Sakuragi Hanamichi's first attack seemed smooth and easy. Ichiro Mizusawa, a second-year junior high school student, turned into a road in front of Sakuragi Hanamichi and was easily passed by Sakuragi.
And Sakuragi Hanamichi's slam dunk after dribbling past Ichiro Mizusawa also made the junior high school students in Takeishi exclaim in amazement.
Slam dunk! Among all the junior high school students in Takeishi Junior High School, only Rukawa Kaede can do it. And their captain Rukawa Kaede has never done a two-handed dunk like Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"The speed of his breakthrough is very fast, and his jumping ability is also very terrifying. Perhaps, this kid's jumping ability is stronger than Rukawa Kaede."
"He can vaguely be compared to that kid from Wu Dao back then."
"Where did this kid come from?"
Takeishi's coach, Anzai Zhengyi, stroked his chin and looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi with more interest. A junior high school student of this level should not be unknown, so why had he never seen one before
"Damn! This bastard broke through so quickly!" Sakuragi Hanamichi scored the first goal, which made Mizusawa Ichiro a little annoyed. He volunteered to play in place of his respected senior Rukawa Kaede. If he was defeated by Sakuragi Hanamichi at this time, they, Takeishi, would have lost all face.
The pride in Ichiro Mizusawa's heart would never allow such a thing to happen.
At this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi had already let go of the basket and fell back to the ground. He grabbed the ball and trotted to the three-point line, saying to Mizusawa Ichiro:
"Hey, kid!"
"Do you know how powerful this genius is?"
"A mortal like you is no match for me!"
While Sakuragi Hanamichi was speaking, he threw the ball to Mizusawa Ichiro. Mizusawa Ichiro received the ball and without any nonsense, he bent down and handed the ball back to Sakuragi Hanamichi. Then he immediately stretched out his hand to block Sakuragi's sight.
This was only the first ball, and Ichiro Mizusawa refused to admit defeat.
Sakuragi Hanamichi grabbed the ball with both hands and raised it above his head. This time, Mizusawa Ichiro adopted a close defense strategy, with his right hand on Sakuragi Hanamichi's waist and his left hand blocking Sakuragi Hanamichi's sight. At the same time, he was also observing the position of the basketball, preparing to steal the ball.
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was holding the basketball above his head, was not in a hurry. He looked towards the basket, with a vague intention of shooting. The next second, he exerted all his strength, stepped his right foot in front of his left, and quickly turned to Mizusawa Ichiro.
At the same time, Sakuragi Hanamichi broke through with a falling ball, and at the same time, he half-turned his body and hit Mizusawa Ichiro's chest hard. The huge force pushed Mizusawa Ichiro back a step.
Originally, Mizusawa's attention was attracted by Sakuragi Hanamichi's fake shot and his center of gravity was raised. Now, he was pushed by Sakuragi and suddenly lost the possibility of defending Sakuragi. He could only watch Sakuragi Hanamichi break through.
"I am indeed a genius!"
When Sakuragi Hanamichi completed the breakthrough, he still had time to look back at Ichiro Mizusawa who was standing still. Seeing that the other party could not keep up with him, he simply slowed down his pace, easily entered the basket with the ball, and sent the ball into the basket with a light layup.
Sakuragi Hanamichi did not use the layup method of hitting the backboard. It can be seen that Sakuragi Hanamichi has practiced layups countless times. The whole layup action looks light and stretched, with a light beauty.
"So beautiful, Sakuragi!" Mito Yohei was staring at Sakuragi Hanamichi, amazed in his heart.
He didn't expect that Sakuragi Hanamichi actually scored two goals over the heads of Takeishi players. And he didn't expect that Takeishi players were so weak and Sakuragi Hanamichi could pass them so easily.
Obviously... Sakuragi Hanamichi performed quite poorly when sparring with Jinguji Budou.
"This red-haired kid's moves are pretty good. The triple threat moves and the breakthrough steps when facing close defense are all done quite well."
"But... this guy probably can't shoot! His triple-threat shooting technique is clumsy."
Anzai Masayoshi saw a lot of things from Sakuragi Hanamichi's offensive movements. It can be seen that Sakuragi Hanamichi's breakthrough three-threat is obviously the result of rigorous training. However, what does not match this is that when Sakuragi Hanamichi made a fake shot, he used both hands to grab the ball.
Normally, when doing a fake shot, one should hold the ball with one hand and support it with the other. When the basketball is in hand, it is actually ready to shoot at any time. But Sakuragi Hanamichi is not like that. In Anzai Masayoshi's opinion, Sakuragi Hanamichi's fake shot is too fake, which creates a strong sense of disharmony with Sakuragi Hanamichi's solid three-threat steps.
There is only one answer that can explain this sense of disharmony.
"Shui Ze, don't let his fake shot affect your own judgment."
"You don't have to defend his shooting, just focus on his breakthrough and determine the direction of his breakthrough!"
At this moment, Rukawa Kaede, who had been watching coldly, spoke up.
Those who are involved are often confused, while those who are not involved can see things more clearly.
Ichiro Mizusawa, who was facing off against Hanamichi Sakuragi, didn't even notice whether Sakuragi's hand movements were standard when he was shooting, or he didn't have time to pay attention to or notice this.
Rukawa and Anzai Zhengyi, who were watching the game on the sidelines, quickly discovered this. Anzai Zhengyi did not remind them because he wanted to see if Mizusawa Ichiro could deal with it. Rukawa reminded them because he did not want his players to play so badly.
Although Rukawa Kaede has a cold personality, he is the type of person who is cold on the outside but warm on the inside. He does have a sense of collective honor.
After hearing Rukawa's reminder, Ichiro Mizusawa recovered from his distracted state. Sakuragi Hanamichi scored two goals so easily that Ichiro Mizusawa began to doubt his life. He is also a well-known figure in the junior high school arena. This year, Takeishi Junior High School also successfully entered the national competition and achieved a good result of the top four.
Mizusawa Ichiro also averaged 12 points per game in the national competition. Don't underestimate these 12 points. In junior high school games, the scores of the teams are generally around 70 points. Sometimes, the scores of the two teams are only 40-50 points in a fierce game. With his average of 12 points per game, he firmly sits in the third place of the team.
Only below the captain Rukawa and the vice-captain Ichiro Katsume. Ichiro Mizusawa himself is also very proud. He has always thought that he is one of the best junior high school students in the country. After the players of Rukawa and his generation graduate, he will usher in his era.
“... ..”
"Don't worry about his shooting, pay attention to the direction of the breakthrough?"
"Let it go? That's right... It's the last ball, let's give it a try."
Ichiro Mizusawa accepted Rukawa's suggestion, but he didn't know the deeper meaning of this suggestion. He just regarded this defense as a desperate fight.
At this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi also grabbed the basketball and returned to the three-point line. When he heard what Rukawa Kaede said, he just cursed: "This stinky fox." He didn't care whether Mizusawa Ichiro planned to change his defensive style.
"It's all the same, no matter how you defend it, it's all the same."
Sakuragi Hanamichi's attention was not on Ichiro Mizusawa at this time. Instead, he was recalling the two times he watched the games between Shohoku and Ryonan, one in the county tournament and one in the national tournament.
The triple threat, this kind of thing Jinguji Budou had already taught him. Although Sakuragi Hanamichi practiced diligently, he did not take this basic move seriously. How could such a simple and unpretentious move be worthy of a genius like him
What Sakuragi Hanamichi hopes to learn is the fancy dribbling methods of martial arts, as well as those extraordinary moves that would make one exclaim “awesome” at first sight.
But now this idea in Sakuragi Hanamichi's mind has weakened a lot. He has watched many games of Jinguji Budou and several games of Ryonan High School. After watching the games, Sakuragi Hanamichi realized how important the triple threat is to a player.
Jinguji Budo of Shohoku and Shinomiya Tano of Ryonan are both people who have taken the triple threat to the extreme.
It's just that the two people's directions are somewhat different. Takeshi Jinguji relies on accurate shooting and the change of rhythm after the three-threat. These two things make Takeshi Jinguji unmatched on the court.
However, Ryonan's Shinomiya Tano was much simpler and more brutal. He used his extreme speed and strength to defeat all opponents who were weaker than him. Before meeting Jinguji Budo, Shinomiya Tano could easily defeat most people without any changes in rhythm.
This breakthrough method of Shinomiya Tano also allowed Sakuragi Hanamichi to find an offensive method at this stage!
"Facing an opponent like this, just force your way through!"
For the third goal, after checking the ball, Sakuragi Hanamichi was thinking about other things in his mind, but his body made direct movements, without any fake moves, just a simple drop ball and a breakthrough.
In the blink of an eye, Sakuragi Hanamichi's body was pressed against Mizusawa Ichiro, and the breakthrough without any change in the confrontation made the road in front of Sakuragi Hanamichi clear.
He subconsciously passed the ball and jumped up to dunk. After completing all this, Sakuragi Hanamichi grabbed the basket and looked at the floor under his feet belatedly.
"I... am indeed a genius!" This was not the first time that these words appeared in Sakuragi Hanamichi's mind, but no time had made Sakuragi Hanamichi as sure as he was now.
After three goals, in just a few minutes, Ichiro Mizusawa was defeated.
Sakuragi Hanamichi fell back to the ground and grabbed the basketball with one hand. He turned his head and looked at Rukawa Kaede outside the court. He threw the ball out. Sakuragi Hanamichi had a confident smile on his face and said loudly:
"Hey, stinky fox! It's your turn!"
"Let me show you how powerful this genius is!"
Rukawa caught the basketball thrown by Sakuragi Hanamichi, and looking at Sakuragi Hanamichi who was full of confidence, he also walked out of the team and headed towards the center of the court, while cursing in his heart: "Big idiot!"
Rukawa walked up to Mizusawa Ichiro and patted him on the shoulder. When Mizusawa Ichiro saw Rukawa, he lowered his head in shame and apologized, "Sorry, Rukawa-senpai."
Rukawa just nodded without saying anything else. He rubbed the basketball with both hands, looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi, and said calmly: "You attack first!"
Rukawa threw the ball towards Sakuragi and slowly walked in front of Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Seeing this, Sakuragi grinned, and without hesitation, stood outside the three-point line and passed the ball to Rukawa for inspection.
Rukawa Kaede just patted the basketball symbolically and returned the ball to Sakuragi Hanamichi, while quickly crouching down.
Just as the duel between the two was about to begin, three figures appeared at the entrance of the stadium.
The chubby coach Anzai walked into the gym with Jinguji Takeshi and Mitsui Hisashi.
As soon as he entered the stadium, Takeshi Jinguji saw the red-haired boy in the center of the court surrounded by the crowd. He scratched his head in confusion and looked at Rukawa Kaede who was facing Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Then he said to Coach Anxi beside him, "Coach, it seems like there's a one-on-one bullfight over there. Why don't we not disturb them and take a look first?"
Although Takeshi didn't know why Sakuragi Hanamichi was fighting with Rukawa Kaede, this didn't affect his original intention of letting Sakuragi Hanamichi come to Takeishi. Whether Sakuragi Hanamichi performed well or made a fool of himself, as long as he showed his ability in front of Coach Anzai, it was enough.
"Haha, let's take a look first."
When Coach Anxi heard this, he just smiled, thinking that they were not in a hurry anyway.
The three of them did not alarm anyone, and quietly joined the crowd. However, the crowd did not have the time to notice whether there was an extra person around them, and now everyone's attention was on the two people in the field.
Takeishi's teammates were cheering loudly for Rukawa, hoping that their captain would teach this red-haired bastard a lesson.
"Ho~ they all have nice figures."
Anzai Mitsuyoshi pushed up his glasses and looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede, who were of similar height, and murmured in his heart. Coach Anzai's selection method is completely different from the traditional school basketball selection method in this country.
Other coaches focus on their immediate combat effectiveness when selecting players. After all, junior high school and high school are only three years. What coaches need are players who can perform immediately after joining the team, or players who can perform within 1 to 2 years.
But Anzai Mitsuyoshi is different. He looks at potential, the future potential of the players, that is, combat effectiveness and so on. Of course it is best to have it, but if not, it doesn’t matter.
Although nominally he was selecting reserve players for the Xiangbei basketball team, selecting combat power for the team to win the national competition and complete the reinforcement, but Coach Anxi himself had some selfish motives. He wanted to see if there were any players with the talent of Jinguji Budo in junior high school that he could train!
He hopes to train a few more players who are better than Gu Ze!
The physical conditions of Sakuragi and Rukawa have passed the first hurdle of Coach Anzai.
On the court, Sakuragi Hanamichi bent his body slightly, moved his left foot forward, moved his right foot horizontally, grabbed the ball with both hands and swept left and right, luring Rukawa Kaede's defense into position.
However, it seemed that Rukawa had seen through Sakuragi Hanamichi's intentions. Facing Sakuragi's tentative moves, Rukawa was completely unmoved. His eyes did not even look at the ball, but at Sakuragi's feet.
“This guy!”
Seeing that his actions had no effect on Rukawa, Sakuragi Hanamichi did not hesitate and immediately broke through with the ball. However, the basketball had just fallen when Rukawa quickly reached out and accurately hit the basketball, completing the steal.
"Haha, Sakuragi has too little practical experience. His ball protection is just for show."
"Right now, I'm still no match for this kid Rukawa Kaede!"
Wudao secretly laughed in his heart when he saw this scene. Although it was beyond Wudao's expectation that Sakuragi Hanamichi was intercepted so easily, he figured it out after thinking about it for a while.
Coach Anxi did not say anything when he saw this scene. He just touched his chin with an inexplicable expression.
At this time, the players from Takeishi who were watching the game were already cheering, as if Rukawa had already won.
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