Texas Tech had punched its ticket to the Big 12 tournament championship game, where they would square off once more against the University of Kansas. Just like their first meeting earlier in the season, TTU was widely written off as the underdog.
From casual fans to seasoned scouts, the consensus was clear: Kansas was simply the superior team.
Looking purely at the rosters, it was hard to argue.
Bob Knight had been coaching basketball for forty-two years. If there was one thing he believed in with absolute certainty, it was that in a single-elimination tournament, there were no guaranteed winners in college basketball.
To that end, he had brought in an "outside reinforcement."
It had been a few years since he last saw Isiah Thomas. These past few years had not been kind to Thomas, and recently, trouble seemed to follow him as if he were possessed, but none of that mattered.
In Knight’s eyes, loyalty stood above all else—loyalty between friends.
The fact that Thomas had stepped away from his duties and come all this way on his own initiative to offer Knight support spoke volumes.
"Isiah, you look just the same as back then," Knight remarked with emotion.
"Coach, I’ve lost at least two things." Thomas held up two fingers. "My speed and my bounce."
At least he hadn’t said "pride" and "dignity," which gave Knight reason enough to be glad for him.
The Texas Tech players were taken aback by Thomas's appearance.
If Knight were still coaching Indiana University, having any Hoosiers legend show up would have made total sense. The problem was that Knight had severed ties with Indiana years ago. Thomas wasn't here as a legendary alumnus basking in glory for his alma mater; he was the active head coach and general manager of an NBA franchise. He was here simply because Knight had asked him to come.
It was a delicate situation.
The NBA strictly prohibited team insiders from having any close contact with collegiate players before they officially declared for the draft.
Yet here Thomas was, standing right inside Texas Tech’s locker room.
Faced with an NBA Hall of Famer who had recently been mired in heavy controversy, the players quietly swallowed their gossip.
Thomas spoke with casual nonchalance: "Coach asked me to drop by and check in on you boys. I hear you've been having a hell of a run this year. Word also has it that one of you calls himself the Michael Jordan of TTU?"
Every pair of eyes in the room shifted to Xu Ling.
Xu Ling wasn't particularly starry-eyed about this member of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players. He merely gave a casual shrug, signaling, *Yeah, that’s me.*
"Jordan wasn't all that great in college," Thomas provoked shamelessly right out of the gate. "Still, I’d imagine if it were Michael, he'd be capable of leading his team to a Big 12 title."
Xu Ling replied flatly, "That's what I'm about to do."
Thomas chuckled. "I'll be watching."
As the Knicks' general manager, Thomas's words carried an unmistakable hint of interest in Xu Ling.
Xu Ling, however, was a realist. His first thought was: *Do the Knicks even have a draft pick?*
While he didn't follow the full comedy of errors Thomas had orchestrated in New York, Xu Ling kept a close eye on the major mock drafts, and he had never once seen the Knicks listed in the first round.
That meant the Knicks had already surrendered their 2007 first-rounder.
Still, that wasn't his concern right now.
The assistant coaches rounded up the players to head out to the court.
Knight and Thomas watched them file out of the locker room.
"The kid's got guts," Thomas said.
Knight replied, "He's got a lot more than just guts."
Facing Kansas for the second time, the two squads were far more familiar with each other's tendencies.
Mario Chalmers walked up to initiate small talk with Xu Ling: "Hey, rookie, Brandon is pretty pissed that you're projected to go in the lottery!"
"It's just the lottery. Nothing to get worked up over," Xu Ling replied with humblebrag indifference.
"Just the lottery?" Chalmers burst into laughter. "Brandon's never even cracked the lottery, and you're calling it 'just the lottery'?"
To Xu Ling, it really was "just that."
Ever since going toe-to-toe with Kevin Durant, he had been thoroughly cured of any awe for prospective NBA talent.
Courtside, ESPN commentators pointed out the unusual sight: Isiah Thomas was seated in Texas Tech’s family section.
He was sitting just a row behind the team bench.
For a sitting NBA head coach and general manager, his proximity to TTU was conspicuous, to say the least.
ESPN’s Dan Shulman touched upon the potential penalties Thomas might face from the league.
Then again, considering that this once-revered NBA icon had only recently settled a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit out of court—shelling out over ten million dollars in damages—he really didn't have much left to lose.
The starting lineups for both teams took the floor.
Kansas boasted a starting five virtually dripping with NBA pedigree.
Xu Ling caught sight of Brandon Rush again and said nothing. Even if Chalmers claimed Rush was bitter about Xu Ling entering ESPN's mock draft lottery, Rush did a fine job hiding it.
The opening tip went up, and Kansas's Darrell Arthur leaped to secure possession for the Jayhawks.
Chalmers pushed the tempo immediately, flying into the frontcourt without hesitating a second before shoveling the ball inside to Julian Wright, who powered straight to the rim for an uncontested layup.
"Darryl!" Knight barked in frustration at Dora's sluggish defense. "You have to be in position!"
Interior defense was the glaring weakness among Texas Tech’s vulnerabilities.
Senior center Darryl Dora had long been criticized for lacking consistent competitive fire; he was the textbook definition of a boom-or-bust player.
Against an elite powerhouse, TTU simply didn't have the margin for error to withstand his catastrophic lapses.
Yet sitting Dora wasn't an option either—Texas Tech was sorely lacking in frontcourt depth.
All Knight could do was apply relentless pressure. If there was one player on the roster Knight chewed out more than anyone else, it was Dora. Today was no different; the moment Dora blew his defensive assignment, Knight was on his feet.
Knight wasn't overreacting.
He knew Dora inside and out.
Some players started games unfocused but snapped to attention once called out. Others carried whatever mindset they started with—good or bad—straight through the final buzzer.
Unfortunately, Dora was the latter.
Jarrius Jackson answered from deep with a three-pointer. Kansas countered with a perimeter attempt of their own that clanked off the rim.
However, Julian Wright crashed the glass from the wing, soaring right in front of Dora to rip down the offensive rebound.
Wright’s putback bounced off the iron, but Darrell Arthur was right there to snatch Kansas's second offensive board, and this time, he finished the play.
Watching this unfold, Knight shook his head wryly and muttered to himself, "I hope God remembers I coached Darryl Dora under these conditions for four years. I put up with him for four whole years!"
On the left wing, Xu Ling made a sharp backdoor cut to receive the ball.
The moment he touched the leather, the arena erupted with an immediate spike in volume.
"Eli is unquestionably one of the most beloved collegiate athletes in the entire state of Texas!"
Meanwhile, Kansas switched Julian Wright onto Xu Ling.
A sophomore, Wright was considered the crown jewel of Kansas's loaded 2005 recruiting class. Blessed with the size of a forward, the speed of a guard, and a versatile all-around skill set, he hadn't fully broken out during his freshman year, which dinged his draft stock and prompted him to return for another season.
On paper, Wright held the advantage over Xu Ling in virtually every physical metric.
Standing six-foot-seven barefoot with a seven-foot-one wingspan, his physical measurements were elite.
Yet if pure physical measurables determined everything in basketball, raw lottery fliers like Mohamed Bamba wouldn't bounce aimlessly from team to team, nor would adult video stars ever need to drop their mosaics.
Xu Ling flashed a deceptive look, getting Wright to bite on a hard drive to the right. The split-second Wright leaned, Xu Ling crossed over to his left, blowing past him to create immediate separation. Darting into the lane like an arrow, he laid the ball gently into the basket.
Dora watched in sheer disbelief. Julian Wright was arguably the most physically gifted player in the entire Big 12 aside from Kevin Durant, yet Xu Ling had just dismantled him as if he were taking candy from a baby.
Catching Xu Ling’s gaze, Dora felt nothing but awe for the superior talent.
Xu Ling glanced at him and said coolly, "D.D., wake up."
Normally, a freshman lecturing a senior like that would be an invitation to locker-room hazing. But on this team, Dora respected Xu Ling more than anyone.
Without Xu Ling, forget contending with Kansas for the Big 12 title—they wouldn't even be in the conversation for a March Madness bid.
Fired up by Xu Ling’s prompt, Dora shook off his opening-minute lethargy. As if transformed into a completely different player, he muscled Darrell Arthur out of position on the block.
With interior resistance established, Xu Ling hounded Brandon Rush on the perimeter like a starving tiger.
Meanwhile, Martin Zeno locked down Russell Robinson, leaving Mario Chalmers with stalled offensive sets and no choice but to force an isolation play.
When playmaking broke down, an isolation jump shot was the ultimate test of an individual scorer’s touch.
Chalmers was an above-average isolation threat at the collegiate level, but he hadn't found his groove yet.
*Clang!*
Chalmers’s pull-up jumper rattled off the rim.
Dora sealed his man with ferocity, while junior power forward John Plefka boxed out his assignment as well.
Xu Ling leaped high into the air and snatched the defensive rebound out of the sky.
"Looking to fast-break?" Wright lunged forward, wrapping him up. "No way!"
The referee blew his whistle.
Xu Ling rubbed his slapped forearm and looked Wright in the eye. "Pointless foul. We're going to score even more in half-court sets."
Wright sneered. "Score first, then talk!"
Ever since their earlier loss to Kansas, Xu Ling had spent countless late nights dissecting game film. Early on, he had approached everything through his own individual lens, running simulation after simulation of how he personally could alter the outcome.
No matter how he ran the scenarios, the conclusion remained the same: individual brilliance alone could not bridge the massive gap in overall roster talent.
To overcome Kansas and the other powerhouse programs boasting deeper lineups than Texas Tech, he had to embrace the age-old basketball truth: great players make the players around them great.
That was his answer.
He had to elevate Dora, light a fire under him, and activate every teammate around him. That undoubtedly demanded far more from Xu Ling than ever before.
In the past, Knight’s instructions had been simple—dominate on offense and lock down on defense. Now, Xu Ling had taken on a second job.
Xu Ling secured the rock beyond the arc as Rush crowded into him with tight ball pressure.
Xu Ling turned his back to shield the ball, gesturing for Dora to come set a screen. Within seconds, Dora was set.
The instant Rush was caught on the pick, Darrell Arthur had to switch out and contest Xu Ling, while Dora rolled sharply toward the hoop according to design.
Under heavy duress, Xu Ling threaded the needle with a pinpoint one-handed whip pass—"What a gorgeous feed!" Dan Shulman's voice rang through the broadcast—and Darryl Dora caught it on the move, powering through Julian Wright's help defense to bank the ball home off the glass.
*Whistle!*
The official emphatically signaled that the basket was good, bellowing, "And one!"
"Yeah! Let's go!" Dora shouted, spinning around in elation to celebrate with Xu Ling.
The courtside scouts weren't the only ones stunned by the sequence. Isiah Thomas sat transfixed.
Before flying out, he had heard whispers that Xu Ling was an elite freshman belonging in the exact same tier as Kevin Durant and Greg Oden. But he never expected to see this level of floor awareness.
"That Chinese kid has completely shattered expectations," Thomas murmured in amazement. "He's even better than I imagined!"
Chapter 25