Chapter 31: The Demon King Descends

  Today's third update is online, for top ten, asking for votes

  The NCAA isn't as well-known as the NBA, so some book friends have questions about its tournament system. For example, why did Georgia Tech, who lost to North Carolina in the ACC conference tournament, still make it into the NCAA national championship? In fact, there are hundreds of schools and dozens of conferences in the NCAA, each with their own tournament systems, which may not be the same from year to year. However, most follow a similar system to the NBA, with home and away games, regular season followed by conference tournaments. If it's a major conference like the ACC, both the regular season and conference tournament champions are guaranteed a spot in the NCAA national championship. For smaller conferences, usually only the conference tournament champion gets an automatic bid. However, major conferences like the ACC also have an "at-large" bid, which allows other strong teams that didn't win their conference to participate. This is why Georgia Tech, Duke, and North Carolina are participating as at-large bids, although they still need to have a good regular season record to be eligible.

  "Ervin, Michael, if I were to announce right now that the VCU Rams have won the 1996 NCAA Championship, would you think that's a premature decision, even though there are still 10 minutes left in this game, but this deficit is really looking insurmountable?" asked the CBS announcer.

  Earvin Johnson, Michael Jordan, these two are the guests of today's final on April 5th. All NBA games gave way to the NCAA finals. As a legendary ball star from the ACC league, Jordan accepted the invitation from CBS, while magician Johnson came to play tickets because his good friend Larry Bird recommended the game of Vicksburg, and soon he became a fan of Vicksburg.

  "I don't think I need to tell you, Georgia Tech fans already have the answer. Everything on the stands is clear." Jordan said, pointing to the surrounding stands, "80 to 60, Vicksburg's overwhelming advantage."

  "It's half water, half flames," Michael said. Magician Johnson also looked around at the stands, where the fans of Vicksburg were singing and dancing, while those of Georgia Tech were suffering in silence, a stark contrast.

  "Good ball, Stephon Marbury hasn't given up yet." Jordan suddenly praised.

  "It was indeed a great shot, straight into the basket from mid-court, leaning on James Posey's jump, avoiding Duncan's block in mid-air, and slamming it home with a big dunk. This is a perfect display of speed, power, wisdom and hand feel." The magician also nodded his head. Today, Marbury's performance was impeccable.

  "Mabrey has already scored 38 points, Haplin has scored 12 points, and the other Georgia Tech players have only scored a total of 12 points. Mabrey is very likely to set an NCAA Final Four record for consecutive games with 40+ points." The commentator added beside him, also praising Mabrey's performance.

  "This game only Mabuli and Harpelin can score, others under the defense of Vicksenlin are difficult to score, which is a manifestation of overall strength. If Georgia Tech had two players like Vicksenlin Lagabele, they wouldn't have lost so badly." The magician just finished speaking, Jordan sighed: "Erwin means that no matter how strong one person is, he can't change the fate of the team, basketball is a sport for five people, right?"

  "I think no one understands the meaning of this sentence better than Michael, Marbury and Duncan are both top-notch players, even if they enter the NBA, they will be absolute superstars, but there is a difference between them. Duncan has many capable teammates, while Marbury only has one Harpring, which is far from enough. In this game, Marbury's performance exceeded that of Duncan, but Georgia Tech would still lose the game." The magician added meaningfully.

  At this time, the commentator suddenly interjected and said to Jordan: "Michael, if you replace Marbury on the court now, can you lead Georgia Tech to victory?"

  Jordan hesitated for a moment, then smiled and said with certainty: "No"

  "Why?" The commentator was puzzled, and Jordan's answer seemed too perfunctory. When faced with the commentator's question, Jordan just smiled and shook his head without explaining.

  "Are you still not getting it?" Magic Johnson gave the announcer a withering look. "I already said that basketball is a five-man sport, and Marbury has done everything he can in this game to show his level of play, which will go down in basketball history. Even if Michael Jordan were on the court, he might not have done any better than Marbury did in this game. This isn't about one person's strength or weakness; it's about whether a team is strong or weak. Simply put, this was a high-level game, and Georgia Tech only has two players who are capable of playing at that level. On the other hand, Vicksburg has five such players."

  Zhuang Fei on the sidelines was smiling all along, worried about Marbury at the start of the game, but after the first quarter ended, those worries dissipated. Today's Vickson Lin was in excellent condition, although James Posey and Raja Bell were both blown up by Marbury in the first quarter, it didn't affect the outcome, as Vickson Lin completely controlled the initiative on the court.

  "Zhuang, listen, what is the song being sung on the platform?" Just then, Mark Allen beside Zhuang Fei reminded him in surprise.

  Zhuang Fei turned his head back to listen, and then he was drawn in. The originally sparse singing voice became more and more sonorous, which was the song written by the fans of Viksen Forest.

  "Not bad, I remember Viksen Forest didn't have a team song, who wrote this?" Zhuang Fei asked, coming back to his senses, but Mark Allen shook his head with a puzzled expression.

  "Is this the team song of Viksen Forest? Sounds interesting," Jordan asked curiously.

  "It seems that the Vicksen Forest doesn't have a team song, this should be something the fans came up with temporarily" The commentator was also somewhat puzzled. In the world of basketball, it's rare for team fans to sing team songs in the stadium, or even not have a team song at all, the cheering voices on the court are all shouting "Defense". This also piqued the interest of Jordan and Magic Johnson.

  "Dad, is this really the song you and Uncle Vincent wrote? It sounds terrible, not cool at all!"

  "Chris, what nonsense are you spouting? How dare you question your Uncle Vincent's talent! Charles, you should discipline this kid!"

  "Haha, Vincent, kids say the darndest things, now that we're about to win this game, singing this song feels extra meaningful"

  "Yes, I originally heard that Zhuang was going to leave Viks Forest, and I had already prepared to destroy this song. Fortunately, I wasn't so impulsive at the time. Look how well everyone has learned it!"

  "But Vincent, aren't the lyrics of this song a bit too explicit? And the title is called 'The Devil's Arrival', which looks weird no matter how you look at it"

  "What's wrong with that, our team is the Devil's Coaching Staff, he's our head coach so of course he's the devil king, now we're going to dominate the NCAA, so it's only natural to call him the Devil King's Descent. And are the lyrics really that revealing? I don't think so."

  Vincent saw Charles wasn't arguing anymore.

  "Zhuang, I don't know why but the more I listen to this song, the more it seems like it's praising you?" Mark Allen asked.

  "Don't ask me, I don't know either" Zhuang Fei himself felt more and more embarrassed as he listened, it was too explicit.

  "Commentator, can you turn off the live sound? I can't take it anymore." Jordan and Magic Johnson were fun to listen to at first, but the more they listened, the more frightening it became. This is too much hype, even God has come to save the world.

  "Haha, well, this isn't my responsibility, the game is almost over, it shouldn't last much longer" The commentator said helplessly, he also felt a bit awkward, but unlike Jordan and others, he actually wanted to learn this song.

  Jordan and the magician could only shake their heads in unison.

  I don't know how many fans in the US muted their TVs by the end either?