The night before the national competition.
The bright moon hangs high in the sky, and the stars fill the night sky.
However, not many people have the heart to appreciate such a beautiful night view.
In the public lounge of the hotel where Xiangbei stayed, the lights were on, and the TV was playing a video of the game between Sanwang Industrial and Ryonan High School in last year's national competition. Coach Anxi sat on a blanket, his back against the sofa stool, one hand resting on the coffee table, his eyes fixed on the video of the game being played on the TV.
This afternoon, the opening ceremony of the national competition was held at the central stadium in Hiroshima.
Tomorrow morning, Shohoku High School in Group A will face Toyoma High School from Osaka in the first game.
Although Shohoku High School's first game tomorrow will be against Touoma High School, the TV in front of Coach Anzai is playing last year's match between Sanno Industrial and Ryonan.
In the eyes of Coach Anzai, the threat posed by Toouama High School to Shohoku High School is almost zero.
"There is no doubt that Sanno Industrial is indeed a very good team."
"Last year, Budo and his team played against Sannoh in the Autumn National Games, but... the Autumn National Games is still different from the national competition."
"The biggest reason why Ryonan was able to beat Sannoh was not because Shinomiya Tano played so well, but because Sannoh's Sawakita Eiji was too young."
"Sanno's Kawata Masashi is definitely the best center in the country. If Sanno plays purely inside and deploys Shinomiya Tano to defend the inside, the outside team will have enough space to display their skills."
"Kazunari Fukatsu's strength is also obviously higher than Kenji Fujima's. With the two of them supporting each other, they will definitely be able to find Ryonan's weakness and defeat him with one blow."
"Doumoto trusted Zebei's power too much, so Sanwang suffered such a great loss at the hands of Ryonan!"
"After experiencing the baptism of IH, the Autumn National Games and the Winter Games last year, Sanwang Industries will definitely pay attention to this issue."
"Zebei Rongzhi's personal strength has definitely improved greatly compared to last year!"
"I'm afraid there will be huge changes in the fighting style!"
While watching the game, Coach Anxi grabbed the tactical board beside him and scribbled on it with a marker, mentally simulating the possible battle situations that might arise when Shohoku High School met Sanno Industrial.
This is the first time since Coach Anxi took over as coach of Shohoku that he has carefully examined the opponent and simulated the battle situation as he does now.
"I'm afraid that the inside combination of Akagi and Sakuragi will not be able to suppress Sanno's Kawata Masashi."
"In terms of rebounding, we at Xiangbei should still have a chance to compete with the opponent."
"The biggest advantage of our Xiangbei team is actually Budo's absolute advantage in ball-holding offense."
"But if he relies too much on martial arts, his energy consumption will definitely be high. In a back-to-back match, even martial arts may not be able to withstand it. So... Mitsui and Rukawa must be able to assist him in attacking on the court."
"In tomorrow's match against Touou, we also need to defeat our opponent with minimal physical exertion."
Coach Anzai was doing deductions on the tactical board and had already established the tactics for the match against Sanno Industrial in his mind.
At this moment, the door of the lounge knocked twice and was then pushed open.
"Teacher Anxi, haven't you rested yet? Are you... watching the match between Sannoh and Ryonan?"
"Have you already started studying our Xiangbei's second round opponent? You are worthy of being Mr. Anxi."
Mitsui Shou was standing at the door and saw Coach Anzai watching the video. He smiled and complimented Coach Anzai.
"Oh... Mitsui!"
"Come in."
"It's so late and you haven't rested yet, what's wrong with you?"
Coach Anzai turned his head and saw that it was Mitsui Hisashi. He pushed his glasses and asked with a smile, but his eyes behind the glasses revealed a hint of severity.
It is already 11pm, and Xiangbei's game tomorrow is at 8am. Normally, the players should get up at 6:30am to rush to the stadium and do some pre-match preparations.
Mitsui Hisashi hasn't slept yet at this time, so his rest time is simply not enough.
"I'm sorry, teacher."
"I was so excited that I couldn't sleep."
Mitsui Hisashi sensed Coach Anzai's emotions, scratched the back of his head, and said somewhat embarrassedly.
Coach Anzai was very surprised to hear this. He did not expect that a player like Mitsui Hisashi would have such emotions.
If the person who said this was a first-year rookie, he could still understand it, but if it was Mitsui Shou, he would not have such emotions.
Now in his third year of high school, Mitsui has played in countless competitions of all sizes, including the national competition. Coach Anzai did not expect that he would have such emotions.
"Excited... not nervous."
"Mitsui..."
Before Coach Anzai finished speaking, Mitsui Shou walked into the room, sat on the blanket next to Coach Anzai, and said to himself:
"Teacher, I'm already a senior in high school. If I don't win the national championship this year, I won't be able to win it in the future."
"We must be strong, I am sure of that."
"But, teacher, how can there be a certainty in competition?"
"Besides being excited, I was also a little scared. I was afraid that Xiangbei would make mistakes and lose the game."
“I don’t want to…”
Before Mitsui finished speaking, Coach Anzai already knew why Mitsui felt that way.
Strong-willed people also have strong self-esteem, and the more such people are, the more serious their thoughts are. The pressure that Mitsui Shou carries is not only given to himself, but also given to him by his teammates, and even by Anzai Mitsuyoshi!
Patting Mitsui Shou on the shoulder, Coach Anzai's eyes were full of tenderness.
"Mitsui, I have always believed in you, you all."
“It’s the strongest!”
...
Next up is the first game of the national competition.
The two teams competing are Shohoku High School from Kanagawa Prefecture and Toyoma High School from Osaka.
Players from both teams, please enter the venue immediately.
Inside the Hiroshima Center Gymnasium, a broadcast sounded.
The player passages on both sides of the basketball court were opened, and the players of Toyotama High School, wearing blue uniforms, slowly entered the court amid the cheers of the audience.
"Phew~~There are really quite a lot of people here!"
"Great, we'll defeat Shohoku in front of so many people and advance to the second round! We'll make it all the way to the finals and win the national championship!"
"We must prove to everyone that Coach Kitano's tactics can win the national championship!"
Kishimoto Miri said excitedly as she looked at the cheering audience around her, while quickly scanning the stands, trying to find the thin old man.
Coach Kitano, the former coach of Touou High School, once guided a series of Touou third-year players such as Minami Rei and Kishimoto onto the right path of basketball.
But a year and a half ago, Coach Kitano was fired by the school.
The reason is very simple, that is, under the leadership of Coach Kitano, Touou High School has never made it past the top 8 in the national competition. Not all school leaders are like Xiangbei, who do not pay attention to awards and results in basketball games.
Toyoma High School, which regards basketball as a development focus, cannot tolerate such a thing happening.
Therefore, coach Kitano was replaced by coach Muramasa. However, last year, Touou was eliminated in the second round and coach Muramasa was directly dismissed and replaced by the current coach Jinping.
However, Nan Lie and others who were trained by Coach Kitano have deep feelings for him. They know that Kitano left because of their poor performance. While blaming themselves, they also urgently hope to achieve good results to clear Coach Kitano's name and get him back to the team.
But last year Touou had bad luck. In the second round, they met Shohoku High School led by Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Hisashi, and ended up suffering a crushing defeat.
This year, Toyotama met Shohoku High School again.
Although Kishimoto Miri was very tough on the train, he actually knew very well in his heart that it would not be easy to overcome the obstacle of Shohoku!
Coach Jinping is a latecomer, but now he has a good reputation in the team. After the disastrous defeat of Touou High School last year, Coach Muramasa had a good talk with the Touou players before leaving, which helped to change some of their extreme ideas.
After taking over, Jin Ping originally planned to completely deny the run-and-gun strategy and switch to defensive counterattacks. However, under the persuasion of the former coach Muramasa, he decided to let the team focus on run-and-gun and assist with other offensive tactics.
This allowed Jinping and Touou players to get along much better. Although Touou will still face Shohoku this year, each player is very confident in his or her team.
What? Lost to Xiangbei last year
That's just because our team hasn't been well integrated yet!
This is what the Touou players think in their hearts, they want to regain the victory that belongs to them by defeating Shohoku!
"Tap...Tap..."
Footsteps were heard in the player tunnel. The Touou players looked sideways and happened to see Coach Anzai leading the Shohoku players out of the tunnel. Jinguji Budou, who was standing behind Coach Anzai, glanced at Touou High School from afar and a smile appeared on his face.
When the Xiangbei players entered the stadium, the stands suddenly erupted in amazing cheers. The level of enthusiasm of this cheer was completely different from the previous time when the Touou players entered the stadium.
Sakuragi Hanamichi waved to the stands on all sides in a familiar manner, with a look of enjoyment on his face. Kiyota Nobunaga and Minamigo were surrounded by the cheers, and they thought to themselves, "How amazing! Our Shohoku team is really famous!" But on their faces they tried hard to maintain a calm and serious look.
He has the demeanor of a "strong team player".
"Here we go, Xiangbei!"
Nan Lie saw Jinguji Takeshi from the Xiangbei team from afar. His expression froze and he couldn't help but recall the scene when he played against Jinguji Takeshi last year.
Even now, he, the scoring champion of Osaka, has never forgotten that "military training".
Afterwards, Nan Lie also witnessed Jinguji Budou leading Shohoku to play against Ryonan. From then on, he no longer cared about the false title of "Osaka Scoring King". What he wanted was to defeat Jinguji Budou! Use run-and-gun to defeat Shohoku High School!
"Let's go. Today, we have to take back the victory that belongs to us!"
Nan Lie secretly became angry and took his players into the field to warm up.
The Xiangbei players entered the field, put down their things in the rest area, and began to warm up. Rukawa Kaede, Sakuragi Hanamichi, Nango Koichiro, Miyagi Ryouta, and Kiyota Nobunaga changed into their jerseys early and entered the field to warm up.
Jinguji Takeshi and Mitsui Shou were wearing white training suits and walked to the middle of the court to pass the ball to the players. The rest of the Xiangbei players entered the court to warm up, and they were all wearing team uniforms, which made Takeshi and Mitsui Shou, who were wearing white training suits, stand out.
"Hey~ Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Shou haven't changed their clothes yet."
“Aren’t they playing?”
In the stands, all the players of Ryonan High School, which had a bye in the first round, were still present to watch today's game. Aida Hikoichi, holding a notebook in one hand, saw the warm-up situation of Shohoku and exclaimed.
"Well, it seems that this is correct."
"Also... the players from Xiangbei who were actively warming up are all freshmen and sophomores."
The Xiangbei players began to warm up. Coach Tiangang looked at the Xiangbei half and nodded slightly.
After saying that, Coach Tiangang suddenly smiled and said:
"It looks like Coach Anxi is planning to conserve his strength."
"After the match with Touou, Shohoku will play against Sanno Industrial!"
"There is no doubt that Sanno is one of the strongest teams in this tournament besides Ryonan."
"It's normal to be prepared and on guard!"
Coach Tiangang immediately understood Coach Anzai's plan and explained it to the players with a smile. However, after hearing this, Hikoichi Aida scratched his hair in confusion and asked with a frown:
"I see."
"But... wouldn't this arrangement be too arrogant?"
"I know Touou High School. Although they lost to Shohoku last year, Touou's record in Osaka this year was almost undefeated, with only one loss."
"Moreover, we won all the games by a large margin. Even in the game we lost, Darei Academy only beat them by three points."
"Nan Lie from Touou High School is still the top scorer in Osaka."
"Touou High School is an A-class team like Shohoku. If Shohoku didn't send players like Jinguji Budou to play and sent some first-year students who had never played in a national tournament, could they really win against Touou?"
After all, they are both representatives of Kanagawa Prefecture. At this moment, Hikoichi Aida actually began to worry about Shohoku High School.
"Don't worry too much. Coach Anxi must have already considered the strengths of the two teams."
"A-level teams are different from A-level teams! It's hard to describe the strength of Xiangbei High School with just an A."
"Besides... the quality of Shohoku's first-year students... is excellent!"
After saying that, Coach Tanaka pursed his lips, looking unhappy. The new stars of Xiangbei High School were all excellent players that made him jealous. Even the most unremarkable Sakuragi Hanamichi, Coach Tanaka saw a lot of talent in him.
Compared to the talented Shohoku, the Ryonan High School led by Coach Tanaoka... .really... .
"hateful!"
Coach Tiangang gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and already had a plan in mind!
After this year's competition, the third-year mainstays such as Fujima Kenji, Uozumi Jun, and Hanagata Toru will go to higher education. Although Shinomiya Tano and Sendoh are still there, Ryonan has begun to face a situation of a lack of successors. On the other hand, Shohoku has many talented first-year players, and there is also Jinguji Budou in the second year.
Next year, Xiangbei’s strength may not be weakened, and it may even become even more terrifying.
Attracting outstanding freshmen is something that Ryonan must consider. During this period, Coach Tanaoka is not only concerned about the team's games, but he is also paying attention to junior high school games in order to find good enough players.
In fact, right now, there is a third-year junior high school point guard named Yuta Tabuse in Yokohama who has attracted his attention. In this year's National Junior High School Basketball Conference, this kid performed brilliantly and many teams have already paid attention to him. Coach Tanaoka is also waiting for an opportunity to intervene and bring that player into his pocket.
This year's national championship is the "opportunity" that Shigeka Tanabe has been looking for!
While Coach Tiangang was thinking, the warm-up of the players on both sides of the field had already ended.
As expected by Coach Tiangang, players from both teams entered the field as the referee blew the whistle.
The players on the Xiangbei side were first-year players Koichiro Nango, Hanamichi Sakuragi, Kaede Rukawa, Nobunaga Kiyota, and second-year player Ryouta Miyagi.
Many of the spectators on the sidelines knew Shohoku, and they also knew that Shohoku’s most famous ace was the second-year player Jinguji Budou.
But when the audience saw Xiangbei's formation, they started buzzing with discussion.
Nan Lie walked into the court and was adjusting the position of his wrist guard. He looked up and saw the players from Xiangbei playing. After a brief moment of stunned silence, a strong anger surged in his heart.
"How could...?"
"How dare you underestimate us!
!”
“Shohoku!
”
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