The next day.
After training in the United States for a long time, Jinguji Budo has become a little uncomfortable with the days of attending classes in the morning and afternoon. During his time in the United States, team training and competitions occupied 80% of his life. Now that he is back to school, he is still sleepy.
During the morning class, Wudao lay on his seat with his hands under the table, rolling a basketball along the ground, looking bored and inattentive.
Fortunately, Wudao had already told his teacher about his situation when the school started. After finishing his senior year of high school, he would go directly to the United States, study for another year in the senior year, play basketball for a year, and then enter Duke University!
In the half year in the United States, Budo Jinguji has already made a name for himself in that country. Although he is only a freshman in high school, he has already attracted the attention of many universities.
Although some universities backed off when they learned that Jinguji Budou was going to Japan to play basketball for two years, some schools, even after knowing the news, still trusted Jinguji Budou's talent and sent him invitations early. Budou also accepted the invitation from Duke University and agreed to go to Duke University after his senior year.
Of course, Duke University is not stupid. There is a prerequisite for Takeshi Jinguji to go to Duke University, and that is that Takeshi must break into the top ten of the TOP100 list of high school students in the United States in his senior year!
To this, Wu Dao agreed without hesitation. After traveling to the United States, he already had a clear understanding of his own talent and strength. Being in the top ten in the United States is definitely not a problem for him. In fact, his goal is not just to be in the top ten in the United States!
The boring time passed very slowly.
It was not until Wu Dao lay down with his back and waist aching that he finally waited for the school bell to ring.
"Huh~~ School is finally over. My body is already stiff!"
"Play ball, play ball. I can finally move around."
Hearing the school bell, Jinguji Takeshi let out a heavy sigh, and while packing his backpack, he complained quietly. Just as Takeshi packed up and prepared to leave the classroom, he suddenly felt a chill in his hand. He turned around and found that Fujima Takako was following him and took Takeshi's hand.
The two looked at each other in the corridor, and suddenly they both smiled knowingly. Wudao held Fujima Takako's hand tightly and said softly, "Let's go." Then the two walked hand in hand towards the Xiangbei Basketball Hall.
Wu Dao was still a little slow in packing his backpack. Many students had already rushed out of the classroom the second the bell rang. By the time Wu Dao went to the locker room to change his clothes and shoes, many students were already in the gym.
There was even a three-on-three game being played in one half of the court, with many players watching the game around.
Wu Dao's arrival immediately attracted the attention of some students. The sophomores and juniors who knew him greeted him one after another, while some freshmen looked at him excitedly, as if they had met some idol star.
"Ohh, a real person!"
"That's Jinguji-senpai, wow... he's so tall!"
"Since Jinguji-senpai is so tall, has he switched to playing center?"
"Hey, you know what, it's really possible."
The arrival of Jinguji Takeshi made the originally relatively quiet gymnasium suddenly noisy. After arriving at the gym, Fujima Takako did not stay by Takeshi's side. She went straight to an empty seat on the sidelines and sat down, ready to watch Jinguji Takeshi's training quietly.
Perhaps because she loves her husband so much, Fujima Takako now has a good understanding of basketball and is very interested in both training and games.
Jinguji Budo didn't pay attention to the classmates who were talking about him. His attention was attracted by the three-on-three game on one side of the court.
Both sides of the game were people he knew, sophomores and juniors at Shohoku High School. One team was Mugure, Kakuda, and Shiozaki, and the other team was Miyagi, Yasuda, and Chiba Oishi.
In Wudao's opinion, the gap in strength between the two teams should be quite large, but after watching a few balls, Wudao was surprised to find that the three people led by Kogure Konobu were not at a disadvantage on the court, and the one who played a key role among them was Kogure Konobu.
Wudao was surprised to find that now Mugure Kiminonobu's mid-range shots were quite accurate. Under the defense of Miyagi Ryouta, he still made three consecutive mid-range shots, which made Wudao stunned.
"Oh! Budo! You're here!"
"How about it, do you want to play for a while?"
After a round of offense, Kogure Konobu missed the shot and the basketball bounced out of bounds. When the ball was exchanged, Kogure Konobu saw Jinguji Budou standing on the sidelines watching the game and greeted him.
"Ah? No, we'll train when almost everyone arrives. Save some energy for training, so we won't fight."
Wu Dao waved his hand and said with a smile. He actually wanted to see how much his teammates had improved in the past six months. If he played in the next game, it would be hard to see and they would have no chance to show their skills.
"Haha, you kid, you think too much."
"With so many new students joining the club today, how can there be a lot of training?"
"Today's training subject will most likely be a competition, and our opponents will be the new students!"
"It would be better if you save your energy so that you can show off your skills in front of the freshmen when the time comes."
Kogure Konobu smiled cheerfully, went to the sidelines to pick up the basketball, and rejoined the game. Wudao also smiled when he heard this, and watched Kogure Konobu and his team play a three-on-three game while waiting for the arrival of Coach Anzai and Mitsui Hisashi.
However, Coach Anzai and his team had not arrived yet, but Sakuragi Hanamichi and the Sakuragi Army had arrived first. When they saw Jinguji Takeshi watching the game on the sidelines, they immediately came over warmly.
"Brother Takeru! When did you come back?" Sakuragi Hanamichi greeted with a smile. When he arrived in front of Takeru, he raised his head involuntarily to see Takeru's face clearly. Without waiting for Takeru to answer, Sakuragi stretched out his hand, compared his height with Takeru's, and exclaimed:
"Brother Budo, you've grown a lot taller! You're taller than a gorilla, right?!"
Jinguji Budo turned around and saw Sakuragi and the others. He patted Sakuragi on the shoulder with a smile and replied, "I came back a few days ago."
"I am now a little over two meters tall, so I should be taller than Akagi."
"You've grown quite a bit taller, too. It looks like you've made a lot of progress in the past six months!"
While Jinguji Takeshi was speaking, he had already involuntarily opened the system panel of Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"Sakuragi Hanamichi, height 190cm, weight 83kg, strength: high school A+ level, agility: high school S level, body coordination: S level."
"Destiny: Beast instinct, miracle creation, endless physical strength, the child of destiny."
A string of extremely high scores, a string of glaring and blinding entries. Even if Wudao has never seen Sakuragi play now, he can know that Sakuragi Hanamichi's strength has probably grown to a very terrifying level.
It has only been about a year since Sakuragi Hanamichi officially started playing basketball.
"It's true! Hanamichi, your ability will definitely open my eyes."
Sakuragi's system panel, with martial arts gathered, smiled and patted Sakuragi's shoulder and said, then he turned his attention to the court, watching the ball while chatting with Sakuragi and others.
They were very curious about Wudao's life in the United States, and Wudao was open to them and satisfied their curiosity. Not long after Sakuragi and his friends arrived at the stadium, Kiyota Nobunaga, Rukawa Kaede and others also arrived at the stadium one after another. Kiyota Nobunaga was obviously also full of curiosity about Wudao's life in the United States, and immediately joined the conversation.
Rukawa Kaede's personality was a little colder. He just stood not far away and listened with his ears perked up. He didn't get too close and still looked tsundere.
Soon, more and more students gathered in the gym. Some were members of the basketball team, and some were freshmen who planned to join the Xiangbei High School basketball department. Soon, there were more than a hundred people gathered in the Xiangbei gym, and the gym became noisy.
Murasaki and others who were originally playing 3v3 basketball on the court stopped when more people gathered. Murasaki Mitsunobu, the vice-captain, began to organize the team, mainly targeting the freshmen.
When Coach Anzai and Mitsui Hisashi entered the gym, the first-year students had already lined up neatly from tall to short.
It was only after Mitsui Hisashi arrived that he began to call the 2nd and 3rd grade players to assemble.
Soon, the noisy stadium became quiet.
Coach Anzai walked slowly in front of the team members. After his gaze stayed on Jinguji Takeshi for a few seconds, he moved to the freshmen.
The first-year players were in very good spirits. The ones at the front, like Nanxiang and Sakuragi, held their heads high and looked like elite players, which made Coach Anzai very satisfied.
"Wow, that's great."
"Let me briefly introduce myself."
"My name is Anzai Mitsuyoshi, the coach of the Xiangbei basketball team. You can call me Coach Anzai from now on."
"All the freshmen present here hope to join the Xiangbei basketball team. For this, I am very grateful that you have chosen our Xiangbei basketball team."
"but... ."
At this point, Coach Anxi hesitated for two seconds before continuing:
"I think many of you have some understanding of our Xiangbei. Our Xiangbei goal is to dominate the country!"
"Therefore, the selection of the starting players will be much stricter than that of other schools. I hope you can be mentally prepared."
"Now, all students who have no basketball background, please step forward and stand out."
After Coach Anxi finished speaking, the first-year team fell silent. The players looked at each other, but no one left the team. Seeing this, Coach Anxi consoled them:
"Don't worry, I'm not asking students with no basketball experience to come out to expel you."
"All the first-year students standing here today who have submitted their applications for admission are members of our basketball team. The reason why we let the players who don't have any basketball skills stand out is just to provide better training for the future."
Coach Anxi's words had some effect. After the words fell, many players in the queue walked out of the queue one after another, and then under the instruction of Coach Anxi, they formed their own groups and lined up again. There were not many students who had never played basketball before, only a dozen or so.
"Okay, all the first-year students standing here, in a moment, you will participate in a freshman training match."
"The order of playing and the playing time will be arranged by me personally."
"And your opponents are the 2nd and 3rd grade players of the Xiangbei High School basketball team."
"Now, the team's vice-captain, Kogure Mitsunobu, will lead you in warm-up exercises and prepare to start the training match."
After Coach Anxi finished speaking, he waved to Kogure Konosuba, then walked to the sidelines, picked up a list of first-year students from his seat, went to the line of pure novices, and called the roll.
When Kogure Mitsunobu was warming up with the first-year students, Mitsui Hisashi was also warming up with the second- and third-year students. The senior students could guess today's training plan because they had all gone through it. Today was a chance to bully the weaker players, and the second- and third-year students were all very excited and warmed up very well.
After Coach Anzai finished calling the roll, he handed these first-year players with no basic skills over to Akagi, and asked Akagi Takenori to be responsible for the training of these freshmen.
Of course, today is the first day of joining the team. Akagi's task for this player is to observe the upcoming freshman training match. Akagi will also use this training match to popularize the basic knowledge of basketball to the new players.
The current Xiangbei basketball team has a total of more than 100 people, divided into three groups. The one who leads the stupid rookies is Akagi, the one who leads the rest of the freshmen is Mugure Kiminori, and the one who leads the 2nd and 3rd grade players is Mitsui Hisashi.
When everyone was warming up, the whole stadium was bustling with activity, and it was many times more lively than ever before.
Soon, the warm-up for the sophomores and juniors was finished first. After all, they were just bullying the weak ones, so the warm-up was enough. Any missing bits could be made up after entering the court. It was just a training match for freshmen, so the intensity wouldn't be high right from the start.
"Freshmen training match, which five will go up and play first?"
After the warm-up, Mitsui looked at the first-year students who were still warming up and asked the team members.
"Count me in. I haven't played basketball for a few days. I'm jet lagged. Today is the perfect opportunity. Let's play basketball all at once."
Without waiting for the other players to speak, Wudao raised his hand first and said to Mitsui Shou. The other players were stunned to see Jinguji Wudao actually planning to play. Mitsui Shou also joked:
"I thought you weren't going to play today. After all, you're a top student from the United States. I thought you looked down on this level of competition."
"Since you plan to fight, then I'll count you in as one."
While Mitsui Shou was talking, the other players also signed up enthusiastically when they saw that Wudao was going to play. It was quite relaxing to play with Wudao. With Jinguji Wudao leading the team, it was even more fun to beat the weaker players.
Seeing that many senior team members had signed up, Mitsui Shou directly selected a few of them. They were Chiba Daishi, Kakuda Satoru, Miyagi Ryouta, and Yasuda Yasuharu. These teammates could help Budou more or less, so that the senior team would not be too strong, and Budou would not be alone against five.
It's a reasonable lineup configuration.
After deciding on the players to play, Wu Dao waved to several players and then walked towards the court. At this time, Mu Mu Gongyan was also leading the players in the final stretching.
Wu Dao led his teammates past the freshmen line, suddenly stopped, looked at the freshmen, and said loudly:
"Rookies, I'm Shohoku's ace, Jinguji Budo!"
"Your opponent today is us."
"You don't have to be polite to me. If you want to be my ace, take this opportunity and challenge me!"
"The one who can defeat me is our Xiangbei High School, the new ace!"
"Don't be polite, come on!"
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