Time flies, and in just two days it will be the day of Shohoku vs. Ryonan.
Inside the Shohoku basketball gym, a heated training session is in full swing.
Coach Anzai continued to have Takenori Akagi organize the team's practice matches.
However, Akagi Takenori's arrangement this time was quite interesting; he put Rukawa Kaede in his team.
That is, Takenori Akagi will play center, Kiminobu Kogure will play forward, Kaede Rukawa will play forward, Yasuharu Yasuda will play point guard, and Tetsushi Shiozaki will play shooting guard.
Sakuragi Hanamichi was placed in the team of first-year students.
It's clear that Takenori Akagi's team was preparing for the match against Ryonan.
After Rukawa Kaede was placed in Akagi Takenori's team, the first-year students were completely dominated.
Akagi Takenori just performed a dunk, and Rukawa Kaede immediately followed with one. Kogure Kiminobu also occasionally took a three-pointer from the outside, but his success rate with three-pointers was indeed not high.
In contrast, apart from Sakuragi Hanamichi, who has the ability to compete with Akagi Takenori in the paint, the other first-year students are all trash and have no presence at all.
While Akagi Takenori and Sakuragi Hanamichi were vying for position under the basket, Akagi Takenori kept taunting Sakuragi Hanamichi, saying, "Sakuragi Hanamichi, your butt kill is pretty impressive, isn't it? Come on! Hold the position!"
At first, Sakuragi Hanamichi wanted to use the same trick again, unleashing his "butt kill" to teach Akagi Takenori a lesson.
But soon, Sakuragi Hanamichi was dumbfounded.
Because now it's a competition between two teams, not a one-on-one duel between him and Takenori Akagi like before.
After he got the ball, he used his "butt kick" on Takenori Akagi, but before he could even make two impacts, Rukawa stole the ball!
Sometimes, Kiminobu Kogure would also interfere with Sakuragi Hanamichi in the vicinity.
This made Sakuragi Hanamichi feel that he had no chance to use any of his skills.
In his haste, Akagi Takenori found an opening under the basket, and after securing the ball, he dunked it with a reverse hand!
Akagi Takenori, Rukawa Kaede, and Kogure Kiminobu completely overwhelmed Sakuragi Hanamichi.
It was at this moment that Sakuragi Hanamichi truly understood the helplessness that Akagi Takenori had once felt.
After Mitsui Hisashi left the team, Shohoku only had Akagi Takenori and Kogure Kiminobu as their basketball skills. If other schools could defend against those two, Shohoku would have no chance to score.
Although Takenori Akagi was very strong under the basket, able to grab many rebounds and dunk, he ultimately couldn't save the Shohoku team.
Thinking about this, Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly felt that Akagi Takenori was really having a tough time. How could a champion lead a bunch of weaklings when the opponents were all champion teams?
All I can do is get abused!
If someone had a weaker mentality, and possessed Akagi Takenori's physical attributes and basketball skills, they probably would have transferred to Hainan, Ryonan, or Shohoku long ago. Why would they stay in the weak Shohoku team and wait to be humiliated by others?
"Hey! Sakuragi Hanamichi, are you scared?"
Seeing that Sakuragi Hanamichi was distracted, Akagi Takenori began to mock him again.
Sakuragi Hanamichi gritted his teeth, "Afraid of you? Come on!"
Sakuragi Hanamichi once again used his "butt-butt kill" and rubbed against Akagi Takenori's body!
Takenori Akagi immediately lowered his body to counter Sakuragi Hanamichi's special move.
Sakuragi Hanamichi also lowered his body and rubbed his knee against Akagi Takenori's knee!
It made Takenori Akagi feel a warmth in his thigh, curing his ten-year-old leg pain!
"Sakuragi Hanamichi, can you please stop being so disgusting? If you're so capable, fight back with your body! Using such disgusting moves is absolutely awful!"
Although Akagi Takenori wasn't afraid of Sakuragi Hanamichi's "butt kill" move, he couldn't help feeling disgusted!
Sakuragi Hanamichi smiled smugly and said sarcastically, "What? Are you scared? If you're scared, then stay away and don't get in my way of grabbing the rebound."
Akagi Takenori laughed heartily and said, "Rebounding? How many rebounds have you grabbed since the start of the game?"
Sakuragi Hanamichi was startled!
Akagi Takenori's words made Sakuragi Hanamichi suddenly realize something very scary: he really hadn't grabbed many rebounds.
how so?
Just then, Kiminobu Kogure threw the ball.
With a "whoosh".
The three-pointer is made.
However, the ball didn't go in.
It's time to grab the rebound again!
Sakuragi Hanamichi stared intently at the basketball in the air, waiting for the right moment to leap into the air.
Takenori Akagi made the same move.
Both of them jumped up suddenly.
With a "snap".
A pair of large hands firmly controlled the basketball in mid-air, then immediately pressed down into their arms, protecting the basketball tightly.
It's Takenori Akagi!
Akagi Takenori didn't give Sakuragi Hanamichi any chance at all, and before Sakuragi Hanamichi could react, he had the basketball firmly in his arms.
Sakuragi Hanamichi looked on incredulously.
Why is this happening?
We jumped at the same time, and my jumping ability is supposed to be better than his, so how come he still got the ball first?
Wait, it was the same when we had a one-on-one fight last time!
The difference is that during the rebounding process just now, there was no chance to snatch the basketball from Akagi Takenori's hands in mid-air like during the team entrance assessment.
After grabbing the rebound, Takenori Akagi didn't choose to dunk himself. Instead, he glanced triumphantly at Hanamichi Sakuragi, who was standing there dumbfounded, and then passed the ball to Kaede Rukawa.
After getting the basketball, Rukawa immediately took a mid-range shot.
The basketball went directly into the basketball hoop.
Score!
At this point, Takenori Akagi added, "Hanamichi Sakuragi, did you see that? That's the role of a rebound. Whoever can control the rebounds can control the game."
Sakuragi Hanamichi squinted, his teeth itching with hatred.
That darn gorilla, still putting on airs in front of me! Of course I know the importance of rebounds, but why did you steal that rebound just now?
Until the end of the practice match, Sakuragi Hanamichi had not managed to grab a rebound from Akagi Takenori.
This left the previously confident Sakuragi Hanamichi completely dumbfounded.
how so?
I promised myself I'd be the rebounding king!
I've always been thinking about prioritizing improving my skills under the basket, positioning myself well, and grabbing rebounds, then gradually practicing mid-range shots and layups, and finally working on three-pointers. Everything was planned out perfectly and arranged clearly.
But how come I didn't get a single rebound just now?
As for dunking, that's even more humiliating!
After receiving the pass from his teammate, Sakuragi Hanamichi immediately wanted to perform a powerful dunk.
But in the end, he ended up eating a huge hot pot from Takenori Akagi!
At that moment, Takenori Akagi's expression was incredibly arrogant!
"Alright! That's all for today's training. Everyone go back and get some rest."
Takenori Akagi announced the end of today's training, and the players left the basketball gym one by one.
Sakuragi Hanamichi was very frustrated; he couldn't figure out what the problem was.
Just then, Takenori Akagi shouted, "Hey! Hanamichi Sakuragi, you stay here!"
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