The Golden Age of Basketball

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The victory against the Anteaters was a great start to the 1983-1984 season for Gan Guoyang and the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Beelman and Dan FitzGerald realized that this could be the year they shocked America.

There are over 400 Division 1 colleges in the country, and only 48 teams make it to the NCAA national tournament each year, a ratio of one-tenth.

Gonzaga University introduced basketball in 1907-1908, joined the NCAA in 1944, initially in an independent league before moving to the Big Sky Conference, and then to the West Coast Conference in the 1979-1980 season. The prestige of the league declined over time, and the team's performance became worse and worse, like the proverbial second-rate King's failing year after year.

In the 1960s, they had won regular-season conference titles, but later they were always in the middle or lower tiers, not even qualifying for the NIT.

From 1944 to 1983, over a period of 40 years, they had not once made an appearance in the NCAA national tournament.

In truth, the Gonzaga coaching staff was quite capable, and the players they recruited were also very diligent and disciplined. As a school with a Catholic background, Gonzaga had behavioral expectations for its students, resulting in very few black players on the team.

Unlike some schools that liked to recruit talented but problematic black players who never studied, doing whatever it took to meet basketball and scholarship requirements, including giving money, falsifying, and cheating. (The University of San Francisco was one such example.)

Furthermore, as a small school, Gonzaga's influence was limited to the local area. Half of the team's students wished they had grown up in Spokane, attended Gonzaga preparatory school, and they didn't have the means to cast a wide net to recruit elites across America.

This led to the Gonzaga Bulldogs being diligent but lacking in talent, and basketball is a sport that greatly values natural gifts.

Dan FitzGerald seized the opportunity and "stole" a talent like Gan Guoyang, which was both a stroke of luck and a reflection of Fitz's decisiveness.

If Gan Guoyang had been a black or native white player, famous in California from a young age, achieving state championships, it would have been impossible for him to have any association with a school like Gonzaga.

The beauty of it was that Gan Guoyang was Chinese, with yellow skin and black hair, and his rise to fame was quite sudden. Americans, due to prejudice, consistently underestimated this guy's potential.

Although FitzGerald appeared casual and chatty like a motor-mouth in daily life, in reality, he was meticulous and audacious.

From resolutely picking up Gan Guoyang from UCLA to persuading Beelman to resign from the head coach position, to "redshirting" Gan Guoyang for an entire year without playing a game, a series of moves can be said to have involved significant risks.

Fitz waited with exceptional patience for an entire year, and though he already knew from regular training and intrasquad games that Gan Guoyang was extraordinary.

In warm-up matches against some local teams, Gan Guoyang had already been toying with opponents and even his teammates.

But it was only after playing against a legitimate NCAA team like the Anteaters that Gan Guoyang could truly be considered a dragon entering the ocean, finally able to fully display his prowess.

After the game against the Anteaters and a two-week rest, Fitz gave students who wanted to go home the chance to visit their family, and those who didn't want to go home stayed at school to recover. At the end of July, the team would go on a road trip for warm-up matches.

The destinations included Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, and other places, essentially touring almost the entire west.

Sustaining this lengthy journey was a retired Greyhound bus from the transportation system, driver Steve DeLong, the players' physical conditioning from regular training, and Fitz's and Beelman's endless gibberish and trash talk.

When setting off, Gan Guoyang asked how long the trip would take, and Fitz said it would take a month.

"A month? Where will we stay?"

"In motels, dummy. Or did you think Gonzaga University has its own branches everywhere?"

Gan Guoyang seriously doubted if the team had enough money to stay in motels.

The team's first stop was Seattle, where their opponent was Washington State University, two teams that were regular opponents in the season.

As expected, the team booked the most basic type of motor inn, which was even worse than the accommodations Gan Guoyang had stayed in while competing in the CIF in Los Angeles.

Moreover, the team didn't book many rooms: three players shared a room, pushed the beds together to sleep, then five coaches crammed into another room, with driver Steve DeLong sleeping on the bed since he needed proper rest, and the others on the floor.

Only Gan Guoyang received special treatment; Fitz gave him a single room to sleep by himself.

Gan Guoyang didn't think it was fair to his teammates and did not want to be treated specially, so he asked Fitz to cancel the room – he could squeeze in with the others.

"What are you talking about, squeeze in? With your 6-foot-10 height, how can you squeeze? Don't worry, no one will mind. You are the core of the team, and we rely on you to sell tickets. You must rest well and perform earnestly," Fitz said.

Gan Guoyang was at a loss for words. He had been a big draw for selling tickets since high school; when the Shui Zhong Team played in other states, they would split the ticket revenue with the other team, and he had made a lot of money for the school.

Not to mention the sale of merchandise, snacks, and sundries – all revenue-generating.

Looking at the Bulldogs' frugal journey, it was clear that the team's operational funds were very limited.

DeLong had multiple roles but received only one salary, assistant coaches Mark, Monson, Grier, and others also had side jobs to earn extra income outside of their school positions.

Every so often, Beelman would teach classes to kids at a basketball school to make some money because the salaries the team paid them were relatively low.

This series of warm-up matches was intended to accumulate experience for the team and to raise some money for expenses. There were many costs associated with the start of the new season.

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The entire team was united in preparing for the new season, and Gan Guoyang did not refuse again. He returned to his single room and rested well for the night.

The next day, the Gonzaga Bulldogs faced Washington State University at the Edmundson Pavilion; they had played against each other last year with Gonzaga narrowly losing by one point.

Washington State University had further strengthened their team since the previous season, recruiting not only their German star Schlammfeste (right) but also Chris Wilp (left), a fellow countryman from West Germany.

In this respect, Washington State University's recruiting approach was the same as Gonzaga's; with their budget and school fame, they couldn't recruit any real geniuses from across America, so they simply set their sights elsewhere.

Gonzaga had snagged Gan Guoyang from China, while Washington State brought in the German brothers. This was a reluctant strategy employed by small schools and clubs in America's basketball circles, but in the future, as the basketball world's strength grew internationally, such tactics would be greatly developed and achieve dazzling success.

The Edmundson Pavilion, which could accommodate 7,900 fans, was filled with over 8,000 people that afternoon, and it was said that the place had once held over 12,000 spectators.

The Americans' passion for sports was evident.

When the Bulldog players got off the bus, they took out several bundles of Bulldog team T-shirts, hats, and simple craft trinkets from the luggage compartment.

Fitz and Delong were responsible for selling them before the game started, as a way to raise funds.

Of course, selling Gonzaga's team T-shirts at Washington State's home ground meant there would be fewer buyers.

If it weren't for copyright disputes, Fitz really wanted to print some home team T-shirts; to go to whichever school and sell that team's merchandise, competing for business with them.

However, many Chinese and Asian people from the Seattle area had bought tickets specifically to see Gan Guoyang play, so many of them ended up buying Bulldog T-shirts and hats.

Since sales were good, Fitz grumbled that they hadn't printed enough, worrying that they might run out to sell later.

By seven o'clock Pacific time that evening, the game officially started, and the noise from the fans in the stadium was like thunderous waves.

One could say that all three states on the West Coast were extremely passionate about basketball.

Gan Guoyang, who had a good night's sleep the previous evening, did not disappoint the fans who came to watch the game.

With a spectacular performance of 31 points, 17 rebounds, and 8 blocks, he turned the Huskies into true huskies.

Seven-foot-tall center Chris Wilp was made to look like a post by Gan Guoyang, who couldn't keep up with Guoyang's pace at all. It was as if the two were in different time zones, and this kind of mismatch was highly demoralizing for a player's confidence.

When Wilp left the court, his mood was visibly depressed; he dropped his head and sat silently on the bench—a scene that had almost become standard after facing off against Gan Guoyang.

He would crush you both on the court and mentally, leaving you with a lingering shadow of fear.

The Bulldogs won 73:63, claiming a 10-point victory in Seattle.

After leaving the arena, the whole team got on the coach and headed towards their next destination, Portland.

On the road, the players were so tired they fell asleep, while Fitz and Beelman, too excited to sleep, sat at the front chatting.

Besides the thrill of winning, Fitz was calculating how much revenue this away trip would bring to the team, which would certainly be more than expected.

And Beelman said, "Dan, we're definitely going to make it to the national tournament this time, right?"

Fitz replied, "The national tournament? Is that the only goal you have?"

"What else? Gan is only a sophomore, after all."

"Then we must at least get through the first round and into the top 32."

"If that's the case, why not win another game and make it into the Sweet Sixteen? That would be even better."

"Having made it to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight is just within reach, why not win one more game!"

"Elite Eight... forget it, that's already the limit of my imagination. When I was at the University of Notre Dame, the best we ever did was the Sweet Sixteen. In 1977, we lost by 2 points to North Carolina; otherwise, we would have made it to the Elite Eight. Damn Dean Smith. They had seven players on their team who eventually made it to the NBA.

That year, they made it to the finals, but still lost to Marquette."

"In '79, you made it to the Elite Eight but lost to Michigan State."

"Yes, but I wasn't at the school anymore by then. The Elite Eight... Let's just think of that as the script for my recent dreams."

Gazing out at the night view of Seattle through the bus window, Beelman thought it was going to be another sleepless night.

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