When Hainan High School was trailing by twelve points, Coach Gaotou finally couldn't sit still anymore and called a timeout. The players on the court suddenly heard the sharp whistle and stopped running at the same time.
The shepherd turned his head to look at the tall coach off the court, wiped the sweat off his face, and a look of shame appeared on his face.
It was because of the poor performance of the Hainan players that Coach Gaotou called a timeout. This timeout made all the Hainan players on the field feel a little disappointed and self-blame.
"Hurry up!" Coach Gaotou shouted, waving at all the players. Soon, the Hainan players returned to the rest area and gathered around Coach Gaotou.
Coach Gaotou looked around at the players around him, and after a brief silence, he suddenly chuckled.
"Heh! With that expression on your face, do you think Hainan is doomed to fail?!"
Coach Gaotou's words caused these dejected starting players to look up and look at Coach Gaotou.
"This... Coach, although I am very unwilling, but... I..." Da Zheng Sifu looked tangled. After stuttering for a long time, he seemed to have recognized the reality and continued: "I... I can't stop the freshman from Xiangbei."
"Even if Takasago helps me, I can't stop it."
Omasa Shifu said this with gritted teeth. He turned his head to look at the rest area on the other side of the court with his fists clenched.
"Um!"
“I anticipated this before the game.”
"But so what?!"
"Just because he's a freshman, does that make you lose confidence?"
"He is, after all, just a human being. He is just a first-year student after all."
"And he's different from Ryonan's Shinomiya Tano. Jinguji martial arts isn't invincible!"
Coach Gaotou opened the folding fan in his hand and shook it gently, while speaking to the players. His words lifted the spirits of the disappointed Hainan people, and everyone's eyes were focused on Coach Gaotou, their eyes were full of hope.
"Although this method is not very decent, we now have no choice and no way out."
"Using some tricks within the rules is also part of the game."
As he spoke, Coach Takato looked around at the members of his team, and then his eyes fell on Kazuma Takasago.
"Takasago! You will be the one to defend Jinguji Budo, the No. 15 from Shohoku."
As soon as Coach Takato finished speaking, there were bursts of exclamations from the surroundings. Everyone looked at Takato with surprise, and no one expected that Coach Takato would make such an arrangement. Even their captain, Omasa Shifuku, couldn't handle Jinguji Budo, and let the second-year student Takasago Kazuma defend? What's the difference between that and letting him go
Even Omasa Shifuku couldn't keep up with Jinguji Budo's movements, so how could Takasago Kazuma, who was even slower, keep up? No one could understand why Coach Takato made such an arrangement.
Only Maki Shinichi and Omasa Shifuku looked at Takasago thoughtfully and suddenly sighed.
“I see…” Maki Shinichi already knew Coach Takato’s plan, and Coach Takato’s subsequent arrangements did not surprise him.
"Jinguji Budo's offensive methods are not complicated and are predictable."
"Takasago, the task I'm giving you is very simple. In the rest of the first half, you must use up all your fouls!"
"Don't call that kind of flagrant foul, just hit Jinguji Budo's hand when he's shooting!"
"You have only committed one foul so far. You still have four foul opportunities. Make good use of them. You don't need to allocate your energy anymore. Go all out and give Jinguji Budo the most direct physical contact. Don't let him have it too easy!"
As Coach Gaotou said this, all the Hainan players understood what Coach Gaotou was planning. This foul tactic against Xiangbei's ace was rarely seen on high school courts. However, the Hainan players did not feel disgusted by Coach Gaotou's arrangement.
Basketball in this era is iron-blooded. The defensive moves are just a little bit bigger, but it's not like there's murder or arson.
Next, Coach Gaotou gave everyone a few simple words of encouragement, then patted the players on the shoulders, signaling them to go on the court.
While Coach Takato had finished his arrangement, Xiangbei did not make any technical or tactical changes. Xiangbei was running very well now. Although there were some loopholes in the defense, these loopholes could not be made up by simple tactical adjustments. As long as Miyagi was still on the court, Xiangbei's defense was naturally missing a piece.
Moreover, in today's Xiangbei, Miyagi Ryouta is really irreplaceable. Miyagi Ryouta's defensive ability is limited by his height, but in terms of defensive attitude, Miyagi is also quite outstanding.
The timeout passed quickly, and the players of both teams walked onto the court again. As both teams entered the court, the audience cheered. After the timeout, Hainan High School changed its momentum, and the whole team seemed much more confident than before. Everyone in Xiangbei could sense the changes in Hainan, and for a moment they didn't know what kind of magic Coach Gaotou had cast on these players.
Hainan had the ball. After A Kun served the ball to Maki Shinichi, the Hainan players began to organize an attack.
Maki Shinichi received the ball and pushed forward, while Maekawa Daiki and Takasago Kazuma penetrated the inside line, while Akun and Omasa Shifuku surrounded the three-point line, waiting for the opportunity to penetrate. There were three people standing in the inside line of Xiangbei, Chiba Daishi, Jinguji Budou and Akagi Takenori, while Mitsui Hisashi and Miyagi Ryouta guarded the three-point line.
Hainan does not have a super pitcher, so Xiangbei's defense is concentrated in the inside.
“Although Hainan’s momentum has improved a lot, the offensive options don’t seem to have changed much.”
"Is Coach Gaotou's arrangement focused on defense?!"
Takenori Jinguji stood one or two meters inside the free throw line. On both sides of the bottom corner of the paint area, Takenori Akagi and Daishi Chiba were guarding respectively. The three of them formed a simple triangle defense.
Budou watched the basketball being passed between several perimeter players of Hainan, and did not notice any obvious changes in Hainan's offense. Soon, the basketball was handed to Omasa Shifuku, and the captain of Hainan quickly broke through after taking the ball, and directly passed through the defense of Miyagi Ryouta in two steps, and before Jinguji Budou's backup defense arrived, he shot directly from a high position.
Wu Dao's defense put some pressure on Da Zheng, and his shot was slightly deformed, but this guy was quite lucky, the basketball bounced on the basket and fell directly into the net.
After seeing Hainan's attack this time, Wudao became more confident in his guess, but he also became more cautious.
If the only thing that can be adjusted is on the defensive end, then the next player to be targeted is likely to be himself.
In Xiangbei, he is the loudest on the offensive end. Behind Budou is Mitsui Shou. However, Hainan is unlikely to target Mitsui Shou at this time, because Hainan must know that if they cannot defend Budou, they will not win the game.
Miyagi Ryouta served the ball from the baseline, and the basketball was handed to Jinguji Takeshi. After Miyagi entered the court, Takeshi returned the ball and started running towards the front court.
This is the tacit understanding between Budo and Miyagi. If Hainan did not adopt a full-court pressing defense, the task of controlling the ball on the Xiangbei side would be Miyagi's.
Hainan's players returned to their own half early to defend, and there was no obvious change in the defensive formation. Miyagi Ryouta, as before, dribbled the ball into the front court, and when Takeshi was in the high position on the right, he passed the ball to Takeshi, and Jinguji Takeshi led the entire attack of Xiangbei.
However, after Jinguji Budou got the basketball, the entire defense of Kainan High School changed dramatically. Omasa Shifuku, who was originally defending Budou, sank to the low position, while Takasago Kazuma, who was in the low position, came to the high position, stuck behind Budou, and put one hand on Budou's waist.
"Look! Hainan has changed defense!"
"Eh??? The captain of Hainan couldn't even stop that first-year, would it be any use sending that big guy?! Shohoku's Jinguji Budo is also very fast!"
"Isn't this giving away points? What's wrong with Hainan?"
Hainan's supporters were talking about it. No one was optimistic about Kazuma Takasago. The ability shown by Budo was too strong. It would be reasonable for Hainan to increase defense against Budo now, but such a switch in defense was not acceptable to the fans. For a while, the stands became noisy.
On the court, Wudao saw Kazuma Takasago and quickly swept the ball from his back and turned around.
Takasago's speed is just like the moving level of a traditional center, which is not at the same level as him. When facing the basket, Wudao can easily control the opponent. This is Wudao's confidence!
"Although I don't know what their plan is, as long as they hit a few balls, the opponent's purpose will be exposed." Wudang thought so in his heart, holding the ball with both hands and swung it to the right. Regardless of whether Takasago was fooled or not, Jinguji Wudang directly dropped the ball to the left side and broke through. At the same time, his right hand turned into a ball protector and pressed against Takasago.
Even though Takasago's experience is far less than that of the third-year student Ohmasa Shifuku, he has watched Budou's breakthrough methods for a long time and can more or less judge Budou's next move.
As soon as Wudao made a move, Takasago's body slammed into Wudao's side. When Takasago pushed forward, there was an unobvious force movement. The referee was relatively lenient in this match, and such movements were still within the allowed range.
Although Takasago's experience and skills are not as good as Omasa Shifuku, his strength is far superior to Omasa. The moment his body hit Budou, Budou's dribbling rhythm slowed down a lot.
Wudao felt a little surprised, and after two steps, he stopped suddenly, staggered his left and right feet, and pulled the basketball back from his crotch, turning around and breaking through from the right. Wudao's transformation was natural and smooth, and Gaosago couldn't react at all, and was directly passed by Wudao, and at the same time moved to the middle distance.
Jinguji Takeshi, who got the vacant seat, jumped up without any hesitation.
Sudden stop and pull up!
Wudao was in the air, the basketball was lifted above his head, but at this moment, Takasago caught up with Wudao from behind, and a big hand, from back to front, directly hit Wudao's forearm. His explosive power was too poor, and the height of their jumps was very different. Takasago was a few beats slower than Wudao, and he was able to catch up with Wudao only because Wudao did not continue to make a breakthrough.
"Snap!" As the light sound was heard, the basketball flew out of Wudao's hands. With this level of force, Wudao couldn't maintain his shooting posture at all. Although the basketball was thrown out, it was not accurate at all.
Even after Wudao landed, his center of gravity was unbalanced due to the huge force. After landing, he staggered forward a few steps before he stood firm. The basketball went straight into the hands of the stunned Akagi without any touch.
"Martial Arts?!"
"How are you?!"
The referee's sharp whistle sounded at the right time, and Mitsui Hisashi and Miyagi surrounded Budo and asked with concern, while looking at Takasago with anger in their eyes.
"Hey! How do you fight?" Some bad memories suddenly came to Mitsui Shou's mind. He stood in front of Wudao and yelled at Takasago Kazuma.
"Sorry." Takasago apologized apologetically, looked at the referee and raised his hand.
"You... you bastard, is that enough to apologize?!" Mitsui Shou seemed to be unwilling to give in, but the referee's decision came. Takasago committed a defensive foul and Budo was awarded two free throws.
Hainan obviously had no objection to the referee's decision. Mitsui Shou wanted to argue with the referee because in his opinion, Takasago's move was obviously intentional. The opponent was completely left behind by Budou and there was no possibility of catching up. However, even in this situation, Takasago still hit Budou's hand. What was his intention was obvious.
"Okay, Xiaosan."
"It's okay."
Wudao stopped Mitsui Shou and said something to comfort him, but his eyes were full of fierceness when he looked at Takasago.
Suddenly, Wu Dao smiled and said:
"So this is Coach Gaotou's plan. If this is the only trick you Hainan players have, then this game will soon be over!"
After Wu Dao finished speaking, he walked towards the free throw line. From beginning to end, he did not rub the forearm that was hit by Takasago, as if he could not feel any pain.
"Two free throws, first one!"
The referee blew the whistle, passed the ball to Jinguji Budo who was standing on the free throw line, and spoke loudly.
Jinguji Budou took the basketball and dribbled it twice before shooting it. The basketball fell into the net in a flash, clean and neat. After scoring the goal, Jinguji Budou glanced at Takasago, then looked at Coach Takato on the sidelines and grinned.
"This little bit of force will only make my arm feel a little bit of pain. As for affecting my shooting? Haha!"
Wu Dao received the basketball again. This time, he didn't even adjust himself. He just threw it casually and the basketball went straight into the net.
The audience in the stands thought these two free throws were just normal, but the people in Hainan were already in shock.
After being hit so hard, Jinguji Budo's shooting touch was not affected at all? !
"How... is this possible?!"
Coach Gaotou was also surprised when he saw Wudao score two free throws.
“Look again…look again!” Coach Gaotou shouted in his heart, his face calm, but his right foot had already begun to tremble, and the front of his foot kept hitting the ground, making a “da da da” sound.
Gaotou was a little anxious, but with the sophistication of an adult he suppressed his anxiety and didn't show it too much.
"Foul tactics, haha, will it work on me?!" Wudao laughed in his heart and started to defend. It seemed that he had overestimated his abilities!
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