In the 25th CUBAL southwest competition that ended before, many fans found that Wuhan University of Technology was missing from the participating teams, which was the first time since the 2nd CUBAL established the partition competition. Wuhan University of Technology was once the absolute overlord of the Southwest competition area, winning 9 “southwest Kings” and sending a group of outstanding players such as Wang Jing, Han Dejun, Liu Jiulong and Dai huaibo into CBA, it has made pioneering contributions to the combination of sports and education. Standing at the time point of the CUBAL25 th anniversary, we will catch up with the past and recall the glorious years of wuhan university of technology men’s basketball, which is the most powerful CUBAL river and lake. It is difficult not to produce a sigh of “as in the yangtze river the waves behind drive on those ahead, a generation of new people change old people.

In this issue, we will focus on Liu Tongyi, the godfather of Wu Li, and look at the stories of Wuhan University of Technology and CUBAL25 from his perspective.

On the afternoon of September 11, 2000, in Chengdu, unbearably hot summer, many people were waiting for an answer: whether Hong Kong, who participated in the Chinese University games for the first time, could win their first gold medal in this event. A day ago, Guangdong men’s basketball, which was just led by Wang Shipeng and Zhu Fangyu in Hong Kong men’s basketball, led by Mai Xianpeng after the game: “I am confident to defeat (final) opponents and win the first gold for the Hong Kong delegation.” Through extensive media reports, this heroic words soon created a sense of tension that the war was about to come.

As the head coach of Hubei team, the 44-year-old Liu Tong was not disturbed by the voice of the outside world. On the contrary, he believed that he had made all preparations-the two cameras bought specially from Hong Kong were not vegetarian. “You know your enemy and yourself, and you will never fight.” By repeatedly watching the game videos of the Hong Kong team, he has already known the staffing and tactics of the latter. Such attention to intelligence work was a great pioneering work in that era.

The game was very hot. Sichuan TV station and CCTV were all broadcast. The two teams were evenly matched, fighting in the dark, the Sun and the moon, and the scores were alternately leading for many times. The regular time entered the last 24 seconds, and the Hong Kong team still led by 3 points. Liu Tong asked for a special layout after the suspension. They made continuous mistakes and were caught by the Hubei team. In overtime, the Hong Kong team was still unable to solve the problem of mistakes, and the Hubei team successfully reached the top.

“Hubei province gave me the task of the top eight, but I won the championship.” Talking about the past 22 years ago, Liu Tong was still unable to hide his inner excitement. He spoke a strong Mandarin in Hubei and said in a husky and vague voice, “This is the greatest achievement in my life, hubei did not win the national championship men’s basketball, and it was the second highest in the National Games.”

This historical Hubei team, with Wuhan University of Technology men’s basketball as the base, Liu Tong is the head coach of this team. When they returned to Wuhan with fame, Yan Xinping, the vice president in charge of sports, had been waiting on the apron for a long time. Then, everyone in the team had a flower in their hands and two lines of tears on their cheeks. A few months ago, when they got the first CUBAL “Southwest King” to return home triumphantly, what was waiting for them was a commendation meeting attended by 5,000 people, which could be said to be a great honor. In just half a year, they experienced this extreme glory again.

In those days, Wuhan Science and Technology occupied the southwest and Wolf Gu, which was one of the most important forces in CUBAL’s early period. They sent seven athletes, including Wang Jing, Liu Jiulong, Han Dejun, Dai huaibo, Chen Kai, Zhang yilixing and Che Hao, to CBA. From a comprehensive perspective of quality and quantity, so far, it is difficult for a team to go right. Downward, they will Tactix reserve talent bases for many middle schools. Upward, they signed talent training agreements with Dongguan New Century (the predecessor of CBA Shenzhen men’s basketball). In the middle, they joined hands with Dongfeng Citroen to create a new situation of cooperation between famous universities and enterprises, in the front of many fronts.

All these are inseparable from the active exploration of Liu tongfu. It is no exaggeration to say that he is the “godfather” of this team “.

01

The birth of “Iron hat King” in southwest China

On February 16, 1956, Liu Tongren was born in Hubei prickly pear, high school (Leiyang Middle School, now prickly pear Middle School) I began to practice basketball with a coach named Geng Anli-Ding xiapeng, The Enlightenment coach of the gymnastics world champion Li Dashuang and Li Xiaoshuang, was next door sand wedge. Teacher Geng was born in gymnastics, “such people pay special attention to details, because a movement is not rigorous, it may cause life danger.” Liu Tongfu said that teacher Geng paid special attention to the standardization of shooting hand type, which was not standardized and not allowed to shoot. This rigorous academic attitude affected his whole life.

It was also from then on that Liu Tongyi formed the habit of digging into the bottom. He had to ask one more question: why should his feet be opened with the same width as his shoulder when shooting? Why is tablet support a special strength training? What is the scientific principle of the angle of the arm when shooting? Every time he went out of imitation, he always seized every opportunity to ask questions to the strong and argued with his peers, which was quite a bit of “old basketball scholar” style. The running water does not spoil the council. Perhaps, this is the fundamental reason why many of his views are still ahead of schedule.

After graduating from high school, Liu Tong worked as a private teacher for several years. He taught mathematics and Chinese during the day and brought basketball at night. He soon met the enemy within countywide. In 1976, he became the last batch of workers and peasants. During his study in Wuhan Institute of Physical Education, his greatest hobby was to go to the library to find some sports theory books to read, including sports physiology, sports psychology and biomechanics. They even learned anatomy and studied various forms of muscles against cadaver specimens. All these have laid a solid theoretical foundation for him to formally engage in the coaching industry in the future.

In 1979, Liu Tongyi graduated from university and became a physical education teacher of Wuhan University of automotive technology (merged with Wuhan University of Technology and Wuhan Jiaotong University of Science and technology into Wuhan University of Technology in May 2000). He also served as the coach of the school team. At that time, there were more than 100 colleges and universities in Hubei province. Basketball was divided into three groups: A, B and C. When he just took over, the team was still in Group B for a long time. After taking over, he quickly entered Group A and won the provincial championship. He also wrote a lot in academic field, and was awarded associate professor in 1993 and Professor anomaly of promotion in 1996. “In the same year, there were five professors, and the only worker-farmer soldier student in I am.” Liu Tongfu said.

Although he was proud of his work, one thing was always his heart, that is, the team had no national high-level matches to play. One year he went to Xi’an on a business trip and saw the competition of key engineering colleges of the Ministry of Education. He was extremely envious. “That competition was so lively, but I couldn’t participate because we were from the Ministry of Machinery Industry, in fact, many of their teams are not as good as ours.” As a media event, large-scale sports events always fascinate human beings with their own meaning of coronation and conquest, and Liu Tong, who is competitive, is especially fascinated by them.

This situation continued until CUBAL came out in 1998. However, interestingly, due to poor information, Wuhan University of automotive technology failed to participate in the first league. However, in the second league, they defeated Guangxi University and University of Electronic Science and Technology in the semi-finals and finals, in the position of “Dark Horse”, he won the “Southwest King” at one stroke and started his rule in the Southwest division for more than ten years. From the 3rd league to Liu Tong’s retirement in 2016, they won the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th “Southwest King” for a total of 9 times “, it can be called a rich man.

Wuhan University of Technology team honor wall (part)

Because of good results and many CCTV broadcast sessions, Wuhan Polytechnic men’s basketball has greatly improved the enrollment situation at that time when Wuhan Polytechnic was just born without fame. “On a live broadcast, the whole school was like a festival. Once President Zhou Zude watched our game at the Capital Airport and almost missed the plane.” Liu Tongfu said with a smile.

Zhou Zude (middle) Yan Xinping (right)

02

Combine sports and education to open a new road

I wrote in the first article “25 Years of figures” that CUBAL has distinct characteristics of “educators running competitions”. Liu Tong are basketball coaches and even educators. In other words, they are the last performers of “Sports People”, “body” is the starting point, and “education” is the ultimate vision. Therefore, during the decades when Liu Tong took charge of the team, apart from preparing for war and competition, a big topic was how to solve the eternal contradiction between “learning” and “training, seek the best balance.

He has a principle that he will never suspend classes for intensive training. Except for winter and summer vacations and rest days, he always trains once a day for 2 hours. He has a point of view that the competition will not be played for one day, so there is no need to continue the training for one day. It is enough to have 2 hours of high-intensity training. An early exercise will be added during the preparation period, “The purpose is to prevent the players from staying up late and sleeping late.” Because he refused to increase the training volume, Liu Tong did not bargain with the professional team coach who was hired later “. Liu Tongfu said, “Knowledge is a weapon. Only when they are armed can they fly.”

He did not believe that “learning” and “training” must be inseparable. “Yuan Weimin and Lang Ping did not do well in reading.” Liu Tong said, “When I was in middle school, my math scores were always the top three in my class. After 4:30 in the afternoon, we participated in sports activities, and then went to the evening self-study at 7 o’clock in the evening, without any delay.”

Once, on behalf of huaibo, Shi Zhennan and Ma song, they skipped class and went out to eat midnight snack and drink. He caught a criticism: “If you just want to play and don’t want to learn, my team will not want you. Which of you can play ball for a lifetime? You think you don’t want to learn, you can drop out of school. I am here to learn some knowledge. You want to play basketball specially. I am not a professional team here. Please ask your parents to take you back.” Finally, the three leading player wrote down the guarantee and assured Liu Tongyi that he would never commit any more.

For the long-term development of the players, Liu Tong also opposed the blind training of large sports. The extremely high injury rate of youth basketball and the insufficient professional and systematic training methods of grassroots coaches made him particularly sad, “If he doesn’t develop well, you are destroying his health all his life.” Liu Tongfu said. Therefore, he advocated that the coach should not only understand the ball, but also understand human sports anatomy, sports physiology, sports training, sports medicine, sports psychology, philosophy, etc.

When Han Dejun was in the team, he paid great attention to arranging special physical fitness and technical training according to his actual situation. What is “special physical training”? He explained that “it is to practice physical fitness according to the movement skill mode of basketball matches”. For example, squat and bench press, there is no such way to exert strength on the basketball court, “Have you ever seen anyone sink his ass and make more effort?”

“Some people say that the winter training is not bad, arms and legs are not normal. I just don’t believe this evil. I have seen a football club where 9-10-year-old children run 5,000 meters and almost collapsed. Football needs this kind of physical fitness? Are children’s physical development allowed? Ridiculous, you want technology, children have academic tasks, only a little after-school training time, do not grasp the technology to grasp what physical fitness?” Liu Tong thinks that running 5,000 meters is useless. “the basketball court is solved on the basketball court. The training rhythm should be consistent with the rhythm of 10-minute games and 2-minute Internode rest.”

He was “straight-tempered” and always had to complain when he saw something rough. The 4-and-a-half-hour interview was almost his “speech meeting”. Even the narrator’s words of “blocking and dismantling” could make him dissatisfied. “There are many kinds of covers, front cover, rear cover, reverse cover, side cover, mobile cover, positioning cover…… Each kind of cover has a specific range of use. How can one “block and tear” be explained all? The narrator has the obligation to give the audience Popular Science basketball knowledge.”

At the beginning of leading the team to fight CUBAL, Liu Tong was the deputy director of the sports department. He was promoted to the director in 2005 and never served as the head coach again-but he still acted behind the scenes as the leader. In his mind, what is more important than the basketball team is the professional and discipline construction he participates in. “Major and subject are the lifeline of the school. The basketball team is just the icing on the cake, showing the campus culture to the outside world as a carrier.” With his participation, Wuhan Ministry of Technology and sports has a first-class discipline of physical education and training, and can recruit academic masters in four directions, its “college physical education curriculum” has also been approved as the only excellent sports course in Hubei province.

Before retirement, Liu Tong was already a second-class professor of Wuhan Science and Technology. He knew theory and practice, and he had a clear mark of “academic coach”, but he refused to call himself a faction, “I listen to who has the ability.” Liu Tongfu said.

03

Star Generation

Wuhan University of Technology men’s basketball young pioneer team history, there are not only the “quasi-Hall of Fame” players like Han Dejun, but also Wang Jing, Liu Jiulong, Dai huaibo, Che Hao and Chen Kai, who have been fighting for CBA for many years, in particular, Dai huaibo was selected as a college student into the national youth team, which caused great repercussions. The recruitment and growth of these players are all permeated with Liu Tong’s painstaking efforts.

Take Wang Jing, “CUBAL’s first CBA player. Liu tong first paid attention to him at a middle school student sports meeting in a certain year, when the latter played on behalf of inner mongolia. Later, Wang Jing was recruited to the Air Force men’s basketball in the 90’s. As a result, half a year later, the team was dissolved due to funding problems. When Wang Jing, who had not been registered, had nowhere to go, liu Tongfu extended a helping hand. When Wang Jing first arrived at school, he jumped well and had good strength, “but his steps were messy.” Liu tongyi helped him adjust from the simplest cross feet breakthrough and step-by-step breakthrough, and gradually became the later CUBAL killer. There were also two seasons in CBA with an average score of 15 +.

Besides, han dejun, who was originally a self-funded student of liaoning sports school, had no chance to enter the liaoning youth team and belonged to the category to be abandoned. Liu tong learned his existence from the relevant coaches, therefore, he launched a “battle” with many 985 well-known colleges and universities, and finally took Han Dejun under his command by virtue of touching emotion and touching basketball development concept. Han dejun’s family was poor. Liu tong supported his studies and life through the school’s scholarship, poor student fund and enterprise cooperation. Later, cctv broadcast the wuhan polytechnic competition, his family was crowded with villagers who came to watch the game. “His consciousness of rebounding, second attack and center was promoted in Wuhan Science and Technology.” Liu Tongfu said.

Many years later, han dejun was interviewed by cctv and mentioned that it was “very helpful to my basketball career” when he was in college “.

There is also Dai huaibo. The First Affiliated Middle School of Central China Normal University he studied is the basketball reserve talent base of Wuhan Polytechnic, and he has received one-on-one guidance from Liu Tong since his junior high school. Liu Tong taught him three lessons a week, taught him all kinds of basic skills of the striker himself, and also taught him how to shoot. In order to standardize the shooting hand type of huaibo on behalf of huaibo, liu tongji did not allow him to shoot at rim-afraid that he would change the hand type for scoring goals, but let him shoot at a mark on the wall. “Only when the movements are standardized can the sustainable development. You see, when jordan played the finals and won the game, his hand shape and body posture were perfect, which was really perfect.” Liu Tong sighed sincerely.

Relying on one-hand shooting skills, huaibo was selected into the national youth team and scored 16.2 points in the U18 asian youth championship in 2012, second only to wang zhilin, ranking second in the whole team. Later, he landed in CBA. Whether in the new century or in the northeast tiger, shooting was his biggest kill. Today, Dai huaibo has been fighting in CBA for ten years.

In addition to the above three, Liu Jiulong, who has been fighting for 7 seasons in CBA, joined the teaching post after his retirement and led Anhui Wenyi team to win the championship in the NBL2019 season; The CBA peak season averaged 10.5 points, chen Kai, the current head coach of Huazhong University of Science and Technology men’s basketball; Zhang Yinxing, son of Zhang Yongjun…… As far as the training results are concerned, there are only a few teams of Tsinghua, Peking University and Taiyuan science and technology that can compete with Wuhan Science and Technology. In that era when CUBAL and CBA were relatively isolated, Wuhan Polytechnic made pioneering contributions to the talent exchange between the two leagues.

04

Distance from champion

Wuhan Science and Technology dominates the southwest, with a large number of talents, but there is also a pity that it has never won the national champion of CUBAL. In 2005 and 2006, they reached the finals twice, but unfortunately they encountered the top Huaqiao University led by “four King Kong” gughani, Chen Liwei, Chen rongren and Zhang Jiabin, in the end, we can only watch the opponent open the four consecutive dynasties. “I think we have the champion strength, and my children cherish it, but they just can’t play the championship.” When Liu Tong said this section, he couldn’t help sighing, “my child”, which he always called the players.

He advocated “touching with emotion” and always considered the players’ future right to survival and development for their parents. There were also reasons for paying attention to their studies. According to Liu Jiulong’s memory, Liu Tong always changed his relationship everywhere and sponsored to improve the team’s software and hardware. Sometimes he paid his own money to help students recover. When the competition conflicts with the exam, he also coordinates.

The 7th (2004-2005) League is obviously a peak of Wuhan Polytechnic Young Pioneer team history. The arrival of Han Dejun has greatly enhanced the internal strength of Wuhan Polytechnic, and the 1/4 finals of the national competition easily defeated Shantou University. Facing Shandong University of Science and Technology in the semi-finals, they played extremely hard. They fell 13 points behind the first round. Liu Jiulong led the team to recover the score but failed to kill. The difference of 1 point was lost. In the middle of the suspension, Liu Tong, who had retired to the second line, took over the team again and practiced joint defense. As a result, he returned to the home court and cut 40 points with Zhao Yu, who Han Dejun called “OK combination, wuhan Polytechnic University won 22 points and advanced to the national finals for the first time young pioneer team history.

The 7th southwest King

“I was still young at that time. After passing Shanke, I was happy earlier. The overall strength of overseas Chinese actually exceeded that of Shanke.” Liu Jiulong said. In the two competitions, Wuhan Polytechnic and overseas Chinese both fought to the end. Liu Jiulong’s Fighting Method Zhang Jiabin was brilliant, han Dejun, “No. 11, which is not easy to defend”, also left a deep impression on Wang deli, the then head coach of overseas Chinese. However, it is a pity that Wang Southwest was not able to play chess after all, I have to become the humble footnote of the third crown of overseas Chinese young pioneer team history. The final whistle of the round rang, and Liu Jiulong shed tears on the spot. The retirement season ended like this, which made him regret until now.

In 2006, Wuhan Polytechnic once again launched an impact on the championship. Facing the “Dark Horse” Henan University in the semi-finals, both rounds were stumbled, the second round was successfully promoted by the absolute ruling power of Han de-at the end of the third festival, he even recorded three points in his life, and the whole audience got the “double 20”. Those who met them in the finals were still old rivals overseas Chinese. This time, although Han Dejun was full of energy and ShenWei and cut 40+28 together, Wuhan Polytechnic lost more thoroughly, net negative 33 points in two games.

It was also from this year that Liu Tong began to hold the cross-strait College student basketball exchange competition with the support of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of the Ministry of Education and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Hubei province. In the following years, they are all important bridges for cross-Strait sports and cultural exchanges and have great influence. “The Ministry of Education regards me as a typical example.” Liu Tongfu said. At the same time, it is also an important supplement to the college basketball tournament system, providing many CUBAL teams with scarce competition opportunities and improving the level of college basketball together with CUBAL.

Let’s get to the point. In 2007, the national competition entered 4 in 8, and Wuhan Polytechnic was killed by the “old enemy” Shantou University’s main and away games, which failed to go further. After this season, Han Dejun joined the first team of Liaoning men’s basketball and started his legendary CBA career. However, Wuhan Polytechnic, which lost its internal pillar, fell into a downturn and missed the finals of the Southwest Division for two consecutive years. It was not until the 1949 s that huaibo brought a gun to shoot that they rose again.

In the four years of Dai huaibo’s school, Wuhan Polytechnic once again realized the monopoly of “Southwest King”. However, once they reached the national competition, they always stumbled and couldn’t take a step forward.

In August 2010, he entered 4 and was defeated to the defending champion China University of Mining and Technology.

On August 16, 2011, he was once embarrassed by Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, which played the second national competition. When he was so angry that he paused, Liu Tongwei said angrily, “you can play whatever you want, if you lose, climb back from here!” Finally, with Ma Song and Shi Zhen’s joint efforts, Wuhan Polytechnic passed the insurance. When it reached 8 and 4, luck was not so good. Wuhan Institute of Technology was constantly prevented by Civil Aviation University of China, and finally regretted it.

On August 4, 2012, Zhou Yu stepped on lock and load spray to kill three point line;

In 2013, 16 entered 8, and the whole battle with the fledgling Shanxi University won. 8 in 4, won 29 points by Huaqiao University, the end of the season, on behalf of huaibo went to Dongguan New Century, Wuhan Institute of Technology once again entered the decline cycle. Looking back, Han Dejun left CUBAL for 15 seasons, Wuhan Polytechnic could not break into the national top four. However, with the changes in the Southwest Division and Hubei division, this old strong team has gradually fallen out of the ranks of Haoqiang. In 25 years, it has not been able to enter the division for the first time. Speaking of the current situation of the team, Liu Tong was quite helpless, but he was a retired old man, and indeed he could do nothing.

05

“Wild hope” of retired old man”

In 2016, Liu Tongyi officially retired, but his road to sports was far from over. In 2019, he was appointed as the dean of the Institute of Physical Education by Wuhan Institute of Biological Engineering, and in 2022, he was appointed as the responsible professor of Wuhan Huaxia Institute of Technology. Now, he is 67 years old, but he still can’t spare time. He not only has to take classes in our school three times a week, but also has to teach students in Nanchang Institute of Technology two times remotely as a distinguished professor. Recently, the seven undergraduates he directed also reached the critical period of revising his graduation thesis, which made him busy and the time for connecting to the interview was not easy to be shared.

However, once talking about basketball, Liu Tongji always has endless words. I don’t even need to ask questions, so he can talk for 3 hours without interruption from theory to practice, such as how to give 2-3 opportunities for a cover? What is “One-Step emergency stop, two-step emergency stop”? He stressed that basketball enlightenment education should strengthen the training of individual joint defense awareness and technology, “individual joint defense ability is the basis of the ability to target people, and it is more advanced.” Sometimes I tried to lead the interview to CUBAL, so he talked briefly and quickly turned to his basketball philosophy, as if there was a fantastic palace there, let him linger. So I had to divide the interview into two.

Liu Tong still has two unfinished wishes. First, he wanted to write his life-long learning, enlightenment and history in the field of basketball into a book. He vaguely mentioned that the length of this book should reach 1 million words, it not only writes about the construction of the scientific training system of youth basketball, but also writes about the origin, development, purpose, concept, current situation and prospect of CUBAL. It also writes about the way of educating basketball culture, the way of civilization, the way to strengthen the country; Secondly, to carry out the public welfare cause of youth basketball development, he wants to return to youth basketball training. If someone is willing to give him a platform and a venue, he can do things without taking anything, he dreamed that he could build a talent base in Hubei and send talents to CUBAL, CBA and even NBA in the future.

Speaking of which, Liu Tongfu raised his voice to a high level, and his enthusiasm seemed to emerge from the telephone receiver.

There are ups and downs, peaks and valleys in life. I hope Wuhan Polytechnic can cheer up again and see them in the Southwest Division in the future.