The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 79 - 18 That’s All

Gan Guoyang was the absolute core that controlled the whole game both at Shui Zhong Team and with the Bulldogs.

However, the two teams had completely different temperaments, and the methods Gan Guoyang used to "manipulate" his teammates were also entirely different.

Shui Zhong Team was a team with inferior talent, where the players all lacked confidence and encouragement.

As a standout core of the team, Gan Guoyang was never stingy with his praise; from Xu Xun to Chen Xing, from Gan Guohui to Franklin, Gan Guoyang mostly encouraged, boosting everyone’s confidence.

Being already the least talented and least experienced team, if their leader were to suppress everyone, who would feel confident to play the game?

In one year, Gan Guoyang led the team to the California championship through setting an example and encouraging leadership.

The Bulldogs were different; even though their talent was mid to low at the national level, they were still an NCAA-Division1 level team, not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry.

Even without Gan Guoyang, they had players like John Stockton, who would shine in the future; their strength was among the upper-middle of the West Coast League, not a pushover.

Most of these players grew up in Spokane, studying all the way from Gonzaga preparatory school and were good students with both integrity and outstanding grades, lacking a competitive environment in their upbringing.

Like Stockton, who decided to attend Gonzaga University when he was very young, his first basketball experience was attending a basketball camp hosted by Gonzaga University.

There were almost no Black players there, and among the white guards, Stockton was already the fastest and the strongest one. But on a national scale, the superb Black guards were often like nightmares for John.

By contrast, Gan Guoyang, during his year in San Francisco, encountered all kinds of players, especially powerful Black guards. Gan Guoyang had rich experience in dealing with them.

Stockton didn’t need praise; he needed goading, someone to tell him, "If you don’t handle every Black guard you encounter, then night after night will be the miserable days when they handle you, when they grind you down."

Every white player on the Bulldogs needed this kind of goading, which was also why Dan Fitz brought Beelman to the team; he needed to inject wild, passionate energy into the team and find a perfect balance between savagery and civility.

Gan Guoyang was undoubtedly the perfect embodiment of this balance.

In the first game of the NCAA national tournament, his performance in the first half was nothing short of perfect.

Showing no signs of nervousness or timidity, he single-handedly upheld the team with his personal offense when his teammates weren’t playing well.

He prevented the team’s offense and defense from collapsing, giving Stockton the opportunity to adjust in the second half.

Now not just Beelman, but Dan Fitz and Steve DeLong had immense trust in Gan Guoyang.

After the second half started, Beelman changed the Bulldogs’ defensive strategy, starting to use man-to-man to replace the first half’s zone defense.

He demanded everyone to give it their all, adopting half-court pressing defense to suppress Dayton University’s offense.

The physical contact between the two sides became intense; Stockton closely guarded Chapman, resulting in Chapman not scoring in the first three offenses after the start of the second half.

Gan Guoyang blew the Bulldogs’ first offensive horn of the second half, getting the defensive rebound and deciding not to pass, dribbling all the way to the frontcourt himself.

Two Dayton players rushed up to stop Gan Guoyang’s layup, but Gan Guoyang, carrying two players on him, hook shot the ball into the basket—scored, drew the foul from the opponent, and got an additional free throw.

The Bulldogs’ momentum surged from this moment.

Stockton, quite unusually, clenched his fist and shouted, high-fiving Gan Guoyang.

He was usually very calm during games, with storms in his heart but tranquility on his face.

It seems that today’s first half of the game and Gan Guoyang’s words really got to him.

With the extra point made, Gan Guoyang had already scored 26 points. Dayton University had their worries, being completely unable to control this extraordinary player, Gan Guoyang.

Dayton University’s famous coach Don Donoher stood on the sidelines, watching Gan Guoyang score with ease in the first half, occasionally making effortless hook shots as graceful as the full moon; his thoughts suddenly went back to the distant year of 1967.

Back then, the 37-year-old Donoher led Dayton University to the NCAA national finals. That was the peak of Donoher’s basketball coaching career. They faced John Wooden’s UCLA and Lew Alcindor, who would later change his name to Jabbar.

Donoher remembered that they lost by 15 points in that game, but in reality, UCLA had given up early in the last 5 minutes, allowing Dayton some time to save face.

In Donoher’s opinion, it felt like they lost by 50 points. Alcindor didn’t even exert himself much; just playing casually, Dayton was defeated.

Then in 1974, they faced UCLA again, this time with Bill Walton as the center.

In ’74, they played a lengthy triple overtime, losing 100:111, with Walton scoring 27 points and grabbing 19 rebounds.

Dayton University seemed to have a fear of centers; Donoher never had a top-class traditional center in his hands. He tried to use speed and shooting to conquer those giants on the court.

And now they faced a center who was faster than their team’s forward and had more accurate shooting.

He ran tirelessly on the court, weaving in and out, doing anything an inside player could do at both ends of the floor.

"What an extraordinarily energetic guy, no wonder he has such a great reputation. It’s just a pity that I wasn’t prepared enough for this time."

The Bulldogs hadn’t received a single national television broadcast of their games before; after all, the broadcasting content was planned well in advance. Who would have thought to show a game from a small Spokane school?

There were no video recordings of their games, only journalists who saw the games live described Gan Guoyang’s performance in words.

But everyone knows about journalists’ praise; they’ll embellish anyone into wunderkinds, claiming they can do anything and everything—having impregnable defense and flawless offense.

Only when one personally encounters them in the game does one realize the true measure of the opponent.

Stockton indeed attacked Chapman like a bulldog, with Chapman only making one shot after entering the second half.

The score was 55:50, with Dayton University trailing by 5 points.

Donohue called a timeout and reminded his players to be more aggressive.

As an experienced coach, Donohue noticed signs of fatigue in his players’ demeanors and expressions.

The Bulldogs’ relentless pressure defense hadn’t eased for even a moment. Donohue thought they would eventually slow down and expose some opportunities, but the suffocating pressure was incessant.

It was evident that the entire Bulldog team had extraordinary stamina, dragging the game into a tiring duel, which was disadvantageous for an offense-oriented team.

Donohue was considering whether to make some substitutions, to bring on more bench players, and to launch repeated offenses to tie the score.

However, Dayton University’s bench depth was average at best, with only two reliable substitute players.

In knockout games, no mistakes could be afforded, and it was common for starters to play the full 40 minutes.

Donohue gritted his teeth; he made no substitutions during the timeout, and the starters returned to the game.

He told his players that if they felt exhausted, their opponents must be even more so.

Dayton made a shot from the outside. With everyone employing zone defense, it put a significant test on the shooting ability of the perimeter players.

But immediately after, Guoyang also received a pass from Stockton at the high post and made a long-range shot.

"Damn, is this guy really that accurate at shooting? And he has no pattern in his shooting."

Donohue and the Dayton players on the court could not figure out Guoyang’s offensive patterns.

Just when they thought he was going to drive to the basket or attack with the ball in the low post, he’d come up with a mid-range shot.

In the first half, Dayton’s lack of height inside was tormented by Guoyang’s turnaround jump shots. In the moment he received the ball, it was too late to double-team him—his spin move was too quick.

Guoyang’s cunning movements were unpredictable, and with that shot, he’d scored 28 points.

Defensively, the Bulldogs started using a box-and-one strategy, aiming to have Stockton tightly guard Chapman.

The seemingly good-natured Stockton played tight defense, constantly using little tricks.

Eventually, Chapman got annoyed with Stockton and pushed him during an offense.

The two sides nearly clashed, but Guoyang rushed over immediately and pulled Chapman away.

Years later, according to Chapman, "I had some conflicts with Stockton, I wanted to bump into him, then I felt a hand on my shoulder, it yanked me back, and I had no chance to resist. Later, I found out it was Gan."

The conflict between the two teams was just a minor episode, but it also symbolized that the game had started to tilt in the Bulldogs’ favor.

With Dayton unable to contain Guoyang, their failure was somewhat expected.

Dayton University, with its tallest center standing only 6 feet 8 inches, couldn’t find a way to deal with the giant on the court.

And the Bulldogs gradually discovered how to defend Dayton better, with their zone defense becoming more stable, forcing Dayton into shot clock violations twice.

Guoyang, watching Dayton’s players passing the ball repeatedly without finding a shooting chance, thought that college players from this era were too conservative. Ten or fifteen years later, they might not make the shots, but they would certainly attempt them.

The game slowly turned into a shooting contest between two zone defending teams in the latter half of the second period.

Fatigue prevented Dayton from driving and pulling the defense as they had in the first half, speeding up the pace.

They placed their hopes on the outside shooting touch, but in a game without the three-point line, long-range shots had the least payoff.

Donohue realized the problem, and at this moment, he missed Paul Hawkins dearly. Last year, he was an excellent shooter in the team; with him, they would have had sufficient firepower from the outside.

Unfortunately, he had graduated the year before.

When outside shots weren’t falling, inside rebounds, like corn in the great plains, were easily harvested by Guoyang, the harvester in the counter-attack.

In the counter-attack, Guoyang caught the ball and scored with a floater.

In a set offense, he grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with a putback.

Following a pick-and-roll, he cut inside and scored with a hook shot.

The previously neutral Salt Palace fans started cheering for the Bulldogs and Guoyang.

When Guoyang made an ultra-long-range shot on a fast break, the Salt Palace erupted in a huge cheer, as if the Jazz had won the NBA Championship.

The score reached 80:65, with the Bulldogs extending the lead to 15 points.

Guoyang also scored his 40th point of the game, completing his task perfectly.

Donohue closed his eyes in despair. He had been waiting for Guoyang to get tired, to miss his offensive shots, and to lag in his defensive steps.

It seemed the newspapers were right, "This number 11 has amazing stamina." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

By the time he would get worn out, his own players might already be sitting on the ground with cramps.

Donohue called a timeout, and during the break, Guoyang said directly to Beelman, "Take me out for a rest. If I keep playing, I’ll sweat too much and it’ll become uncomfortable."

Beelman had no choice but to substitute Guoyang out, a 15-point lead was enough.

Guoyang, drinking water and wiping off his sweat, thought to himself, what kind of NCAA National Tournament is this? It’s nothing much; they simply can’t guard me.