of Florida's rebounds were 43-26 to UCLA.
And at Ohio State and Georgetown, Oden was plagued by fouls in the first half.
After playing in the second half, Oden quickly dominated the restricted area, and Oden, who only played 20 minutes in the game, cut 13 points and 9 rebounds, and his Roy Hibbert also performed remarkably, but always lacked a temperament, and Jeff Green, the Division Player of the Year in the Great East Division, could only end the season with regrets.
As soon as the game ended, Jeff Green announced that he would participate in this year's NBA draft, and suddenly, he was offered an olive branch by many NBA teams to participate in the tryout.
The finals will take place on April 3 and feature the University of Florida against Ohio State University and Auden against the prestigious Twin Towers of Florida.
Greg Auden led Ohio State University all the way to the finals, just like a good director's script, and in the face of the Twin Towers, it has created enough highlights to attract attention, many people want to see, in the face of such a powerful Twin Towers, Greg Auden, who has been famous for so many years, how will he perform?
And 07, with so many excellent players, is considered destined to be a very hot draft year.