After ten years of sharpening a sword, Frostblade has never tried it. Show the king today, who is wrong.
A few days ago, the just-concluded CUBA had such a miraculous teacher—Chongqing College of Arts and Sciences, a two colleges fighting in the first-level league, like a dark horse, all the way to the top eight in the country. After the game, “Chongqing College of Arts and Sciences CUBA advanced to the national top eight” once rushed to the fourth place in the hot search on Weibo.
It is not uncommon for “dark horses” in sports arena. The men’s basketball team of Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences advanced to the top eight in the country. The reason why it caused such a big response is that only they themselves know the sadness, and the value behind the incident is more worthy of attention and discussion. .
How far is the dream journey? 26 years!
The men’s basketball team of Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences did not have “hard power” from the beginning, but had poor basic conditions, no sense of existence, and its influence could not go beyond Satellite Lake and Cucumber Mountain (Satellite Lake and Cucumber Mountain are both located in Yongchuan District, Chongqing).
In 1998, when the first China University Basketball League (CUBA) was held, Luo Xiaojun, who took over the team’s coach in 1996, had the greatest wish that the team could break through the grassroots competition in the Chongqing Division and participate in a game in the Southwest Division.
That year, the name of the school was not Chongqing College of Arts and Sciences, but Chongqing Teachers College, which was still a junior college at that time.
Compared to Huaqiao University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Guangdong University of Technology, and other teams with championship heritage, Chongqing Arts and Sciences are not very eye-catching, but with this battle, they have shown their hard work and strength to the world, so On this day, they became the second two colleges in CUBA history to reach the National League. As Winsett once said, “If a man has enough faith, he can work miracles.” And they did.
Looking at the past of the entire team, it is not difficult to find that perseverance has been rooted in the soul of this team.
Before 2009, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences could only struggle in the CUBA grassroots competition, and even training could only be done on the outdoor cement court. At that time, the team had no training guarantee. Before training every day, two players would be sent to play. Mountain spring water for everyone to drink.
Even in such tough conditions, they still face every training session. In the same year, they moved to a semi-open plastic field for training. Before the competition, they even borrowed the field from Yongchuan Middle School to adapt to the wooden floor.
If you want to get better results, you can only pay more sweat and build a team culture that will not give up for this school step by step. Luo Xiaojun has been sticking here until 2011 when the team moved to the current Honghe campus. , and has the coveted high-level sports team enrollment qualifications.
In 2012, the Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences team benefited from the reform of the competition system and participated in the Southwest Division for the first time. However, it was difficult to obtain a victory in the group stage. It was not until the first batch of high-level athletes entered the team in the autumn of 2012 that the team began to become the Southwest Division and even the whole country. Tournament regulars.
In 2015, after two consecutive 1/8 finals of the divisional competition, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences finally defeated its old rival Guangxi Normal University and won the fourth place in the Southwest Division. National competition for colleges and universities.
In 2016, it was a milestone year for Chongqing Wenli. The team finally had its own indoor basketball hall. Although there is a wooden floor, there is no need to train in the open air, but because there is no air conditioning, summer training can only be arranged in Starting at 8:00 am and 6:00 pm, although the weather in Chongqing made the entire basketball gym feel like a sauna, they still did not stop their determination to train, which is why they have come to this day.
From 2017 to 2021, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences achieved five consecutive championships in the Chongqing competition area. In 2015, it ranked among the top 16 in the country for the first time. In 2016, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences performed well in the group stage of the CUBA National Top 24. . Since then, the team has also entered the top 32 in the country twice, including one of the top 24 in the country.
In August 2020, the core player Duan Fengwei was selected by the Tianjin Men’s Basketball Team with the first overall pick in the second round of the CBA draft, becoming the first player from Sichuan-Chongqing University to enter the professional league through the draft.
2022 will be a year they will go down in history. In the quarter-finals of the Southern District, Chongqing Arts and Sciences will face off against the league’s nine-time champion Huaqiao University. Even though everyone is not optimistic, they made a great effort with their strength. The best answer creates the history of the school, but this is not the end, but the beginning of the dream.
Luo Xiaojun admitted that this result was a huge surprise. Before the start of the game, his expectation was that the team would qualify for the group stage and reach the top 16 in the southern region, but they went straight to the top eight in the country in one go.
The confrontation between “civilian colleges” and “rich colleges”
The road to the national competition is not that easy.
The national final is a single-elimination system. The first match has won two consecutive championships against Tsinghua University, which is building a new dynasty. However, the boys from Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences have only entered the national stage for the first time.
At the opening jump ball, Wen Li got the ball, the basketball was passed to Wang Yuhao, and when he raised his hand, a three-pointer ignited the audience. Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences used joint defense to deal with Tsinghua University’s offense. On the basis of active defense, it seized every opportunity to fight back.
In the second quarter, Wenli’s players began to let go gradually, especially Wang Yuhao’s performance was very eye-catching. He succeeded in dunking in a fast-break counterattack together, and then won three free throws in the next attack and hit all of them, reducing the point difference. At 3 points, the atmosphere of the scene was completely detonated.
In the first two quarters, they had been biting hard at the score, but in the end, Jiang was still old and hot, and the defending champion team was not easy to deal with. Due to the tall players of Tsinghua University and the familiar experience of national competitions, Chongqing temporarily stumbled. In the footsteps of the College of Arts and Sciences, the score also stopped at 46:84.
Fortunately, there are still two games to fight, there is no time to neglect. In the second round of the 5-8 qualifying match, Chongqing Wenli played against Zhejiang University. Cao Song, a player of the latter, was also selected in the just-concluded CBA draft and will enter the CBA next.
Sitting at the home court, Chongqing Wenli showed a very strong momentum. After the opening, the players showed their desire to win, especially the captain Wang Yuhao. Whether it is defensive pursuit or offensive rush, he has been driving the team to fight. Move forward mentally, even if there is a problem with your legs in the last quarter of the game, you will continue to play hard with bandages on. The team fought to the last 6 seconds, but still lost 71:74 regretfully.
“We must seize the opportunity to win. Even if we have a gap, we will try to get closer. Our basic spirit is: never give up.” said head coach Luo Xiaojun.
In the end, Tsinghua University and Guangdong University of Technology presented a wonderful game. Tsinghua University won 89:86 and won the three consecutive championships, which brought an end to this season of CUBA.
During the three-day game, the fans showed great enthusiasm for the game. According to the ticket sales of Damai.com, the three-day national finals had more than 20,000 participants, and the average attendance rate exceeded 2/3. The most popular game was the match between the host Chongqing Wenli and Tsinghua University. Tickets for the game were sold out within three hours.
“We are not ‘985’ or ‘211’, we don’t have a wooden floor basketball court, we only have a canopy. That’s how we reached the national top 16.” This is the 2015 Chongqing Wenli Men’s Basketball Team won the fourth place in the Southwest Division , Luo Xiaojun’s emotion when he was among the top 16 in the country for the first time.
This year, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences broke into the top eight of CUBA for the first time, which is not easy. In the league with many masters, it is not easy for the team to break through every stage in the grassroots competition, divisional competition and finals.
Judging from the results of previous competitions, those who entered the top eight in the national competition are often 985 and 211 famous schools such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Huaqiao University. Compared with these CUBA traditional strong teams, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences is undoubtedly a “poor family”. Therefore, this hard-won achievement is very precious to the “Civilian Academy”.
From “Amateur League” to “Basketball Temple”
In addition to the players from both sides, the biggest focus of the final was Yao Ming.
Since the semi-finals on July 30, Yao Ming has been watching from the sidelines. Wearing dark short sleeves and a mask, Yao Ming has been monitoring the performance of the student players on the court and talking to those around him. Before the jump ball in the final, Yao Ming walked off the court and took pictures with the players of both sides to express his support. After the game, Yao Ming also entered the field to present awards to the volunteers.
Yao Ming has always attached importance to campus basketball and CUBA, and has high hopes for its role in talent training. It is worth mentioning that in the 2022 CBA draft that ended on July 24, 12 CUBA players were selected by professional clubs to become professional players.
CUBA is sponsored by the Chinese University Sports Association and officially recognized by the Ministry of Education. It has been held since 1998 and covers all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country. Regardless of the scale of the event, the level of competition, talent incubation, brand influence, etc., CUBA is the top amateur league in the Chinese sports industry.
Now it has gradually developed into a basketball temple in the minds of more than 40 million college students across the country, and its influence has already broken through the ivory tower, and even spilled over to the professional game, continuing to deliver fresh blood to the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
Undoubtedly, this time CUBA also promotes the development of Chongqing’s sports industry, and also allows more people to see the hope of small cities and small teams out of the circle.
At present, only 2 universities, Chongqing University and Southwest University, and 5 disciplines in Chongqing have been selected as “Double First-Class”. Top colleges and universities compete on the same stage.
The second school, Chongqing College of Arts and Sciences, has a school-running budget of more than 5.6 billion, and a world-class university, Tsinghua University, has a school-running budget of 20 to 30 billion. Behind this is also inseparable from the development and sprint of the urban economy. The small dragon meets the big crocodile. It will be more common in the future and new patterns are being rebuilt.