Chapter 1 Olsen's Cake

"No problem." Tang Tian nodded. Olsen's cakes were indeed delicious, and he quite liked them. With Walker, getting tickets wouldn't be difficult either.

"Then it's settled." Olsen smiled, wiggling her little finger in front of him.

Tang Tian was taken aback for a moment, then realized she wanted to make a pinky promise.

He reached out his hand, hooking his little finger with hers, and the two of them reached an agreement.

"Tang, press conference." Napier called to him from the player tunnel entrance.

"I won't see you out then." Tang Tian responded to Napier, then turned to Olsen and said.

"It's okay, you go ahead and get busy. I had a lot of fun today." Olsen said with a smile.

Tang Tian nodded with a smile, then jogged back to the locker room.

After a quick shower, Tang Tian and Walker joined Calhoun at the press conference.

Walker was 9 for 22 in this game, scoring a team-high 24 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. Tang Tian was 5 for 8 from three-point range and 3 for 3 from the free throw line, racking up 18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. The two were the biggest contributors to UConn's win tonight.

Because of the win, the atmosphere at the press conference was relaxed, filled with laughter.

"Tang, I noticed you ate cake on the bench after you came off the court. I'm curious, were you hungry at the time?" In the relaxed atmosphere, a reporter asked about eating cake during the game.

"Yes." Tang Tian didn't expect the reporter to ask this, and nodded with a smile.

"That cake didn't seem like it was bought on the spot, it was already under the bench?" This reporter paid close attention and couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, I was originally planning to eat it after the game, but I was indeed hungry at the time." Tang Tian replied.

His answer immediately drew laughter from the reporters below. It wasn't often that someone spoke so honestly.

"In the next game, the team will face the University of North Carolina. We know that North Carolina's Harrison Barnes is a very outstanding player and leader. Kemba, are you confident in defeating him and leading the team to victory?" After the lighthearted topics, the reporter then asked a serious question.

"Um... I think I'll leave the task of defeating him to Tang." Walker thought for a moment and said.

His answer drew surprised looks from the reporters. This didn't quite match Walker's usual style of speaking.

"After all, he already defeated Derrick Williams in this game." Walker continued.

The reporters nodded in unison after hearing this.

In this game, Williams had shown great power in the first half, scoring 18 points, but in the second half, under Tang Tian's defense, he only made 1 of 11 shots and performed poorly. In the next game, it would be Tang Tian who would primarily defend Barnes. If they were really talking about defeating him, it was indeed something that Tang Tian had to do.

"Tang, are you confident?" The reporter turned his attention to Tang Tian.

"Of course, I must defeat him." Tang Tian replied without hesitation. Barnes was North Carolina's core player. If UConn wanted to win, he had to defend Barnes.

"He can do it." Calhoun said with certainty at this time. He couldn't tell the media what had happened at halftime, but he now had absolute trust in Tang Tian.

The reporters looked at Calhoun with some surprise. The old coach rarely spoke so definitively in front of the media.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, I bought the cake too, but I finished it in the locker room during halftime." However, before they could think too much about it, Walker's words drew another burst of laughter from them, and the atmosphere of the press conference, which had finally become serious, instantly became extremely relaxed again.

...

Far away at the University of North Carolina, the North Carolina players watched the entire broadcast of the game at their home stadium.

"Harrison, I didn't expect us to really run into that guy." After the game, the players left one after another. Tyler Zeller and Barnes walked out side by side, talking and laughing as they went.

When they were playing the shooting game in New Haven, he wanted to go up and say hello to Tang Tian, but Barnes stopped him. At that time, Barnes said that if they were meant to meet, they would meet eventually. He didn't expect it to come true.

"The next game won't be easy." Barnes nodded, he knew after watching the game that the next game would be a tough battle.

"Are you confident in defeating Tang?" Zeller asked.

Barnes shook his head. Although he was only a freshman, because he grew up in a single-parent family and took care of the household from a young age, he was much more mature than his peers. If Derrick Williams had such a difficult time, he knew very well that it wouldn't be easy for him either.

"But I must defeat him." He stopped and continued, looking up at the five championship banners hanging in the stadium as he spoke.

...

Early the next morning, after the victory celebrations, the UConn players boarded a plane to Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina.

UConn and North Carolina's game would take place in two days at the Bank of America Stadium, the largest stadium in Charlotte.

This 19-year-old stadium is the home of the NFL (National Football League) Carolina Panthers and can accommodate up to 74,000 people. For this game, the stadium opened its core area, which can accommodate more than 50,000 people at the same time.

"North Carolina's style of play hasn't changed much from the past. Their core tactic is to rush for offensive rebounds and seek second-chance scoring opportunities, so protecting defensive rebounds will be the core of our next game. Alex, At, Tyler, you must be mentally prepared, whether it's boxing out or rushing for rebounds..."

After arriving in Charlotte, Calhoun didn't rush to arrange the team's practice, but instead pulled the players into the training hall to start tactical analysis.

In the last game against the University of Arizona, Tang Tian's tactical suggestions directly changed the situation in the second half, which made him realize that tactics were especially important when playing against strong teams.

After the tactical analysis, he asked Ollie to take the other players to do basic training first, and then called Tang Tian back to the office with him.

Ollie looked at the two leaving with complex emotions, but in the end, he just shook his head.

Tang Tian's tactical suggestions in the last game showed that he really had a talent for coaching, which he really couldn't compare to.

An 18-year-old boy with this kind of talent, he should be envious and jealous, but remembering Calhoun's previous instructions to him, he as a coach couldn't be so narrow-minded, and should instead learn more about how to get along with the players.

"For the next game, do you have any good tactical suggestions?" Once in the coach's office, Calhoun asked Tang Tian directly.

Tang Tian didn't know what Calhoun wanted to see him about at first, but when he heard his question, he couldn't help but smile wryly in his heart.

This Calhoun, was he really treating him like an assistant coach?

But as an old coach who had coached in the NCAA for 40 years, Calhoun could be considered to be putting himself down.