Slam Dunk: Sakuragi learned from Kawamura Eiki's experience

After the warm-up, Coach Taoka stood on the sidelines, his gaze sweeping over the players from both teams.

"Play a scrimmage, ten minutes." He pointed to both halves of the court.

"Red Team: Sakuragi, Sendoh, Uekusa, Sugahira, Kusunoki."

White Team: Uozumi, Fukuda, Koshino, Ikegami, Uesugi.

As soon as the words were spoken, the Ryonan team members exchanged glances and gestures, indicating that they wanted to send a junior high school rookie to the field to compete against them.

Several people opened their mouths, wanting to say something, but when their eyes met Coach Taoka's face, which left no room for negotiation, they swallowed their words intimidation.

Sakuragi stepped onto the court with an excited expression and looked around. Ryonan's court was different from that of Wako Junior High School; it was bigger and more spacious.

He turned to look at Sendoh beside him. Sendoh was tilting his head and moving his wrists, looking lazy, like a cat that had been sunbathing for a while and then picked up by someone.

"Hedgehog head," Sakuragi said confidently. "Pass me the ball more often, and I'll beat that arrogant ape king."

Sendoh paused for a moment. A hedgehog? He touched his own spiky hair; it was quite a description.

"King of the Apes?" Sendoh glanced at Uozumi opposite him; with his face, it was even more fitting. This red-haired guy really has a talent for giving nicknames.

He turned to look at Sakuragi, whose face showed no sign of joking and whose eyes were fixed on Uozumi across from him.

Sendoh's lips curled into a grin, his voice laced with amusement that seemed to thrive on chaos. "No problem, I'll definitely pass the ball to you more often later."

jump ball.

Sakuragi habitually walked to the center circle and stood in the jump ball position.

Opposite him was Uozumi, two meters tall to 1.86 meters tall, the 14-centimeter height difference was particularly glaring when the two stood face to face.

The Ryonan team members exchanged glances again. This middle school student wants to jump the ball? With Uozumi?

Substitute center Sugahira looked at Sakuragi with a bewildered expression, then at Coach Taoka, who nodded.

Sugata silently stepped aside, giving the center circle to the red-haired guy.

A second-year substitute was temporarily brought in to be the referee. He stood beside the center circle, holding the ball in his hand, glanced at Uozumi on his left, then at Sakuragi on his right, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. He raised the ball and put the whistle in his mouth.

"Beep..."

The ball was tossed high into the air, and as it fell, Sakuragi and Uozumi jumped at the same time.

Uozumi's arms were long, but Sakuragi jumped even faster. His toes left the ground the instant the ball was tossed up, and he launched himself into the air at such a speed that his red hair was forced backward by the air pressure as he rose.

With a flick of his fingertip, he changed the ball's direction, sending it flying towards Tomoyuki Uekusa of the Red Team.

At this moment, Uozumi's fingertips were still a palm's distance from the ball.

After landing, Uozumi looked completely bewildered; he had actually lost the jump ball.

With his two-meter height and long arms, he had rarely lost a jump ball in high school competitions, but today he lost to a junior high school student.

The Ryonan players who weren't playing stood on the court, collectively stunned for a moment. When Uekusa received the ball, he almost dropped it; he hadn't expected the ball to fly over, and he certainly hadn't expected the red-haired guy to win the jump ball.

Sendoh raised an eyebrow, and the curve of his lips widened slightly.

Fukuda narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the red figure again. Koshino and Ikegami exchanged a glance, their expressions conveying a single, unmistakable message: "What's going on?"

Ueshima dribbled the ball past half-court, maintaining a steady pace. His gaze habitually searched for Sendoh, a standard tactic for Ryonan: give the ball to Sendoh and let him handle it.

He passed the ball out, bounced it off the ground, and it landed precisely in Sendoh's hands.

The moment Sendoh received the ball, he caught a glimpse of the paint. Sakuragi was already entangled with Uozumi under the basket, battling for position.

Sendoh glanced at it for a second, grinned, and lobbed the ball towards the inside with his right hand, landing it to Sakuragi's right.

Sakuragi catches the ball. The moment he gets the ball, Uozumi's defensive pressure comes from behind.

Sakuragi dribbled the ball once, turned his body to the left, and pressed his right shoulder against Uozumi's chest, trying to use his strength to create space.

He pushed against it once. Uozumi didn't budge. He pushed against it again. Uozumi's body only swayed slightly but still didn't move.

Sakuragi was a little dazed. In the Wako Junior High and the prefectural tournament, he had pushed past all the defenders, and no one could withstand his second attack.

But this ape king was too tall and heavy to lift!

Sakuragi gritted his teeth, turned around and jumped. The turn was too sudden, his center of gravity wasn't low enough, and his jump height wasn't high enough.

The moment the ball left his hand, he knew something was wrong. A large hand reached out from the side.

"Smack."

The ball was swatted away, bounced twice on the floor, and rolled out of bounds.

Uozumi landed and looked down at Sakuragi. His expression remained unchanged, but there was a faint, disdainful curve at the corner of his mouth.

"You're still too green, newbie. You need to practice more."

After he finished speaking, he turned and ran towards the field. His broad back looked like a moving wall under the lights.

Sakuragi stood there, staring at that back, his teeth grinding together.

"hateful……"

The game continued. The white team was on offense; the ball spun twice on the outside before being passed to Uozumi.

The fish receives the ball under the basket, its back to Sakuragi. Same position, same posture, only the offense and defense are reversed.

Uozumi dribbled the ball once, then thrust his hips back, transmitting power from his waist and hips like an iron gate being suddenly pushed open.

Sakuragi's chest was struck by the force, and his feet slid back half an inch. Uozumi thrust again, and Sakuragi's body slid back another half an inch.

The gap between the two collisions was just enough for Uozumi to turn and jump. He lifted the ball, flicked it lightly with his fingertips, and the ball hit the backboard, bounced, and fell into the basket.

In the next few minutes, Sakuragi was completely dominated by Uozumi in the paint. The three tricks that Mr. Takeda taught him at Wako Junior High—positioning, turning, and finishing under the basket—were all ineffective against Uozumi.

The ball was like a hot potato in his hands; he couldn't hold it steady, couldn't throw it, and couldn't pass it well.

Every time he made physical contact with Uozumi, he could feel the powerlessness caused by the absolute difference in strength, like trying to push a solid brick wall with his hand, unable to move it at all.

But Sendoh kept passing the ball to him. No matter how badly Sakuragi was pressured by Uozumi in the paint, Sendoh would get the ball, glance at the paint, and still lob it in.

He loves watching the fun, and the biggest laugh on the court today was watching this red-haired rookie get wrecked in the paint by Fish.

On the sidelines, Coach Taoka stood with his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on Sakuragi. He could clearly see that Sakuragi was being badly overpowered by Uozumi.

But he wasn't looking at how many points Sakuragi scored, or how many blocks Sakuragi got; he was looking at the rebounds.

Sakuragi was blocked by Uozumi and couldn't get offensive rebounds, but he still managed to grab most of the defensive rebounds.

The moment the ball bounces off the rim, he always jumps half a beat faster than everyone else; his eyes judge the ball's landing point with such accuracy that it doesn't seem like someone who has only played basketball for two months.

And then there's defense, with Fukuda's signature backdoor cuts. Fukuda's greatest strength is receiving the ball after off-ball movement and directly attacking the basket, a move that gave many opponents a headache in the prefectural tournament.

But today, Fukuda's several cuts were disrupted by Sakuragi's help defense. Sakuragi's movement speed was too fast; he pounced from under the basket to the free-throw line and back to the basket, like a stone launched by a slingshot, going back and forth tirelessly.

Coach Taoka frowned. The thought of not getting a special admission spot despite such talent filled him with utter despair.

The ten-minute scrimmage ended. The scoreboard showed a huge gap in numbers, with Sakuragi and Sendoh's red team suffering a crushing defeat.

Sakuragi stood on the court, hands on his hips, his face as black as the bottom of a pot.

A hand reached out from the side and patted him on the shoulder.

Sendoh stood beside him, tilting his head to look at him with a smile on his lips.

"Sakuragi, you've really only been playing basketball for two months?"

Sakuragi turned his head, his expression changing from "dark face" to "displeasure".

"It's only been two months, so what?" Sakuragi's tone was curt; he thought Sendoh was going to mock him.

Sendoh's grin widened. He removed his hand from Sakuragi's shoulder and looked down at him.

"Then you really are a basketball genius." Sendoh's tone was very light, as if he were stating something he took for granted. "No wonder Coach Taoka let you train with us."

Sakuragi was stunned.

Genius. He had heard this word many times before. Teacher Takeda had said it, Teacher Yamamoto had said it, and now even this spiky-haired guy he was meeting for the first time was saying it.

"Huh?" Sakuragi uttered a short, confused syllable.

Sendoh laughed at his "Ah" expression. He didn't explain, turned around and left, leaving behind the words, "Good luck, Sakuragi."