Xiangbei High School's first game in the national competition can be said to be uneventful.
The results achieved by Rukawa, Sakuragi and others were unexpectedly good. Even Touou High School, which was rated as an A-level team, was easily defeated by them.
The strong substitute strength of Xiangbei also attracted the attention of Sanno Industrial and others.
On the evening of the first day of the game, Goro Domoto returned to the hotel and began to review and study the playing styles of these first-year players of Xiangbei.
The senior players of Xiangbei have played in many games, and Domoto has collected a very comprehensive collection of game videos for reference. Before the national competition, he had already made sufficient preparations.
However, the sudden rise of the first-year students in Xiangbei was beyond Goro Domoto's expectations. He vaguely felt that these first-year students would be the biggest variable that their Sannoh would face, so he wanted to seize the time to eliminate this variable.
At night, the moon is high in the sky.
In the common room of Sanwang Industry, the team members gathered behind Domoto Goro and watched the TV. At this time, the TV was playing the match between Xiangbei High School and Touou High School in the morning.
"The red-haired player is called Sakuragi Hanamichi."
"He's a freshman at Xiangbei High School. I heard that this guy has only been playing basketball for a little over a year."
"He is 192cm tall and has an excellent jumping ability. He deserves 60% of the credit for Toyotama losing the game so easily."
"Tell me, what do you think?"
Goro Domoto pressed the remote control, and the camera froze on the moment when Hanamichi Sakuragi jumped up to grab the rebound. Pointing at Hanamichi Sakuragi in the picture, Goro Domoto turned his head and asked.
"Nobe, you are also a power forward, so you go first."
For a long time, the members of the Sanno team looked at the screen without saying anything. Goro Domoto directly called on Masahiro Nobe and asked him to express his opinion.
Each of these players of Sanno Industrial is the best player in the country in every position. If Nobe Masahiro, the power forward, is placed in any other team, he will be the cornerstone of the team and an absolute ace!
"He has excellent jumping ability. I think the best way is to pull him out of the paint."
"I have mid-range shooting, and I think I can definitely move him out of the paint."
Nobe replied in a deep voice. He also recognized Sakuragi Hanamichi's ability. He had noticed Sakuragi's amazing jumping ability and leg strength during the Xiangbei match in the morning, so he had formulated some countermeasures in his mind.
"Um... does anyone else have anything to add?"
Goro Domoto nodded without comment and continued to ask.
"I think we can use blocking to prevent this guy from jumping up."
"Nobe's method is certainly good, but that is only on the offensive end. On the defensive end, how do you pull the opponent out?"
"My advice is to create physical confrontation, use your position, height and wingspan to grab rebounds."
"Not to mention 100% control of rebounds, but at least we can infinitely weaken the opponent's advantage."
"This kid's positioning skills are so-so. That rookie power forward from Touou often has the advantage. As for Nobe, there will be no problem!"
In the words of Masashi Kawata, Miri Kishimoto of Touou High School has become a rookie. However, if someone else said this, it would be somewhat controversial, but when Masashi Kawata said it, no one would be surprised.
Masashi Kawata of Sanno Industrial can definitely be called the strongest center today. With Masashi Kawata's ability, even if he directly enters college basketball, he will still be able to thrive and become a player that all colleges and universities will compete for.
"Did you hear that, Nobe? We should play like this on both offense and defense, mainly to limit his rebounding ability."
"As for his offense, we just need to be on guard against it. Xiangbei's offense will not focus on the freshmen."
As he spoke, Goro Domoto switched the screen, and the TV picture froze on Rukawa Kaede who was shooting, and Domoto's gaze was also on Matsumoto Minoru and Sawakita Eiji.
"What about him?"
Hearing Coach Domoto's question, Zebei Rongzhi looked at Rukawa Kaede and shook his head, saying:
"Very good, a reflection of my first grade days."
“But I don’t think we need to be overly cautious.”
"His scorers, if Shohoku plays against our Sannoh, Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Hisashi will definitely play. These two are the ones we need to focus on."
"If there were no threat from those two, Matsumoto and I would be able to defend him."
"He has an excellent mid-range shot and a comprehensive offensive skill set, but his body is relatively thin, so he can only play in confrontations."
Zebei Rongzhi's face looked a little bad when he said this. When he talked about physical confrontation, he seemed to recall some bad memories in his mind, and his face looked bitter.
"Physical confrontation... You're right."
"After all, you suffered a great loss in this regard when you were a freshman. During last year's IH, you were taught a lesson by Shinomiya Tano, and during the Autumn National Games, Jinguji Budo and Shinomiya Tano took turns to attack your weaknesses."
"Although your confrontation skills have improved this year, if you meet Jinguji Budo in the competition, you still need the support of other teammates."
"We all went to watch the final of the Kanagawa Prefecture Tournament. Although Jinguji Budo only played for a short time, I could see that his strength was much stronger than last year."
Hearing this, Domoto Goro nodded, and the topic shifted from Rukawa Kaede to Jinguji Budou. He agreed with Zebei's words, if Xiangbei met their Sanwang, the main attack would definitely be the ace Jinguji Budou.
After a brief analysis, Domoto pressed the remote control in his hand, and the screen jumped to Nango, Katsumi Ichiro, Kiyota Nobunaga and others. As the screen jumped, the Sanwang players also talked about the corresponding response methods. Compared with the seriousness when dealing with Sakuragi and Rukawa, these players relaxed when talking about the other first-year students of Xiangbei.
It can be seen that among the first-year students of Xiangbei, the only two people they can really care about are Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede.
After reviewing the game against Shohoku's freshmen, Goro Domoto did not waste time and emphasized to the players the key points to pay attention to when playing against Shohoku.
Goro Domoto attaches great importance to the game the day after tomorrow. He knows very well that Shohoku High School, whose rating is lower than their Sannoh High School, is a sleeping tiger. When their Sannoh Industrial stands in front of Shohoku, this tiger will definitely wake up.
...
At night, the moon is high in the sky.
Under the same night sky, the players of Shohoku were also gathered in the common room, reviewing the game of Sanno Industrial. The video of the game was the final in Akita Prefecture.
However, this video does not have much reference value, because the gap in strength between Sannoh and their opponents is too great, and the difference between the two teams once reached 40 points.
However, we can still see something from this kind of crushing game. Combined with the video of Sanwang last year, we can also get a lot of useful information.
"Sanno Industrial lost to Ryonan last year."
"I have already analyzed the characteristics of their team. If Zebei Rongzhi can change his bad playing habits, Sanwang will be one of the strongest challengers we will face."
"To be honest, our inside strength is not as good as the opponent's."
"Budo, Mitsui, if you don't feel good in the game the day after tomorrow, you should reduce your outside shots and use more breakthroughs to stretch their defense."
Coach Anxi watched the video on the TV and emphasized it again. But as soon as he finished speaking, Sakuragi Hanamichi appeared beside Coach Anxi, put his arm around Coach Anxi's shoulders, and kept pulling Coach Anxi's chin with his palm.
"Now, Dad, how can you say that?"
"How could our inside strength be worse than Sanwang's? With a talented rebounder like me, we have a huge advantage inside!"
Although Sakuragi Hanamichi is tall and strong, he calls Coach Anzai the way kindergarten kids are used to calling him. (In the early years, kindergarteners in Japan called their teachers "Dad" and "Mom", but they changed that when they grew up.)
"Hey, bastard, don't be rude to Teacher Anzai!" Seeing this, Mitsui Shou's forehead suddenly became furious. He quickly came behind Sakuragi, hugged Sakuragi Hanamichi from behind, and dragged him away from Coach Anzai.
"Haha." Coach Anzai didn't care about Sakuragi's behavior at all and said with a smile:
"Oh! In that case, I'll leave Xiangbei's basket to you, Sakuragi."
Coach Anzai's words gave Sakuragi Hanamichi a sudden boost of confidence. He stood up and got rid of Mitsui's grip, patting his chest and promising:
"Don't worry, Dad, I won't lose!"
"I'm the rebounding champion, Sakuragi Hanamichi!"
Sakuragi's solemn promise made Wudao feel a headache. This single-celled man was controlled by Coach Anxi. It's not that this is bad, but Sakuragi is too easy to guess. If Sanwang knows Sakuragi well, it would be easy to target him.
After motivating Sakuragi, Coach Anzai turned his gaze towards Jinguji Budo, pushed up his glasses, and continued:
"Budo, in this competition, your mission is still the most important."
"Destroy the Sanwang's offensive weapons. This is what you have to do!"
As Coach Anxi was talking, the camera on the TV happened to show Zebei Rongzhi scoring a slam dunk. Although this ace of Sanwang Industry had been trained by the martial arts army, there was no doubt that he was a super ace in the first echelon under Jinguji martial arts. His personal strength was beyond doubt.
"Okay, I actually hope to meet some interesting opponents."
"Zebei is actually pretty good."
...
As the night deepened, the lights in the Xiangbei common room went out.
Nothing happened that night. The next day, the second day of the national competition was in full swing.
The first round of the knockout stage was held over two days. There were many teams participating, but not many venues. The organizers considered that more spectators could watch more games, so only one venue was used.
The same court, from 8 am to 8 pm, without stopping for a moment.
Normally, the teams in the first round of the national competition will not be very strong, and the seeded teams basically have byes. Some A-level teams are matched with opponents who are generally C-level or B-level. There are actually not many cases where two A-level teams collide.
It has to be said that the magazine's ratings do have a certain reference value. After two days of competition in the first round, there were only a few teams that succeeded in defeating the strong with the weak.
After watching a day's games, Wu Dao didn't feel that any team was worth paying attention to, so he left the stadium with a lack of interest in the afternoon.
Coach Anxi did not say anything about Budou's behavior. He knew that Jinguji Budou no longer looked down upon such low-level fights.
After returning to the hotel, Jinguji Budo was not idle either. He did some training in the hotel gym to loosen up his body.
For someone like him who exercises all year round, if he doesn't exercise for one day, he will feel something is wrong with his whole body. It's like a person who stays at home all year round, if he suddenly goes to the playground to run a few laps, he will also feel "wrong" all over.
"This year's biggest opponent is probably still Ryonan."
"Most of the contestants in the national competition pose no threat to me."
"After IH, I still have to focus on training. It doesn't really matter whether I play low-intensity matches or not."
In the United States, there are martial arts competitions 300 out of 365 days a year. Even the intensity of intra-team practice matches is higher than that of most national competitions.
But competition is ultimately an "exam" to verify the results of training. If you want to increase your strength, training is the most important thing.
At this stage of martial arts, the accumulation of competition experience is important, but the most important thing is the development of physical talents. Compared with endless competitions, down-to-earth training is his most important thing at the moment.
In the evening, the Xiangbei players who were watching the game returned to the hotel one after another. When they saw Wudao training in the gym, they joined in, all in order to be in the best condition for tomorrow's game.
The next day.
...
Now, please welcome Group A, Shohoku High School. The players of Sanno Industrial enter!
As soon as the host finished speaking, the Hiroshima Center Arena erupted in amazing cheers.
“Wow—”
Amid the cheers of the audience, the player passages at both ends of the basketball court were opened.
The third day of the national competition.
In the second round of the knockout stage, the first game of Group A, Shohoku High School, which crushed Touou High School to advance, will face Sanno Industrial, which had a bye in the first round.
This match attracted much attention. There were huge crowds of people in the stands, and the area outside the stadium was filled with reporters and media people who came to watch the game.
As the player tunnel opened, the audience's cheers became even louder.
"Shobei! Shobei! Shobei!"
Xiangbei High School has long accumulated considerable popularity. As the Xiangbei players passed through the player tunnel and entered the stadium, the audience, led by De Nan and others, shouted Xiangbei's name in unison.
The bright red "Man of Fire" flag fluttered in the stands, even attracting the attention of the media, who captured the scene with flash cameras.
When the Xiangbei players entered the stadium, the reporters' camera lenses all focused on the Xiangbei players. Some reporters introduced the Xiangbei players one by one in front of the camera.
"Here we go, Xiangbei."
"We will definitely win, and then challenge Ryonan High School on the throne!"
Not long after the Xiangbei players entered the court, the Sanwang Industrial players also entered the court through the player tunnel. Zebei Rongzhi in the team looked at the Xiangbei players from a distance, his eyes full of fighting spirit.
Change clothes and warm up in the rest area.
Thirty minutes after the two teams entered the court, the starting ten stood in the center circle, ready for the jump ball.
This time, Xiangbei no longer hides its strength. The starting five are center Akagi, power forward Sakuragi Hanamichi, small forward Jinguji Takeshi, point guard Mitsui Hisashi, and the point guard role is actually Rukawa Kaede!
In contrast, the players of Sannoh were center Masashi Kawata, power forward Masahiro Nobe, small forward Eiji Sawakita, shooting guard Minoru Matsumoto, and point guard Kazunari Fukatsu.
When the Xiangbei players came on the court, Goro Domoto was stunned. He never expected that Rukawa Kaede would move to the backcourt and play the role of a point guard.
"Shohoku....what are you going to do?!"
"Rukawa is pretty good, but he seems to have never played point guard before? And... this guy played a practice match with us as a lone wolf. Can he play point guard?"
In the stands, Hikoichi Aida exclaimed in confusion when he saw Shohoku's position.
"Haha... a poor imitation."
"I think Shohoku thinks that Miyagi and Kiyota are not strong enough to deal with Fukatsu Kazunari, but..."
"Ryukawa Kaede is not Sendoh. He is very talented, but there is still a gap between him and Sendoh!"
Coach Takeo commented with a smile, noting that he did not see any "trick" played by Shohoku.
... ... ... ... ... ... .