After the game between Xiangbei High School and Hainan ended, the next game was between Ryonan High School and Shoyo. The result of the game was just as everyone expected. Ryonan won the game with an absolute advantage of 103:66.
So far, Shohoku and Ryonan have both won two games, while Hainan and Shoyo have both lost two games and completely lost the chance of qualifying.
Although Kanagawa Prefecture's seat in the national competition has been secured, there is still a game between Shohoku High School and Ryonan that concerns almost all fans in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The local fans are different from fans in other counties. Fans in other counties may only know the "national champion Ryonan High School", but the local fans in Kanagawa Prefecture know that Shohoku High School is a super strong school that truly has the strength to challenge the national overlord.
Locally, Xiangbei High School is no less famous than Ryonan High School.
...
Akita Prefecture, Sanno Industrial Basketball Arena.
At this time, Sanno Industries was conducting a practice match. Its opponent was a mixed coalition of all previous Sanno graduates.
The scoreboard on the sidelines showed 23:21, and the high school students led by Masashi Kawata, Kazunari Fukatsu and Eiji Sawakita took the lead.
"Go and defend! Stick to him and defend!"
"Stop that Zebei kid!"
On the court, a senior from Sannoh stood inside and loudly directed his teammates. Outside the three-point line, Zebei Rongzhi, who was holding the ball, accelerated his breakthrough after a body-in-front change of direction. At the moment when the defender followed up, he stopped and started quickly, instantly brushed away the opponent, and then made a mid-range jump shot.
The series of smooth movements made it impossible for the graduate to catch up and defend. He could only watch the basketball fly over his head and fall into the net.
As the basketball went into the net, the graduate helplessly put his hands on his hips, turned his head to look at the basket, and exclaimed:
"My junior's attack is really sharp!"
"College star players like me are no match for you."
"With your ability, you can directly enter the university to play and integrate directly."
"It's really hard to imagine! Our Sanwang is so strong, what kind of school can stop us?"
"Zebei, how about coming to our school after graduation? Our school is one of the best schools in the country~"
Facing the praise and invitation from his senior, Zebei Rongzhi just shook his head and said:
"Thank you, Toriyama-senpai, for your support, but I have already decided that after I win the title of No. 1 in the country, I will go to the United States to play."
“I want to go to a higher place and hone my skills.”
"Toriyama-senpai, the world is big. It really is... big."
When Sendo Eiji said this again, there was actually a hint of disappointment in his eyes. This disappointment was not towards himself, but towards the senior in front of him who graduated from Sanno.
The main reason why Sannoh played a practice match with these graduates today was the decision made by Coach Domoto after he witnessed the games between Shohoku and Ryonan that day.
After he found these graduates, he deliberately set some restrictions for them, so that they could, as much as possible, reproduce some of the playing characteristics of Xiangbei High School and Ryonan High School respectively.
In this way, Fukatsu, Zebei and others can play a scenario game to simulate the situation when they meet Ryonan or Shohoku on the national stage in the future.
But at this point in the game, Goro Domoto was surprised to find that... ..it didn't look like it!
Even though these graduates tried their best to imitate Xiangbei, the whole team did not give people the feeling of Xiangbei High School at all.
The other positions are all okay. Although they lack the charm, the techniques are somewhat similar.
However, the "ace" who was facing off against Sawakita Eiji, who imitated Jinguji Budou, was completely different from him in every way.
This was something that Sendo Eiji noticed first. After all, they were the players directly facing each other. Toriyama-senpai gave him the impression that he was just a "college student who was good at playing basketball." Toriyama did not have the kind of terrifying sense of oppression that Jinguji Budou conveyed when he stood on the court.
In terms of skills, Toriyama is very comprehensive and is a qualified small forward. After all, he is the main scorer of a strong university school, so Toriyama is not lacking in level.
However, in Zebei's opinion, Toriyama's skills are still not enough and are far from the level of Jinguji Budo.
But it is normal. Although Toriyama is a college student and his height has reached 191cm, there is still a clear gap between him and Jinguji Budo Shohoku.
Through a simple matchup with Sawakita Eiji, we can see that this senior is far inferior to Jinguji Budou and cannot give him the "sense of oppression" he wants.
The kind of oppressive feeling that can be clearly felt even if you are sitting on the sidelines.
Goro Domoto had been watching the game from the sidelines. After playing for more than ten minutes, he had already felt the problems of the senior team. He thought that this team of graduates formed by previous Sannohs could emulate Shohoku and bring some experience to the current Sannohs.
But the fact is, the strength of this mixed coalition is not as good as the Xiangbei High School team he had seen before.
In other words, these graduates simply cannot imitate Jinguji Budo's basketball playing style!
On the court, during the transition from offense to defense, the graduate team created a small open opportunity for Toriyama by passing the ball to him. The latter shot the ball as soon as he received it and put it steadily into the basket.
The transmission of the graduates' team was very smooth, far above the "high school" level, but the people of Sannoh felt it was quite awkward.
"In the final analysis, Senior is just imitating Jinguji Budo's playing style. It's hard to change the playing style that's ingrained in your bones."
"If it was Jinguji Budo, he would definitely come up with this attack on his own, and would not rely too much on movement to create gaps for himself."
"Besides, the gap in quality is too big..."
Although Zebei Rongji allowed his opponent to get the ball in front of his face, there was still disappointment between his brows.
Domoto Goro on the sidelines stroked his chin, sighed softly, and said to himself:
"Shohoku can't imitate it. So it seems that Ryonan High School probably can't imitate it either."
"The soul of the two teams, Jinguji Budou and Shinomiya Tano, are clearly star players who have surpassed the high school level."
"With Zebei's current strength, he should be able to compete with those two people... right?"
On the court, when Sannoh was attacking, Zebei Rongji held the ball. Zebei Rongji received the ball outside the three-point line, quickly swept the ball towards the basket, took two steps quickly towards the ball, and then shot directly, stepping on the three-point line and sending the ball out of his hands.
"Shua!" The basketball went into the net with a slight sound. Zebei Rongzhi, who scored the goal, showed a confident smile on his face and thought to himself:
"Sure enough, that guy's technique isn't that difficult..."
"I can easily replicate it!"
"My current strength is definitely not weaker than his!"
... .
Kanagawa Prefecture.
After the fierce battle with Kainan, Xiangbei High School finally ushered in a one-week break. Considering that the game with Ryonan was relatively close, Coach Anzai also warned Mitsui Shou not to impose too many training tasks on the starting players.
Therefore, the training intensity of the Xiangbei High School regulars dropped sharply, and most of the time, they only did some low-intensity running exercises and ball exercises. The basketball hall was vacated for the second and third team players to train.
The starting players lowered their training intensity in order to maintain their form, but the players on the second and third teams did not receive such treatment. The competition did not have much to do with these players.
What they have to do is to improve their strength on the training ground and become starting players as soon as possible.
Jinguji Budo, who finished his training early, did not do any extra training in the past few days. After training, he often sat on the sidelines and watched other players practice extra training. He did not say anything, just watched quietly.
Unlike his relatively relaxed state in martial arts, Rukawa trained even harder after the competition. Even though he knew he would be competing against Ryonan High School later, Rukawa still did not relax and practiced until late every day.
Sakuragi Hanamichi, who regards Rukawa as his biggest rival, was also involved and would practice extra after his daily training.
However, the two of them have different directions of extra training. Rukawa Kaede is more focused on training to break through his memory. He has an imaginary enemy in his mind, and when he is attacking with the ball, he will make some evasive moves based on the actions of the opponent in his mind.
Compared to Rukawa Kaede, Sakuragi Hanamichi is much more pure, shooting, shooting at all positions. Sakuragi tries to carve the skill of shooting into his muscles, which is very important for someone like him who has played basketball for a short time.
When watching the martial arts team members practice, I was actually mainly watching Rukawa Kaede and Sakuragi Hanamichi.
The bottle of Sakuragi Hanamichi is empty in itself. Although some water has been filled in the bottle over the past year, there is still a lot of space.
Every day of training, Sakuragi Hanamichi's growth is visible to the naked eye. Budou saw all of this and could vaguely feel the mood of Coach Anzai when he saw Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Compared to Sakuragi Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede's "bottle" is almost full. After daily training, Rukawa Kaede's improvement is actually very small.
Although basketball is a sport that requires accumulation, Wudao couldn't help but give some advice after watching Rukawa Kaede's training.
One day.
After the training of Xiangbei High School ended, Rukawa began to prepare for his extra training as usual. But just as he was about to start, Jinguji Budou, who usually sat on the sidelines watching the game, walked into the court and came in front of Rukawa.
"?" When Rukawa saw Wudao walking into the court, he raised his head in confusion and looked at Wudao in puzzlement.
"Ryukawa Kaede, this kind of training can only help you a little bit."
"This kind of training that yields half the result with twice the effort needs to be changed."
Rukawa Kaede heard this, the doubt on his face disappeared instantly, and he turned serious, without refuting, quietly waiting for Budou's next words. On the other side, Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was also preparing to practice shooting, also heard this, and in a few steps, he walked to Budou's side, looking at Rukawa Kaede, and then at Jinguji Budou.
"Ryukawa Kaede, what do you think a good player needs to have?"
Wu Dao kept the topic in suspense at this moment and did not directly state his adjustment plan.
"I know! I know!"
Before Rukawa could speak, Sakuragi immediately jumped in and interrupted. Upon hearing this, Wudao turned his head and looked at Sakuragi, giving him an encouraging look.
"Talent! Absolute talent!"
"Only a genius like me can become a good player!"
Sakuragi's answer made Rukawa Kaede couldn't help but curse "big idiot" under his breath. He had high expectations for Sakuragi's answer, and it was indeed him, Rukawa Kaede, who was wrong.
But unexpectedly, Wu Dao nodded and said affirmatively:
"Yes, talent!"
"Sheer talent is what it takes to be a great player."
"So, what can be called talent?"
"Soft touch, excellent shooting skills? Or... skilled breakthrough skills? Or height?"
"Among all the things I mentioned, which one is considered talent and which one is not? Can you become an outstanding player by relying on these?"
"I'm afraid that's not enough!"
"Ryukawa Kaede, there's nothing special about basketball. It's just a sport."
"All sports are made up of two aspects, generally speaking, 'skill' and 'physique'."
"Skills are techniques. Shooting, breaking through, fake moves, court vision, passing, etc. are all skills."
"So what is the body?"
"Body! Height, weight, arm span, strength, explosive power, agility, etc., all belong to the body."
"Ryukawa Kaede, I think your skills are already very comprehensive. It is necessary to continue to cultivate your skills, but at your age you need to start focusing on the training of your 'body'."
"A strong body is essential."
While Wudao was speaking, he patted Rukawa's arm. Rukawa's height is now almost 188cm, but his weight in the previous physical test was 76kg.
At this time, Wudao slapped Rukawa's arm and could clearly feel the thinness of Rukawa's body.
At this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was standing next to him, weighed 86kg. Judging from his body shape, Sakuragi actually didn't look "fat". He had 20 pounds more weight than Rukawa Kaede, but Sakuragi Hanamichi's body shape was just as symmetrical, and his explosive power, speed, and physical fitness might be better than Rukawa Kaede's.
At first, Rukawa had no idea what Budou was going to say, but at this point, if Rukawa still didn't know what the other party was going to say, then all his years of playing basketball would have been in vain.
Physical exercise!
Looking back now, Rukawa Kaede has indeed never specially trained any aspect of his physical abilities. Physical training is something that he would have done while honing his skills.
Ever since Rukawa started playing basketball, he seems to have been practicing his skills most of the time.
Thinking of this, Rukawa Kaede's gaze shifted to Sakuragi. Among the first-year students, the ones with the best physique are undoubtedly Sakuragi Hanamichi and Nango Koichiro. Sakuragi's physique is even better, and unlike Nango, Sakuragi did not play basketball since he was a child. But why does Sakuragi Hanamichi have such a physique
Sakuragi himself is not aware of this, but Budo knows it. Sakuragi is a gifted person, and coupled with "years of fighting", his physical fitness is naturally not bad, and his "fighting" training is much more comprehensive.
In order to strengthen his physique, he also practiced judo, many of the special trainings in it are very helpful for playing basketball.
"What should I do?!"
Those things mentioned in martial arts actually have a systematic professional term in later generations, called "sports performance". People of this era have never been exposed to such things, so it is normal that Rukawa Kaede doesn't know how to start.
Rukawa is not so foolish as to think that he can become stronger just by running and lifting dumbbells. If he could become stronger that way, Akagi would have been invincible long ago.
"After the match with Ryonan, Rukawa Kaede, you will train with me!"
"Sakuragi, the same goes for you. With your talent, there is still room for development!"
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