r18novel Chapter 7 Famous in Montverde
Chapter 7 Famous in Montverde
"Pay attention to your positioning, Wang. You need to coordinate with the people around you, observe your surroundings, observe the positioning of your teammates, and then work together."
The first new thing Kevin Boyle brought to the Montverde Hawks after taking over was zone defense.
Without a physically gifted center to anchor the Hawks' offense, Coach Kevin has to focus on building the team's defense as a team. And getting these players with average talent (excluding Wang Kai) to master zone defense is not an easy task.
However, Kevin Boyle was surprised that Wang Kai was able to integrate into the team so quickly and gain the recognition of the other Hawks players.
The fact that a sixteen-year-old with no experience of living in the United States could quickly adapt to life here and certain "rules" made Kevin Boyle think that Wang Kai's emotional intelligence must be ridiculously high.
What surprised Kevin Boyle even more was that Wang Kai had outstanding one-on-one defensive skills and experience.
"I taught them all! I taught them!"
Old Ke appropriately made his presence felt.
After all, Kobe Bryant is a defensive legend who has been selected to the All-Defensive First Team nine times. Although Wang Kai has played fewer games, under his guidance, Wang Kai's one-on-one defensive ability is definitely top-notch compared to his peers.
Despite Wang Kai's potential to become the team's perimeter defensive anchor, Kevin Boyle's decision to continue practicing zone defense stems from his concern for Wang Kai. Exposing him to physical confrontations with top-tier players before his body is fully developed would hinder his future growth. Furthermore, Wang Kai's most outstanding talents lie in his ball handling and shooting ability, so Kevin Boyle intends to allow him to fully showcase his offensive capabilities during high school.
With Wang Kai setting an example and the other players being quite obedient, the Montverde Hawks' zone defense has taken shape in just one month.
Kevin Boyle's offensive tactics for the Hawks were not complicated. At this age, high school coaches don't let players do a lot of tactical drills. Being able to do simple pick-and-rolls and small-area three-man screens is already considered good.
Most American high school teams operate on the principle of having their star players lead the offense, and the talent of these star players determines the team's ceiling.
During the team's offensive drills, Wang Kai truly stunned the rest of the Hawks.
It wasn't Wang Kai's dazzling dribbling skills that stunned them, but rather that many times, a simple change in Wang Kai's rhythm was enough to make the players defending him lose their balance.
In addition to Wang Kai's excellent shooting ability, the other Hawks players felt like they were guarding an NBA star when they were defending him.
After entering October, the Montverde Hawks began their preseason games.
At that time, Montverde Academy had not yet become a well-known basketball school in North America, so their warm-up opponents were usually high schools in Florida.
The Hawks' first preseason opponent is their arch-rival, Miami Christian College.
In last season's state championship, Montverde Academy was eliminated by Miami Christian Academy.
When mortal enemies meet, their eyes blaze with fury. The students of Montverde Academy, who had expected a fierce battle to the death, were stunned by the course of the competition.
Wang Kai showed no mercy from the start of the game, first hitting three accurate three-pointers to completely disrupt Christ Academy's defense. Then, using pick-and-roll tactics, Wang Kai delivered consecutive assists to power forward Eddie El, helping Eddie score six points in a row.
Stunned at the start, Christ Academy retaliated on offense, while Montverde's zone defense was still not very familiar, frequently leaving players open on defense.
However, as Montverde's players gradually adapted to the rhythm of the game, their zone defense began to show its power.
Christ Academy's offense primarily relied on inside attacks. Under Montverde's zone defense, they frequently made mistakes, forcing them to increase their outside shooting attempts, but these also resulted in frequent missed shots.
With a reminder from his coach, Kobe, Wang Kai increased his pace in the paint, controlling the team's rhythm as the starting point guard.
Wang Kai's increased speed did not anger Kevin Boyle, who had given Wang Kai more control before the match, allowing him to manage the pace of the game himself.
Once the pace picked up, Montverde was unstoppable. Wang Kai could not only complete a fast break himself, but also assist his teammates to score.
Halfway through the first half, Montverde College was leading Christ College by nearly sixteen points.
半场比赛打完，蒙特沃德学院以49比27领先了死对手22分，这其中王凯一个人就拿下了17分外加6助攻。
Christ Academy never expected that the freshmen from Montverde Academy would be so powerful; they were completely stunned.
In the second half, Wang Kai was substituted by Kevin Boyle after playing for less than five minutes. Coach Kevin was worried that the Christ Academy players, whose performance had been overwhelmed, would lose control and retaliate against Wang Kai.
After Wang Kai left the court, Montverde's offense fell into disarray, but their defense was still quite good. Thanks to their excellent zone defense, they still led their arch-rivals by as many as 20 points in the second half, despite scoring only 20 points.
After the first warm-up match, Wang Kai's reputation began to spread in the small town of Montverde.
Throughout October, Montverde played five warm-up games and won all five. Wang Kai averaged 19 points and 7.5 assists in less than 25 minutes of playing time per game.
Although the small town of Montverde has fewer than two thousand people, it has its own newspaper. The Montverde Herald reported on Wang Kai's performance with the headline "Deadly Weapon from the East Brings Montverde to Five-Game Winning Streak".
In five warm-up games, Wang Kai averaged 6 three-point attempts per game with a 60% success rate. At a time when three-pointers were still just an auxiliary tactic for teams, Wang Kai's number of three-point attempts and his extremely high success rate were truly astonishing, which is why he was called a "deadly weapon" by reporters.
In every warm-up game, Wang Kai always starts with a three-pointer, disrupting the opponent's defensive strategy against him.
Regardless of the opponent's defensive strategy, even when double-teamed, Wang Kai's shooting percentage remains frighteningly high.
Following the report by the Vanguard, Wang Kai became a household name in the small town of Montverde. Many residents of the town began to ask when the next match of Montverde Academy would start, hoping to see for themselves just how powerful the "deadly weapon from the East" really was.
Inside Montverde Academy, Wang Kai's performance also put Dean James Bailey in an awkward position, since it was he who had not approved Coach Kevin's application.