Chapter Thirty-Three: The Student Team

The day after Wang Lei carried out his “reluctant action,” he received a text message from Li Weihong. It contained only four words: “This must not happen again.”

Clearly, Li Weihong hadn’t simply washed her hands of Wang Lei after sending him here; there were certainly people at the Provincial Sports Administration reporting back to her. Nevertheless, Wang Lei considered those four words to be good news—at the very least, it meant some of his immediate difficulties could be resolved.

Just as he had anticipated, on the third day, Aili Maihati, the nutritionist who also doubled as logistics supervisor, received notification to collect funds. The initial two hundred thousand yuan, though not a vast sum in these times, was sufficient to lay the groundwork.

The Republic had done an admirable job in its anti-corruption efforts, but sometimes, other means were still necessary. Wang Lei’s previous methods were somewhat forceful, but his intentions were pure, and evidently, the outcome was satisfactory.

Now that funds were available, Wang Lei had no intention of perfecting the team right away. He had his own plan for the team. He hadn’t even finalized the basic roster; hiring an experienced coaching staff would be a waste of time, and with his current resources, he couldn’t dream of attracting any well-known trainers or assistant coaches from the basketball world. So, his initial plan was simply to rely on the three of them. It would be exhausting, but at least there would be no outside interference.

With the funds in hand, Wang Lei sprang into action. Although Xue Yongjiang advised him to first visit the provincial professional clubs to make connections—hoping to win their approval to let their young players join his team—Wang Lei disagreed.

For a provincial youth team like theirs, essentially a “three-nothing” product, Wang Lei knew that professional teams would hardly allow their developing talents to participate. From their perspective, the level was simply too low, offering little training value and exposing the players to unnecessary injury risk.

Thanks to the Republic’s years of generous investment and nurturing, every province had its own secondary and tertiary leagues. Some teams were only semi-professional, but this had nonetheless provided a wealth of basketball talent. However, Wang Lei himself had never played in those lower leagues; his father, Wang Zhiping, was well regarded in basketball circles, and Wang Lei had grown up training step by step with the capital’s men’s basketball team.

Even these semi-professional teams were reluctant to send their young players to the youth team. The youth team had long lacked funding, and these young professionals or semi-professionals needed to support their families; few were willing to join.

After rejecting Xue Yongjiang’s proposal, Wang Lei took Aili and Xue Yongjiang straight to the major universities in Urumqi.

Wang Lei’s plan was clear: he had no intention of using existing professional youth players. He intended to build a pure “student” team.

From the perspective of professionals like Xue Yongjiang, student players might offer some promising prospects, but these were usually scouted early by professional clubs. Moreover, student players lacked experience, and when it came to national tournaments, they often underperformed.

But Wang Lei had his own ideas. He too was a professional, but with the advantage of experience from another world. In his view, compared to professional players, students were still malleable and played with more freedom. If he wanted to make a name for himself overnight, he had to find a new path. If he followed the Republic’s traditional approach, he might never break out in three to five years.

Xue Yongjiang was increasingly discontented with Wang Lei’s unconventional methods and was already considering resigning after a month.

Inside the Provincial Normal University gymnasium, the enthusiasm of the young students electrified the atmosphere. Over the years, Xinjiang’s universities had never achieved notable results in the national collegiate basketball league, not even breaking into the final sixteen, but this did nothing to dampen the students’ support for their teams.

Among the throng of students, Wang Lei and his companions were conspicuous. The pairing of Wang Lei and Aili—one tall, one short—stood out, and the bearded Xue Yongjiang, lugging a camera tripod, drew curious gazes.

The nutritionist doubled as record keeper, the fitness coach played the photographer; Wang Lei was making the most of everyone’s talents.

Wang Lei held a high opinion of the Republic’s collegiate basketball league. Compared to the CUBA of his own world, this league was clearly more successful. Its format closely resembled the NCAA in America: round-robin play among provincial universities, with the champion earning direct entry to the national finals, and the thirty second-place teams with the best overall performance also qualifying.

Wearing sunglasses, Wang Lei watched the game intently, while Xue Yongjiang handled the camera with some boredom. Aili stood by, ready to take notes at Wang Lei’s command.

“Take note: Normal University, number seven, point guard, details to be confirmed.”

To be honest, Wang Lei didn’t find the students’ play particularly impressive—miscellaneous mistakes, isolation plays, inefficient offense, and muddled tactics were everywhere. But none of this stopped Wang Lei from observing them closely. He wasn’t looking for eye-catching stars; he was searching for undiscovered talent.

“Note: University of Finance, number twelve, interior player, details to be confirmed.”

Aili diligently carried out his task, while Xue Yongjiang kept smirking. Wang Lei wasn’t quiet about his selections, and Xue Yongjiang heard every word. In his view, Wang Lei’s choices were questionable. For instance, this number twelve from the University of Finance, though tall, seemed soft to Xue Yongjiang—rarely venturing inside, unreliable on rebounds.

Wang Lei wasn’t having Aili record players at random. He was an old hand in the Republic’s basketball world and had his own perspective on the sport’s development. Drawing on his experience from another world, Wang Lei believed that basketball here, and even globally, was still dominated by inside play. The core players on every team were big men, and the game was slow-paced, with teams grinding on defense and relying on high-percentage offense.

Wang Lei wondered if he might be able to bring some new changes to the world of basketball.