After a hard-fought defeat over Miuradai, Suzuki breathed a sigh of relief and was in a very good mood.

From last week's Oda Kiri and Seirin, to this week's Sunrise West, Fujimura and Miuradai, the team has gained confidence and experience under successive victories, while Suzuki has an accurate judgment on the strength of Xiangbei.

Although life is not a game, Suzuki tries to use data to analyze players and teams to inform his own tactics and adjustments.

Based on his years of coaching, Suzuki divides his players into six grades, marking them with the letters ABCDE and S, and fine-tuning them with plus and minus signs.

The lowest E gear is for beginners, who can dribble the ball easily and learn to pass the ball with their fingers. Generally speaking, they have no ability to score, and even if they do, they are limited to the basket, and they are not consistent. In the Xiangbei team, there are currently four first-year novices at this level, such as Takasu and Ino, and if nothing else, they will not be able to enter the main selection list.

The D gear in the upper gear is the player who has some basketball experience and can play some simple tactical roles on the court. Generally speaking, it is mainly based on blocking and covering, and those with height may be able to grab some rebounds, or score through dunks and layups under the basket. They may have mid-range shots, but their anti-interference ability is relatively poor, and they need the involvement of their teammates to cover and have a good hit rate in the open position. Kawabe and Sakai, two second-graders, are in this grade, and Hotta, Kidu, and Sakura in the first grade are also in this grade.

The players in the C position, in their respective positions, can already be considered qualified. In teams below the top eight in the county, they can generally get a main position, even in teams of the level of Xiangyang and Hainan, they are also role players with opportunities to play, either as a substitute or as a blue-collar piece of the tactical puzzle.

At present, most of the players in Xiangbei are at this level, but the range of this grade is relatively wide, and the strength of the players is strong and weak.

Strong ones such as Yanagisawa and Akagi can be independent in their respective positions, while weak ones such as Takeyo and Kuroda have some unsatisfactory defects.

The players in the B file can already be called first-class in the county, and they are the aces of most teams. Xiangbei's captain Zhenmu is the top handful in this grade.

The A and S files from the B file to the top are also ace-level players. The difference is that the players in the A file can dominate in the county, while the stage in the S file is the whole country.

Dividing the trump card into three grades, accounting for half of all grades, was not Suzuki's original intention. But having the experience of reaching a national tournament once, and broadening his perspective, Suzuki can only admit that some players are just one or even two notches above the aces of ordinary teams.

Atsushi Shihara, who dominated the country for Xiangyang back then, and Dahe, who scored 59 points and 15 assists in the battle against Jinshan, this kind of player who can dominate a game, Suzuki can't put them in the A file no matter what.

Of the five teams that have played warm-up matches this year, Miuradai is undoubtedly the strongest, with two first-class players in the prefecture, Oda and Saeki. But it's a pity that these two people, no, together with another village rain whose offensive ability is also the top in the C file, are good at small forwards, which leads to the strength of these three players can not be fully exerted, which is the reason for their defeat. Among these people, even if only two of them can fully play, then it will be Xiangbei who will swallow the bitter fruit of defeat.

Chengrin is not inferior to Miuradai in terms of the number of top players, Hinata with outstanding three-point ability undoubtedly stands firm in the B gear, and the big-hearted Muji may have touched the threshold of the A grade, but the strength of their remaining players has dragged back, and the substitutes are too weak to say, on the whole, it is not as good as Miuratai.

Thinking of the end of the battle with Chengrin, Sakuragi led the first grade to kill the opponent to the ground, the corners of Suzuki's mouth curled, and he was looking forward to the strength of Xiangbei in two years, and then he was shocked, looked around the basketball hall, and asked, "Has any of you seen Sakuragi tonight?" ”

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.

Momoi, who was sitting next to him, said, "I didn't see him all night, I thought Suzuki-kun didn't let him come over!" ”

Suzuki's heart tightened and said, "Oh no, nothing should happen." You guys clean up the basketball hall and disperse on your own, I'll go find Sakuragi. With that, Suzuki hurriedly left the basketball hall.

When it was time to change shoes, Momoi followed, panting and said, "Please let me go with you." ”

Suzuki glanced at her and nodded.

Walking on the sparsely populated street, the sparse lights stretched the shadows of the two people very long.

Because he was walking with Momoi, Suzuki didn't run wildly, but walked in small steps.

Momoi comforted: "Hongwen-kun, don't worry. Sakuragi is a good boy, maybe he didn't come because he stumbled over something. ”

Suzuki thinks about it, Sakuragi Hanamichi in this life, studied in a private school such as Lihai High School, and was influenced by the rigorous school spirit, and all the excess energy was invested on the basketball court, and he was not contaminated with bad habits at all, but because he played basketball well, he was still a star in the school. If it weren't for Sakuragi's rejection of women because of his parents' divorce, Suzuki would have to worry about his early love.

Thinking of this, Suzuki comforted himself: "yes, he won't have an accident." Maybe it's because I'm tired from training, and I go home and fall asleep all of a sudden. ”

The first stop of Suzuki and Momoi's search was naturally the current Suzuki house. The two of them walked through the path next to the hospital and took a look at their house, and Suzuki said worriedly, "He's not at home, there is no light in the room." ”

Momoi said: "Let's go back and take a look first, see if the schoolbag or anything is there, and make sure he has come back first." ”

The two of them went around to the front, unlocked and entered, and the entrance was still the same as when Suzuki left, without any change.

Suzuki took a breath and said with the anxiety in his heart in his heart, "May, you go upstairs to his room to have a look, and I'll call Coach Yukimura." ”

When Suzuki was involved in home improvement, he deliberately installed a phone on the shoe cabinet in the entrance, and he pulled out the phone book from under the telephone, and found the phone number of Yukimura's house familiarly, and dialed it.

"Moximoxi, is that Mr. Yukimura? I'm Suzuki. Is Sakuragi on your end? Not there. When did your training end today? Oh, five o'clock in the afternoon. Okay, thank you. It's okay, goodbye. ”

Suzuki hung up the phone and spun in circles, frowning as he wondered where Sakuragi would go.

Suddenly, there was a cry from Momoi from upstairs, and Suzuki was startled, and he took three steps and two steps and rushed up to the third floor.

Opening the door, Suzuki saw Momoi staring at the porch in a daze. Sakuragi's room has two exits, one of which opens on the outer wall and leads to the courtyard on the ground floor.

"What's wrong?" Suzuki asked.

"Sakuragi, he's been back." Momoi replied, "He's wounded, and there's blood on his bag and doorknob. ”