There are many memorable combinations in the history of college basketball in the United States, such as the Michigan Five tigers composed of Rocket veteran Howard and Chris Webb, the Florida Three Musketeers composed of Sula, Kassel, and Charlie Ward, and most recently, the Duke Three Masters composed of Cairn Williams, Barrett, and Redish, and the Kentucky Big Three today, Adebayo, Munch, Fox, yesterday Munch officially joined the Kings with a salary of 2 years and 19 million US dollars. He will once again team up with college alumnus Darlon Fox, and after signing the contract, he also deliberately posted a photo of his college celebration with Fox on his social media, and today let me start the time machine to take you back to the era of the Kentucky Big Three that fascinated fans across the Country in the summer of 2017.
Born on July 18, 1997 in Newark, New Jersey, Adebayo's parents were African immigrants, the family moved to North Carolina at the age of seven, from an early age to basketball, in high school, in 2016 was named North Carolina Basketball Mr. Basketball, five-star high school student, ranking 5th in the United States in terms of comprehensive strength.
Born on December 20, 1997 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Darlon Fox is a basketball talent who has established a huge reputation in the United States while attending Cypress Lake High School in Katie, Texas, and has been rated as a five-star high school student by major Media in the United States, ranking 6th in the United States in terms of overall strength.
Born on February 4, 1998 in Lepanto, Arkansas, Munch was a star in arkansas in high school, and became a basketball genius known throughout the United States since the beginning of his junior year of high school, ranking 9th in the United States in terms of comprehensive strength, in order to have a better basketball prospect, he announced in advance to join the University of Kentucky in his junior year of high school, which made local fans in Arkansas very angry, fans all over the state regarded him as a traitor, and even burned his jersey on a large scale.
These three talented teenagers have been all recruited by the University of Kentucky basketball coach John Kalipari, John Calipari is the highest-paid basketball coach in the United States, the current annual salary of $8 million is not losing to the NBA coach, 2016 Kentucky was in the limelight at the time, they reached the NCAA Final Four four times in the past six years, and at the same time emerged 25 NBA players such as John Wall, Anthony Davis, Towns, Devon Booker, Jamal Murray, etc. Among them, 13 are the top 14 picks of the Lotto show, their games are broadcast nationwide, rows of NBA scouts track the training and games of players, in addition to recruiting the Big Three, but also recruited five-star high school student Gabriel, five-star high school student Sasha Killea Jones, four-star high school student Hamidu Diallo, the luxury of this lineup makes college coaches across the United States drool.
Before the college season officially began, the three young people had already crossed paths, and they competed as the top high school students in the United States as the top high school students in the United States at the McDonald's All-American Star Game, the Jordan Brand Invitational, and the NIKE High School Student Invitational tournament that summer, and Tatum, Miles Bridges, Fultz and other players competed together, and at the Jordan Brand Invitational, Fox and Munch also jointly won the MVP honor, which undoubtedly gave a very good start to the next college career.
The college season officially began in November 2016, and the three youngsters began a magical performance, Munch was the team's leading scorer, he averaged 19.8 points per game that season, and in the December 17 game against Jordan's alma mater, the University of North Carolina, Munch personally slashed 47 points, and he shot a three-pointer in the final 20 seconds to overtake the score, which broke the Kentucky team's all-time freshman scoring record, the previous record was 35 points held by Terrance Jones and Jamal Murray, and at the end of the season, Munch was named SEC Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, as well as the SEC Division's Best First Team and SEC's Best Freshman Team.
Fox, who organized and led the team, finished the season as SEC MVP and was named the SEC Division's Best Team First Team and SEC Freshman Team
Adebayor was in charge of the interior offense and defense, and in the game of 21 February 2017, he scored a big double-double of 22 points and 15 rebounds in the game of the University of Missouri, and finally Adebayor averaged 13 points, 8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, and was named the SEC Second Team and the SEC Best Freshman Team at the end of the season.
The University of Kentucky, led by a trio, eventually became the number one seed in the SEC division with a record of 29 wins and 5 losses, and they were hailed as the favourite team to win the championship before the NCAA crazy March start, easily defeating Northern Kentucky University in the first round, encountering Shamette's Wichita State University in the second round, the game was very sticky, Fox scored 14 points, he completed steals and dunks in the final moments of the game to freeze the score at 65-62, while Adebayor scored 13 points and 10 rebounds, Shamet's final-minute three-point shot was ruthlessly blocked by Adebayor.
真正令全美关注并引起热议的是第三轮对阵朗佐鲍尔带领的加州大学洛杉矶分校，此前的福克斯和朗佐鲍尔被誉为当界选秀中最好的两个控卫，人们总是把他们俩进行比较，朗佐鲍尔的身体天赋要明显高于福克斯，同时他的身边也有TJ利夫、阿隆-霍乐迪、伊凯阿尼博古等帮手，但在那场比赛中福克斯与蒙克联手砍下60分，他们在下半场以摧枯拉朽的进攻击溃了对手， Fox scored a game-high 39 points in direct opposition to Lonzo Ball, while Ball scored only 10 points on 6-of-6 shooting, the game was broadcast live in the United States, and James was also fanned by the backcourt twin stars of Fox and Munch because of this game, and he later wanted to recruit Munch because he remembered this game.
接下来的8强战中，他们又遇到了老对手北卡罗莱纳大学，双方的比赛打得极其胶着，北卡罗来纳州在最后5分钟内连得12分， And Munch shot a three-point shot in the last 7.2 seconds to tie the score to 73, the game was not suspended, North Carolina launched the final attack, Luke Meyer hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left in the game, 75-73, North Carolina killed Kentucky and then began to celebrate wildly, while the University of Kentucky players could only leave lonely, Fox and Adebayor cried into tears in the locker room.
那是一个令许多球迷难忘的夏天，青春由许多遗憾组成，尽管未能最终夺冠但三人还是选择放弃剩余学业一同参加选秀，福克斯第五顺位被萨拉门托国王队选中，蒙克在第十一顺位被夏洛特黄蜂选中，阿德巴约第是十四顺位被迈阿密热火队选中，属于他们的NBA征程正式开始了。