This season, the Big 12 Conference was hailed as the most competitive conference in the nation. That was not merely because it housed a powerhouse like the University of Kansas, but because beyond Kansas, the conference was packed with formidable schools boasting remarkably balanced strength.
As a result, almost every single round felt as intense as March Madness.
After knocking off Texas A&M, Texas Tech had barely caught its breath before heading straight into their second tournament matchup. Their opponent was the Kansas State Wildcats.
While the Wildcats lacked a premier national star like Acie Law, their team centerpiece, shooting guard Cartier Martin, was indisputably a top-tier collegiate talent.
In a way, he was another physically similar challenge for Xu Ling in this tournament. Both stood six feet seven inches tall at the shooting guard spot, possessing elite size for the college level, yet their skill sets and styles of play were entirely different.
As usual, Bob Knight gave Xu Ling his instructions before tip-off: "Since you found a way to shut down Acie Law, you can find a way to handle Cartier Martin. I don't give a damn how you do it, I only care about the results!"
"Isn't that a bit unreasonable?" Xu Ling asked.
Knight raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to be the college Michael Jordan? What kind of challenge is this? If this is all the ambition you have, how the hell are you going to face Kevin Durant next week?"
The old man made so much sense that Xu Ling felt like slapping himself. It also made him want to borrow Knight's own infamous, closely guarded specialty—clamping two hands around the throat of anyone who pissed him off. But on second thought, he let it go. There was no need to get worked up over an old codger on the brink of retirement.
Besides, Xu Ling knew the assignment was good for him.
He clearly had the physical foundation to become an elite defender; in his previous life, his talent had simply been too mediocre for hard work to make up the difference. Successfully locking down Acie Law had given his confidence a massive surge, and he was eager to test himself against opponents with contrasting playstyles.
Unlike Acie Law, Cartier Martin reminded Xu Ling of someone—Khris Middleton. At the college level, of course.
Both possessed outstanding size, both excelled at moving off the ball, both had mediocre handles, and both shot the lights out on open looks with terrifying accuracy.
Back in the day, Middleton's playoff heroics against the Boston Celtics had traumatized modern Celtics fans with flashbacks akin to what Andrew Toney—the Boston Strangler—did to them in the 1980s, earning him the reverent moniker "That Man." Cartier Martin was similarly lethal in the college ranks.
Whenever Xu Ling hesitated in fighting through a screen for a split second, Martin punished him ruthlessly with a jumper.
Having witnessed Martin's deadly touch firsthand, Xu Ling resolved to plaster himself against him in tight, suffocating man-to-man defense.
Faced with high-intensity, pressuring ball denial, Martin's aversion to physical contact was immediately laid bare.
He truly hated having defenders glued to his hip, and across the Big 12, very few players could bring the kind of boundary-ignoring, suffocating physical pressure that Xu Ling brought.
For a fleeting moment, the suffocating pressure made Martin feel as though he had stepped into the NCAA Tournament against Corey Brewer of the Florida Gators.
The comparison struck Martin as ridiculous. Who was Brewer? College basketball's premier 3-and-D star, the defensive anchor of a national championship squad. What had this TTU freshman done to compare to him?
Yet as that thought crossed his mind, his shooting percentage plummeted off a cliff.
"Eli's defense is getting sharper by the game!" Pat Knight said in astonishment. "He tailors his strategy perfectly to different styles of opponents. His maturity on that end doesn't look like a freshman at all!"
The Texas Tech coaching staff could not wrap their heads around how a player who had played center in the bottom-tier fish-pond circuit of Hong Kong high school basketball could possess such a refined baseline for perimeter offense and defense. In the end, their only explanation was that the competition in Hong Kong was so pitiful it had simply masked his true potential.
"His offense is still heavily reliant on his shooting touch, but at the college level, that won't be a fatal flaw," Bob Knight analyzed thoughtfully, breaking down Xu Ling's two-way game. "He's physically strong, he's fast, and his athleticism is elite. All of that fuels his defensive aggression. I don't know which media outlets are blowing smoke out there claiming his defense resembles Hondo's—that's pure bullshit! This kid defends like that bastard Gary Payton! The two of them were cast from the exact same mold!"
Pat Knight asked earnestly, "Because of Eli's defensive intensity?"
"No, Pat, what are you thinking?" Bob Knight cracked a rare joke at Xu Ling's expense. "Because of his goddamn mouth, of course!"
If Xu Ling had known his tireless defense had only earned him slander from the old man, he might have felt deflated.
In all honesty, he hadn't uttered a single word of trash talk to Cartier Martin all night.
He wasn't the type to spout insults unprovoked.
On that front, he was strictly reactive.
Whatever game the opponent wanted to play, he simply matched their tone.
In other words, Martin's quiet on-court demeanor spared him from having mental anguish added on top of his athletic frustration.
As the game entered its latter stages, Xu Ling realized that Martin was only truly lethal on wide-open catch-and-shoot looks, and he sharpened his coverage accordingly.
Martin's efficiency fell through the floor. In the second half, he missed five consecutive shots, sparking lethal TTU fast breaks that broke the game wide open.
Though Xu Ling didn't pile on a mountain of points, his defensive impact was impossible to ignore. In 31 minutes of action, he tallied 14 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, and 1 steal. Notably, all three blocks were pinned squarely against Martin.
When the final horn sounded, Texas Tech blew out the Wildcats by 34 points, securing their second tournament victory.
After the game, Cartier Martin said with lingering frustration, "Our scouting report was completely botched. They never told me you were a goddamn defensive monster!"
Xu Ling replied, "Maybe you should blame your teammates. Their screens were pretty weak."
Martin glanced at Xu Ling's build. That frame, those muscles—it looked absurd. How could a freshman be built like that? With a physique like his, how many college big men could actually body him up? Greg Oden? Joakim Noah? Was there even a third?
"Nothing more to say. We just didn't have a chance!" Martin hoped from the bottom of his heart that he would never have to match up against someone like Xu Ling again.
Xu Ling shook his hand and walked off.
While this victory might not have bolstered Xu Ling's draft stock as dramatically as the opener, his consistent high-level performances had already turned every Texas Tech game into must-see viewing for NBA scouts.
Interestingly, ESPN's draft site featured a dynamic Top 100 Big Board for the 2007 draft that updated based on players' real-time performances.
After two games, Xu Ling had climbed from No. 29 all the way to No. 10.
That meant by the time ESPN released its next official mock draft, Xu Ling would be projected as a surefire lottery pick.
Furthermore, thanks to his stellar defense, his draft comparison had been changed from Glen Rice to Ron Harper.
Xu Ling was neither thrilled by the comparison nor particularly impressed; in fact, he simply wanted to ask who they were.
For Bob Knight, however, the second tournament victory held even greater significance.
It brought his career collegiate win total to 879, tying Dean Smith for the most coaching victories in NCAA Division I history.
Because Bob Knight was still actively coaching and showed no signs of slowing down, the very next game promised to be a historic milestone. Once won, he would officially surpass everyone to become the winningest head coach in college basketball history. It would be Knight's coronation—he might not loudly proclaim himself the GOAT, but everyone knew he believed it down to his bones. And in countless future interviews, he would surely never miss an opportunity to take a swipe at John Wooden.
Why? It was simple.
In Knight's eyes, he had racked up his wins in a truly cutthroat era—not in some twenty-something-team "mini-tournament" that practically handed UCLA a free pass to the national championship game. His opponents weren't obscure small-college squads, but national juggernauts barnstorming across the country, four-star and five-star recruiting dogfights, and a pressure cooker under the relentless glare of the national media.
On top of that, he didn't rely on shady Los Angeles booster money, nor did he keep "businessmen friends" around to funnel under-the-table cash. He hadn't bought a locker room full of future NBA No. 1 overall picks with cash, luxury cars, and blank checks. His players were forged through discipline and relentless practice, not hoarded from an underground black market.
In Knight's heart, John Wooden's championships carried asterisks. In his view, Wooden had never won a "real" title by modern standards—always remember, a *real title*. Those trophies were dipped in gold, but to him, they were nothing more than shiny tin foil.
If you asked Xu Ling to weigh in, he would say old man Knight had a point. But even if one modern title counted for three of Wooden's, ten was still greater than nine. Besides, while Knight's recruiting record was clean, John Wooden was practically a pristine white lotus when it came to character, language, and avoiding allegations of abusive behavior.
So really, was there even a debate?
A few days later, facing a weaker Baylor University squad in the Big 12, Xu Ling poured in 32 points, spearheading a wire-to-wire rout to secure their third consecutive victory. That win handed Bob Knight his 880th career victory, officially breaking the record to stand alone at the pinnacle of college basketball history.
While Knight offered modest platitudes at the podium, calling it "just a number," reporters posed a similar question to Xu Ling.
Xu Ling smiled, bypassing the usual diplomatic lines about how it was an honor to play for him.
"I think this victory cements Coach Knight as the greatest coach in basketball history," Xu Ling emphasized deliberately. "He's better than John Wooden."
At that exact moment, an old friend of Knight's ought to have had a camera rolling. The legendary iron-willed coach, who always boasted that he "didn't know what blushing meant," went bright red from his granite jaw all the way to the tips of his ears, like a college kid caught red-handed cheating on an exam. In the end, all that embarrassment erupted into a furious roar: "What the hell are you talking about?!"
To everyone's surprise, Xu Ling looked at him with exaggerated disappointment. "Coach... don't you think so?"
The freshman's face was plastered with silent provocation, as if daring him: *Go on, admit it. You're the GOAT.*
A familiar electric thrill surged up Knight's spine, burning just as hot as that disastrous night in 1985 when his red plastic chair went skidding across the hardwood against Purdue. For decades, he had fought to restrain his volatile impulses—until this very second. Looking at Xu Ling's angelically innocent eyes and the devilishly blatant trap laid before him, he suddenly registered the pack of microphones thrust in his face.
"You're damn right!" Knight snatched the microphone, glaring fiercely at Xu Ling. "I'm the greatest fucking coach in history!"
From that day on, Texas Tech didn't just have a freshman claiming he would become the college Michael Jordan; they also had a head coach who shamelessly crowned himself the greatest of all time in front of the entire world.
Chapter 16