Tactical Status

"But what?" Tang Tian asked. Even if he knew, he could only pretend he did not.

"But... there are some scenes that would be rather challenging, so I'm still hesitating," Olson continued.

"Nudity?" Tang Tian asked tentatively.

Olson nodded.

"All right, to be honest, I was just talking nonsense last time. I think you'd better not act in that kind of movie." Tang Tian continued. He had originally wondered why Olson was different from how he remembered her. If it was because of the things he had said, that would be rather amusing.

"Huh?" Olson did not react at first.

"Look, you're not short on money, right? Isn't acting in movies just to make money? There are so many movies out there, so there's no need to specifically try this kind. There are plenty of movies with a huge contrast in image. Playing a witch in a fantasy movie would be nice too." Tang Tian tried his best to persuade her. He did not want to ruin the sweet, innocent girl he had only just met.

"I..." Olson hesitated. She had her own unspeakable difficulties, but those reasons were not suitable to tell Tang Tian, at least not yet.

"Hmm?"

"I'll think about it some more," Olson finally said.

"Yeah, make sure you think it through carefully. Like I said earlier, the family drama we just watched was pretty good too," Tang Tian said with a smile.

"Oh, and before you decide whether to act in Double-Sided Martha, you'd better let me know beforehand, if it's convenient."

"Okay, I will." Olson sensed the concern in Tang Tian's words and nodded with a smile.

After leaving the movie theater, Olson drove Tang Tian back to UConn before heading home.

Watching Olson leave, Tang Tian let out a long breath.

After meeting her a few times, he felt that Olson was genuinely a good person with a good personality. It really would not suit her to act in R-rated movies like she had in his previous life.

After returning to the dorm, Tang Tian temporarily put Olson's matters aside. What he thought about more now was how to earn more premium points and how to help UConn achieve better results in the conference.

At the next day's training session, Cahoon laid out the tactics for the upcoming game against Georgetown University.

Most of it was the same as in previous games. The only difference was that, because Tang Tian had entered the starting lineup, Cahoon had designed several sets of plays for him as well.

When he had been on the bench, he basically had only one play: set a screen for Walker, then drift to the top of the arc for a three.

But now, Cahoon had designed more and more complicated plays for him, such as using an off-ball pick and roll before moving to the corner for a three, or curling directly around a teammate's screen to the corner or the forty-five-degree three-point line.

It was obvious that this was an elevation of his tactical status.

His previous plays with Walker had only been supporting plays, but among Cahoon's new plays, some were even designed with him as the finisher.

That was an enormous change.

"Tang, these plays need constant practice during training sessions. We might not be able to use them in the next game, but I hope you can get familiar with them as soon as possible," Cahoon said to Tang Tian privately at the end.

Tang Tian nodded. Things like stamina needed time to build up and could not be rushed, but as for tactics, he should adapt to them easily.

After Cahoon finished arranging the tactics, he had Ollie lead the team through practice while he went to sit and rest by the court.

After all, he was getting old. His energy was nothing like it had been when he was younger.

Ollie started with the new tactics.

"Jeremy, watch your positioning! Get back to the top of the arc immediately after setting the screen!"

"Alex, roll to the basket after the screen. Yes, be quick! Draw the opponent's defensive attention over!"

"Kemba, move the ball faster!"

Ollie's shouts echoed through the Training Facility. Since these were new tactics, the players inevitably made more or fewer mistakes as they ran through them.

That was completely expected.

But after watching for a while, Cahoon, who had originally been resting, suddenly brightened and turned his gaze toward Tang Tian on the court.

Ollie's new-tactic training lasted for more than an hour. The players went from making frequent mistakes at the beginning to more or less being able to run the plays by the end.

Yet Tang Tian, the core of these plays, had not made a single mistake from his first run-through to the very end!

That was a little unbelievable.

No matter how high a person's basketball IQ was, it was impossible to run a new play without making a single mistake.

Had Tang Tian practiced these plays before?

Impossible. He was only eighteen and had been a ball boy before joining the team.

Cahoon could not find the answer, just as he had previously been unable to understand why Tang Tian clearly had a three-point shot but never took it.

But at his age, if there were things he could not figure out, he did not dwell on them. In any case, Tang Tian picking up tactics quickly was the best possible outcome for him.

They had failed to crack the tough bone that was Georgetown last time. If they wanted to win this time, they definitely needed some new tricks.

After five days of training, Tang Tian's tactical runs had gone much better than expected, and these sets of plays had actually begun to take shape. This gave the players even more confidence in the upcoming game.

That evening, the school arena was already packed with spectators early on. The fans had long been unable to wait for this game.

Last time, Georgetown University had led by Monroe and handed UConn a bloodbath. This time, playing at home, it was time for revenge.

What excited them even more was that campus media had released news before the game that Tang Tian would start in this matchup, making them look forward to it even more.

When UConn's players emerged from the locker room, they could feel that the atmosphere was especially heated tonight. The fans waved support signs they had prepared in advance throughout the arena, and some had even unfurled banners reading, "Defeat Georgetown."

That kind of enthusiasm was entirely understandable.

Besides having been massacred by their opponents before, there was another reason: Georgetown's historical standing was similar to UConn's, and since both teams were in the Big East Conference, there had been no shortage of grudges between them.

In 1984, Georgetown University won that year's NCAA championship under the leadership of "The Gorilla," Patrick Ewing. They later produced NBA Superstars such as Alonzo Mourning and Allen Iverson.

Beyond that, they were also one of the few NCAA teams that ran the Princeton Offense.

This system required them to have an outstanding big man. From Ewing at the beginning, to Mutombo later, then Mourning, and now Monroe, all of them had been that kind of player.

UConn's interior had not improved, so dealing with Monroe would still be extremely difficult. But the fans now had absolute faith in their team, because they had won eight straight games and had even handed Providence College, second in the conference, a bloodbath just days earlier!

Defeat Georgetown and claim a ninth straight win—that was their greatest expectation!