"John, do you think we should go to these rustic countrysides to play basketball in our lives?"

"Maybe, I don't know. I doubt whether I can play professional games in the future. Maybe I am more suitable for accounting. I am already contacting a company."

"No John, believe me, you will be a great player in the future, very, very great."

"I would like to lend you a good word. If there is a team willing to take me in, I think I will devote 20 years to him...even in this ghost place in Utah."

In the eyes of most Americans, Utah, a gathering place for Mormons, is indeed a ghost place to cover the snowy western plateau in winter.

Gan Guoyang, who was sitting next to Stockton, felt a little funny when he heard his words, because he knew that Stockton would likely struggle in Salt Lake City for 20 years in the future.

The premise is that Gan Guoyang's arrival has not changed Stockton's draft trajectory because his existence has changed the NCAA history of Gonzaga University.

Since the Gonzaga University basketball team established a team to join the NCAA League in 1943, they have played in the IND Independent League, Big-Sky Big Sky League, and WCC West Coast League, but have never entered the NCAA National Championship.

They only won the league championship in the 1965-1966 and 1966-1967 seasons, but they also failed to enter the NCAA national championship due to their record and team level.

Without Gan Guoyang, they would not achieve a zero breakthrough until the 1994-1995 season, enter the NCAA National Top 64, and then stop in the first round.

The arrival of Gan Guoyang was to advance this time by 11 years, and their goal was not the first round.

But what made Gan Guoyang and the entire Gonzaga Bulldogs unhappy was that their first and second rounds were Salt Lake City, Utah.

Now, on March 16, Gan Guoyang was sitting on the flight to Salt Lake City with the entire Gonzaga team. Thinking about his description of Utah in later news reports, Gan Guoyang couldn't help feeling "sadness comes from it".

Spokane itself is located in the northwest of the United States and is already in a remote place throughout the United States. Utah is the legendary ice and snow plateau. In addition, most of the places where Gan Guoyang and Gonzaga compete in the "big countryside".

In fact, it was not the NCAA organizing committee that made things difficult for Gonzaga. They allocated the game location based on the team's region and record.

If the team can enter SWEET-SIXTEEN (Sweet 16), then they can go to Los Angeles, the largest city in California, familiar to Gan Guoyang.

More importantly, the NCAA's Final-four venue will be the Emerald City Seattle, a city in Washington State, which is equivalent to half of the home court of Gonzaga.

So, before heading to Salt Lake City, the players from Gan Guoyang and Gonzaga spontaneously drew a championship roadmap, from Spokane to Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to Seattle. The slogan of their NCAA national tour was "Going-the-Seattle" (directly to Seattle).

Such a rustic slogan, the one who came up with Gan Guoyang was naturally the one who came up with Gan Guoyang. This guy remembered that every video competition in later generations would have a "direct XXX" and he would have taken the lead.

But before going straight to Seattle, they had to overcome two difficulties in the cold Utah Plateau, the first of which was at the famous Princeton University.

The reason why Princeton is known is naturally because of their tactical system - Princeton tactics.

Princeton University itself is an academic prestigious school, and it is a member of the famous Ivy League. But it is not a basketball powerhouse, and they didn't even have basketball scholarships in the early days.

Because of this, Princeton University cannot attract talented high school students, and their basketball teams are full of mid-sized players.

Therefore, their coach Pete Carell has created a set of tactics specially suitable for "mediocre players". Through this tactic, each player's potential can be maximized, with small gains and weak defeats the strong.

It was precisely through this tactic that Coach Carell led Princeton, which was inexperienced, to win one after another.

Although it is difficult for them to make breakthroughs without talent at higher levels and more competitive national games, their results have surpassed the abilities of each of their players themselves, which is really a miracle brought by basketball tactics and the team collectively.

This tactic was not very famous in the 1980s. It was not until Carell entered the NBA to be an assistant coach that this magical basketball idea became well-known.

But as a person in the basketball circle, Bellman has heard of this, and after learning about his content in detail, he believes that this offensive tactical idea should be very suitable for Gonzaga University.

So he looked for an opportunity to visit Peter Carell specifically to learn this tactical system.

However, the arrival of Gan Guoyang disrupted Bellman's tactical design plan. Because it was a waste to play Princeton with a talented center forward like Gan Guoyang.

The game in Omaha has also proved that Princeton may not be suitable for Gonzaga or Gan Guoyang.

For such a center, he should be allowed to freely display his basic skills and talents, and maximize his abilities.

Besides, Gan Guoyang is not the kind of player who monopolizes the ball rights and likes to take crazy shots. Whenever he feels average or needs tactics, he can always give enough support to other teammates.

Most importantly, Bellman's offensive tactics are really average and lacking. He is good at coaching defense, so when he attacks, he relies very much on the team's star players.

Now, Bellman's team will be about to launch a life-and-death elimination battle with Princeton's ancestor of the tactics, Princeton University, which is the cruelty of March Madness.

However, before the cruel knockout round, Gonzaga University has a day to relax and prepare, which means Gan Guoyang has the opportunity to visit the legendary Salt Lake City.

When the plane arrived in Salt Lake City on the 16th, it was already completely dark. The first feeling when Gan Guoyang walked out of the airport was that this city was so fucking dark.

For big cities in the United States, there is no such thing as darkness. The colorful lights in big cities have been extinguished all night and illuminated the entire night sky.

For many Americans, the arrival of night is the beginning of life.

However, Salt Lake City, the largest city in Utah with a population of more than 1 million and accounting for half of Utah's total population, was dotted with only a few lights at night, just like a lighthouse on the coast, guiding people wandering around at night to return to the harbor to rest.

"Oh my God, is this the United States? There is no nightlife here?" Gan Guoyang said, looking at the dark sky. Here he thought of Shanghai in the 1980s. When he left China in 1981, the night in Shanghai was also dark.

"That's how Salt Lake City is, there is no nightlife here because Mormons are not allowed to drink alcohol," Stockton explained.

"I bet John, this city is destined to be with you, and this place will be your best belonging." Gan Guoyang said, he prepared a charlatan and bet that this history would not be changed by him.

"Come on, I still want to go to the cinema to watch movies at night. I heard that there is only one cinema in Salt Lake City." Stockton said helplessly.

"Okay, let's go and see."

Taking the airport bus, Gan Guoyang and his group came to the hotel designated by the event organizing committee. A total of six university teams stayed here, competing for two places to Los Angeles.

"Oh my God, Texas El Paso, El Paso, I heard that this place is near Mexico, and they were going to run to Utah to compete. It was crazy!" Gan Guoyang lay comfortably on the hotel bed and said looking at the schedule.

If they can pass the first round, their second round opponent is Texas-El Paso, which is located in the southernmost part of the United States.

"Is that so? But I think Princeton players came from New Jersey to Utah, but they were even worse than the Texas Cowboys." Stockton, who was lying on the bed next to him, said, sleeping with Gan Guoyang tonight.

Gan Guoyang almost sprayed out of his mouth after hearing this. New Jersey? It is located on the east coast of the United States, the easternmost part of the east!

"Why? How the hell is this divided?" Gan Guoyang seemed very confused.

When playing, the NCAA is just like various other sports competitions in the United States. They like to be divided into one area after another. They are divided into four districts, namely the Southeast, the West, the Midwest and the East. The survivors of each district's knockout round will be the four lucky ones of Final-Four, and they will gather in Seattle.

However, when the team is assigned to the district, the problem will arise, because the teams entering the NCAA national competition will change every year, and the distribution of universities in the United States is not evenly distributed, obviously there are more in the east and fewer in the west.

In addition, some strong teams are very close to each other, even from the same city, so distinguishing them by region will make the strong dialogue happen too early.

Therefore, some Eastern teams will be thrown into the far west to play to balance the differences between the east and west.

For a long time to come, Princeton University will be sent to Denver, Colorado to endure the plateau environment, or kicked to the grasslands of Texas to smell the smell of cows and horses. It is really a bit miserable.

After listening to Stockton explaining the reason, Gan Guoyang was a little lucky. Perhaps being assigned to Utah, which is not too far away, is also a good choice.

"By the way, John, tomorrow we'll go to the basketball court in Salt Lake City to see the Utah Jazz game. You see, the newspaper says that tomorrow the Utah Jazz will play against the Dallas Mavericks at home."

"No problem, but I'm a fan of the Supersonics. I don't like either of these two teams." Stockton is a native Spokane, who is quite close to Seattle.

"Believe me, you'll fall in love with them."

...

The next day, after adaptive training and pre-match preparations in the morning, Bellman gave the team a vacation in the afternoon and allowed the players to go to Salt Lake City for a walk.

Bellmann wasn't too worried that the players would go out and play, because the entertainment venues in Salt Lake City were really scarce like rural areas, and the only places to be enjoyed were movie theaters and basketball courts - there were no rugby and baseball teams here.

In March, the weather in the north has begun to warm up. Players no longer have to wear thick cotton jackets to go to sports stocks to train all day, and then take off the cotton jackets one by one and put them on after training.

But Salt Lake City, located on the plateau, is still very cold, although the latitude here is not higher than Spokane.

Walking in the city, a layer of haze shrouded in the air, which was caused by the high-pressure cold air blowing from Alaska sank near the Great Salt Lake, causing poor air circulation.

Even so, from the right angle and orientation, through the tall buildings, you can still see the tall and white snow-capped mountains in the distance. This is also the symbol of Utah Salt Lake City. In 1997, the Jazz jersey was printed, becoming an eternal classic.

Now the Jazz's jersey is still the notes brought from New Orleans in 1979, which is somewhat incompatible with the temperament of Salt Lake City.

After walking around the streets and alleys of Salt Lake City, there was nothing attractive except the famous Utah burger, and basketball players could not eat burgers.

So Stockton and Gan Guoyang went straight to the Yangong Stadium to watch the NBA game tonight, and it was also considered a point before the game, because their game will also be held at the Yangong Stadium.

As the main stadium of the Utah Jazz, the Salt Palace Arena has more than 12,000 seats. It not only serves as a basketball venue, but also held various ice competitions as the home venue of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 1972.

As soon as you enter the Yangong Stadium, Gan Guoyang can feel a sense of coming.

Because the decorations here are all cool tones, and the cold weather in Utah, it is estimated that every opponent who plays here will complain.

"Hey John, what do you think here is? Do you feel very friendly?" Gan Guoyang asked Stockton.

"No, no. What's wrong with you Gan? Why do you always ask questions between me and Salt Lake City, making me feel like I'll come here to play as soon as I graduated." Stockton replied, feeling strange about Gan Guoyang's problem.

"I don't know, but I always feel... I think you are very, very consistent with the temperament here, calm, low-key, and restrained."

"Forget it, the Jazz, Malawic's team used to be, has nothing to do with calmness and low-keyness. But now they have arrived at the ghost place of Salt Lake City, everything has changed."

Because the two came very early, they were chatting together in a mess, and Gan Guoyang always wanted to make Stockton and Jazz a little consciously or unintentionally.

As the number of people on the court gradually increased, the two teams also came out of the player channel and began to conduct warm-up training on the court.

At this time, Gan Guoyang saw a familiar tall figure on the venue, as if he was someone he knew.

"Hey! Eaton!" Gan Guoyang shouted into the venue.

When Gan Guoyang saw that giant height, he remembered that he was an enthusiastic repairman he met when he went to UCLA. Gan Guoyang still remembered his name, Mark Eaton, because later Jabbar also mentioned him to Gan Guoyang.

Because there are not many people in the audience, Gan Guoyang has a loud voice, so Eaton, who is shooting, heard someone calling him.

Gan Guoyang jumped out of the seat and ran to the edge of the field, while Eaton also walked over with the ball.

"Hello Eton, I didn't expect to see you here." Gan Guoyang said excitedly.

Eaton also remembered Gan Guoyang, the Chinese whom he met near UCLA, and said, "Oh, it's Gan, hello, I didn't expect you to come here."

"Yes, we'll be playing here tomorrow, and Princeton."

"You are really amazing. I have heard from you. You actually ran away from UCLA and went to Gonzaga University. You also took Gonzaga to the national competition with you."

"Hehe, but in this way, you and I are not brothers of the same school." Gan Guoyang felt a little embarrassed when he thought that Eton was also produced by UCLA.

"It's okay, everyone should find a place that suits them. Actually, I don't like UCLA very much. Coach Famar doesn't appreciate me, but now, I feel good in Utah, it's great." Eaton doesn't have a deep relationship with UCLA because he was purely picked up by UCLA and has not been valued by the coach.

He has a shiny and hot spot in Utah. As a 26-year-old rookie, he was selected in the third place in the fourth round and 72nd place in total.

But after a season of substitute, he firmly sat in the Jazz's starting center position in the second season, averaging 5 points and 7 rebounds per game, and an astonishing 4.3 blocks.

He often blocks more shots than scores in games, which is his advantage and his specialty, and here he is like a fish in water.

"I was very happy in Gonzaga, oh by the way, my teammate is still here, a great point guard... John!" Gan Guoyang called Stockton over.

"Hello, my name is John Stockton, from Spokane, and I'm glad to know you, Mr. Eaton."

"Oh no, don't be so polite. I'm not a star, I'm just a supporting role. I'm very happy to meet you."
Chapter completed!