Regular and peaceful days often pass very quickly. In the blink of an eye, April has quietly left, and May has unknowingly come to people's side.
Towards the middle of the semester, the academic pressure on high school students began to increase, and the pace of teachers' lectures in class also became more compact.
The various sports clubs in the school also began to increase their training intensity at the beginning of the month. Almost all clubs began to prepare for the upcoming county competition trials.
As for the Xiangbei basketball team, high-intensity training has been maintained for quite a long time.
"Yasuda, dribble the ball faster. Your players are already in position in the front court, but you, a defender, are still in the back court!"
"Everyone listen up, the tryouts for the county tournament are about to begin in less than a month."
"You all need to adjust your training attitude! If you can't meet the requirements, don't even think about playing in the game! I will make sure you don't even have to go to the stadium!"
In the basketball hall, the players of Xiangbei were divided into two teams and were doing a long-awaited actual combat training. Jinguji Budou picked up his old job and became the referee of this game, while Mitsui Shou, the captain, stood on the sidelines and yelled at the players on the court.
Coach Anzai did not arrive at the stadium on time for the basketball team's training today. I heard from Mitsui Hisashi that Coach Anzai took Ayako to the organizing committee to draw lots. Before this evening, the grouping of their Xiangbei High School in the next selection and the order of appearance will be determined.
During the time when Coach Anzai was away, Mitsui Hisashi was the coach of Shohoku.
The coaching attitudes and coaching styles of Mitsui and Anzai are completely different. On the court, Mitsui is an excellent leader who can calm the emotions of the players, but when he is a coach off the court, this guy becomes a negative emotion maker.
Those playing on the court, such as first-year player Yasuharu Yasuda, have been criticized by him for who knows how many times. His harsh attitude is no different from that of Coach Anzai when he was young.
After being trained by Mitsui Hisashi, Yasuda Yasuharu's dribbling speed became much faster. After entering the frontcourt, he quickly passed the ball to Miyagi on the side. Miyagi Ryouta received the ball and made a fake move, deceiving the defensive player's center of gravity, then he quickly broke through and made a quick stop jump shot from mid-range.
“Swish!”
After nearly a month of special training, Miyagi's shooting had improved to some extent, and the basketball went into the net.
After scoring the goal, Miyagi looked at Wudao on the sidelines and clenched his fist to celebrate for himself. Wudao smiled and nodded when he saw this. Miyagi Ryouta's shooting hand shape and posture had been completely changed. According to Wudao's original intention, he wanted Miyagi Ryouta to change the rhythm of his shooting from the original two momentum.
Miyagi Ryouta's jump shot rhythm uses the traditional two motion. Simply put, Miyagi's shooting speed is not fast. When he is shooting in an open position or when he is facing a weak opponent in a practice game, Miyagi still has a good shooting space.
However, if Miyagi encounters a tall and quick-reacting player in a subsequent game, he will definitely suffer a great loss given his height, arm span and shooting speed.
He is different from Wudao. Wudao has excellent jumping ability and excellent height. The shooting rhythm of two motion can make Wudao play his advantages to the maximum extent. But Miyagi is different. Although his jumping ability is OK, his height and wingspan are greatly disadvantaged. The shooting rhythm of two motion actually magnifies his weaknesses.
However, in order not to affect Miyagi Ryouta's combat effectiveness in subsequent competitions, Wudao did not point out this problem for the time being. During practice, the attacking power shown by Miyagi was also remarkable, which made Miyagi's self-confidence strengthened a lot. Wudao also hoped that Miyagi could maintain this momentum.
On the court, the offense and defense switched. The team led by Akagi began to launch a counterattack. When counterattacking, Akagi Takenori did not stand inside and wait for his teammates to pass the ball like he did in the past. Instead, he actively screened for his teammates, and after the screen, he quickly went down and successfully created an open opportunity for himself.
The basketball was passed to Akagi, who scored a layup.
"Martial Arts, do you feel that Akagi seems to be a little different?"
Mitsui Shou touched his chin and asked while standing beside Wu Dao. Although Wu Dao was the referee of the game, this was just an intra-team practice match after all. Wu Dao did not run all over the court, but just stood on the sidelines and watched the two teams play. He would only whistle when there was an obvious foul, so he seemed very free.
"The playing style is indeed different from before. It seems that he still listened to Coach Anxi's tactical arrangements."
"But he is still too young. If he doesn't encounter any strong forwards, there won't be any big problems. If he does, I'm afraid he will be taught a lesson."
Wudao looked at Takenori Akagi on the court and expressed his thoughts. Takenori Akagi trained very hard, and although he had made some progress, the gap between him and the top centers was still quite obvious.
Although Akagi tried hard to adapt himself to Xiangbei's current offensive rhythm, his movement speed cannot be significantly increased in a short period of time. Although Akagi's offensive style has changed, it still has the heavy shadow of the past.
"That's not a problem. It's enough to see progress. Akagi is a boastful guy, but he still works very hard in training."
"Just for this reason, I believe he can grow up quickly."
"I don't know if the coach and his team have returned yet, and I don't know what kind of opponent we will face next."
"I hope the coaches won't have too bad luck."
Mitsui Hisashi looked at the players training on the court and murmured, inadvertently revealing his worry and uneasiness as he spoke.
"What?"
"What is good luck or bad luck?"
"We are different from those small schools. They only want to get a good ranking in the county competition."
"But our goal is not just a good ranking."
"We have only had one goal from the beginning to the end. Have you forgotten?!"
Wu Dao could hear the worry and uneasiness in Mitsui Shou's heart, and reminded him.
"... ..."
"You're right!"
"We have only one goal from beginning to end!"
Mitsui nodded and adjusted his mentality. Unfortunately, at this time, Kakuta Satoru on the court made a mistake in receiving the ball and missed the quick pass from Miyagi Ryouta, and the basketball flew directly out of the court. When Budo blew the whistle, Mitsui's roar came out immediately.
When the practice match was in full swing, the door of the gym was opened, and Coach Anxi and Ayako walked into the gym. In Ayako's hand, she was holding a roll of paper.
The sound of the two people walking into the gym attracted everyone's attention. Everyone looked at Coach Anzai and Ayako with great anticipation and excitement on their faces.
"Let's gather."
"The match schedule for the trials has been finalized."
Coach Anxi came to the field and talked to the players with a smile. Upon hearing this, the players quickly gathered around, and at Coach Anxi's signal, Ayako began to post the match schedule on the wall in a corner of the stadium. Miyagi Ryouta came over to help Ayako, and for a moment, everyone's attention was focused on this match schedule that had not been fully launched.
There are only two teams in Kanagawa Prefecture that are qualified to compete in the national competition. The team selection method is to select the participating teams through two rounds of selection.
The first round of the competition is the knockout stage. A total of 64 teams will participate in this county competition. According to the draw results, each team can only be eligible to enter the second round of the round-robin stage if they win all the games in the knockout stage and enter the semi-finals.
There are only four teams participating in the second round of the round-robin tournament. At this stage, the number of wins and net points of the four teams will be compared to select the final two teams to represent Kanagawa Prefecture in the national competition.
In the previous session, the Xiangbei High School led by Mitsui Shou met the seeded team Xiangyang High School in the quarterfinals and lost. In the end, they could not even make it through the first round of the county competition.
What needs to be said here is that the top four teams in previous sessions can directly advance to the quarterfinals, and the 64 teams are also divided into four groups. The top four teams in previous sessions, as seeded teams, are scattered among the groups.
In Group B, where Shohoku High School is located, the seeded team is Mitsui Hisashi and his old rival, Shoyo High School.
"Um?"
"There aren't any decent opponents in our group?"
Mitsui looked at the match schedule and found the location of Shohoku High School. He then glanced at Shoyo High School, which was at the front of Group B, and said indifferently.
"Eh? Captain, are you sure? The team we're in is Shoyo High School! The second strongest team in the county!"
"Our luck is really bad. Of the four teams, it would have been great to draw Buri, but it happened to be Shoyo~"
Yasuharu Yasuda screamed in pain. He had some understanding of the strong high schools. Shoyo High School was the undisputed second best school in the county.
"Idiot, what do you mean by good luck or bad luck? So what if I got Xiangyang?!"
"It's just Xiangyang High School. We must defeat them!"
"Our goal is to dominate the country!"
Mitsui Shou opened his mouth and was about to speak when Akagi Takenori scolded him. Mitsui Shou smiled and looked at Akagi and fell silent. When Coach Anzai heard what Akagi said, he also laughed.
"Akagi-san is right."
"For us, Xiangbei, it doesn't matter if we have good luck or bad luck in the draw. After all, our goal is to dominate the country!"
Coach Anzai's words made the players in the gym enthusiastic. After Mitsui Shou led the team to shout a few slogans, the team returned to training.
...
The Kanagawa Prefecture basketball selection competition will begin at the end of May. In order to get the players in good shape and avoid injuries, Coach Anzai began to reduce the intensity of the players half a month in advance. By mid-May, most of Xiangbei's training was simple physical training and some basic training.
The training intensity is several levels lower than before.
The main purpose of training at this stage is not to improve the players' skills, but to keep them in a good competitive state.
Soon, half a month passed quickly, and the opening ceremony of the county competition also kicked off at the Kanagawa Prefectural Gymnasium.
The early morning light shines through the thin clouds and illuminates the earth.
The sunlight entered the room and shone on the head of Jinguji Takeshi's bed, causing the sleeping Takeshi to frown.
I opened my eyes and looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was only 6 o'clock.
Wudao rubbed his sleepy eyes and closed them again. After two or three minutes, he opened his eyes again, then slowly got up from the bed, put on his slippers, and went to the bathroom to wash up.
Today is the opening day of the county competition. The opening ceremony will be held at 7:30 in the county gymnasium. After nearly an hour of opening ceremony, the game will start in the basketball hall. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Budoka to the gymnasium by train, so Budo has plenty of time.
Moreover, in today's match, Xiangbei is in the second game, and according to Coach Anxi's arrangement, Wudao's playing time will not be very long, so when he got up early in the morning, Wudao did not show very active performance.
It was already seven o'clock when Wu Dao washed up, had his meal and walked out of the house. In Wu Dao's plan, he had no intention of attending the opening ceremony. He was already tired of the boring and long opening ceremony.
After Wu Dao walked out of the door, he even took a leisurely detour to the court to shoot some basketballs, and only after he finished did he get on the train to the venue.
In the basketball hall in Kanagawa Prefecture, the opening ceremony has begun. The Xiangbei players stood solemnly in the venue, listening to the speeches of the leaders on the stage.
Mitsui Shou, who was standing at the front of the line, looked towards the direction of the line from time to time, wanting to see if Wu Dao had arrived. As the opening ceremony passed by minute by minute, Mitsui Shou's expression changed from calm at the beginning to furious.
Even after the opening ceremony ended and the players moved to the basketball hall, Mitsui Shou still did not see Budou.
After the Xiangbei players moved to the basketball hall, they sat directly in the audience seats. When the game of Group A was halfway through, Xiangbei went to the locker room.
Just when Mitsui was throwing a tantrum in the locker room, Jinguji Takeshi staggered into the locker room with his bag. After being scolded by Mitsui, the Xiangbei players changed their clothes and went to the stadium through the corridor.
"Shohoku is here!"
"It's someone from Xiangbei High School!"
"Shohoku!"
"Mitsui!"
"Brother~"
When the players of Xiangbei High School walked into the court, the previous round of games had just ended and the organizers were cleaning up the court. As the Xiangbei players entered the court, the audience became more enthusiastic.
Xiangbei's popularity is quite good, and its past results can be regarded as above average. Some teams also attach great importance to Xiangbei High School. Shoyo High School, which has played against Xiangbei before and is in the same group this year, is the team that attaches great importance to Xiangbei.
In the audience seats, the three guys from Horita tied the "Flame Man Mitsui Hisashi" battle flag on the railing in the front row. Wudao had only mentioned it before, but he didn't expect these guys to put it into practice so quickly.
Akagi Takenori's sister, wearing the school uniform of No. 4 Middle School, sat in the audience and cheered for Akagi Takenori, but her voice was drowned out by the cheers of other audience members.
"That number 15 must be the rising star from Xiangbei who scored 55 points!"
“It really does look very different!”
All the players of Shoyo were sitting in the audience stands. Kenji Fujima crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Jinguji Budo in the stadium with his starry eyes.
At this time, Takeshi was wearing the red uniform of Xiangbei No. 15, holding a basketball in one hand, and silently followed the back of the team. Although he was standing at the end of the team, Takeshi's presence was immediately noticed by Fujima. Jinguji Takeshi's figure was too similar to that of his teammate Hanagata Toru.
The difference is that Jinguji Budo of Shohoku looks stronger than Hanagata.
Amid the cheers of the audience, some members of Shohoku remained calm, while first-year students like Kakuta watched curiously. However, Budou and Miyagi, who were also first-year students, had already gotten used to this kind of scene.
When they arrived at the rest area, Coach Anxi signaled the players to put down their backpacks, then turned to look at Wudao and Miyagi Ryouta and said:
"In today's game, I want to give the first-year players some experience."
"Budo, Miyagi, you two will lead the team and go into the game first."
"Tsunoda Satoru, Yasuda Yasuharu, Shiozaki Tetsushi, the three of you will be the starting lineup."
Coach Anzai pushed his glasses and spoke to everyone. After he said this, Mitsui Hisashi, Akagi, Chiba Daishi and others were stunned and looked at Coach Anzai in surprise.
"This... .Coach!"
"This is a county competition. Isn't this arrangement too risky?!"
"How about we just play normally and send other players into the game after we are ahead by a certain number of points?"
Mitsui Shou hurried to Coach Anzai and tried to persuade him to change his mind. However, Coach Anzai shook his head and said calmly:
"When you go on the court after you're ahead, your mentality is different and it doesn't have the effect of training."
After finishing speaking, Coach Anxi looked at Wu Dao and asked:
"Martial Arts, do you have confidence?"
At this time, Wu Dao was taking out a cup of ginseng and wolfberry tea from his backpack. Hearing this, he silently put the cup back, nodded, and said:
"Of course! I will bring Shohoku its first victory!"
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