"I think it's getting late today. My classmate from Lingnan, would you like to go home early? Don't let your family worry!"
Mitsui Shou ordered him to leave. Although his tone was rather tactful, Aida Hiko understood Mitsui Shou's meaning in an instant. He secretly touched the notebook stuffed inside his clothes, bowed deeply to Mitsui Shou, and said:
"Mitsui-senpai, you're right. It's getting late. I really need to go back!"
"Then I won't bother you any more!"
After saying this, Hikoichi Aida waved to Hanamichi Sakuragi and Kaede Rukawa, and then quickly walked towards the entrance of the stadium. However, just as he reached the entrance, Mitsui Shou called him:
"etc!"
Suddenly stopped by Mitsui Shou, Aida Yan straightened his back subconsciously, slowly turned his head to look at Mitsui Shou, and asked with a trembling voice: "Mitsui Senior... Is there anything else?"
"You said you were from Lingnan, right?"
"Give a message to Shinomiya Tano and Sendoh. This year, we, Shohoku, will definitely dominate the country!"
After Mitsui Hisashi finished speaking to Aida Hikoichi, he ignored him, went to the sidelines, got a basketball, and walked back to the court.
Aida Hikoichi breathed a sigh of relief, agreed, and hurriedly left the basketball hall.
The Xiangbei campus seems unusually deserted at night.
After leaving the gym, Hikoichi Aida walked a short distance and stopped under a street light. He looked around and saw that there was no one around. He took out a notebook from his clothes on the back and began to flip through the notebook in the dim light.
When he was at the Shohoku gym, he watched Rukawa's training in its entirety, and also saw the match between Rukawa and Sakuragi Hanamichi. Although the two of them only played two games strictly speaking, Hikoichi Aida was still able to see a lot from it.
Although he just entered high school this year, he has been playing basketball for many years. He likes watching games and taking notes, and is good at discovering problems that others tend to overlook from small things.
"Ryukawa Kaede's shooting points are very scattered, whether it's mid-range or three-pointers, he takes a lot of shots during training."
"The offense tends to be from the right side, with the strong hand, so during training, I would inadvertently shoot a lot in the right half of the court."
"If you want to defend Rukawa, you need to pay more attention to his attack in the right half!"
Hikoichi Aida looked carefully at the shooting point map of Rukawa that he had recorded and found that there were obviously more marks in the right half than in the left half. He came to a conclusion in his mind and then added a few more notes in the notebook.
After writing it down, turn the page.
"Sakuragi Hanamichi-san... is known as the future star of Shohoku."
"He's a player who needs to be watched carefully!"
"His jumping ability, air staying power, and height are all excellent, and his breakthrough speed is also very fast... I really envy a player with such physical fitness!"
Hikoichi Aida briefly recalled the scene of the bullfight between Rukawa Kaede and Sakuragi Hanamichi in his mind, and couldn't help but sigh.
Hikoichi Aida, a freshman in high school, is only 165cm tall. He has no way of appreciating the scenery that a tall person like Hanamichi Sakuragi, who is around 190cm tall, can appreciate.
But after a brief sigh, Hikoichi Aida wrote a note in his notebook: "I doubt I have the ability to project."
After finishing writing, Hikoichi Aida closed his notebook, put the pen into the bag in his arms, rolled the notebook into a tube, put it in his trouser pocket, and hurriedly left the Shohoku campus.
...
In the gym of Shohoku High School, the fight between Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede was stopped by Mitsui Shou, and then Rukawa Kaede devoted himself to his own training. As for Sakuragi Hanamichi, although he took the equipment to train in the gym at Mitsui Shou's request, he still looked absent-minded when training his steps.
It seems that compared to Rukawa Kaede, he wants to continue the bullfight just now.
After practicing his footwork for a while, Sakuragi was unable to calm down and took the basketball to another court, where Mitsui was practicing quick stop three-pointers after high-speed movement.
“Swish!”
After the sound of a basketball hitting the net, Mitsui Hisashi, who was about to pick up the ball, saw Sakuragi Hanamichi and looked at him strangely.
"What are you doing, Sakura?"
Sakuragi Hanamichi held the ball in one hand, lowered his head slightly, and looked thoughtful. When he heard Mitsui Shou's question, Sakuragi Hanamichi raised his head and said:
"Xiao San, can you do me a favor?"
When Mitsui Shou heard this, he nodded directly: "Tell me, what kind of help?"
"Guard against me!"
...
As the night deepened, the gymnasium of Xiangbei High School was opened. Sakuragi Hanamichi had already changed his clothes and left the gym humming a little tune. Not long after Sakuragi Hanamichi left, Mitsui Shou, wearing a sports suit, stood at the door, watching Sakuragi Hanamichi disappear into the night, and sighed:
"This kid...his talent is truly terrifying!"
"He's about the same height as me, but he can jump so high and stay in the air for so long!"
"We have another unstoppable weapon in Xiangbei!"
Mitsui Shou sighed and turned around to go back to the gym to change clothes, only to find that Rukawa Kaede had also stopped training, changed his clothes, and was standing behind him, also looking at the place where Sakuragi Hanamichi left.
"Ryukawa Kaede, are you ready to go back too?"
Mitsui Shou saw Rukawa Kaede and asked with a smile.
"ah!"
Rukawa nodded and confirmed. Just as Mitsui Shou walked towards the stadium, Rukawa suddenly asked:
"Captain, do you think I can become stronger than Jinguji-senpai?"
Mitsui Shou stopped when he heard this. It seemed that Rukawa Kaede was still brooding over his loss to Jinguji Budo and he hasn't gotten over it yet.
"have no idea!"
"I only know that what the players have to do is to do well in the things at hand!"
"As for the future, it is not something we can decide!"
"If you train hard, maybe one day you will surpass him, but if you don't train, you will never surpass him!"
"Isn't this.....obvious?"
After Mitsui Shou finished speaking, he walked towards the gym. Rukawa Kaede heard this, nodded slightly, and walked out of the gym.
In the darkness, the spotlights of the Xiangbei basketball arena went out.
The moonlight fell on the ground, reflecting the shadows of Sakuragi Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede, and Mitsui Hisashi.
...
The academic workload of Japanese high school students is actually very heavy, but fortunately, in addition to the heavy academic workload, there are also a variety of club sports.
For a student like Sakuragi Hanamichi who doesn't like studying, club activities are all he has during school days. As for classes? He's even better at sleeping.
However, there are only a few students like Sakuragi who don't care about their future. For most people, club sports are just a diversion.
Just like the freshmen who joined Xiangbei High School this year and were assigned to the third team.
Coach Anxi didn't spend too much time on these players, and the training tasks he assigned were all basic dribbling and physical training, so that these high school students' vigorous energy could be properly consumed.
As for the players of the second team, Coach Anxi only pays a little attention to them. After all, some of the players of the second team will become the backbone of Xiangbei High School in the future.
As for the starting players, they are the ones that Coach Anzai focuses on. Players like Mitsui Hisashi and Akagi Takenori, who are now in their third year of high school, are the ones that Coach Anzai guides.
Today's Coach Anxi is not the kind of person who just sits there and does nothing. For talented starting players, Coach Anxi is willing to spend a lot of time and energy to develop personal training plans for the players to help them grow.
Even though the semester has just started, Coach Anzai has already contacted some college coaches he knew for players like Mitsui and Akagi. He hopes that after high school, Mitsui and his friends can still have a smooth journey in college.
Today, Coach Anzai invited the coach from the University of Tsukuba to visit Shohoku High School.
The coach of Tsukuba University is named Kenta Aso, an old man of about 60 years old. Although his age is similar to Coach Anzai, he looks much younger than Coach Anzai. He has a straight back and his hair is combed meticulously, giving people the feeling that he is more like a middle-aged man in his 40s.
Kenta Aso was a junior of Coach Anzai when he played for the national team. The two had a very good relationship. After Coach Anzai retired, he went to coach at a university. Not many years later, Kenta Aso also retired due to injury and went to the University of Tsukuba to become an assistant coach for the basketball team at that time.
After so many years, Coach Anzai resigned from his position as a university coach because of Tanizawa's relationship and returned to his hometown to teach at Xiangbei High School. Aso Kenta has already become the head coach of the University of Tsukuba.
In recent years, the University of Tsukuba's team has performed quite well and is one of the best teams in the college basketball world and nationwide.
Today I agreed to come to visit Xiangbei with Coach Anxi. The main purpose is actually to see the super freshman who returned from the United States as Coach Anxi mentioned.
By the way, let’s see if there are any good seedlings in Xiangbei and look for new talents for the team.
However, Kenta Aso probably didn't expect that Coach Anzai used the guise of Jinguji Budo to attract him, and his purpose was not to push Jinguji Budo to university. The fundamental purpose was to let Kenta Aso pay attention to the third grade of their Shohoku!
On the court, a practice match among the Xiangbei High School team was taking place.
Mitsui Hisashi led a group of sophomores and third-year students from Shohoku High School to fight against a group of younger students led by Jinguji Budou.
Mitsui Hisashi, Akagi Takenori, Kogure Kiminobu, Chiba Oishi and Miyagi Ryouta were formed into a group of five. They were fighting against Jinguji Takeshi, Sakuragi Hanamichi, Nango Koichiro, Kiyota Nobunaga and Katsume Ichiro.
This was a warm-up match between the main players of Shohoku High School, but the powerful Rukawa Kaede did not get a chance to play.
"Senior Anxi, the players from Xiangbei High School, they seem to be in great spirits!"
"As expected of a player trained by Senior Anxi!"
On the sidelines of the court, Kenta Aso and Coach Anzai sat together, holding a teacup in one hand, watching the two teams playing on the court and talking with a smile.
At this time, the game had been going on for 6 minutes, and the team led by Mitsui Hisashi had a four-point advantage with 15:11. At the same time, the ball was still in the hands of Mitsui Hisashi and his team.
"Senior Anxi, the No. 4 with the ball, is he the captain of your Xiangbei team? He's a very good player. Is he a junior or a sophomore? Or... a freshman?"
Kenta Aso's eyes fell on Mitsui Hisashi and he asked casually.
In this six-minute warm-up match, Mitsui Shou made 3 of 4 three-pointers and also made a mid-range shot, with a personal score of a terrifying 11 points. His opponent was Katsume Ichiro.
Mitsui Hisashi's outstanding performance naturally attracted the attention of Kenta Aso.
Today, Mitsui Shou is 192cm tall. With his physique, good ball-handling ability, and excellent three-point shooting, he is definitely a player that all universities hope to get.
Even among the national giants, the University of Tsukuba is no exception!
Budo originally meant to defend Mitsui Shou, but this kid Katsume Ichiro wanted to fight with Mitsui Shou, so Budo gave way to him. Unexpectedly, he was beaten directly by Mitsui Shou.
"You mean Mitsui?"
"It's the third grade."
"Mitsui has very good speed. He plays point guard, but he can also take on the work of a small forward. He is very good at cutting without the ball and shooting in open space!"
"Looking across the country, there are very few players who can reach Mitsui's level."
"He is our Xiangbei's main force, but unfortunately... he will be going to college next year."
Coach Anzai introduced Mitsui Hisashi to Aso Kenta with a faint smile on his face.
"He's in the third grade... A player like him can only play for one more year in Xiangbei. It really troubles you, senior. After all, once he leaves, I'm afraid Xiangbei's strength will decline a lot."
As Aso Kenta spoke, his gaze fell on Jinguji Takeshi in the field, and a hint of heat flashed in his eyes.
Mitsui Shou really made his heart beat, but at this moment on the court, Jinguji Budou was the player who made his eyes burn with excitement.
A first-year small forward with a height of over two meters, and terrifying ball handling and shooting skills. Compared to Mitsui Shou, this is the player that he is excited about!
pity... ...
"That Jinguji Budo has already had experience traveling to the United States. I heard from Senior Anzai that this guy is different from Tanizawa back then. He has already established a firm foothold in the United States."
"I heard that some strong NCAA schools have already offered him a place in his freshman year. I'm afraid that our University of Tsukuba has no chance of getting him!"
"But this Mitsui Shou... is also a very talented and powerful player!"
“Even if you come to our university, you can immediately become a fighting force.”
“It was worth the trip!”
Aso Kenta chatted with Coach Anzai in a casual manner. The content of the chat was basically to find out about Mitsui's playing style, technical characteristics, and Mitsui's own future plans.
When he started to inquire about these things, Coach Anzai knew that his junior had already fallen in love with Mitsui Hisashi. As long as Mitsui Hisashi worked hard, it would be a natural thing for him to enter the University of Tsukuba in the future.
However, except for Mitsui Hisashi, Akagi, Chiba and other third-year players failed to catch Aso Kenta's eye. Instead, Sakuragi Hanamichi, a freshman, attracted his strong interest. During the game, he also inquired about Sakuragi Hanamichi's situation.
When he found out that Sakuragi Hanamichi was a freshman who had just played basketball for a year, Aso Kenta's eyes lit up and he secretly kept Sakuragi Hanamichi in his heart.
In this team practice match, Mitsui Shou shined. At the end of the game, Mitsui Shou scored 47 points alone and led the team to a victory of 88:76.
Jinguji Budou, on the other hand, was in hiding, scoring a mediocre 24 points, but he did provide 12 assists.
At the same time, first-year Sakuragi also performed well. With Budo's passing, Sakuragi scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a single game, making him the best performing player among the first-year players.
After the practice match, Coach Anzai took Aso Kenta for a walk around the campus with a smile on his face. At the same time, Coach Anzai specially called Mitsui Hisashi to join them.
Mitsui Hisashi was not a fool. He knew Coach Anzai's intention and enthusiastically introduced the school while taking Aso Kenta on a tour. During the conversation, his words revealed his yearning and admiration for the University of Tsukuba, which made Aso Kenta laugh.
When Aso Kenta left Shohoku, he even patted Mitsui's shoulder and laughed, "Hahaha! Mitsui, I'll wait for you at the University of Tsukuba!"
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