Chapter 70 69. Top in the U.S.? The target is the top in the U.S.!
Moreover, playing more games would provide him with more opportunities to test his own abilities, allowing him to better understand what skills he currently lacks and learn them in a targeted manner during training.

Zhang Yang feels a lot of pressure in the new season.

The coaching staff was excited.

After the list was announced, the main team immediately started to conduct internal training matches to prepare for the warm-up match phase starting at the weekend.

Zhang Yang and DeRozan were divided into two teams. They played very seriously and did not want to lose to each other in the training game.

Johnson rarely participated in the work of the main team in previous years, but this year he will come to help when he is free.

Looking at Zhang Yang and DeRozan, Johnson exclaimed: "DeMar and Jack are so talented, even better than I thought. They don't look like 15- and 16-year-old players. They are better than Aaron (Afflalo) and Farmar of the same age."

Burke agreed, "That's right, especially Jack. He has a very strong ability to learn independently. In just one year, Jack has more scoring methods than DeMar. It's incredible. However, DeMar is one year younger. Next year's DeMar will definitely be better than Jack now. But Jack's progress is so fast that it's hard to say who will be stronger in the 12th grade. It's a pity that they are not in the same grade.

John, Tony, I feel like our team is really going to produce NBA players! Two of them! It looks like no one on our team will wear No. 3 or No. 23 anymore.”

Johnson: "Not only that, the tactical coordination of the main team is also better than last season's main team before the start of the season, much better. In the past, our players played in the reserve team for a year and could remember the tactics and play tacitly based on the experience of many training and games. This main team is different. They know very clearly how to cooperate with Jack, DeMar, and Carmelo's running position... Those 12th graders are still a little bit behind."

Burke rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, yes. Several people from your team are very good at tactics, but they all rely on Jack. I haven't seen you give him any salary."

Johnson: "You reduced your workload by half last season thanks to Jack, why don't you share the money?"

Burke: "I would give him some money, but then he wouldn't be able to play in college."

Johnson: "You are so shameless..."

Thomas was speechless as the two began bickering again. However, he did not think that the praise from his two colleagues for the two geniuses was excessive at all. On the contrary, he felt that it was not enough!

At the beginning of last season, the 14-year-old DeRozan was only slightly better than the 16-year-old Tatum, but there was no qualitative difference. A year later, the 15-year-old DeRozan had left the 17-year-old Tatum far behind, and Zhang Yang was one point stronger than DeRozan.

Afflalo, an 11th-grade student, is already one of the strongest high school students in California, but there is a clear gap between him and DeRozan and Zhang Yang.

Judging from the terrifying speed of their improvement in the past six months, Thomas felt that by the end of this season, their strength might surpass that of Afflalo, who just graduated from high school... Five-star high school students! NBA is expected!

...

When Zhang Yang was in the reserve team, he took the initiative to direct his teammates' movements. At first, most of his teammates ignored him, but after they tasted the benefits of following instructions, they followed him.

When he arrived at the main team, during the second team training, Burke, as the tactical coach, directly assigned him the role of field commander. In fact, whether An assigned him this role or not, the old teammates in the reserve team would listen to him, and it was mainly arranged for the 12th grade players to see.

At first, the 12th grade players were not convinced, so Zhang Yang closed the door and released captain Miller and vice-captain DeRozan.

DeRozan beat the 12th grade outside players once, and Miller beat the 12th grade inside players once, and after that, no one was dissatisfied.

Burke secretly gave a thumbs up to Zhang Yang's simple and rough operation.

A few days later, on Sunday, September 9, the first match day of the warm-up match phase for the Compton High School main team arrived.

On the day the main team list was announced, Zhang Yang got the schedule.

In the past few days, he studied the CIF Division I high school distribution map, this season's schedule, and last season's schedule for several days before going to bed at night, but he couldn't understand how the CIF league officials arranged the schedule. There are more CIF Division I schools than he thought. Compton High School belongs to the third district of the four divisions, but they will not play all the schools in the third district in their 36 league games this season. Some schools will play twice or even three times, but the schedule is not based on the distance between the schools... In the end, he gave up trying to figure this out and could only complain that California is worthy of being the state with the most chaotic high school league system in the entire United States.

Today, Compton High School was very busy, with students gathering outside Allen Gymnasium, waiting for the doors to open and grabbing seats, and many people from outside the school also came.

Some of them are students' parents, friends, and residents of nearby blocks, while others are agents and scouts from various universities.

It was just a warm-up game, but it attracted so much attention because of one person - DeMar DeRozan. Thomas was not the only one who thought DeRozan would definitely become a five-star high school student. After seeing DeRozan's performance in the Southern California League in his ninth grade, the media and experts also thought so, and discussed him together with OJ Mayo, Kevin Love, Kyle Singler, Eric Gordon, Michael Bilis and others.

Professionals want to see how DeRozan, who is only 15 years old, can perform in the main team and how much he has improved in half a year.

Professionals are not optimistic about Compton High School's strength this season.

Only three of the ten players on this main team are in grade 10, and their average age is one year younger than other schools. Professionals believe that the coming season will be a transitional period for Compton High School, and that Compton High School's seven-year streak of reaching the championship will be broken.

But when the 4pm race started, the professionals were shocked.

Long Beach High School captain Darren Collison, who just turned 17 last month, is already in grade 12 and was ranked 05th among all high school students in the U.S. in the 99 class this summer.

Professionals all thought that this game was a time for Collison to teach DeRozan a lesson, but the result was that DeRozan performed better!
Only then did the professionals notice that DeRozan's 196 cm + 84 kg body looked like an adult, while Collison's 185 cm + 74 kg body looked so short in front of DeRozan.

It wasn't just DeRozan who performed well. Zhang Yang's cutting into the basket, catching the ball and shooting, scoring on counterattacks, and occasional singles... were equally aggressive!
Although Tatum's breakthrough passes and counterattacks are not as unstoppable as when he was in the reserve team, it is very good for an 11th grader to have such a performance against the 12th grader.

It would be fine if only the three of them performed well, but Compton High School's tactics were also better than Long Beach High School's!
Miller's strength is indeed not as good as the opposing center, and Monroe and Kanter are even worse, but they know very well what they should do and how to cooperate with the three guys. They have strong execution and do a very good job of receiving the ball. Under the leadership of Zhang Yang, DeRozan and Tatum, their performance is better than those players on the opposite side who are one year older and stronger than them!
With DeRozan receiving a pass from Zhang Yang and hitting a three-pointer from the top of the arc, at the end of the first half, Compton High School led Long Beach High School by 58 points, 49 to 9!
Professionals felt that Compton High School was in a transitional period this season and could not beat Long Beach High School. The Long Beach High School players themselves thought so too. They were indeed a little careless at the beginning of the game.

Trailing by 9 points at halftime, the players of Long Beach Middle School felt that it was due to carelessness, so they regrouped and prepared to turn the tables in the second half.

However, when the Long Beach Middle School players were careless, the 11th grade players from Compton High School were also in a tense state.

The Compton High School players were not very confident before the game started. Indeed, their average age was one year younger than the opponents, so it was impossible for them not to be nervous.

After returning from the halftime break, the Long Beach Middle School players were no longer careless and underestimated their opponents, and the Compton High School players were no longer nervous. Their confidence soared, and the buffs on both sides were offset!
At the end of the game, Collison scored 21 points, 3 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals, and performed very well.

但德罗赞拿到30分4板6助攻1抢断、张杨28分9板2助攻1抢断3盖帽、塔图姆7分5板8助攻1抢断、基夫14分、米勒11分9板……

Compton High School scored 57 to 54 in the second half, withstood the counterattack of Long Beach Middle School, and won the victory with 115 to 103!

When the final whistle sounded, the audience cheered wildly, shouting "DeMar" and "Jack".

The students cheered enthusiastically from the beginning of the game, but they were not optimistic about their own team. They knew that there was not a single capable 12th grader on their team, so they were prepared to slide from the peak this season. They regarded this as a process.

I didn’t expect Zhang Yang and DeRozan to perform so well!

The scene was very agitated, and most of the Compton High School players were also very excited. Long Beach High School was a team that had a chance to qualify for the third district. They won! And they won so happily!

DeRozan looked calm and said to his teammates: "I didn't expect the top 100 in the US to be so weak. I was looking forward to the matchup with Collison. It's really disappointing. He is much weaker than Harding. Is he really in the top 100 in the US?"

Zhang Yang: “…”

Tatum: “…”

This show-off!

Miller: "You can't compare them like that. Harding's physical condition is too advantageous in high school. The inside players of the same level will always be stronger than the outside players. And Harding's strength is not just in the top 100. When we played against Harding, it was already the end of the season, and this season has just begun... Of course, even if Harding comes to play against us now, I think you can still win, DeMar!"

DeRozan withdrew his kind look, turned around and left with satisfaction.

Zhang Yang watched DeRozan threaten his teammates in silence, while the professionals who came to observe the performance of DeRozan and Collison fixed their eyes on Zhang Yang.

(End of this chapter)