In late September, the climate on the coast of Shonan turns cooler.

The Kanagawa Prefecture team, which was training at the seaside hotel, could no longer wear short sleeves when they went out for exercise in the morning, and it took a period of exercise before they were able to take off their coats.

The start day of the autumn national sports is approaching, and the training arranged by Coach Anzai has begun to be downgraded during this time, and everyone on the team will only practice some running positions in the morning hours, and the rest of the time, Coach Anzai will let the players arrange it themselves.

And there is only one principle, that is, to ensure physical condition and not to be overly tired in order to cope with the competition of Autumn National Sports.

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

This year, there are 47 teams from all over the country.

The Kanagawa Prefecture team was last year's national champion and the host at the same time, so it was obvious that the team grouping was quite convenient.

In addition to the "first-round" bye benefits that last year's champion had, the opponents that Kanagawa Prefecture faced in the previous rounds this year were not the kind of basketball powerhouses.

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

The lottery draw of the two-color ball is still random, and I haven't seen any brother who is lucky enough to buy a lottery ticket that wins the jackpot, right?

As in previous tournaments, the 47 teams are divided into four groups, each with three or four first-round byes, and those who are called "seeded" are often the ones with first-round byes.

The Kanagawa Prefecture team was divided into Group D, and the strength of the entire group is quite strong, that is, Aichi Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture, in addition, there is also the Kochi Prefecture team that also has a first-round bye, but compared to several other teams, although the Kochi Prefecture team is also a first-round bye, but the strength is a little worse.

"This year's competition looks like it's going to be very easy!"

"We don't have any teams in this group that we have in particular to look out for."

"Just pay a little attention when you play Aichi Prefecture, as for the teams from other prefectures, the gap between them and ours is very different."

"Before reaching the semi-finals, Akita, Fukuoka, Tokyo, Chiba, and so on will not meet these teams."

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

"They are a strong team."

In the lobby of the seaside hotel, the players from Kanagawa Prefecture, along with Coach Anzai and Coach Taoka, reviewed the grouping announcement that had been posted.

After the coaching staff established the members of the Autumn National Sports Team, it was officially disbanded, and the people who led the players to participate in the competition were Coach Anzai and Coach Taoka.

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

The upper leadership also considered that Coach Anzai was a little old, so they asked Coach Taoka to help.

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

"Ho ho ho

"Coach Taoka is right, although I don't want you to develop that kind of proud and complacent character, but when analyzing the strength of the opponent, we must also be realistic."

"According to the current strength of our Kanagawa Prefecture team, the average opponent really has no way to pose any threat to us."

"Still."

"I got a message that I heard. In this year's Autumn National Sports, those clubs sent the members of the youth team who matched the age to each school, and like other ordinary high school students, they formed a county team and competed. ”

"You guys. . . Be prepared! ”

In this era, the development of neon basketball belongs to the kind of two-legged walking, one is normal campus basketball, and the other is the youth training system.

Don't think that a country like Neon doesn't have a youth team, in fact, their country also has a youth team.

As for why there is no professional basketball in this country, the reason is very simple, because the professional basketball level in this country is too weak in the world. There will be no public concern at all.

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

Regardless of which of these sports, the popularity is much higher than basketball.

And because of the weak strength of basketball, although there are youth teams in this country, there are quite few youth training competitions.

The one who was called to train before Rukawa Kaede was the national youth team, which is a different concept from the youth team. One is the team training organized by the state, which can be understood as the U16, U17 national team.

There is also a club player who aims to develop professional basketball and usually does not go to school to attend classes normally.

The way for campus basketball players to rise is elementary school, middle school, high school, and college, and at the two stages of high school and college, if you have excellent personal strength and someone recommends, you will have the opportunity to join the club and participate in the competition between clubs.

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

It's just that there are not many clubs in this era, the number of games is not much, and even the games are unstable, and those so-called "professional players" are not very good one by one.

The youth training system is to be tapped by the club since childhood, keep playing in the club, and when you grow up, you sign a contract with the club and directly become a "professional player". Of course, the club is also divided into echelons when cultivating players, and each echelon will eliminate some unqualified players.

Only the best people can become "professions".

The chaos of neon basketball professional events being informal and players having a narrow ascent path did not change until 2016.

Coach Anzai used to be from a youth training background, and he didn't follow the path of campus basketball like Jinguji Martial Arts and them.

Just a few days ago, Kawamura Yonghui, who performed brilliantly on the world stage, is the representative of campus basketball, such as Hachimura, who was relatively hot a few years ago, and is actually taking the youth training route.

It is impossible to say which of these two roads is better and which is worse, but in general, in the same age, the skills of players from the academy will be much stronger than that of ordinary high school students, which is indisputable.

Merely. Many of the players in their Kanagawa Prefecture team have already reached the club's recruitment standards for their personal ability.

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

Before the Neon men's basketball team began to reform, their basketball environment was almost exactly the same as that of Huaguo, and the more advanced league selection materials basically did not recruit from the players of campus basketball.

In the past, the club's youth team was not looking down on the autumn national sports, and the club was not interested in participating in this level of competition.

I don't know what they think this year, but they actually sent the players of their club to various cooperative schools to help the county play games.

Such a change is indeed enough to attract the attention of Kanagawa Prefecture.

Because Kanagawa Prefecture had already excluded the club's youth players from the selection process before, those club players had no intention of running for the election from the beginning.

"Coach Anzay, why is there such a sudden change?" Sakuragi Hanamichi was straightforward, and in his mind, he didn't have any concept of the club's youth players, and he asked directly with doubts in his heart.

"Because of us."

"During this period of closed training, it is normal for you not to know the situation in the outside world."

"Jinguji Martial Arts's current title is not just 'the strongest high school student'"

"For some unknown reason, his deeds of playing in the United States have been dug up."

"Now the media is hyping up this news, as if they have regarded Jinguji martial arts as the future of basketball."

"The goal of the academy players should be us."

"Huh."

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

This news, he and Coach Anzai and other members of the coaching staff actually knew about it for a long time, and they didn't say it until today, also to prevent outside news from affecting the martial arts of Jinguji Temple.

And the martial arts of Jinguji Temple, who knew the news, was also a little surprised, although he had led Xiangbei to win the national championship before, but the championship of a high school competition was not worth mentioning at all.

In the eyes of many people, is it meaningful for this kind of competition, where the champion is not the champion?

Even if you win the championship, you may not be able to become a professional player, in the past, there were championships every year, and only a few students became professional players?

But

Jinguji Martial Arts has achieved different results when he traveled to the United States, as long as you know a little about the American basketball training system, people in the industry know that the ranking of high school students in the United States is what the role is.

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

Every year, there is news that talented players are being noticed by NBA teams, and every year, there are news that college players who were once on the list announce that they will participate in the draft and are selected.

Players like Kobe Bryant and Maddy were already the focus of NBA teams in high school. The future James, even before landing in the league, was already the "champion" of the crowd.

Jinguji Martial Arts, which is famous in the United States, is also quite normal for people to be noticed in this country.

Hearing Coach Taoka's explanation, the players turned their heads one after another, and their eyes focused on the body of Jinguji Martial Arts, some were surprised, some were delighted, and some were envious.

However, the naïve Sakuragi Hanamichi didn't feel how great the Jinguji martial arts around him had achieved at all, he only knew that the Jinguji martial arts were very strong, and it was the goal he was chasing, nothing more.

"There will be a lot of people coming to watch the game after you."

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

"I'm asking of you more than just winning the championship."

"Let everyone see your strength!"

Coach Anthy clapped his hands, caught the players' attention, and then encouraged the players.

A few days later.

At the Kanagawa Prefectural Center Gymnasium, the opening ceremony of the Autumn National Sports was held.

Spectators from all over the country filled the basketball court with enough capacity for thousands of people on the first day of the game. In the past, the competition of the autumn national sports has never been so lively as it is today.

Under the witness of the audience, the autumn country officially kicked off.

Two days before the tournament, the first round of the Akino National Sports was held, and the participating teams were all teams that had poor results.

In total, there are 15 matches, which are played over two days.

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

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

Their first match was against Shiga Prefecture.

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

This opponent, martial arts they met for the first time, the previous game martial arts they did not watch these players, only the two coaches of the team watched the game and had some understanding of this team.

Before the game, Coach Anthy made the lineup arrangement for today's game:

"Your opponent today is Shiga Prefecture, who defeated their opponent by 54 points 116-62 in 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 in this team are not ordinary high school students, they are young people from the youth training system."

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

"This game."

"Sakuragi Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede, Amakii, Mori Shigekuan, and . Immortal Dao. ”

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

"Xiandao, you play small forward, Rukawa Kaede, you score position."

"The style of play in the first half, around Mu Shenyi, is mainly based on breaking through the ball, and trying the opponent's quality first."

"Xiandao, Liuchuan, you two should be diligent in running, and after Amu breaks through, you have to provide the option of passing."

"Don't pity your fitness, I'll replace all five of you after the first ten minutes."

"Just play at full strength."

Under the arrangement of Coach Anzai, the starting 5 players were decided. Hearing Coach Anthy's arrangement, smiles appeared on the faces of all the players.

5 down 5 up, it's a good fit for their team.

Because the second team, whether it is a starter or a substitute, is very strong.

After the absence of Sakuragi and the others, the Jinguji Martial Arts and Shinomiya Tano and others sitting on the bench are even stronger!

The pre-match preparation time and warm-up time add up to 30 minutes.

As the referee's whistle blew, the players from both teams began to walk towards the middle of the pitch.

The surrounding spectators saw that some players from the Kanagawa Prefecture team walked out, and immediately sent the most enthusiastic cheers.

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

"Genius! It's finally time to stand out in front of the whole country! ”

"This time, you don't need Brother Martial Dao's protection!"

(End of chapter)