In the stands, coach Steve Smith, who came all the way from the United States, followed the crowd to the front row, and then found a seat and sat down.
There was still more than an hour before the game started, and the semi-final teams had not yet entered the court to warm up. Although coach Steve Smith arrived not too late, there were not many seats left in the front row, and he finally found a seat and sat down.
Coach Steve Smith is the head coach of Oak Hill High School in the United States. The main purpose of his visit to Hiroshima this time is to watch the game of his player Jinguji Budo, who returned to Asia to play in the high school league.
Ever since Takeshi Jinguji played basketball at Oak Hill Academy for half a year, Smith has been very interested in Japan's high school basketball because he heard that Takeshi Jinguji played in Japan's local high school league when he was a freshman but did not win the championship.
But when Jinguji Budou was playing in the United States, his Oak Hill School was always invincible in the state competition. No matter what kind of opponent they met, Budou was never defeated. The team may lose occasionally, but Budou personally has never lost to anyone on the court.
At best, it is only on par with martial arts.
In Smith's opinion, it is impossible for Budo to lose in the high school league in Asia. But the fact is that the Xiangbei High School led by Budo did not win the national championship last year.
This made Smith very curious about what kind of team could beat the team led by Wu Dao.
After some understanding, Smith knew the name of Ryonan High School, the name of Shinomiya Tano, and the ace of Ryonan High School, who was known as the "Kanagawa Twin Stars" together with Jinguji Budō.
This made Smith smell the scent of "genius", so he made a special trip from the United States to Hiroshima, wanting to see to what extent martial arts had developed today, and to see what kind of genius the person was who could be compared with Jinguji martial arts.
The crowds of people moving in the stands slowly began to calm down.
With 45 minutes left before the game started, the stands were already full with no empty seats.
Smith, who was sitting in the front row, attracted a lot of curious eyes from the people around him, but under the gaze of others, Smith remained calm. He raised his left hand to check the time, and seeing that there was still some time before the start of the game, he took out some information from his briefcase and began to look through it.
"Look, wow... The players at Xiangbei High School where Takeshi is are all very tall!"
Smith looked at the relevant information of the players of Xiangbei High School and found that there were many players in the Xiangbei High School team whose height was close to or exceeded 190cm.
This average height is higher than some mid-level high schools in the United States. This situation is quite rare.
"A 196cm tall third-year center and a 192cm tall first-year power forward? Huh? Xiangbei's No. 4 is a point guard, but he's 191cm tall?"
"Add to that Wu, a 203cm small forward, and the average height of Xiangbei is really a bit surprising!"
Smith said, looking through the information in his hand carefully, and he kept sighing. It was surprising to him that an Asian team like Xiangbei High School actually had such height conditions.
What's more critical is the height of the shooting guard and small forward positions. It has to be said that there are many high school scoring players in the United States who do not have such height requirements.
"If I hadn't known I was in Hiroshima, I would have thought I was in Guangzhou..."
After looking at the information of the Xiangbei players, Smith's face showed some more doubts.
Although he had not watched the games of Xiangbei High School in person, he had watched the video of Jinguji Budou's games in Neon when he went to Oak Hill Academy. Although the Xiangbei team was far inferior to those high schools in the United States in terms of skills and tactics, the basic skills of the players were actually not bad.
When watching those game videos, Smith focused all his attention on Jinguji Budo, so much so that he ignored the other players of Xiangbei. Now seeing the physical conditions of these Xiangbei players, Smith no longer thinks that Xiangbei is a weak team.
But even a team like Shohoku did not win the national championship last year. Now, Smith is even more curious about Shohoku High School's opponent, the Ryonan High School that stopped Shohoku and won the national championship.
While thinking, Smith collected the information about Xiangbei, put it in his briefcase, and picked up the information about Ryonan.
And at this moment, the audience in the surrounding stands burst into amazing cheers.
"Wow—" The cheers of the audience reached Smith's ears.
Smith raised his head and murmured, "Are we starting to enter?" Then he looked towards the court.
At this time, the doors to the player passages on both sides of the stadium had been opened, and the players of Ryonan High School began to enter the stadium under the leadership of Coach Tiangang.
The players of Ryonan seemed to have long been accustomed to such thunderous cheers. Each of the players had a calm expression. Kenji Fujima in the team even politely waved to the cheering audience in the stands, just like a popular star.
Following behind Coach Takeo was Jun Uozumi, who was over two meters tall. Against his burly figure, Coach Takeo, who was at the front, looked somewhat petite.
Behind Yuzumi, there was a tall young man with a gentle appearance and glasses. Although he was a little thinner than Yuzumi, the muscles on his arms were clearly defined, and one could tell at a glance that this person exercised regularly.
"The one who looks like a middle-aged man is the center of Ryonan High School, Jun Uozumi, and he is 202cm tall."
"Uh... Neon's positioning for this kid is too biased. He should be trained as a power forward."
"That kid with glasses is a 197cm power forward, Hanagata Toru... He's actually good at fadeaway jump shots? Why doesn't a kid like that play small forward?"
"besides... .."
"Oh, so that's how it is..."
"197cm small forward, Shinomiya Tano, weighs 103kg? Is this guy really a high school student?"
When the players of Lingnan High School entered the field, Coach Smith looked at the players on the field while comparing them with the information in his hand, trying to match the players with the information in his hand.
When he saw Shinomiya Tano's personal data, his jaw dropped.
It was the first time for him to see a high school small forward weighing 103kg. And looking at the No. 8 jersey worn by Shimoyomiya Tano on the court, Smith could tell from his two exposed arms how low the young man's body fat percentage was.
The circumference of the biceps is probably more than 40cm!
"In a place like this, besides Wu, there are actually monsters like this?!"
Smith couldn't help but clench his hands holding the information, and his eyes looked at Shinomiya Tano who entered the venue behind Hanagata Toru, his eyes full of heat.
He couldn't wait to see this 103kg high school small forward running on the court.
Just as Smith was looking at the Ryonan players entering the field, the door to the player tunnel at the other end of the court also opened.
The cheers, which had subsided a little, became louder again at this moment.
“ohhhhhh!
Shobei! Shobei! Shobei! "
"Shohoku is here!"
After the player tunnel, a fat old man with white hair and a kind face walked out of the player tunnel with a smile on his face. Behind him, a red-haired young man and a bleached and dyed young man followed on his left and right.
The two young men seemed to be very familiar with this kind of scene, and they waved to the audience around them with bright smiles.
Behind the two of them followed Mitsui Hisashi, Akagi Takenori and others. These senior players had expressionless faces and their aura was quite strong.
"Shohoku..." Coach Smith turned his head and looked at the Shohoku players entering the field, and then found the figure of Jinguji Budou at the back of the Shohoku team.
Jinguji Budo followed his teammates out of the player tunnel with his hands in his pockets, relaxed and indifferent. This kind of scene was already commonplace to him.
On the court, the Ryonan players who had just arrived at the team's rest area and started changing clothes heard the sudden enthusiastic cheers and quickly turned their heads to look at Shohoku.
Shimono Shimomiya had just taken off his coat and when he saw the Shohoku players entering the stadium, a bright smile appeared on his face.
"Are you here, Xiangbei?"
Sendoh also murmured, and his eyes quickly locked on Jinguji Takeshi who was at the back of the Shohoku team.
When Coach Takeo saw Coach Anzai leading the Shohoku players into the stadium, he immediately greeted them with a smile.
"Coach Anxi, long time no see!"
"I'll need your continued care during today's game!"
Coach Tagora started off with polite words, and Coach Anzai responded with a smile.
The two coaches exchanged pleasantries while Mitsui Hisashi led the Xiangbei players into the rest area. After watching for a while, the Ryonan players quickened their change of clothes.
Then he quickly entered the court and started warming up.
"Finally, we are going to play against Ryonan High School again. This time, we, Xiangbei, absolutely cannot lose!"
After arriving at the rest area, Mitsui threw his bag on the seat, pulled up his trousers with both hands, and took them off, revealing his basketball shorts.
"Ryonan! I have been waiting for this day for quite some time."
Upon hearing this, Akagi Takenori nodded and said in a deep voice.
Jinguji Budo couldn't help but smile when he saw his two teammates were full of fighting spirit. He sat on the bench and changed his shoes while saying:
"Akagi, Xiaosan, it's a good thing that you are full of fighting spirit, but when you get on the court, you two must not get carried away while playing."
"Ryonan is very different from the opponents we've faced before. Even the smallest mistake can be seized by the opponent."
"By the way, Sakuragi, especially you, make fewer mistakes."
Wudao raised his head, looked at Sakuragi, and warned.
Although it was not the first time that Xiangbei High School played against Ryonan High School, Xiangbei had never won in the several games against Ryonan. No matter how many points Jinguji Budo could get in a game, Ryonan would always win the final game.
When it comes to a team like Ryonan, even Jinguji Budo has become completely serious.
"Don't worry, this genius will never let you down!"
Sakuragi patted his chest and assured, but Kiyota Nobunaga and Nango on the side looked at each other, spread their hands and sighed, obviously not believing Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"Damn it, how dare you two look down on me!" Sakuragi said angrily when he saw the attitudes of his two companions.
Although his anger may be useful to others, it is of no use to Qingtian and Nanxiang...
While Sakuragi and Kiyota were playing around, Coach Anzai, who had just exchanged pleasantries with Coach Tianaoka, returned to the rest area and without any nonsense, announced the five starting lineups:
"Akagi Takenori, Mitsui Hisashi, Jinguji Budou, Sakuragi Hanamichi and... Rukawa Kaede, the five of you will start the game."
"Ryukawa will play point guard, Mitsui will play shooting, and the others will remain the same."
After hearing Coach Anxi's starting lineup, Wudao was not surprised. The other players looked at each other and nodded slightly without raising any objections.
This lineup is not the first time that Xiangbei has used it. It has been tried in previous games and the results were pretty good.
When Rukawa plays as a point guard, Shohoku's offense has more changes, and Rukawa, who is 187cm tall, is much stronger in defense than Miyagi Ryouta. On the defensive end, Shohoku's lineup has no obvious weaknesses, and will not be attacked by Ryonan by taking advantage of weak points as in the past.
After confirming the starting lineup, the Xiangbei players, who had changed their clothes, entered the court one after another to warm up.
Coach Anxi did not arrange any specific tactical play. During the pre-match simulation, Coach Anxi had already analyzed what play styles his team's various lineups needed to adapt to.
For example, in Xiangbei's current lineup, when on the court, the person who leads the offense is Rukawa Kaede. As a point guard, Rukawa Kaede can independently change the offensive style according to the changes in the court situation.
It is because Rukawa Kaede possesses such talent that Coach Anzai chooses to believe in Rukawa Kaede.
Both the Xiangbei and Ryonan teams were very disciplined during the warm-up phase. Although Sakuragi Hanamichi wanted to do something weird and show himself in front of the national media, he only dunked a few times during the warm-up.
It's eye-catching, but not out of the ordinary.
Seeing that Sakuragi from Shohoku was so active, Ryonan was not willing to be outdone. However, Shimonoseki and Sendoh did not take any shots. Instead, the sophomore player Yoshitaka Fukuda performed a few alley-oops, igniting the enthusiasm of the audience.
After nearly half an hour of warm-up.
With the referee's whistle, the two teams began to enter the court and took their positions in the center circle.
Not long after, the referee walked into the court with a basketball. Before the referee even started the game, cheers broke out from the stands.
Shinomiya Tianye watched the referee walk to the center line with the basketball, and immediately lowered his waist. Without talking to Wudao in front of him, he looked intently at the referee.
At this time, Jinguji Budo also calmed down slightly, looking at the basketball in the referee's hand with a solemn expression.
Both of them felt a terrifying pressure from each other, and under the influence of each other's pressure, both of them became more focused.
After a whistle sounded, the basketball was thrown into the air.
Akagi Takenori and Uozumi Jun jumped high almost at the same time and hit the basketball.
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