Chapter Fifty-One: The First Battle at Year’s End (Part One)

"Pass the ball, pass the ball, over here."

"Rebound, mine, mine."

"Good shot, beautiful!"

Inside the training facility in Tianshan District, Urumqi, the echoes that filled the gym were not those of the head coach Wang Lei or any other members of the coaching staff, but rather the voices of the players themselves out on the court.

Wang Lei did not, as conventional coaches often do, instill his tactical philosophy into the players. Though he had his own set of tactical ideas, Wang Lei had no intention of quickly imposing them on his current group of athletes.

He also strictly forbade his coaching staff from making any comments on the sidelines during scrimmages, apart from the normal calls for fouls. The pace and rhythm of the game were entirely determined by the players.

Yet Wang Lei had just one requirement for the players during games: speed. Each offensive possession was limited to fifteen seconds. If either side failed to attack the basket within that time, possession would be switched.

In merely a month's time, expecting these college athletes—once peripheral figures on their respective university teams—to undergo any miraculous transformation was clearly impossible. Basic training and physical conditioning wouldn’t show significant effects in such a short span either.

Time was tight for Wang Lei; as the year drew to a close, the universities would enter their final exam period, and all these players would have to return for their tests. There would be at least fifteen days off for the New Year, and then, after the finals of the National College League in April, the qualifiers for the Youth Men's Basketball division of the National Games would begin. With teams from all over the country, and even some formed overseas, the total number of participants was estimated to exceed fifty. Without qualifiers, the tournament schedule would be unimaginably long.

All things considered, Wang Lei estimated that the time his team could train together would not exceed three months. He was thus compelled to adopt unconventional methods to help the players adapt quickly to the current style of play. His solution was to train through competition.

The greatest deficiency these players had compared to professional or even semi-professional athletes was a lack of game experience. For example, the team’s designated starting point guard, Turugun, had absolutely no formal match experience. If Wang Lei only taught them tactics, they wouldn’t be able to execute them during real games, as the difference between an official match and a scrimmage is significant.

Wang Lei intended for these young men to acclimate to the team’s rhythm through game play, to internalize their fundamental skills in the heat of competition.

The scrimmages continued. Although the players were now playing with more structure compared to the initial chaos, they still lacked experience. As the pace of offense and defense picked up, their youthful impatience became apparent, with mistakes piling up—so much so that the coaching staff watching from the sidelines frowned in concern. Wang Lei, however, remained calm. After all, what player never makes mistakes? As long as the players were focused and wholeheartedly engaged in both matches and training, Wang Lei believed these young men had promising futures ahead.

Wang Lei could have used available funds to recruit some semi-professional or even professional young athletes to join the team, but he always felt that those trained within the system lacked a certain “spark.” They were accustomed to following the coach’s instructions and arrangements, so when unexpected situations arose in games, their reactions tended to be sluggish. While this current batch of players was indeed lacking in absolute strength and had many shortcomings, at least they truly loved basketball and were eager to read and understand the game. For that alone, Wang Lei felt he could not allow new recruits to disrupt the team’s training dynamic.

With the online buzz surrounding Zhang Old Cannon’s song “Believe in Yourself,” many started to take notice of Wang Lei, the lyricist and composer. Some astute internet journalists, through Zhang Old Cannon and Ma Dongmei’s rapid rise, soon identified Wang Lei, and although there was no deliberate hype, Wang Lei’s identity, his profession, and his “talent” became attractive topics for these reporters. Thus, Wang Lei—the “most unorthodox head coach” and “most talented head coach”—along with his “student team,” quickly became popular subjects of discussion online.

On the last day of 2015, Wang Lei gave the players heading off for their final exams a week’s holiday, while those already in their senior year with few remaining classes, and Turugun, the high schooler who finished his exams early, continued training at the facility.

Wang Lei began to have Xue Yongjiang contact the basketball teams of various universities in Urumqi to see if any were willing to play warm-up games against the youth team.

Traditionally, no team was ever willing to face the provincial youth squad, not only because of the “problem children” with connections on past teams, but also due to the lack of competitive strength—few found any value in playing them, as such matches seemed pointless.

This year, however, when Xue Yongjiang nervously called the universities, he actually received positive responses, much to his surprise.

The motives of these university squads were not entirely pure. On one hand, it looked like the National Games would be reformed, making the youth division the best stage for rising stars in the future. On the other, they knew about the current provincial youth team: it was made up of a coach with no prior experience and disabilities, plus a group of former fringe players. The team had also gained considerable online fame. If they could thoroughly defeat this team, their own squads would surely attract attention. The provincial youth team was indeed the perfect stepping stone.

With that in mind, Xue Yongjiang quickly followed Wang Lei’s instructions and arranged two matches each with the teams from Frontier University of Finance and Economics, Frontier University, and Frontier Normal University—a total of six games, scheduled for the period after final exams but before the New Year break.

All six games would be away fixtures for the provincial youth squad—naturally, since the hosts were eager to “trample” their provincial counterparts.

After announcing to the players that they would soon play warm-up games against their own university teams, many were stunned, even anxious. To them, it seemed they had not received any real professional training—just basic skills and fitness drills, along with one scrimmage after another. Head coach Wang Lei hadn’t even called a single timeout during their matches.