December.
As the winter trials approached, the heavy training tasks of Xiangbei High School began to gradually decrease, and were replaced by frequent team practice matches.
Coach Anxi planned to use frequent team practice matches to verify the results of the players' training in the past few months. Because they were preparing for the winter trials, the team formation for the practice matches at Xiangbei High School was relatively fixed.
The junior high school students training with Xiangbei spontaneously formed a group and became sparring partners for the Xiangbei high school players.
Center: Koichiro Minamigo, power forward: Hanamichi Sakuragi, small forward: Kaede Rukawa, shooting guard: Ichiro Katsume, point guard: Nobunaga Kiyota.
The one with the biggest difference is actually Kiyota Nobunaga, because when he was in junior high school, his grandfather trained him as a small forward and shooting guard, and the main abilities he cultivated were the ability to break through with the ball and cut without the ball. With Kiyota Nobunaga's amazing jumping ability, Kiyota's performance in junior high school competitions was often exceptionally eye-catching.
However, after becoming a reserve player for Shohoku High School, Coach Anzai focused more on the point guard position in his training of Kiyota Nobunaga.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that Shohoku already has super scorers like Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Shou, and among the younger generation, there are also people like Rukawa Kaede. If Kiyota still plays as a small forward, he will not have a chance to play. The second reason is Kiyota Nobunaga's height.
With a height of less than 180cm, even if Kiyota Nobunaga has good jumping ability, it is difficult for him to compete with players like Rukawa Kaede at the small forward position. Not only does he have no advantages, but on the contrary, he has all disadvantages.
Taking this into consideration, Coach Anzai placed Kiyota on the point guard reserve list.
Fortunately, Kiyota Nobunaga has a solid foundation in ball control and a good speed. What he lacks to become a qualified point guard is the overall situation, vision, and passing ability.
These abilities have also improved significantly after he entered Xiangbei.
At this time, an internal team practice match of Xiangbei High School was taking place on the Xiangbei High School court.
The two teams in the competition are composed of high school students and junior high school students respectively.
On the high school side, the center is Chiba Daiishi, the power forward is Kakuta Satoru, the small forward is Kogure Kimiyasu, the shooting guard is Miyagi Ryouta, and the point guard is Yasuda Yasuharu.
As the captain, Mitsui Hisashi, and the main center forward, Akagi Takenori, both served as referees, standing on both sides of the court and watching the game.
At this time, there were only 5 minutes left in the game, and the score between the two teams was 13:8. The leading team was actually the junior high school team!
"Come on, play it slow and steady, we'll score the first goal!"
On the court, Yasuda Yasuharu advanced slowly with the ball and crossed the center line. However, several other players had already entered the junior high school students' position long before he crossed the center line, which seemed a bit out of touch.
The junior high school students used a man-to-man tactic, and the opponent of Yasuda Yasuharu was Kiyota Nobunaga. Kiyota Nobunaga on the defensive side noticed that the high school team was out of touch, and Yasuda Yasuharu, who was holding the ball, was several meters away from his nearest teammate, which was a very good steal opportunity.
Even if the opponent passes the ball, it is easy to be intercepted due to such a long distance.
When the opportunity came, Kiyota Nobunaga did not hesitate and went straight forward to press. Although it was Yasuda Yasuharu from high school, he was a little flustered when facing Kiyota Nobunaga's pressure, and hurriedly threw the ball out, fearing that Kiyota would steal it. However, he was so flustered when he passed the ball that he did not notice that beside Mugure Konobu, who was passing the ball, Rukawa Kaede had already been eyeing him.
When Rukawa saw the opponent's basketball being passed, he took a step forward and squeezed his body against Kogure Konobu. Rukawa Kaede, who was in the third grade of junior high school, was much stronger than Kogure Konobu. He directly took the position, intercepted the flying basketball, and then quickly broke through with the ball.
The moment the steal was completed, Katsume Ichiro and Kiyota Nobunaga also started at the same time, following closely behind Rukawa Kaede to support Rukawa's fast break.
On the high school student side, the only one capable of catching up was Miyagi Ryouta on the outside.
Three against one in the frontcourt.
However, Rukawa did not intend to pass the ball. He forced his way into the basket despite the defense of Miyagi Ryouta and scored a layup. In a three-on-one situation, Rukawa did not rely on passing the ball past Miyagi Ryouta's defense, but relied on his own ability to score the ball. Both Katsumi Ichiro and Kiyota Nobunaga did not have any major objections to this.
The chasing defender Miyagi Ryouta is much shorter than Rukawa. Facing such defense, it is not a wrong choice for Rukawa to choose to force a shot.
As the basketball went into the net, the score between the two teams became 15:8.
Facing this group of junior high school students, Xiangbei fell behind by 7 points. Everyone felt ashamed and desperately wanted to catch up.
During the transition between offense and defense, Miyagi Ryouta asked Yasuda for the ball near the midline. After getting the basketball, Miyagi called a pick-and-roll, then rushed forward with the ball under the cover of Mugure Konobu, and chose to shoot from mid-range against Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense.
Although Miyagi's mid-range shooting level has improved, his shooting percentage is still touching when he is not open.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's backup defense put a lot of pressure on Miyagi Ryouta. His jump shot was inaccurate and the basketball went straight out of the basket. However, the rebound was caught by Sakuragi Hanamichi who quickly rushed back to the basket.
"Hahaha! I really am a genius!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who got the rebound, shouted excitedly, then ignored Kiyota Nobunaga, Rukawa Kaede, Katsume Ichiro and others who were asking for the ball, and played as a power forward, dribbling the ball forward directly.
His action was beyond everyone's expectations. Kakuta and others didn't check for a moment and were quickly overtaken by Sakuragi Hanamichi. They could only chase after Sakuragi's back.
As the junior high school students quickly left the court, Miyagi and others on the outside also chose to return to the court quickly, ignoring Sakuragi who was controlling the ball.
Sakuragi Hanamichi crossed the midline with the ball and approached the three-point line. He was faced with Chiba Daishi's defense and was forced to slow down. However, Sakuragi Hanamichi still had no intention of passing the ball. After a short dribbling to adjust the rhythm, Sakuragi actually chose to force the ball himself.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's breakthrough technique was taught by Jinguji Takeshi. Although Takeshi led Sakuragi in training for a considerable period of time, most of the time Takeshi let Sakuragi practice basic dribbling.
As for the breakthrough technique, Budo only taught Sakuragi Hanamichi the digging step breakthrough, and also corrected the weird three-threat breakthrough that Sakuragi learned from Haruko.
Relying on the digging step technique, Sakuragi Hanamichi can increase his speed to the maximum in a split second. The faster and more explosive the player is, the greater the threat of digging step breakthrough!
And Sakuragi Hanamichi's explosive power... ..
"Huh?! This kid is so fast!
"Chiba Daishi just blinked his eyes, and Sakuragi Hanamichi disappeared from his sight. He came to his side with the ball. Before Chiba could react, Sakuragi Hanamichi had already passed Chiba Daishi's defense, directly invaded the basket, and made a layup near the basket.
"Don't even think about it!" When Kakuta Satoru saw Sakuragi Hanamichi trying to make a layup under the basket, he raised his arms high to try to block the shot. However, his jumping ability was far inferior to Sakuragi's. Even if he jumped with all his strength and raised his arms high, his arms only reached Sakuragi's forearm, and posed no threat to Sakuragi's layup.
When Sakuragi dribbled the ball for a layup, he slightly lowered his eyelids in mid-air, glanced at Kakuta Satoru indifferently, and then stopped looking at him, and successfully put the ball into the basket.
“Roar~~~”
Sakuragi pounded his chest happily after scoring the goal, and then quickly returned to defense with his teammates. Kiyota Nobunaga wanted to say something to Sakuragi, but he didn't expect Sakuragi to score a goal, so Kiyota had to swallow his words.
He didn't expect that this amateur, Sakuragi Hanamichi, actually broke through Chiba's defense and scored the ball.
"Hohoho..."
"Sakuragi-san, your layup technique is becoming more and more sophisticated."
"That digging step breakthrough was also done very beautifully!"
"This kind of breakthrough technique requires both strong explosive power and high proficiency."
"I didn't see Sakuragi-san practicing this technique during normal training. It seems that after training, Sakuragi-san is also working hard on it in private."
Coach Anzai, who was standing by the court, smiled with satisfaction when he saw Sakuragi's goal. Ayako, who was sitting next to him, looked at the happy Coach Anzai and also smiled knowingly.
For more than a month, it was no longer a secret in Xiangbei High School that Coach Anzai gave special treatment to Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede.
It would be a lie for the other team members to say they were not envious, but they just did not have the courage to ask Coach Anxi to give them special treatment.
Mitsui once shamelessly went to see Coach Anzai, but Coach Anzai's answer to Mitsui was: "You already have a mature style. I can no longer give you guidance in terms of technology."
This made Mitsui Shou very disappointed, but also secretly happy. Coach Anxi's words were not perfunctory, and Mitsui Shou knew it very well. What Mitsui Shou had to do at this stage was to practice constantly and thoroughly integrate all the abilities he had mastered! The guidance that Coach Anxi could give him was more about the idea of playing.
However, after Mitsui shamelessly asked Coach Anzai for guidance, Coach Anzai realized that his favoritism seemed to be too much, and then announced to the players that after the team's normal standard training time, interested players could stay for additional training.
However, Xiangbei's daily training is already very arduous, and most of the players simply do not have the energy or physical strength to stay for additional training after a day of training.
Therefore, the special training class of Coach Anzai only includes those junior high school students, Akagi, Mugure, and Miyagi. As for Mitsui, although he does not need individual guidance from Coach Anzai, he will still stay to practice shooting when he has extra energy, or help to act as an assistant coach.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's single attack was only an occasional situation. The main offensive system for junior high school students was the mid-range and long-range offense centered around Rukawa Kaede and Katsume Ichiro.
In today's game, Rukawa took many shots from mid-range or near the three-point line. As for Katsume Ichiro, he took more open three-pointers. When there was no such opportunity, he chose to give the ball to Rukawa and let him shoot.
The one defending Rukawa was Kogure Konobu. Facing Kogure who was nearly ten centimeters shorter than him, Rukawa kept using quick stop jump shots, which made Kogure Konobu lose all his temper.
Rukawa Kaede and Katsumi Ichiro both have high hit rates, and their inside strength is much better than that of the high school team. Nango Koichiro is not inferior to Chiba Daiishi, the main power forward of Xiangbei, and even relies on his excellent athletic ability to suppress Chiba.
As for the matchup between Sakuragi Hanamichi and Kadota, it was a one-sided crushing.
Whether in terms of height, strength, athletic ability, etc., Sakuragi Hanamichi crushes Kadota Satoru in all aspects. When he is positioning himself under the basket, he can often make Kadota lose his way.
Sakuragi has been playing basketball for nearly eight months, and judging by his rebounding ability alone, he already possesses the qualities of a top power forward in the county. Even across the country, he can be ranked number one among the high school teams.
The speed of progress is so fast that everyone is astonished.
Players like Kakuta Satoru are no match for Sakuragi anymore.
Even if Takenori Akagi was asked to come to the court to personally watch Sakuragi, he could only rely on experience and strength to deal with Sakuragi. He might not be able to suppress Sakuragi Hanamichi in the fight for rebounds.
On offense there are Rukawa Kaede and Katsume Ichiro, on the inside and rebounding there are Nango Koichiro and Sakuragi Hanamichi, and although Kiyota Nobunaga's presence seems to be weak, he repeatedly oppresses Yasuda and causes the opponent to make mistakes, while he himself also achieved zero mistakes.
As the game progressed, the junior high school team began to widen the gap in points, and the speed at which the score was widened was very fast.
When Coach Anzai saw this, he realized that if things continued like this, the training match would not be effective. Ten minutes into the game, he replaced Yasuda and Kakuta with Akagi Takenori and Mitsui Hisashi.
At this point, Xiangbei's lineup on the court can be said to be Xiangbei's strongest lineup now.
But even with Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori on the court, it was still difficult for the high school students to catch up. Akagi's arrival did strengthen the inside line, but in the fight for rebounds, the junior high school students were not inferior at all.
Although Mitsui filled the gap in the high school students' outside offense, Rukawa Kaede, who was facing him, became slippery. From playing alone at the beginning, he began to share the ball.
Under the leadership of Rukawa Kaede, Katsume Ichiro played better and better, and the player defending him, Kogure Mitsunobu, could not stop Katsume Ichiro's three-point shots at all.
For a moment, Xiangbei, which had replaced its strongest lineup at the current stage, was only able to tie with the junior high school students. It had no way to catch up quickly and could only barely maintain the score difference.
"These middle school students are really amazing!"
"Rukawa Kaede, who was not outdone by Captain Mitsui, Sakuragi Hanamichi and Nango Koichiro, who fought for rebounds with Akagi and Chiba seniors, Katsume Ichiro, a shooter who even Kogure senior couldn't defend, and Kiyota Nobunaga, who didn't make a mistake even when facing Miyagi senior's pressure."
"It's really hard to imagine that these junior high school students can actually fight against our Xiangbei regulars."
"Fortunately... next year, these people will be able to join Xiangbei."
Yasuharu Yasuda returned to the sidelines, wiped his sweat with a towel and sighed as he sat in his seat.
"Yeah! That Sakuragi Hanamichi is growing so fast. How long has it been? I feel like I can't stop him at all."
"A guy like this has only been playing basketball for less than a year."
Kakuta Satoru agreed with his eyes narrowed, looking exhausted. Although the confrontation with Sakuragi didn't last long, it had exhausted all his strength.
The discussions of the players fell into the ears of Coach Anxi. In response, Coach Anxi also wore a faint smile and said nothing. But in his heart, he sighed heavily. Without Jinguji Budo, the high school team's strength dropped by more than one level.
Based on the current strength of the team, it will probably be difficult to qualify in the winter trials.
Without Jinguji Budo, how can we overcome the huge mountain of Ryonan High School
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