Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Experience at Xiangbei

Chapter 111: If you can't do it, don't play!

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Wudao recognized that Coach Anxi's tactics should be the bombardment and screen shooting tactics of the Suns in the mid-1990s, but what Wudao didn't know was that his understanding was actually slightly biased.

Because in this era, Nash, who is known as the son of style, has not yet joined the Suns. The reference template team for Coach Anxi's tactics is actually the Warriors from 1989 to 1991.

That is the Warriors under the coaching of old coach Nelson, the classic tactics of the run-tmc combination.

run-tmBA stars Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, these three players played for the Warriors at the same time, forming the famous "RUN-TMC" combination.

In the peak 1990-91 season, Mullin averaged 25.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4 assists, Richmond averaged 23.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists, and Hardaway averaged 22.9 points, 4 rebounds and 9.7 assists. The three led the team to a 44-38 record and eliminated the Spurs 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs.

But in the second round, they lost 1-4 to the Lakers led by Magic Johnson.

The Warriors may not have been the strongest team in that era, but they were definitely a very strong team.

The legendary coach, Don Nelson, is the coach with the most wins in the entire NBA league. This coach not only used the bombardment tactics in the 1990s when big centers were rampant, but the famous slash-the-shark tactics were also invented by this old man. His method of dealing with the Big Shark O'Neal was later cited by many other team coaches.

One of the core ideas of Coach Nelson's coaching philosophy is position modeling, which is also the basic concept of small ball play.

The so-called positional modeling means that players on the court do not stick to their own positions, but set a certain framework for themselves. To put it simply, if you are a center, you do not need to just stand in the paint to eat cakes or grab rebounds, you can also appear in other positions on the court, and even shoot three-pointers.

Coach Anxi, who is now explaining tactics to his players on the bench, actually wants to integrate this style of play into the offensive system of Xiangbei High School. This sense of dislocation across time and space makes Wudao stunned.

Is small ball effective? It depends on the era and the team.

There is a reason why the bombardment style of play that existed in the 1990s did not flourish in this era, but only became popular in the NBA decades later.

There are many reasons, including the change of defensive rules and the lack of big centers in later generations. But the biggest reason is that there are no big centers.

Coach Anxi's tactics are actually not that compatible with Xiangbei High School.

Maybe in the eyes of others, a center with the height conditions of Takenori Akagi cannot be considered a "big center", but the facts may be somewhat different from what everyone thinks.

Although Akagi is less than two meters tall, he can be considered a big center in the high school arena. Akagi's movement speed is not very fast, at least compared with Budo, Mitsui Shou, Miyagi and others, he is much slower. Even Chiba Daishi is a little faster than Akagi Takenori in terms of movement.

If Xiangbei wants to use Coach Anzai's tactics, mobility must be guaranteed, and fast pick-and-roll cooperation is the core of this offense. Akagi, who has a slow pace, is obviously not suitable.

"Do you all understand? No questions?" After Coach Anxi finished explaining the tactical requirements to the players, the players remained silent. Seeing this, Coach Anxi couldn't help but ask.

Coach Anxi was puzzled as to why the players were silent. Could it be that his coaching skills were so strong? How could the players understand a new tactic so quickly without any questions

"No problem, coach!" Miyagi Ryouta was the fastest to respond, because he had to do relatively less in terms of tactical arrangements. Bringing the ball across half court and getting the ball to the designated position smoothly after crossing half court was all that this tactic required of Miyagi.

It wasn't very difficult for Miyagi.

"Well... Coach, you mean that you need me to go outside and set a screen for Mitsui, right?"

"But if this happens, won't the offensive power inside be gone?"

"Normally, shouldn't the offense be centered around the center? Being closer to the basket will increase the success rate of scoring."

Akagi Takenori looked at the tactical board in Coach Anzai's hand and came back to his senses. Although this was the first time he heard of this tactic, Akagi was not a stupid person and immediately understood the significance of this tactic.

Coach Anzai plans to build a new offensive system around Mitsui Hisashi and Takeshi on the outside.

Before Budo joined Shohoku High School, Shohoku's offense was built around Mitsui and him, and Mitsui and he were equally divided in terms of ball possession. But after Budo came, Akagi Takenori's ball possession was greatly reduced during the practice match with Ryonan High School. Not only him, but also Mitsui's ball possession was greatly reduced.

During the practice match, Akagi didn't feel anything, because Wu Dao's offensive efficiency was good and helped the team win, so he didn't feel much about the reduction in his ball possession.

However, if Coach Anzai's tactics are implemented, it means that his possession of the ball will be directly reduced in a strategic sense. This is the decentralization of his status within the team, which gives Akagi a completely different feeling.

Although Akagi's words were relatively tactful, he still wanted to fight for some rights for himself in this way.

"In offense, there's only scoring and no scoring, there's no inside and outside."

"No matter where we attack, scoring is the main goal of the team!"

"Akagi, you need to adapt to the team's tactical changes."

Coach Anxi briefly explained, then looked at the others and asked again, "What about the others? Is there anyone who doesn't understand?"

After receiving the answer from Coach Anxi, Akagi lowered his head silently. He could not refuse the coach's arrangement, but in his heart, he was still a little unwilling. In Akagi's opinion, this offensive method would be better than just giving the ball to him and driving it inside.

Akagi was confident in his own ability. He felt that with his ability, no player in the county could defend him. He was somewhat invisible in the game against Ryonan, mainly because he did not have enough ball possession.

Mitsui Hisashi, Takeshi and others all have rich basketball experience and were quick to accept the new tactics, but the other first and second graders had many questions. After Coach Anzai answered them one by one, the gym became quiet again.

"In that case, let's spend the rest of today conducting tactical drills."

"For the rest of the afternoon, you need to practice this set of tactics. At the same time, you also need to develop a tacit understanding of switching defenses."

"I will break up the players and divide them into groups of five to conduct tactical drills. While simulating the offense, the defense needs to defend against the attacking group through timely rotation."

Coach Anzai said as he began to divide the players into groups. Akagi Takenori and Mitsui Hisashi formed a group with a few second and third graders, while Wudao, Miyagi, and Chiba Oishi formed another group with two players. The other players also formed groups of five.

Xiangbei's tactical drill began immediately.

Yasuda Yasuharu was assigned to Budou's group and was in charge of the ball control, while Budou and Miyagi stood on both sides of the three-point line and were in charge of launching the offense. Kakuda Satoru and Chiba Daishi, who were in the interior, played the role of pick-and-roll, one as a power forward and the other as a center.

The entire stadium in the Xiangbei Gymnasium is divided into two training areas, with two to three groups of players training in each half.

In this half, Wudao and his team were divided into two groups. The team facing them was a temporary team composed of freshmen and sophomores. Tetsushi Shiozaki and others were facing off against Wudao and his team.

Yasuharu Yasuda is a new player who joined Shohoku in the same year as Budou. Although he is a new player, his basketball foundation is still solid. At least, his ball-holding and passing skills are acceptable. He can find a good time to pass the ball and give it to Miyagi or Budou.

In the first half, after taking advantage of his teammates' pick-and-roll, Miyagi Ryouta quickly broke into the inside. When the defensive player rushed up to block Miyagi, Miyagi Ryouta passed the ball without looking at the player, but directly passed it to the side. When the ball reached the player, Budou accurately received the basketball in the inside, stood up and dunked it after one step.

The smooth attack took no more than three or four seconds in total, and the group of players defending Wu Dao and his team didn't even have time to react.

"Good pass, Miyagi!" After the slam dunk, Wudao and Miyagi celebrated with a high five and praised. Miyagi's passing awareness was really good, and the advance time was just right. Wudao received the ball with his hands just in front of his chest, which was also very comfortable.

In general, although the two of them did not cooperate that many times in mobile warfare, they already had a tacit understanding.

Next, the two groups began to communicate repeatedly. After Wudao's group attacked ten times, the two groups switched to offense and defense. On the offensive end, Wudao's group played very smoothly, giving people the impression that this tactic was very simple.

But when the offense and defense changed and the other group started attacking, those people realized that they were overthinking.

Budo didn't let up on defense at all. Although the Xiangbei player who was facing him used the pick-and-roll to pass Budo, Budo's pursuit speed was terrifying. Players who wanted to layup were repeatedly blocked by Budo, and they were blocked three or four times in a row, which made it impossible to continue the training.

The freshman who was blocked wanted Wu Dao to slow down and not chase so quickly, but what he received was Wu Dao's slightly reprimanding words: "After a pick-and-roll or a breakthrough, you can't just make a layup. You still need to observe the opponent's movements after the breakthrough."

"It doesn't mean that everything will be fine once you break through!"

"Also, when you are dribbling the ball, don't keep looking at the ground or the ball. This is a serious shortcoming and must be corrected. You need to look elsewhere, observe your opponents and your teammates!"

“When you encounter difficulties, don’t look for the reasons in others, but look for the problems in yourself!”

Jinguji Budo will never slack off during training. If he doesn't train hard and slacks off, it will become a loophole when he really gets on the field.

Wu Dao hopes to lead Xiangbei High School to win the national championship, but if there are only five main players, the national championship is obviously unrealistic!

The other substitutes of Xiangbei also need to train well to make themselves stronger, so when faced with the opponent's request to let go, Wudao refuted mercilessly.

"..." The team member who was spoken to by Wudao felt ashamed. His face turned red, and he lowered his head without saying anything. Wudao's merciless words also made the atmosphere of the training a little awkward.

Fortunately, Chiba Daishi was a qualified senior and he came out to smooth things over so that the training could continue.

The player whose problem was pointed out by Wu Dao was not a hopeless case. After Wu Dao finished speaking, he was obviously paying attention to his own problem and tried his best to observe the situation on the court while dribbling.

However, his dribbling skills were somewhat weak, and he made frequent mistakes with the ball, which made their group's offense stumbling and greatly hindered their training progress.

Wudao was rather tolerant of the opponent's mistakes. He did not say much because of the opponent's mistakes. Instead, he patiently accompanied the opponent in training over and over again.

Martial arts is not the kind of unreasonable person, attitude problems need to be pointed out, ability problems, practice can be done, no one is born knowing how to play. And Chiba Oishi is really a qualified senior. When the players made mistakes, he did not complain, but encouraged the players loudly.

For a moment, the training atmosphere in this half became harmonious, and the players were all focused on practicing the new system.

On the other side of the court, Mitsui Hisashi led the players in a tactical drill. He was paired with Akagi, Kogure Konobu and others. Kogure Konobu and Mitsui Hisashi were the initiators of the attack, while the ball control task was performed by a third-year player.

Takenori Akagi in the inside is one of the people who sets up the pick-and-roll.

Unlike Budo's and the others' relatively smooth training, Mitsui Hisashi's and the others' training was really a bit bumpy.

"Hey! Akagi, can you move faster and raise the pick-and-roll higher?"

"The defender is standing on the three-point line, what are you doing standing at the free throw line?!"

On the court, Mitsui received a pass from his teammate outside the three-point line. He dribbled the ball for three or four seconds, but Akagi's pick-and-roll was not in place. Mitsui felt a little impatient and shouted directly at Akagi.

Akagi, who was called out, slowly prepared to move up, but at this time, Mitsui Shou broke through before Akagi's pick-and-roll. The next second, the players defending him and the players who were supposed to defend Akagi in the interior quickly surrounded Mitsui Shou and double-teamed him. Mitsui Shou had no choice but to pass the ball back.

It was returned to the point guard.

At this time, the point guard Akagi quickly moved towards the basket. The player in control of the ball saw that Akagi was in a good position and made a long pass to Akagi, who made an easy layup.

After scoring the goal, Akagi couldn't help but feel a little proud. As expected, he is still quite important!

"Mitsui, if you can't score, just pass the ball to me!" Akagi said to Mitsui, then picked up the basketball and threw it to his teammates on the outside, asking his teammates to organize a new round of attack.

Mitsui Shou, who was already annoyed because Akagi did not follow the tactics in the pick-and-roll, became even more angry when he heard what Akagi said.

"Before you say that, first figure out your running position!"

"If I still don't have a chance to shoot after you set a pick-and-roll, and you're open, I'll give you the ball!"

"Of course! The requirement is that you first figure out the running position for me!

"If you can't do it, don't play! You know, I'm the captain, I have the right!"

Mitsui Shou's voice was not loud when he spoke, as if he deliberately lowered his voice. Mitsui Shou could actually understand Akagi's little thoughts to some extent, and while taking Akagi's face into consideration, he also did not forget to remind Akagi.

"Hmph! I hope you can score the goal!"

Akagi is not a fool. Mitsui's words are both a threat and a reminder. Although Akagi does not obey Mitsui, he dare not resist Coach Anzai's tactical arrangements.

In the next few offensive rounds, Akagi would strangely go to the designated position for pick-and-roll, and Mitsui Hisashi was also very stable, either making a layup or passing the ball to Kogure Konobu in the open position for the opponent to finish the job.

During the period, Takenori Akagi also had an open opportunity in the mid-range, and Mitsui Hisashi passed the ball to Akagi. Akagi made an open shot, but the basketball hit the backboard and bounced out directly, wasting an offensive opportunity.

Mitsui Shou also seized this opportunity and said sarcastically: "You can shoot so crookedly even when you are open. You should practice shooting more!"

"If you can't practice well, you can come and ask me for help! After all, I am the captain, and it is my duty to help my teammates!"

Mitsui's words made Akagi's face turn red. While hurting Akagi's self-esteem, they also made Akagi feel deeply humiliated.

"Damn you, it's just shooting, right? I will definitely learn how to shoot more accurately than you!"

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