Basketball miracles

Chapter 197 [Painstaking Efforts, A Record]

After playing for more than ten minutes, Xiao Tu concluded that Hainan's overall strength was very weak, and that the Japanese high school national runner-up was nothing special.

The weaknesses of the Hainan team were fully exposed. The one-on-one play of the ball-dominant player is a double-edged sword, and its limitations are mainly reflected in its dependence on the team's rhythm, the value of role players, and the player's own form.

With Maki Shinichi effectively contained, the others were completely dumbfounded. He himself wasn't good at shooting three-pointers, relying on drives and mid-range shots to score.

Muto is a playmaking power forward with excellent passing skills. He can drive and shoot, but he doesn't have a signature scoring move. He doesn't score many points and is the least noticeable player in Hainan's starting lineup.

The coach is grooming Kiyota Nobunaga to be like Maki Shinichi; he has excellent dribbling skills, is adept at breakthroughs, and possesses strong athleticism. Once Maki Shinichi retires, Kiyota will be the future leader of Hainan; even if he doesn't grow tall, he'll be good enough for high school competitions.

Kiyota is still a bit inexperienced; his jump shot is average, and even his free throw percentage is inconsistent.

Kazuma Takasago performed the worst against the zone defense, failing to score. In the manga, he couldn't handle the clumsy Takenori Akagi offensively, and his defense was only average. His highlight was using a clever trick to draw a foul from Jun Uozumi, leading to Uozumi's ejection. He also secured a crucial rebound in the backcourt while battling with Sakuragi.

Jin Soichiro is only accurate with his shooting; his athleticism is average. He and Mitsui Hisashi are the same type of player; he can't shake off Xiao Tu by simply moving around. No matter how good his stamina is, it's useless; he can't possibly be better than Xiao Tu.

Xiao Tu felt that the author, Takehiko Inoue, went to great lengths to make Shohoku lose to Hainan.

Akagi sprained his ankle in the first half but played through the injury; Rukawa, who often practiced alone at the gym until late, was exhausted in the second half and only scored 6 points; Mitsui Hisashi kept missing shots from outside the arc and finally missed the game-winning shot due to exhaustion; Sakuragi couldn't shoot under the basket and was defended by the 160cm short guy, and his dunks drew fouls from Maki Shinichi but he didn't continue to draw fouls and was replaced by Anzai.

In the second half, Miyagi Ryota was unable to score against Miyamasu for a long period of time. This was not a reverse cheat code from the author. Miyagi has never scored many points in any game. His true level was being displayed.

Xiao Tu is now leading his team to a crushing victory over Hainan. Coach Gao Touli is helpless and is so angry that he breaks his fan in half.

In the second half, Hainan began using a BOX-1 formation to counter Shohoku's offense in order to solidify their defense in the paint. Akagi had a phenomenal first half, scoring 20 points, and he didn't even get injured after stepping on Maki's foot.

Many people believe that Kazuma Takasago tripped Akagi, but it was actually Shinichi Maki who did it, and Takasago has been blamed for decades. Now, Shinichi Maki is giving his all to defend Xiao Tu; how could he possibly have the energy to help his teammates defend inside?
Mitsui Hisashi, Rukawa Kaede, and Xiao Tu all received the ball on the perimeter and hit three-pointers, widening the gap.

Hainan players couldn't form an effective double team, and could only limit Akagi's strong attacks in the low post. Xiao Tu would drive to the basket, draw help defense, and then pass the ball; the team had many shooting options.

He also used the Euro step to break through the zone defense twice, completing layups in the middle of the crowd.

Currently, nobody in Japan knows how to defend against the Euro step. Maki Shinichi doesn't understand it at all and gets beaten by it.

With 10 minutes left in the second half, Coach Anzai substituted two key players, Xiao Tu and Mitsui Hisashi, to save face for the Hainan team.

Ryota Miyagi and Kiminobu Kogure got the chance to perform.

Then, Coach Anzai was bombarded with criticism from the fans at the scene. The "White-haired Buddha" was about to lose his temper and wanted to ascend to heaven in broad daylight.

Many people come to see Xiao Tu's performance, especially female fans.

What's the meaning of that fatso replacing Xiao?
Who the hell do you think you are?
Many people wanted Xiao Tu to continue playing, and the audience kept cursing and swearing.

Coach Anzai was under immense pressure, and after three minutes, he substituted Xiao Tu back in. He felt his heart couldn't take it anymore and he needed to go to the hospital soon.

Hainan's loss was even more embarrassing, and that's something they need to worry about. Coach Anzai can't just silently endure the criticism just so the opponents can lose less.

Rukawa Kaede also employs a combination of drives, passes, and shots, and his performance is no worse than Maki Shinichi's. Shohoku has many offensive options, and Rukawa didn't take too many shots in the first half, so he still had energy.

Akagi completely outplayed Takasago Kazuma, and receiving the ball and going one-on-one was his chance.

Sakuragi grabbed a lot of rebounds and even delivered a huge block on Kiyota Nobunaga's dunk while on defense.

Kogure replaced Mitsui, and the tactics remained the same: spread out to receive the ball and shoot, sinking an open three-pointer.

Shohoku won decisively 135-68, marking their smallest margin of victory in the prefectural tournament. This ended Hainan's 16-year winning streak in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Shinichi Maki previously believed that he would become the pride of Japanese basketball, attend a good university, continue to dominate the game, and eventually become a member of the Japanese national team.

Now, he feels that he is nothing special and that he will probably have to find a factory job after graduating from university.

Even if he were to pursue basketball professionally, he could only do it in Japan; going to the United States was completely out of the question for him. If everyone in America was a monster like Xiao Tu, then he'd be asking for trouble.

Shinichi Maki is extremely competitive and hates losing. If given the chance, who wouldn't want to keep winning? Basketball is only enjoyable when players are consistently undefeated.

Kiyota Nobunaga was also taken aback today and couldn't be arrogant anymore. He realized that he only relied on his athleticism to play, and his technique was far inferior to that of true masters. The reporters present all wanted to interview Xiao Tu.

Xiao Tu was very low-key and didn't have many thoughts. "I suggest you interview my teammates, the two first-year students Rukawa Kaede and Sakuragi Hanamichi, the captain Akagi Takenori and Kogure Kiminobu, Mitsui Hisashi who left the court for two years due to injury and then returned, etc... I think they will have more to say."

A reporter asked, "Do you think winning is too easy?"

"No, I believe basketball is a team sport. Even I couldn't win against five opponents at once. My stage isn't in Japan; I'm just a passerby. They are the future of Japanese basketball."

At this moment, no one realized that Xiao Tu was referring to the NBA stage; otherwise, it would have been big news.

It's unbelievable to think that someone with NBA-level skills is playing basketball in a Japanese high school.

Someone actually interviewed Takenori Akagi, and he gave a speech in which he became emotional and cried.

He looks like a gorilla, but he's actually very fragile inside. Akagi cried when Shohoku was leading Ryonan by 15 points in their crucial game for advancing, and afterwards he cried while hugging Uozumi.

Today, Takenori Akagi, who scored 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks, finally experienced the joy of playing basketball. The days of being eliminated in the first round were too difficult; he had never won a game and only talked big.

Yayoi Aida interviewed Hanamichi Sakuragi; she knew this was big news.

Sakuragi casually said, "I've only been playing basketball for a little over two months. I started playing basketball in high school."

Although Yayoi had heard from Aida Hikoichi that Sakuragi was a complete novice and only started playing basketball in high school, she was still surprised. "How did you improve so quickly? Today you even had the upper hand against Hainan's power forward."

"Haha, because I'm a genius! A genius is 99% talent plus 1% hard work. The big boss thinks so too."

Aida Yayoi asked, "Who is the big boss?"

“Akagi is our eldest brother, and Xiao is the eldest brother. He is even older than Akagi in Shohoku.”

Yayoi interviewed Xiao Tu again, and Xiao Tu admitted it. "Sakuragi likes to give people nicknames in the team, it's his hobby. I'm the big brother, Kogure is Glasses Bro, Akagi is Gorilla, Mitsui is Little Three, and Rukawa is Fox."

Xiao Tu thought these things were quite fun to talk about, and that they would be interesting memories to reminisce about when they got older.

The neglected Ryota Miyagi really wanted to ask, "What about me? What's my nickname?"

It wasn't that Xiao Tu deliberately ignored Miyagi; he simply didn't have a nickname in the manga, and Sakuragi didn't give him one.

Sakuragi was very excited throughout, and spoke loudly. The others, however, were all saddened when talking about their feelings about defeating Hainan.

Sakuragi is different; he only cries when he loses. For him, losing is a minor setback in a genius's life, while winning is the norm.

Even if Xiao Tu leaves, it will be the same. Sakuragi only needed three months of training to surprise Kawata Masashi in the national tournament, and after a year, Shohoku would likely be unmatched in high school. His teammate is still Rukawa Kaede, whose strength is already very close to that of Sendoh Akira and Maki Shinichi.

The author may not think so; he never mentioned Shohoku's future because he didn't want to see Shohoku win the championship.

When Xiao Tu left the arena, Hainan's starting power forward, Muto, was still there, waiting for him outside with a girl. Moreover, he was carrying a red Shohoku jersey with the number 8.

"Hi Shaw. My sister is a fan of yours, and she'd like your autograph, is that alright?"

“Of course.” Xiao Tu looked the girl up and down. She looked to be in her early teens, with slender phoenix eyes, a high nose bridge, delicate features, and a temperament that combined Eastern gentleness with exotic charm.

She's got the makings of a beauty, but she looks kind of familiar.

Xiao Tu asked curiously, "How old are you? What's your name?"

"My name is Mutou Ran, and I'm 12 years old. You're so handsome, brother, can I be your girlfriend?"

"..." Xiao Tu quickly signed his English name on the jersey and handed it to Muto Masashi, saying admiringly, "Your sister will be amazing in the future."

Yes, it could break a Guinness World Record.

(End of this chapter)