"Good heavens, UC Berkeley's defense is absolutely airtight. Li Fei, holding down the paint, seems to have injected the whole team with a shot of adrenaline."
"Although the University of Arkansas is trying hard, doing its best to execute every possession perfectly, UC Berkeley's margin for error is simply too large."
"They're extremely cautious with every offensive decision, as if one tiny mistake could make everything fall apart. By contrast, UC Berkeley looks completely at ease on the court, not rattled in the slightest."
"It's not that the Arkansas Razorbacks are playing badly. The difference in talent between these two teams is just too obvious."
"..."
At first glance, the score didn't look too lopsided for the Razorbacks.
They'd stayed within about 15 points the whole time.
But only those who'd watched the game knew
just how great the difference in strength between the two teams was.
The University of Arkansas was hanging on one basket at a time through sheer willpower.
UC Berkeley, meanwhile, had built a lead of nearly ten points at the start, then turned the game into an ordinary regular-season matchup.
Everyone on the court was calm and composed, as if...
Whatever they did, it was the right move.
That was, until the final five minutes of the game.
Li Fei swatted away two shots in a row under the basket.
Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray also stepped up the physical pressure on the perimeter.
After stringing together several stops, the Golden Bears maintained their usual steady, efficient offense.
When they looked up, the lead had already ballooned to 20-plus!
"I'm not quite sure I understand what just happened."
At the courtside commentary desk, Li Fei's number-one TNT fan, Kevin Harlan, clutched his head in shock.
"The Golden Bears suddenly turned it up over the past two minutes, and then they just blew the game wide open?"
"You saw it right, Kevin. The Golden Bears suddenly raised the level of their play. The University of Arkansas couldn't respond in time—or, more accurately, they didn't have the ability to respond. And then..."
"After hanging in there and fighting for the whole game, the Arkansas Razorbacks got finished off over a high flame just like that."
Finished off over a high flame?!!
When Kevin Harlan heard the phrase, he suddenly understood.
It was a brand-new basketball expression.
But, well... you know what? It really fit.
The Golden Bears had been so composed today, then turned it on late in the game. It really did feel that way.
"I get it."
"For the first 35 minutes, the Golden Bears let the game simmer over low heat. Then, in the final five minutes, they cranked up the intensity and finished it off over a high flame."
Just as the two commentators had said,
Flying Pig, who had watched the whole game, felt the same way.
Everything had been under the Golden Bears' control.
And Arkansas was like a bullfrog waiting to be boiled in water.
"You don't need to watch the rest of March Madness this year."
In the stands, Flying Pig said, "UC Berkeley has already developed a champion's aura in March Madness."
Flying Pig might have looked a little dim, but he had a sharp basketball mind.
The University of Arkansas had played with all its heart and fire throughout the game, making it seem as if the outcome had remained uncertain.
But UC Berkeley was like an owner holding a leash.
When it slackened, they tightened it a little. When it tightened, they loosened it a little.
Simmer low and slow, then turn up the heat to finish.
It was much the same idea.
"If that's what you mean by a champion's aura,"
Kevin Johnson shrugged, "then I'd say Li Fei created that aura all by himself!"
"His incredible ability gives the team a huge margin for error."
Looking at Li Fei's stat sheet for the night,
honestly, his performance hadn't been especially explosive.
The whole team had played well on offense, and Li Fei hadn't tried to do everything himself in the paint against two defenders.
Even so,
he still put up 40 points, 21 rebounds, 6 blocks, 3 steals, and 3 assists.
"He put up numbers that terrifying without anyone even noticing."
Kevin Johnson said, "I didn't even feel like he'd been shining all that brightly. That's the scariest part."
Normally,
anyone with a stat line like that would have been doing everything on the court.
But Li Fei had done all that as if...
it were only natural.
It didn't seem strange at all.
The truth was,
without anyone realizing it, Li Fei had raised people's impression of what level he was on.
At last, the game ended.
UC Berkeley defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks by 22 points and smoothly advanced to the next round of March Madness!
The camera turned to the Arkansas Razorbacks' bench, where everyone looked on the verge of tears and ready to collapse.
At center court,
the UC Berkeley players, having shouldered their way to victory, still wore serious expressions.
"The University of Arkansas showed a lot of fighting spirit tonight."
In the postgame interview, Jason Kidd spoke up first. "But there can only be one winner!"
"Jason, we all want to know: you faced a tough opponent in a do-or-die game today, but why did you play with such composure, then turn it on late and take the win?"
"There's only one reason."
Kidd smiled and pointed at Li Fei beside him, making it clear:
"Because we have the team's number-one star, Li Fei!"
At Kidd's words, the reporters present all raised their eyebrows.
The key phrase:
"number-one star."
What Jason Kidd really meant was:
"Li Fei is the true leader of UC Berkeley!"
Based on the stats and his dominance, Li Fei certainly fit the bill.
Still, many people believed
that if a team lacked a point guard, even a superstar with incredible individual talent couldn't make up for it. Without a great floor general to run the offense, even the strongest individual players would be scattered and disorganized.
Jason Kidd, averaging 18 points and 16 assists per game, had already set a new record for assists per game in both the NBA and March Madness.
And with an absurd assist-to-turnover ratio, he almost never made mistakes. He was more than qualified to be the Golden Bears' number-one star.
But today, when Kidd faced the cameras and said outright
that Li Fei was the number-one star,
"Jason, can we take what you just said to mean that you're admitting Li Fei is the leader of this team, and that you're the second option?"
At this stage of March Madness, asking such a sensitive question
was clearly like setting off a bomb. It could affect the team's chemistry.
"Sure!"
But
Jason remained completely composed. "To put it this way..."
"If Li Fei is the locomotive, then I'm the conductor in the cab."
"He provides the power, and I give him direction."
"If Li Fei is the light in the sky, then I'm the shadow in the dark!"
"The brighter the light, the larger the shadow."
"If Li Fei is the wind, then I'm the sand."
"Together, we're a sandstorm, sweeping everything away!"
(Please show your support, everyone! Here's the deal: every day, if we get five Update Request Talismans, I'll add one chapter... five Inspiration Capsules will get you two extra chapters... and five Mass Release Celebrations will get you ten thousand extra words...)
(This book is extremely difficult to write, since it's set in the 1990s. The author spends a lot of time every day looking up information and statistics, and Chinese data sites don't have records going back to the 1990s. The author can only look things up on a foreign site called Referce, and it's all in English... For someone like me who's barely passed English a few times, I have to translate everything. I need to download Google Chrome and use a translation extension.)
(But here's the problem: a lot of the terms on the site are abbreviations, and the translations come out completely nonsensical... I still can't forget seeing Michael Jordan's position translated as "Singapore"??? Later, I figured out that Singapore is abbreviated as SG, and SG stands for shooting guard on the basketball court... There are so many problems like this. Writing this book gives me a headache...)
Before you continue