Throughout the entire game, Sakuragi Hanamichi didn't get the ball many times. He spent most of his time running back and forth with his teammates on the court, and then wrestling with Akagi Takenori under the basket for rebounds.
In this game, the absolute focus of their white team is the freshman center Mori Shigehiro.
And Sakuragi Hanamichi, a young freshman who had demonstrated his worth in national competitions, has become a foil to Mori Shigehiro.
Seeing Mori Shigehiro shine in the interior, he attracted the attention of the coaching staff.
Sakuragi Hanamichi, a player with a strong sense of self-esteem, was also holding back a nameless fire in his chest. He tried hard to control his emotions and focus on the game as much as possible, which is why he was able to play this practice match smoothly until now.
But now, Mori Shigehiro, that bastard, not only doesn't understand his willingness to sacrifice for the team as a "star player", but he actually mocks him?!
Sakuragi Hanamichi could not tolerate this kind of thing at all.
"You bastard! What did you say?!"
"How many good opportunities did you, a rookie, waste on the court? Didn't you even count them yourself?!"
"How dare a guy who didn't even make it to the national competition to lecture this genius?"
"Look in the mirror, are you qualified!?"
Sakuragi Hanamichi walked up to Mori Shigehiro angrily, ignoring Sendoh and others who had already launched a quick attack. He grabbed Mori Shigehiro's collar, looked at Mori Shigehiro, and said angrily.
Just as the two men broke out in conflict, Sendoh Akira, who had crossed the center line, had already received a pass from Uozumi, and then quickly moved towards the white team's half. Takeshi, Fujima, and Maki Shinichi all quickly returned to defense. Fujima Kenji, who was assigned to defend Sendoh, came to Sendoh's side shortly after Sendoh crossed the center line and made a steal.
While moving, Sendoh made a deft dribble from behind, easily bypassing Fujima's defense and accelerated towards the basket.
Jinguji Budou, who was planning to defend Sendoh, heard Sakuragi Hanamichi's roar as he approached Sendoh. He paused subconsciously and turned his head to look in the direction of Sakuragi Hanamichi and Mori Shigehiro.
And Sendoh also seized the moment when Jinguji Budou was distracted, quickly crossed the free throw line, caught the ball with one hand and jumped directly, then glided and dunked the ball into the basket.
The huge force caused the entire basketball hoop to vibrate violently.
The moment he fell back to the ground, a gust of sea breeze blew, and Sendoh breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at Jinguji Budou beside him with a thankful smile, and then turned his head to look at Sakuragi Hanamichi and Mori Shigehiro who were in conflict, and said with a smile:
"It seems like it's not that easy to get used to the new team!"
"First-year students are really a headache, Budo."
While Xiandao was speaking, the conflict was already showing signs of escalating.
Sakuragi Hanamichi grabbed Mori Shigehiro's collar, but he had no intention of resisting immediately. He put his hands into his trouser pockets, raised his head slightly, and looked down at Sakuragi Hanamichi with lowered eyebrows, and said provocatively:
"You played in the national tournament, so what?"
"Is it me who can't hold the ball? Or you?"
"So far in the game, I think I've scored 12 points, got 4 rebounds, and 0 turnovers."
"And you?"
"Aren't you the one who needs to look in the mirror?"
Mori Shigehiro had an indifferent look on his face, looking at Sakuragi Hanamichi who was full of anger in front of him. Mori Shigehiro was not afraid at all. Even when Sakuragi Hanamichi grabbed his collar, he was still unusually calm. The way he looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi did not look like he was looking at an angry peer at all.
It's like looking at a monkey.
Mori Shigehiro did not take Sakuragi Hanamichi seriously.
"What did you say!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi spoke word by word, his eyes full of anger. He was about to punch the other party to show him how powerful he was, but he suddenly thought of something and stopped his movement abruptly.
At the same time, Akagi Takenori and Uozumi Jun also quickly walked to the two men, one stood beside Sakuragi and the other stood beside Mori Shigehiro, fearing that the two men would fight.
Akagi saw Sakuragi Hanamichi raising his fist to hit him, but before Akagi could step forward to stop him, Sakuragi Hanamichi stopped hitting him on his own.
"This bastard is right. Even if I use my fists to show him how powerful this genius is, he still won't take it seriously."
"If I don't prove on the court that I'm better than him, everything will be meaningless."
"But... ."
"That middle-aged man and this bastard are on the same team. This genius has no chance to prove himself at all."
“… .”
Thinking about it in the end, Sakuragi Hanamichi just cursed angrily and pushed Mori Shigehiro away.
"asshole!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi glanced at Maki Shinichi with a gloomy face, then glanced at the players on the court, silently left the basket, stood on the side of the mid-range paint area, and then looked at his own half.
"?"
"What is this boy Sakuragi doing?"
Seeing that Sakuragi Hanamichi seemed to have successfully controlled his emotions, Akagi Takenori sighed in confusion. However, he did not completely let go of his worries, but walked silently to Sakuragi Hanamichi's side.
On the one hand, he wanted to be on guard against Sakuragi in case he did anything out of line again, and on the other hand, he wanted to be on guard against Sakuragi as soon as the game continued.
In the backcourt of the White team, Wudou saw that the conflict seemed to be stopped by Akagi Takenori and Uozumi Jun, so he walked to the sidelines, picked up the basketball, and threw the ball to Maki Shinichi.
After getting the basketball, Maki Shinichi glanced at Sakuragi Hanamichi and Mori Shigehiro, hesitated for a moment, and asked Wudao:
"Should we... stagger the two players, Sakuragi and Hiro?"
"How about letting Mike Okita play power forward for a while? Let Sakuragi play center for a while."
"I see that A-Kuan is obviously tired. Let's take this opportunity to let him go off the court and rest for a while?"
"If they are all placed on the court, conflicts may still occur."
Although Maki Shinichi had just been immersed in the defense, he still heard part of the conversation between Sakuragi Hanamichi and Mori Shigehiro.
Relying on the small part he heard, Maki Shinichi was able to roughly reconstruct the truth of the matter. He judged that the quarrel between the two players was probably caused by Sakuragi Hanamichi's feeling that the ball rights were unevenly distributed.
Maki thought that Jinguji Budou, the super ace, would have no problem with his distribution of ball rights. However, he did not expect that Sakuragi Hanamichi, who had always played a blue-collar role in Xiangbei, was also a person with a strong self-esteem and a desire for ball rights.
Shinichi Maki took care of Takeshi's emotions, but he did not take care of Sakuragi Hanamichi's emotions.
The conflict between Sakuragi and Mori Shigehiro was ultimately caused by improper handling by guard Shinichi Maki.
Seeing that a conflict had broken out within the team, Maki Shinichi wanted to make amends. At this time, it was of course impossible for him to suggest that Sakuragi Hanamichi should go off the court to rest.
This is equivalent to your own child quarreling with other children. As a parent, most of the time you will slightly favor the other child.
The same is true now. Maki Shinichi is trying to let Mori Shigehiro go off the court to rest and ease the conflicts within the team.
Facing Maki Shinichi's question, Jinguji Budo shook his head disapprovingly and said without much concern: "Just continue like this."
"On the road to player growth, you will meet all kinds of players."
"People will always get along with people they don't like, and the same is true for basketball."
"You'll always play with teammates who are not in tune with you."
"If we are easily provoked, it will be difficult to move forward in the future."
"Whether it's for Sakuragi or Mori Shigehiro, it's the same."
"Amu, there's no need to change your play in the first half."
"If players want to gain respect from others, it is useless to rely on incompetent rage."
"There is only one way to gain respect from others!"
"Talk with the ball!"
As he was talking, Jinguji Takeshi was already jogging towards the front field. Makishen glanced at Takeshi's back and couldn't help but smile and sighed: "He is really a strict captain!"
As he spoke, Maki Shinichi slowly dribbled the ball towards the front court.
Although Takeshi said that, Shinichi Maki couldn't do as Takeshi said. Takeshi Jinguji was the captain of Shohoku and a senior on the same team as Sakuragi Hanamichi. Of course, it didn't matter to him what he did to Sakuragi Hanamichi.
After all, Jinguji Budo has great prestige in Sakuragi's mind.
However, as a student from another school, Shinichi Maki cannot help but take the players' emotions into consideration.
After approaching the three-point line, Sakuragi Maki Shinichi started to break through on his own. After creating some distance between himself and Rukawa Kaede, Maki Shinichi chose to pass the ball to Sakuragi Hanamichi who was in the middle distance at this time.
“Bang!”
When Sakuragi got the basketball, a look of surprise appeared on his face, and then he immediately became excited.
"Youxi!"
After a low roar, Sakuragi Hanamichi quickly swept the ball to the basket. When Akagi Takenori saw Sakuragi Hanamichi taking the ball, he thought there was no one around and didn't want to let him go, so he immediately came up and covered Sakuragi's head with his hands.
After a simple fake dribble, Sakuragi Hanamichi dropped the ball on the right side, then started with a digging step. After a quick horizontal move, Sakuragi Hanamichi actually made a quick stop jump shot from mid-range.
Although Akagi Takenori's defense followed up in time, his lateral speed was not as fast as Sakuragi's. His raised hand was unable to block Sakuragi's shot. He watched the basketball pass over his head and fly towards the basket.
“Swish!”
Following a slight sound, Sakuragi Hanamichi raised his arms, roared excitedly, then glared at Mori Shigehiro in the inside, turned quickly and ran towards his own backcourt.
Shinomiya Tianye, Sendoh and others also looked at Sakuragi at this moment and said with a smile: "This first-year student of Xiangbei is becoming more and more mature."
"The pull-up jump shot is very stable."
When Sendoh was praising Sakuragi, Rukawa had just received a pass from his teammate in the backcourt and started to dribble the ball towards the frontcourt. When he came behind Sendoh and Shinomiya Tano, he heard Sendoh's words.
He curled his lips in disdain and sneered: "Tsk..."
Sendoh and Shinomiya Tano looked at each other, smiled, then quickened their pace and ran to the front court.
Sakuragi Hanamichi's activeness seemed to have stimulated Rukawa Kaede. He had been passing the ball to Yuzumi and Akagi Takenori in the interior, but this moment, he stopped passing the ball to his teammates and started his own offensive performance.
Under the defense of Shinichi Maki, Rukawa changed directions continuously at a fast pace. When he failed to deceive Shinichi Maki, Rukawa directly pulled up for the ball along the three-point line and shot it out.
Rukawa's pull-up jump shot was very stable, but Maki Shinichi was no pushover. He was similar in height to Rukawa, so Rukawa was unable to completely get rid of him. He was also able to follow up in time to defend against this kind of pull-up jump shot.
Although he failed to block the ball, he was able to easily interfere with Rukawa's shooting.
"clang!"
The basketball hit the edge of the rim and bounced out directly. Sakuragi Hanamichi was trapped behind by Akagi Takenori, but Rukawa Kaede's shot made the ball bounce farther away. Sakuragi Hanamichi, who was farther away from the basket, took advantage and grabbed the ball in his hands.
"good!"
After getting the basketball, Sakuragi roared excitedly, and then without passing the ball to Shinichi Maki, he quickly charged towards the frontcourt with the ball.
Seeing this, Rukawa Kaede ignored Shinichi Maki who was already running towards his backcourt, but instead moved towards Sakuragi Hanamichi when Sakuragi crossed the three-point line.
"Get away, you bastard, you stinky fox!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi dribbled the ball towards the frontcourt and had just crossed the three-point line of his own half. Before he even approached the center line, Rukawa Kaede came close to him.
Unable to help but curse under his breath, Sakuragi Hanamichi slowed down due to Rukawa's interception.
Sakuragi Hanamichi has some dribbling skills, but his dribbling offense is limited to the half-court area. Sakuragi's breakthrough ability is only available near the basket, such as dribbling the ball across half court.
Sakuragi really wasn't very good at it.
A breakthrough in the half court and dribbling past the opponent in the whole court require two completely different levels of abilities!
Soon, under the pressure of Rukawa Kaede, Sakuragi Hanamichi was forced to stop the ball. At this time, Sakuragi had not even crossed the half court.
Fortunately, Jinguji Takeshi saw Sakuragi's embarrassment and immediately came back to help, giving Sakuragi Hanamichi someone to pass the ball to.
After getting the basketball, Jinguji Budou quickly dribbled the ball to the three-point line, and after a dragging step, he quickly changed direction and rushed forward. Under the pursuit of Shinomiya Tano, he stopped suddenly, stepped back and shot from a high position.
Perhaps because he hadn't touched the ball for a long time, Wudao's shot was also inaccurate and the basketball bounced out of the basket.
Under the basket, Mori Shigehiro was double-teamed by Akagi Takenori and Uozumi Jun and still had no chance of grabbing the rebound. As the basketball bounced out, Akagi Takenori jumped lightly and seemed to grab the ball in his hands.
However, at this moment, Sakuragi Hanamichi's figure rose rapidly from behind Akagi Takenori, and before Akagi Takenori could get the basketball, he directly touched the basketball.
"Huh?!" After a light exclamation, Akagi Takenori fell back to the ground, looked at the basketball still in the air, and immediately jumped up, trying to grab the ball in his hands.
Before he could jump, Sakuragi Hanamichi had already taken off for the second time and directly took the ball in his hands.
Akagi noticed Sakuragi Hanamichi behind him and turned around quickly. He happened to see Sakuragi Hanamichi falling back to the ground with the ball in both hands ready to shoot. Without thinking, he pounced on him.
However, at the moment when Akagi was about to take action, Sakuragi suddenly lowered his body, dropped the ball and broke through, passing Akagi Takenori and rushed directly into the basket, followed by a powerful two-handed dunk.
Excellent athletic ability, strong jumping ability, and beautiful fake moves.
With just one goal, Sakuragi Hanamichi demonstrated his talent to the fullest!
"I am a genius and will never lose to anyone!"
"Just wait, you bastard!"
... ... ... ... ... ... ... .