"And first with you, the Asheville Bulldogs of UNC," the commentator said, while from the tunnel came out the players of the visiting team wearing blue jerseys, being received by courteous applause on the part of the Wildcats fans.
In one corner of the court were located the fans of the Bulldogs team, who had traveled with the team to Kentucky to see the first game of the season of their own team, but among the multitude of white jerseys, they seemed like a small drop in a white sea.
"An finally," the commentator said with an even more enthusiastic voice, while the stadium lights turned off briefly and only a light that pointed straight at the players' tunnel remained turned on.
"The team that everyone has been waiting for," the commentator generated more expectation, while the public in general waited seated in their seats.
"With you, the team of the Kentucky Wildcats!!" shouted with strength the announcer, causing quickly a hotbed of shouts to arise inside the stadium, causing even the rows of seats to begin to vibrate in response to that.
Coming out through the corridor, Aaron along with the rest of his teammates like Julius felt for the first time the atmosphere of the Rupp Arena completely full with thousands of fans chanting the name of the team.
"Come on, guys, finish them off," shouted one of the fans, who was located closest to the arena and came with his face completely painted white and blue along with a team jersey.
"Bring the championship home," shouted a gentleman who had been a fan of the Wildcats team for several years and had a lot of confidence in this season, and more after hearing the new roster of players who had come to the team in this new season.
Similar shouts could be heard throughout the entire stadium in a clear sign that they were in the home of the Wildcats team.
Taking off the jacket he wore on top along with the long pants, Aaron along with the rest of the team's starters entered the court, just like the 5 starters of the Bulldogs team.
UNC Bulldogs
PG: Andrew Rowsey
SG: Corey Littlejohn
SF: Will Weeks
PF: Jaron Lane
C: DJ Cunningham
Kentucky Wildcats
PG: Andrew Harrison
SG: Aaron Harrison
SF: James Young
PF: Julius Randle
C: Aaron Reed
Once the lineups of the 2 teams were seen on screens, a trace of exclamation and murmurs were heard among the Wildcats fans upon seeing how their starting quintet was formed exclusively by rookies who had arrived at the team in this season.
"Hey, are you seeing the same thing I am?" asked the same guy who wore the AD shirt on his back to his friend, who was also looking with scrutiny at the list of players who would start the match.
"Yeah, it's crazy, dude," his friend could not help but exclaim, since it was something almost never seen to line up a quintet that was composed exclusively of first-year students.
The most famous case is that of the Fab Five of the University of Michigan in the 91-92 season, which was quite a stir in the NCAA.
Of course, despite all the stir generated around that, the quintet formed by iconic players like Chris Webber did not get any important title except for the two NCAA runner-up finishes in the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
Since them, no other team dared to attempt the same until the moment of today, Coach Calipari being the second coach to attempt something like that after more than 20 years.
"It seems that Coach Calipari is taking a great risk by lining up 5 players who have just arrived and didn't even play a match at this level before," the commentator said in front of the television, showing an expression of surprise equal to that of the rest of those present in the stadium and viewers.
The main referee of the encounter, Tim Gattis, headed straight toward the middle of the court, giving light bounces to the ball while waiting for the two centers of both teams to take a step forward and prepare themselves for the beginning of the game.
DJ Cunningham, the center of the Bulldogs team, took a step forward, putting himself in position while seeing that on the other half of the court, Aaron Reed also took a step forward and placed himself in front of him.
Once he was in front of him, DJ looked with scrutiny at the young man he had in front of him, who had caused great furor after his decision to choose to go to the Kentucky team along with Julius Randle and the rest of the top 20 players of the class of this year.
"Ready?" asked the referee, looking with scrutiny toward both sides, seeing how both players nodded in silence while they put themselves in position, flexing their knees, preparing themselves for what would be the jump ball.
"TWEET!" sounding his whistle, Tim threw the ball with all his strength upward while both players jumped, extending their hands upward, seeking to make themselves with the ball.
Despite the fact that it seemed that both players jumped at the same time upward, if one looked with more scrutiny, one could realize that Aaron managed to jump 0.6 seconds before DJ, causing him to reach the ball faster than him.
Tapping the ball with his hand, Aaron immediately passed the ball to Julius, giving as started the first game of the season.
Without wasting time, Julius began to run with the ball in his hands while the Bulldogs team retreated quickly, putting themselves in defensive positions.
Julius, seeing how there was no way to be able to penetrate or a free route, passed the ball to Andrew, who found himself on his own side of the court and starting to control the pace of play.
With calm, Andrew began to look around the entire court for any way to be able to pierce all the defensive bias that the Bulldogs generated with their personal marking.
"Hey, here," Aaron shouted suddenly, getting rid of DJ, who was the player in charge of marking him in this encounter, while he headed straight to the low post of the Bulldogs team.
Without wasting time and trusting completely in Aaron, Andrew passed him the ball while Julius and James blocked the two players they had with them, allowing Aaron to face DJ solely.
Once he received the ball, Aaron felt how DJ found himself behind him with his arms extended, avoiding by all means that Aaron could turn with ease and penetrate the hoop with ease.
Upon feeling that, Aaron immediately lowered his center of gravity and leaned his center of gravity toward the left, giving to understand that he was going to try to go through DJ through the right and give a dunk against the hoop.
But at the next second, as if he were swaying, Aaron changed his center of gravity all of a sudden, spinning to the contrary direction, taking DJ by surprise, who tried with all his strength to keep up the pace with him only to feel how his body could not keep up the pace with him.
At that moment, DJ could do nothing else but see how Aaron, at the moment in which he went through him, rose through the air with a great jump while he had the ball in his left hand well extended upward.
"SLAM!" was the sound that was produced at the moment in which the ball went through the hoop with the great strength of Aaron, causing the atmosphere inside the arena, which before was calm, to be filled with shouts of exclamation and frenzy.
After that, Aaron turned to return quickly toward his half of the court under the congratulations and the fist bumps of his teammates.
"And there you have it, Aaron Reed tells all the NCAA teams that he has arrived with a tremendous spectacular dunk, putting the score at a 2-0 in favor of the Wildcats in the first seconds of this match," narrated the commentator, while on the court the Wildcats team fell back to defend themselves from the Bulldogs' attack.
Without stopping, Aaron began to follow the defensive scheme they had practiced with Coach Calipari in these last months.
Instead of following the example of the Bulldogs and opting for a man-to-man defense, Coach Calipari concentrated on a 1-3-1 defensive scheme, Aaron being the one in charge of the paint defense while Julius commanded the perimeter defense with the help of the Harrison twins.
The point guard of the Bulldogs team, who by things of destiny was also named Andrew, bounced the ball with calm, drawing the maximum benefit from the NCAA basketball rules, which differ a lot from the NBA.
The first great discrepancy without a doubt would be the times, since unlike the NBA where 4 quarters are played, in the NCAA only 2 halves of 20 minutes each are played, and the possession clock lasts 6 extra seconds than in the NBA.
Seeing an opening, Andrew accelerated the pace of play, passing it quickly toward his teammate Corey, who immediately passed it back to him to perform between the two a classic pick-and-roll, allowing Andrew to be able to pierce through the defense of 3 formed by Julius and the Harrison twins and quickly attempt a layup against the hoop.
But before the ball could even touch the hoop, a hand larger than Andrew's planted itself over his own and the ball, causing the latter to crash against the backboard, causing a rebound.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, Aaron made himself with ease with the rebound, changing the situations immediately, initiating a rapid counterattack on the part of the Wildcats team.
With calm, Aaron began to advance toward the other half while he gave time to his teammates so that they could put themselves in positions, ready for the counterattack.
While Aaron gave calm bounces to the ball, he had Will Weeks in front of him, who was in a defensive position while he prepared himself to be able to make himself with the ball and take it away from Aaron's hands to then take advantage and launch a quick solo counterattack.
Extending his hand quickly, Aaron changed the ball from hand while he made distance between them and began to give bounces behind the back, looking with attention at the court.
With an idea in his mind already planned, Aaron kept advancing with slow bounces with the ball, while Will did not take his eyes off the ball in his hands and retreated at the same pace as Aaron.
At a given moment, Aaron kept giving bounces until from one moment to another, Aaron threw the ball toward one side while he had his gaze fixed on Will, making a no-look pass.
The receiver of that pass was Julius, who upon getting the ball quickly took advantage of the fact that the Bulldogs players had been taken by surprise to be able to thus penetrate quickly toward the hoop and score another two points for the team.
4-0 current score.
"This is incredible, dear viewers, the team of the Kentucky Wildcats goes to the head by 4-0," the commentator said toward all the viewers and spectators who found themselves present in the stadium, seeing the same game that he was narrating.
It was obvious that the Wildcats team would have no problem against the Bulldogs; after all, UNC was no powerhouse in basketball, and on the court found themselves 5 of the best recruits of the entire class of this year.
And in any case, on the bench also found themselves starters from the past season, as is the case of Willie.
What nobody expected was the rapid adaptation to the pace of play of the NCAA that the players on the court were having.
After that basket, the majority of spectators and analysts had to reshape the expectations they had about the Kentucky team this season; after all, they were witnessing perhaps a historic moment in the entire history of college basketball.
And behind all of that found himself Aaron, who in a silent manner and without anyone having realized yet, found himself commanding the team inside the court, making little by little the 4 players inside the court begin to follow him as a leader.
Authors thought's
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