Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

In late September, the weather turns cooler along the Shonan coast.

Members of the Kanagawa Prefecture team training at a seaside hotel could no longer wear short-sleeved shirts during the morning exercises. It took a period of exercise before they could take off their coats.

The opening day of Qiuzhi National Sports is approaching. During this period, the training arranged by Coach Anxi has begun to be downgraded. The members of the representative team will only practice some running positions in the morning hours. The rest of the time, Coach Anxi is Let the players make their own arrangements.

There is only one principle, and that is to ensure physical condition and not to be overtired in order to cope with the Autumn National Sports Competition.

The draw for the Autumn National Sports was completed yesterday afternoon, and the competition grouping information was posted in the lobby of the seaside hotel at noon.

There are 47 participating teams in this year’s Autumn National Sports, coming from all over the country.

The Kanagawa County team was last year's national champion, and at the same time it was the host, so it was obviously quite convenient for the team grouping.

In addition to the "first round" bye benefit that last year's champion had, the opponents Kanagawa Prefecture faced in the first few rounds this year were not the kind of strong basketball counties.

Although the team's game order and opponents are determined by drawing lots, everyone knows that even if it is drawn by lots, it is very easy for the host country to make some small moves.

Shuangseqiu's lottery draws are still random, and I haven't seen any of you lucky enough to buy a winning lottery ticket, right?
As in previous games, the 47 teams are divided into four groups. Each group has three or four teams that have byes in the first round. Those players called "seeds" often also have byes in the first round. team.

The Kanagawa Prefecture team is placed in Group D. The strongest teams in the entire group are Aichi Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture. In addition, the Kochi Prefecture team also received a bye in the first round, but compared to others For several teams, although the Kochi County team also had a bye in the first round, their strength was worse.

“This year’s competition should look very easy!”

“We don’t have any particular teams to watch out for in this group.”

"Just pay a little more attention when playing Aichi Prefecture. As for the teams from other prefectures, the gap between them and us is huge."

"Before entering the semi-finals, Akita, Fukuoka, Tokyo, Chiba, etc. will not meet these teams."

"Our opponent in the semifinals of Group D will most likely be Chiba or Fukuoka in Group C."

"Their team is the strongest."

In the lobby of the seaside hotel, the Kanagawa Prefecture team members, together with Coach Anzai and Coach Taoka, reviewed the group announcement posted.

After the coaching staff established the members of the Autumn National Sports Team, they had officially announced their disbandment. After that, the people who led the players to participate in the competition were Coach Anxi and Coach Tianoka.

One of these two is the head coach, and the other is an assistant coach and team leader.

The upper-level leaders also considered that Coach Anxi was a bit old, so they asked Coach Tian Gang to help.

At this time, Coach Taoka held a thin wooden stick in his hand, pointed at the Chiba Prefecture team and Fukuoka Prefecture team in Group C, and analyzed the players.

"Hohohoho."

"Coach Taoka is right. Although I don't want you to develop that kind of arrogance and complacency, when analyzing the opponent's strength, we must also be realistic."

"According to the current strength of our Kanagawa County team, ordinary opponents really have no way to pose any threat to us."

"but."

"I got a piece of news. I heard that in this year's Autumn National Sports, those clubs sent the members of the youth training teams who meet the age limit to each school, and they formed the county representative team and competed like other ordinary high school students."

"You guys have to be prepared!"

In this era, the development paths of Neon Basketball are those that walk on two legs. One is normal campus basketball, and the other is the youth training system.

Don't think that countries like Neon don't have youth training teams. In fact, their countries also have youth training teams.

As for why there is no professional basketball in this country, the reason is very simple, because the level of professional basketball in this country is too weak in the world, so weak that no one pays attention to it at all.

In this era, the sports that Neon citizens are interested in are football, judo, kendo and baseball.

No matter which of these sports it is, the popularity is much higher than basketball.

And because basketball is a weak sport, although this country has youth training teams, there are quite few youth training competitions.

The one that Rukawa Kaede and the others were called to train before was the National Youth Team, which is a different concept from the youth training team.One is the team training organized by the country, which can be understood as the national team of U16 and U17.

There is also a club player who aims at professional basketball and does not usually go to school for regular classes.

The paths for campus basketball players to rise are primary school, middle school, high school, and university. At the two stages of high school and university, if you have outstanding personal ability and are recommended by someone, you will have the opportunity to join a club and participate in competitions between clubs.

At this stage, he can actually be called a professional player.

It’s just that there were not many clubs in this era, and there were not many games. Even the games were unstable. Those so-called “professional players” were not very good at it.

The youth training system means that you have been scouted by the club since you were a child, and you have been playing in the club. When you grow up, you sign a contract with the club and directly become a "professional player."Of course, when the club trains players, it is also divided into echelons. Each echelon will eliminate some unqualified players.

Only the best people can become "professionals".

However, the chaos of Neon Basketball’s professional competitions being irregular and players’ advancement paths being narrow did not change until 2016.

Coach Anzai actually came from youth training and did not follow the path of campus basketball like Jinguji Martial Arts and others.

Just a few days ago, Eiki Kawamura, who performed brilliantly on the world stage, is a representative figure of campus basketball. For example, Rui Hachimura, who was relatively popular in the past few years, is actually following the youth training route.

It’s hard to say which of these two paths is better or worse, but generally speaking, in the same age group, players from youth training will have much better skills than ordinary high school students. This is undisputed.

It's just that many of the players in their Kanagawa Prefecture team have already met the club's recruitment standards in personal ability.

It's just that in this era, club basketball trusts the players they have trained since childhood and will basically not recruit players of their age from outside.

Before the Neon Men's Basketball Team began to reform, their basketball environment was almost exactly the same as that of China. The more advanced league selections basically did not recruit from campus basketball players.

In the past, the club's youth training team looked down upon Qiuzhiguosi. In fact, the club was not interested in participating in a competition of this level.

I don’t know what they are thinking this year, but they actually sent players from their own club to various partner schools to help the county compete in competitions.

Such changes are indeed enough to draw Kanagawa Prefecture's attention.

Because Kanagawa County had already excluded the club's youth training players during the selection process, those club players had no intention of participating in the selection from the very beginning.

"Coach Anzai, why is there such a sudden change?" Sakuragi Hanamichi said bluntly. In his mind, he had no idea about the club's youth training players, so he asked directly with doubts in his heart.

"because of U.S."

"It's normal for you to be in closed training during this period and not know what's going on outside."

"The current title of Jinguji Martial Arts is not just 'the strongest high school student'" "For some unknown reason, his playing exploits in the United States were discovered."

"The media is now hyping up this news so much that they seem to regard Jinguji Martial Arts as the future of basketball."

"The goal of the youth training players should be us."

"Ha ha."

Coach Taoka explained to Sakuragi Hanamichi and others, and then looked at Jinguji Budo in the crowd.

He, Coach Anxi and other members of the coaching staff had known this news for a long time, and they didn't say it until today, in order to prevent outside news from affecting Jinguji Budo.

Jinguji Martial Arts was a little surprised when he learned the news. Although he had led Shohoku to win the national championship before, it was just a high school championship and was not worth mentioning at all.

In the eyes of many people, does this kind of competition make sense if there is no winner?
Even if you win the championship, you may not be able to become a professional player. In the past, there were champions every year, but only a few students became professional players?

But
Jinguji Budo’s achievements were different when he was in the United States. Anyone who has a little understanding of the American basketball training system will know what the ranking of high school students in the United States is.

This thing is not only something that American college basketball admissions must look at, but it is also a list that scouts of various NBA teams have been paying attention to.

Every year, news comes out that talented players are being watched by NBA teams, and every year, news comes out that college players who were once on the list announced that they would participate in the draft and were selected.

Players like Kobe and Tracy McGrady were already the focus of NBA teams when they were in high school.The future James, even before landing in the league, is already the highly anticipated "number one" candidate.

It is quite normal for Jinguji Martial Arts, which has made its name in the United States, to attract attention in this country.

Hearing Coach Tian Gang's explanation, all the players turned their heads and focused their eyes on Budo Jinguji, with surprise, joy, and envy.

However, the naive Sakuragi Hanamichi had no idea what great achievements Jinguji Martial Arts around him had achieved. He only knew that Jinguji Martial Arts was very strong and was the goal he pursued, nothing more.

"A lot of people will come to watch the game after you."

"Play well and show your own style, let more people see you, and let more people realize the sport of basketball."

"What I ask of you is no longer just as simple as winning the championship."

"Let everyone see your strength!"

Coach Anxi clapped his hands to attract the players' attention, and then encouraged them.

a few days later.

The opening ceremony of the Autumn National Sports was held at the Kanagawa Prefecture Central Gymnasium.

Spectators from all over the country filled the basketball court that can accommodate thousands of people on the first day of the game.In the past, the Qiuzhi National Sports competition has never been as lively as today.

Witnessed by the audience, the Autumn National Sports officially kicked off.

Two days before the competition day, the first knockout round of the Autumn National Sports was held. The participating teams were all teams with poor performance in the past.

A total of 15 games will be played over two days.

The winning team advances to the second round and plays against the teams that received a bye in the first round.

The first time the Kanagawa Prefecture team played in front of the audience was on the morning of the third day of the Autumn National Sports Competition.

Their opponent in the first game was Shiga Prefecture.

In the previous game, Shiga Prefecture defeated Shimane 116:62 and advanced to the second round.

It was the first time that Wu Dao and the others met this opponent. None of the players like Wu Dao had watched the previous games. Only the two coaches of the team had watched the games and had some understanding of the team.

Before the game, coach Anxi made the lineup arrangement for today’s game:
"Your opponent today is Shiga County. Before that, they beat their opponent 116:62 by 54 points and entered the second round."

"Just by looking at the score, you should know the strength of your opponent, right?"

"Don't take it lightly. The players on this team are not ordinary high school students, but young people from the youth training system."

"Of course, you don't have to be afraid. Your strength will never lose to the youth training players of any club."

"This match."

"Sakura Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede, Amu, Morishigehiro, and Sendo."

"The five of you, as the starters, play first."

"Sendao, you play small forward, Rukawa Kaede, you play the shooting position."

"The style of play in the first half revolved around Mu Shenyi, focusing on breaking through and scoring the ball. First try the quality of the opponent."

"Xiandao, Rukawa, you two have to be more diligent in your movements. After Amu breaks through, you have to provide passing options."

"Don't show mercy on your physical fitness. I will replace all five of you after 10 minutes of the game."

“Just give it your all.”

Under the arrangement of Coach Anxi, the starting five players were determined.Hearing Coach Anxi's arrangement, smiles appeared on the faces of all the players.

5 down and 5 up is very suitable for their team.

Because both the starting team and the second team coming off the bench are very strong.

Without Sakuragi and others, Jinguji Budō and Shinomiya Tanō and others sitting on the bench are even more powerful!
The total pre-match preparation time and warm-up time are 30 minutes.

As the referee's whistle sounded, the players from both teams began to walk towards the court.

When the surrounding audience saw a player from the Kanagawa County representative team walk out, they immediately gave the warmest cheers.

Sakuragi Hanamichi walked at the front of the team, listening to the cheers of the surrounding audience, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"This genius! He is finally going to make his mark in front of the whole country!"

"This time, I don't need Brother Martial Arts' protection!"

(End of this chapter)