"Even now, you still don't have any reflection?!"
Coach Muramasa's angry words stunned the Toyotama team members. In their eyes, this coach was always timid and submissive. Even if the students below mocked him, he would not react so much. At most, he would look unhappy and not talk to them.
But unexpectedly, today Muramasa not only did not swallow his anger, but instead retorted with sarcasm, which made the Toyotama team members stunned.
"You're not going to say anything?! If you don't say anything, then I'll say it!"
"You were eliminated in the quarterfinals not because of Coach Kitano's poor coaching skills, but because you guys think too highly of yourself and don't adapt!"
"You clearly only have this little bit of strength, but you still look down on your opponents day by day. That's why you are in the situation you are in today."
"After playing for such a long time, you still can't see the gap between you and Xiangbei High School?!"
"If you continue to maintain your current pace, we can pack up and go home after the first half, without even having to wait until the second half."
Coach Muramasa scolded the Toyotama team members and did not show any good expression.
"What did you say? You said that we, Touou, are not as good as Shohoku?"
"You just said it yourself. Xiangbei is an unknown small fish. We will lose to a small fish?"
Kishimoto Misaki was a little angry at what Coach Muramasa said. The game was not going well to begin with, and he was already full of rage. Now after hearing what the coach said, he could no longer suppress his anger. After a roar, he wanted to rush forward and grab the coach by the collar.
"So a bastard is a bastard!"
"It's really hard for Coach Kitano to train students like you!"
"He is taking care of your self-esteem, but I won't take care of your self-esteem."
"With your current strength, you can't beat even an opponent like Xiangbei!"
"What? Are you angry? Are you feeling a lot of anger that you can't vent?"
"Look, look at the scoreboard over there. Can your anger earn you 20 points on the court?"
Coach Muramasa was grabbed by the collar, but he did not show any fear. Instead, he turned his head and looked at the scoreboard with a sarcastic smile on his face. At this moment, he no longer cared about the so-called coach's authority and the harmony of the team. He must completely eliminate the so-called arrogance of the Fengyu players today, otherwise, let alone this year, even in the next year, the level of Fengyu High School will still not be able to improve.
"You..." Kishimoto stopped talking suddenly. He found that he really had nothing to say in front of Muramasa. After all, the score difference of more than 20 points already explained a lot of problems.
"Okay, Kishimoto, let him go."
"From what you said, you think we at Fengyu still have a way to turn defeat into victory. Tell me, what is it?"
"How can we defend and stop Xiangbei's attack?"
Nan Lie gently placed his right hand on Kishimoto Miri's shoulder and asked Coach Muramasa.
"Humph, your attitude is a little better now, what were you doing before?"
"I asked you to watch the opponent's game video before. Did you watch it? I arranged for you to do defensive training. Did you practice it?"
"I arranged for you to learn new offensive tactics. Have you learned them?"
"Have you ever shown me the respect I deserve?"
"At this point in the game, is there any way to turn defeat into victory?"
Coach Muramasa questioned. Seeing the dejected look on the faces of the Toyotama players, he was secretly happy. Of course, he knew that it was wrong for him to have such thoughts, but there was nothing he could do. Seeing these proud young men not listening to him and being humiliated, he couldn't help but feel happy.
"You've said so much nonsense, but there is no solution?"
“Waste of time!”
Nan Lie spoke in a low voice, his tone full of disappointment. After he finished speaking, he glanced at the rest area on the other side, saw the figure that could not be stopped on the court, and lowered his eyebrows slightly.
He had somewhat resigned himself to his fate.
"Humph! What do you mean by nonsense?!"
"It's not that you can't fight for victory. Although the hope is slim, there is always a glimmer of possibility!"
"In terms of offense, you have already made the greatest effort. Even if I have a tactic, you won't be able to execute it effectively without any training."
"Now on the offensive end you can only rely on outside scoring and rely on pick-and-roll tactics to help Nan Lie create scoring opportunities."
"You should be able to see that with your strength, you can't face Xiangbei's No. 15 alone!"
Coach Muramasa's last words were to Nan Lie. Although Nan Lie didn't want to admit it, the fact was like this, and even if he didn't want to admit it, he nodded unwillingly at this moment.
"On defense, stop using zone defense."
"Shohoku's offense is concentrated in the hands of No. 4 and No. 15. Both of them are good at attacking from the outside."
"Everyone, go outside and double-team these two! Only one person should stand inside!"
"The rest is up to fate!"
Coach Muramasa didn't say much nonsense. He didn't make any offensive adjustments but instead changed the defensive layout of Touou High School. In his opinion, neither Mitsui Shou nor Jinguji Budou on the Xiangbei side were players that Touou could defend one-on-one.
Moreover, the accuracy of these two players' mid-range and long-range shots is quite terrifying. Instead of using a 23-man defense, it is better to double-team these two players. As for the control of rebounds and the defense in the interior, Coach Muramasa did not consider so much.
Touou High School's hard power is not as good as Shohoku. The inside players are not only not as tall as Akagi, but also not as jumping as Akagi. As for the outside players, although Minami Lie is a famous offensive player in Osaka, he is restricted everywhere in the hands of Shohoku's No. 15.
The players' upper limit is only this, and no matter how elaborate the coach's tactics are, it is impossible to make up for such a big flaw. Moreover, Coach Muramasa also knows that these players are obsessed with Coach Kitano's run-and-gun tactics, so he has never thought of changing it on the offensive end.
Even Coach Muramasa was mentally prepared for Toyotama to lose.
In today’s game, let the players give full play to their offensive abilities and keep their obsession with the run-and-gun tactics until today!
Nan Lie and his players listened to Coach Muramasa's tactical arrangements. They all knew that this defensive strategy was a gamble with Xiangbei High School. If the score could not be quickly narrowed, the gap between the two teams would widen rapidly, and the speed of this widening gap would definitely be much faster than before.
But if they succeed, Touou will be able to survive for a while and then wait for Shohoku to make a move, or they can win the victory in one go.
"Okay! Let's do it!" Nan Lie nodded and agreed without waiting for the players to say anything. As long as he could play fast break and run and gun, he didn't care how they defended him.
Seeing Nan Lie's decisive agreement, the other team members stopped talking nonsense. Nan Lie's prestige in the team was even greater than that of the captain.
Not long after Touou arranged the tactics, the referee's whistle sounded. It was not until this moment that the Xiangbei players sat up from the bench. During the timeout just now, the Xiangbei players did not discuss tactics at all, but sat down for a while and rested tacitly.
As the whistle sounded, the players of both teams returned to the court.
After the timeout, Toyotama has the ball.
After a short break, Nan Lie was obviously calmer. He also realized that his two previous elbow strikes were a bit clumsy. After adjusting his mentality, he covered his teammate who had the ball and slowly ran towards the front court.
Coming to the front court, Jinguji Budo's figure appeared in front of him again. He didn't take Nan Lie's previous malicious elbow seriously. After all, he didn't suffer any loss, but Nan Lie was hit by the basketball. Now, this kid should have known better!
"Nan Lie, I admire your competitive spirit."
"But your method seems a bit clumsy."
"If Coach Kitano saw the way you play, he would probably be a little disappointed, right?"
Jinguji Budo stood in front of Nan Lie, lowered his center of gravity slightly, and whispered in the other's ear.
Hearing this familiar name from Jinguji Budo's mouth, Nan Lie was obviously startled, and then asked anxiously: "You... How do you know Coach Kitano?!"
"Coach Kitano is from the same class as our old man from Xiangbei. They are friends."
"What you Fengyu are good at, we are also good at!"
"It's not that the run-and-gun tactics are not good, it's just that you guys in Touou are not good enough."
"It doesn't matter if you, Touou, can't win the national championship. We, Shohoku, will vindicate this tactic."
"The Neon Ball Era is started by us!"
Jinguji Wudao said, glancing at the scoreboard from a distance. Nan Lie didn't know what Wudao meant by the so-called small ball era. When he found out that Xiangbei's coach Anxi and coach Kitano were actually friends, his face was obviously full of surprise.
But when he heard that Xiangbei would justify the run-and-gun tactics, Nan Lie's face showed some displeasure. In his opinion, their Touou High School was the real user of the run-and-gun tactics, while Xiangbei played the positional tactics!
"Don't you believe it? You will believe it soon!"
While the two were talking, the defender of Fengyu had already come to the front court with the ball. Nan Lie did not continue to talk nonsense with Wu Dao, and immediately ran up to meet him. Wu Dao followed closely behind Nan Lie, but the opponent got close and passed the ball directly to Nan Lie. Nan Lie, who received the ball, used the cover of his teammates, made a fake breakthrough, and shot directly from outside the three-point line.
His shot was quite sudden, and not only did he take advantage of his teammates' screen, he even made a fake move to confuse Wu Dao. Wu Dao on the defending side lost the chance to block the shot and could only raise his hand to interfere.
However, Nan Lie adjusted his mentality and his shooting accuracy improved, and the basketball fell directly into the net.
Nan Lie, who scored the goal, roared with excitement and turned to defend. But just as he turned his head, he saw a red figure passing by him quickly.
"Quick break?! Quickly get back on defense!"
Nan Lie yelled anxiously when he saw Wu Dao suddenly pass him, and then chased Wu Dao madly. At the moment when Wu Dao started, Akagi Takenori, who was serving from the baseline, had already quickly sent the ball out, and the basketball flew over most of the court and landed directly on the floor in front of Wu Dao.
The sprinting Jinguji Budou scooped up the rebounding basketball and quickly rushed towards the Touou basket. While dribbling the ball quickly, he ignored Nan Lie who was chasing him from behind, and dunked the ball directly in the front court, easily scoring the goal.
"Come on! Speed up!"
Jinguji Budo shouted to his teammates while running back to defend. The teammates who received the instructions roared in unison and immediately joined the defense.
Although Touou High School's timeout allowed Touou to adjust their defensive formation, Shohoku's offensive method also changed rapidly.
After Wudao's order, Xiangbei's attack also began to speed up crazily. Originally, Touou was targeting Xiangbei's defensive formation, and there was no way to deploy it immediately.
And what was very coincidental was that Touou accelerated like crazy in the first half, while Shohoku was pressing down on the attack time. Touou had already consumed a lot of physical energy, and at this moment Shohoku also started to play fast breaks, and it directly turned into a confrontation between the two teams.
The overall speed of Xiangbei also steadily suppressed Touou High School. The difference between the two teams became larger and larger as Xiangbei changed its offensive method.
However, as the game progressed, the physical strength of the Xiangbei players was consumed, and the shooting accuracy of Mitsui and Budo slowly began to drop. However, Akagi Takenori's performance was getting better and better as the game progressed.
The center of Touou is too weak, and is no match for Takenori Akagi. In Akagi's opinion, the center of Touou is not even as good as the second-year power forward of Kainan High School, Kazuma Takasago.
Xiangbei High School, which has an absolute advantage in the interior, plays better and better in this fast-paced game. Although Akagi is a big guy, his athletic ability is quite strong, and his running speed is much faster than that of ordinary centers. Only Wudao and Mitsui Shou deliberately control the speed of fast breaks, and Akagi can keep up with the team's rhythm.
With a whistle, at the end of the first half, Xiangbei High School led the opponent by 16 points with 54:38. The score difference was narrowed a little by the opponent, but the situation on the court was that Xiangbei High School had an absolute advantage.
During the break, Shohoku discussed shifting the focus of offense to the inside, while Touou, thanks to the narrowing score difference, did not change its playing style, but only sent players to defend against Takeshi and Mitsui. There were a total of five Touou players, four of whom were used to guard Takeshi and Mitsui.
The halftime break passed quickly and the players of both teams returned to the court. However, in the second half of the game, Shohoku changed its offensive style. Akagi frequently got one-on-one opportunities in the interior. Facing Touou's weak center, Akagi Takenori, who did not have a strong presence in the Shohoku team, attracted almost everyone's attention.
Akagi showed good offensive efficiency in the second half of the game. Although he attacked near the basket, his offensive efficiency was quite good, and his offensive methods were diverse, including dunks after breakthroughs, close-range rebounds after fakes, and powerful back-to-the-basket shots that utilized his body.
For a moment, Touou's center was beaten by Akagi.
And with Touou's failure in the interior, the suspense of this game was gone early on.
At the end of the game, with about ten minutes left, Coach Anzai replaced Chiba Daishi with Kogure Konobu, adding another firepower point for Shohoku. Kogure Konobu had only practiced mid-range shooting for a short time, but if he was open, he could already shoot!
With Budo and Mitsui Hisashi attracting most of the defensive forces, Kogure Konobu scored in double digits for the first time in the national competition.
In the end, Xiangbei High School defeated Toouama High School 103:77 and won its second victory in the national competition.
When the whistle sounded at the end of the game, the Xiangbei players hugged each other and cheered, while Nan Lie and other Touou players walked towards the rest area in disappointment.
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