Only a few people could see Jinguji Budou's intention to control the score. The Xiangbei players only thought that Jinguji Budou was creating opportunities for Akagi and his team in this game, and thought that Budou did not attack with all his strength, and did not think about controlling the score at all.
The players on the field were focused on the court.
As time went by, the game finally came to an end. As the temporary referee's whistle sounded, Xiangbei High School defeated the junior high school team 78:76 and won the game.
"Damn it! It was so close!"
"If I made fewer mistakes, I could have won this game!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who realized defeat for the first time, didn't feel much loss. He was just a little bit away from winning the game, so he was a little annoyed about the few times he lost the ball during the game.
Such emotions also appeared in Kiyota Nobunaga and others. Several members of the junior high school team made more or less mistakes. Facing a slight score difference, everyone was thinking whether the outcome of the game would have changed if they had not made those mistakes.
Among the five junior high school students, only Rukawa Kaede did not have such thoughts in his mind. Compared with the annoyance and regret of Sakuragi and others, Rukawa Kaede was more dissatisfied with his current abilities.
"He didn't even use his full strength..."
"With my current level, I can't even see what he looks like when he's at his full strength!"
“I still have a long way to go!”
Rukawa Kaede is eager and ambitious in basketball. His Takeishi Junior High School is the strongest school in the county, and it is also one of the strongest schools in the country. As the captain of Takeishi, Rukawa Kaede's personal ability can be said to be the best in the country. It is not an exaggeration to describe Rukawa Kaede as the best junior high school student in the country.
For Rukawa, junior high school competitions no longer had any challenging goals to them. All his efforts were just to surpass himself.
However, in this game against Shohoku, Rukawa already has a new goal and a new challenge.
Although he is only in the third year of junior high school, for Rukawa Kaede, he has already officially entered the high school basketball world.
“Pah pah pah pah!”
As the whistle sounded at the end of the game, Coach Anxi walked to the sidelines clapping his hands, looked at the people on the field, and said with a smile:
"You all performed very well. You all played very hard."
“And after this game, I’m sure I made the right choice.”
"Rukawa Kaede, Sakuragi Hanamichi, Kiyota Nobunaga, Katsumi Ichiro, Nango Koichiro."
"You five are definitely the future of Xiangbei High School! Here, I formally welcome you to join our Xiangbei High School reserve team!"
"You are also the first batch of players to officially join the reserve team!"
As Coach Anxi spoke, he glanced at Ayako behind him. Following Coach Anxi's instructions, Ayako took out a package from the table beside her, walked to Coach Anxi, and handed it to him.
Coach Anxi opened the package and waved to the junior high school students, motioning them to come forward. After they came forward, he took out a set of jerseys from the package, looked at the sizes on the jerseys, and distributed them to several junior high school students.
Each person has two sets of Xiangbei training suits, both of which are pure yellow in color. There are no numbers on them, only the abbreviation logo of Xiangbei High School.
"Hoho! Jersey!" After getting the jersey, Sakuragi Hanamichi quickly pulled himself out of the mood of failure and frustration. He cheered, opened the package directly, stroked the fabric of the jersey, his face full of joy.
Kiyota and Nango Koichiro were also impatient people. After receiving the jerseys, they excitedly opened the packaging. Only Rukawa and Katsume Ichiro were polite. After receiving the jerseys, they bowed to Coach Anzai and thanked him.
At this moment, Jinguji Budou also walked off the field with his teammates. Akagi Takenori walked up to Sakuragi, patted Sakuragi Hanamichi on the shoulder, and said softly:
"From today on, you are considered a member of our Xiangbei team. Come to the gym for training after school starts."
Sakuragi just nodded perfunctorily when he heard this. Now, he couldn't wait to put on his jersey and play. Seeing Sakuragi's excitement, Akagi shook his head and laughed, patted Sakuragi's shoulder, and walked off the court.
"How are they? What are the abilities of these junior high school students?"
When Jinguji Takeshi left the court, Mitsui waved to him. When Jinguji Takeshi came closer, Mitsui asked him about his feelings after fighting with the junior high school students. After all, some things can't be seen from the sidelines.
"Not bad. Rukawa has a solid foundation. His passing vision during the game is also quite good. He is fast, has strong ability to attack the basket, and his shooting is also excellent."
“Although he is not very strong physically, he has a good defensive attitude and is very experienced. He is an all-around ace player.”
"But... he relies more on holding the ball, which doesn't fit in with our Xiangbei team. We need to think about how to bring out his abilities."
"But the future is his."
Mitsui Shou listened to Jinguji Budou's words and nodded. He knew what Budou meant by "not compatible". Xiangbei High School already had a ball-handling ace like Jinguji Budou, and Mitsui Shou was able to play with or without the ball. Rukawa Kaede's position was somewhat similar to Budou and Mitsui Shou.
If he joins Shohoku in the future and doesn't have the right tactics, he will probably sit on the bench in his first year. Mitsui felt this when he was watching the game, and now hearing what Wudao said, he was more certain of his judgment.
"What about the others?" Mitsui continued to ask, looking at the other junior high school students who were chatting with Coach Anzai at this time.
"Sakuragi Hanamichi has excellent jumping ability, height, and strength. Although he is a little immature, he has a keen sense of the court. If we develop his defensive ability well, he may be able to replace Chiba Daishi's starting position in a short time and provide support to Akagi in the interior."
"Nango Kouichiro's current physical condition is not much different from Chiba Daishi, but judging from his development, he can still grow taller before entering Shohoku. In terms of ability, he is now more than capable of replacing Chiba."
"As for Kiyota Nobunaga... His only personal strength is his jumping ability. He has no obvious advantage over Miyagi in attacking the basket. In terms of dribbling ability, speed, and even defensive awareness, Miyagi is better."
"Let's see how he grows in the future. He will have plenty of opportunities to play, and there will be no problem rotating into the second team."
"As for Ichiro Katsumi, his abilities are average. His three-point shot is his specialty. He can be a stable outside attacking point. Although his offensive ability is a little weak, if there is a system to cooperate with, his firepower will be very strong."
Takeshi Jinguji briefly summarized his impressions of several special recruits and their technical characteristics. He did not say much about their performance, but simply talked about their possible future development in Shohoku.
Mitsui Hisashi himself had a basic expectation of these people in his mind. He knew that Jinguji Takeshi had always been optimistic about Sakuragi Hanamichi, but after listening to Takeshi's evaluation, he did not expect that in Takeshi's mind, Nango Koichiro would be able to become the starter, while Sakuragi, according to Takeshi, still needed training.
"I didn't expect that in your eyes, Nango Koichiro is better than Sakuragi Hanamichi? In the game just now, Sakuragi's rebounding ability was stronger than Nango Koichiro's."
Wu Dao couldn't help but laugh when he heard this, and asked back: "Do you think I'm the kind of person who is partial to others?"
"It's true that Nango Koichiro's jumping and strength are not as good as Sakuragi's, but his technique is still better than Sakuragi's. I didn't watch Sakuragi much in this game, but Akagi was staring at Nango the whole time."
"His performance was slightly worse, which I expected. And you may not have noticed that Nango Koichiro made far fewer mistakes than Sakuragi."
"Stability is very important for players!"
Wudao does have high expectations for Sakuragi Hanamichi. At the same time, he is also convinced that Sakuragi Hanamichi is an indispensable piece of the puzzle for Xiangbei High School to win the championship. But now the uncertainty shown by Sakuragi Hanamichi on the court is far greater than the value he can bring.
Today's Xiangbei is not the kind of team that only has Akagi. Xiangbei is already qualified to choose the power forward position. Sakuragi Hanamichi must not be satisfied with his current ability, he needs to become stronger.
On the side of the court, Coach Anxi chatted with the junior high school students and got to know each other. Then he asked the players to rest nearby to recover their physical strength and watch the training of Xiangbei High School. Then, under the call of Mitsui Shou, the Xiangbei players who had watched a game gathered and started this morning's training.
Akagi, Murasakibara and others who had participated in the game before were also resting on the sidelines, but like them, Jinguji Budou, who had played for dozens of minutes, joined the training and practiced passing, receiving and layup throughout the court with his teammates.
On the side of the court, Rukawa looked at Jinguji Budo who was training in the court, a little lost in thought. The game had just ended, and Rukawa was already soaked in sweat. Kiyota Nobunaga and the others had also consumed a lot of energy, and they had no way to join in such training immediately.
But at this time, Jinguji Budo in the field was in a completely different state from them. His sweat only soaked the collar of his shirt, and not much seeped down. From the amount of sweat he produced, it was clear that after this intense match, Jinguji Budo had not consumed much energy at all.
Look at Akagi and others who are resting on the sidelines, and then look at Jinguji Budou who is training with the team on the field. At this point, even the most dull Sakuragi Hanamichi can see this contrast and know that Jinguji Budou didn't put in much effort in this game.
“Hehehe… Hehehe…”
"To be honest, I was a little smug just now. Our improvised junior high school student coalition was able to fight back and forth with Shohoku led by Senior Jinguji."
"But now I realize that he probably didn't take the game seriously at all!"
Kiyota Nobunaga wiped the sweat off his face with a sweat towel and suddenly said. Beside him, Nango Kouichiro looked at Jinguji Budo in the field, turned his head to look at Akagi Takenori who was sitting on the other side to rest, breathed a sigh of relief, and said:
"Seriously, but not much."
"It's to control the score and give us middle school students fighting spirit."
"Winning by two points not only gave us a warning, but also spurred us on and made us move forward. Winning by too many points probably means we are afraid of losing motivation completely."
Nango Kouichirō was able to clearly realize this point. Although his tone was calm, his fists were clenched tightly, and the sweat towel in his hand that he had just used to wipe the sweat was soaked with water.
He was a proud man, and he felt more insulted by Jinguji Budou's letting him win and controlling his points than if Jinguji Budou had defeated him with all his strength.
"Damn it!" Sakuragi growled, sat up, trotted into the court, and spontaneously joined Xiangbei's training. The Xiangbei people who were training saw that Sakuragi Hanamichi was at the end of the team, and they didn't say much, but naturally included Sakuragi Hanamichi in the training team.
The dribbling and layup throughout the game were done in groups of two. Mitsui signaled Yasuharu Yasuda and Sakuragi to complete the training in a group.
When the remaining junior high school students saw Sakuragi Hanamichi joining the training, they looked at each other and were also infected by Sakuragi Hanamichi's diligence. After resting for a short while, they walked directly to the center of the field and joined the training.
Akagi on the other side of the court saw this scene and a smile appeared on his face. Not wanting to be outdone by these junior high school students, he stood up and joined the training with Miyagi and others.
The daily training of Xiangbei High School is still quite heavy. After several reforms by Mitsui Shou, the training intensity of Xiangbei is not inferior to that of strong schools such as Ryonan and Kainan.
The middle school students who suddenly joined the training had already consumed a lot of physical energy. The training lasted less than two hours, and Ichiro Katsumi and others gradually couldn't keep up. Rukawa Kaede also showed great difficulty, but Sakuragi Hanamichi not only kept up with Xiangbei's training, but also showed great activity in the sprint training during the period.
His physical condition is much stronger than Rukawa and others.
Coach Anxi saw this scene and kept it in mind. After today's game, Coach Anxi will start to formulate training plans for these junior high school students. At the same time, Coach Anxi has also started to plan the training arrangements for other Xiangbei players.
Xiangbei's performance this year is good, and the school has given so many special recruitment quotas. Coach Anxi has long given up the idea of slacking off. He has already made up his mind that he wants to make Xiangbei High School the strongest basketball school in the country.
He wants to entrust his unfinished dream to the new generation!
... .
Golden September.
Summer vacation passes too quickly for students, and for Japanese students in the three-stage teaching system, the summer vacation is even shorter.
In the blink of an eye, it's time to go to school.
In the morning, Jinguji Takeshi carried his backpack and walked into the campus as the bell rang. When he woke up early in the morning, his head was still buzzing, not because he didn't sleep well, but because his head was buzzing throughout the summer vacation.
Ever since Hanamichi Sakuragi and his men joined the daily training of Xiangbei, Xiangbei's gym has never been quiet. Hanamichi Sakuragi, Nobunaga Kiyota and Koichiro Nango quarreled every day when they met, and they kept making trouble during training. Wudou tried to say a few words to them in a friendly manner at first.
But when these people started arguing, no one else could listen.
There was no other way, Wu Dao could only let Akagi "take action" to settle it. However, under Akagi's iron-blooded suppression, these people only restrained themselves a little, and they still fought each other. Until the eve of the start of school, these bastards still did not stop, which made Wu Dao a little mentally weak.
Jinguji Takeshi walked into the classroom listlessly, put his bag on the seat casually, and without saying hello to the classmates around him, he lay down on the table to rest.
But not long after he lay down, he felt someone poking his arm.
I raised my head unhappily, and my vision was blocked by a large A4 paper.
"Autumn National Sports Players Call-up?"
As soon as Wudao raised his eyes, he was attracted by the contents on the paper in front of him. He subconsciously snatched the paper, glanced at Ayako standing in front of him, and began to read the contents on the paper.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .