Akira Sendoh found himself calmly nibbling on a slice of lemon in the locker room. All about him was filled with activity. Sitting with a towel draped over his shoulders, he again looked around the locker room. Fukuda was quietly meditating in the corner, prepping for the upcoming match. In his hand, Sendoh noticed a tennis ball, on which Fukuda was methodically squeezing on. The coach had suggested that as a part of anger management. Well, it seems to be working. At least so far. Sendoh allowed himself a small smile.
To the right of Fukuda, the new boy Hideyoshi was stretching out. He was wearing a headband, keeping the thick bush of hair out of his eyes. Next to him was Lee, who was the most excited one of them all. Having stretched already, he was now working on his ball-handling. With his right hand, he was dribbling the ball rhythmically on the wall. Lee looked visibly anxious, impatient for the match to began. Sendoh frowned slightly. He was concerned that the rookie, who even Sendoh had to admit performed marvelously during the try-outs, would come out and try to do too much. He quickly dismissed it though, since inside Lee's eyes, Sendoh had found the patience, the calm leadership, belying his skills as a point guard. This one is going to be good someday.
Apart from those two, only two who had made the team, by the way, was a knot of returning players, who were joking amongst themselves. Sendoh realized that they probably would not be playing too much, since the freshmen had already exhibited more skill and heart than they had. Sendoh was disappointed that Toriyuki Uekusa had not returned. His skills and experience would have been invaluable in teaching Lee to become a real point guard. However, Uekusa had decided to further pursue his studies, leaving Lee to start, and Sendoh to mentor him.
He completed the circle and looked to his right. Sitting the was Hiroaki Koshino. He was dependent, and also the only other senior other than Fukuda and himself. Koshino was elected as co-captain, along with Sendoh. Although Koshino wasn't an exceptional player, he had tremendous leadership abilities, and an amiable personality. He was going to form the heart of the group, Sendoh noted.
Coach Taoka and Aida Hikoichi weren't here yet. They were still busy working out some business with the refs, and the other coaches. Sendoh had never really paid much attention to what they did; he played basketball, and played well, and that was all that was required of him.
Just then, Coach Taoka and Hikoichi entered the locker room. Coach Taoka went on to explain that this was a scrimmage, against Kainan. Then, he proceeded to go into a whole pep talk about the expectations this year, the goals, and how to get there. The same speech as last year. Coach may be a tactical genius, but isn't much of a motivational speaker. Sendoh sighed. Three years of the same exact speech was beginning to wear on him.
Soon, the speech was over, and the team went out to the arena. It was an away match, at the Kainan school, and as such, the colors that adorned the court was unfamiliar to Sendoh. Tossing away the rind of the lemon he had been sucking on, he turned to the two rookies.
"Okay guys, this is the start of a new season. Ryonan High has held a tradition for quite sometime now." He glanced sternly at the returning players who were giggling in the background, then turned back to the freshmen. "We run a lap around the basketball court to warm up, and as tradition, the new players lead the way."
This was an old trick that actually was a tradition of the Ryonan squad. The freshmen, who knew nothing of this, would, rather naively, start running, but the rest of the team would stay back, leaving the freshmen to find out that they been had. It was, for the team, the last step in the initiation sequence. What had made it so effective was the fact that Sendoh had ordered the run. As the best player in Ryonan, perhaps ever, he held quite an authority. These two freshmen didn't disappoint.
The two began the run, chanting, 'One, two, one, two' as they went. It took but a moment for them to find out that the rest of the team had stayed back, the returning players laughing hysterically, and Sendoh with a satisfied grin. The two grinned sheepishly, but much to Sendoh's surprise, they did not return. Instead, they kept on running, despite the laughter from the crowd.
Sendoh greeted the two with an approving look as they returned from the run, breathing evenly, if a slight bit out of breath.
"Now, let's go out and do this right."
The Ryonan team went out to the court and started the lay-up lines, to the cheers and boos of the crowd. Some stopped to take the jumper while some, like Fukuda, went in for the dunk. Sendoh held himself above such unnecessary display, shot around a bit then backed up a bit. He was soon joined by Koshino.
"So, what do you think of this group, Sen?" He asked.
Sendoh shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, that Lee kid shows quite a bit of potential, and Hideyoshi does too." He gestured with his chin toward Fukuda. "He seems to have improved, and bulked up even more. We're going to need that if we're going to do anything in the post." He sighed and continued, "I just wish we had some sort of a center."
Koshino nodded. "Well, I guess we're going to play zone defense, probably Box and One."
Sendoh was about to agree when he was interrupted by the explosion of cheers from the crowd as the Kainan squad entered the gym. He looked over at the opposing team and took stock of the team.
Despite the loss of Shinchi Maki, who had been Kainan's best, Kainan was still a strong team. Souchiro Jin, hailed as the best pure shooter in the league, led the quite formidable line up. Kiyota Nobunga was next, playing the small forward spot. He wasn't bad, but not quite up to the caliber of the truly elite. Despite that, his ability to score and the intensity with which he played was more than enough. As the top seeded team in Kanagawa, they were able to recruit some exceptional rookies. There was the giant, Yakuso Mouta. Standing tall at 2 meters he was a formidable rebounding and shot blocking force, as well as a low post threat. His only weaknesses were his lack of maturity, and the lack of speed. Then there was the point guard, Yamatomo Kuroi. He was notably quick with a knack for getting to the basket. He lacked the pass-first mentality of a true point guard, though. They also had another swingman in Katamo Hiro, who had transferred from another school.. He was known as the Lock, for his exceptional defense; the ability to just lock a man down.
Sendoh grimaced in spite of himself. They have so many weapons, and they can also get out and run, too. I want to make them take outside shots but Jin will knock them down. We're going to have to play man to man, and double team in the post.
The starting players were announced. Akira Sendoh, Kicchou Fukuda, Hiroaki Koshino, Ando Hideyoshi, and Otoshi Lee.
Both teams took their positions on either side of the half court line. Fukuda took the position for the jump against Mouta. The referee blew the ball and tossed the ball up into the air. Fukuda got too impatient and jumped for the ball too early, only swiping at air as he came down. Mouta easily gained control of the jump and tipped it back to Kuroi.
Sendoh backpedaled to protect the basket whiled Kainan went left to right, towards the Ryonan bench. Lee stepped forward to meet Kuroi. Kuroi got a pick from Hiro, who was guarded by Hideyoshi. Hiro came to set the screen on Lee's right hand side, and Kuroi stepped around it.
"Switch!" Lee shouted. And Hideyoshi immediately stepped in to block Kuroi's way. Lee also recovered from the pick, and came to trap Kuroi out beyond the three point arc. Kuroi, with nowhere to go, tried to pass the ball to Hiro, who was open, but Hideyoshi got a hand on it, knocking it towards Lee, who picked it up and ran down court on the left side, with Hideyoshi following on the right side. Lee accelerated as if going in for the lay-up himself, and Kuroi was hot on his heels. Suddenly, Lee dropped the ball back, still looking away, finding Hideyoshi who scored with the lay up.
In all honesty, Sendoh was quite impressed at the way the two rookies handled that. Maybe the future of Ryonan isn't so grim after all.
The next trip down from Kainan was much more controlled. The ball went in the post to Mouta, who backed down Fukuda. Sendoh came over to double, but the center passed the ball back out to Jin, who had come off a double screen. He stepped back behind the arc and fired one, finding all twine.
Cheers erupted from the crowd and Sendoh frowned. I didn't want Jin to get into a rhythm, but he hit the first shot. It's going to be that much harder now to stop him.
Ryonan came back on the attack, the ball in Lee's hands. He passed it to Sendoh and cleared out to the left wing, opposite where Sendoh was. It was one of Ryonan's strategies, to let Sendoh have it on the wing on an isolation play. With Sendoh's unstoppable ability to put the ball in the basket, combined with his uncanny passing abilities, Coach Taoka was hoping Sendoh could initiate the offense.
Sendoh got the ball on the right wing and found himself guarded by Nobunga. He simply smiled and stood up from his lowered position, as if taking a little break. Nobunga also relaxed, and Sendoh smiled even more. He quickly lunged forward, catching Nobunga off guard and making him reel back. He then retreated to his former position, and fired the three pointer. The released felt good as he snapped his wrist down. He looked at the basket and was rewarded with the pleasing sound of synthetic leather slicing through nylon.
The crowd was shocked at Sendoh's ability to score, especially without moving a step from where he had originally been, when he received the ball.
Sendoh wiped the grin off his mouth. "Grim up guys, we still have a long way to go." Which was true, since the game clock indicated that they were merely a minute and a half into the game.
And the game continued, both teams trading baskets, turnovers, misses. Jin was having a hard time of it once Sendoh decided to guard him. The ball continued to go inside to Mouta, who scored or passed to the cutting Nobunga for the score. On the other end, Sendoh was seeing a lot of double teams, but he was able to pass out of it to Koshino, Lee or Hideyoshi. A few times he had tried to pass it to Fukuda, but Fukuda constantly frustrated by the shot blocking of Mouta.
Then, Kainan started to get Jin the ball even more. Sendoh was constantly caught in jarring picks and screens, and was quite tired of chasing Jin all over the court. Jin, finally getting some clean looks at the basket, unleashed a hail of three pointers, most of which found their mark. With nine minutes left in the first half, Kainan was up 39 to 27. At this point, Jin had scored 16 points, 12 of them from 4 three pointers. Sendoh on the other hand, only had 12, Lee 6, Hideyoshi 5, and Koshino 4. Fukuda was yet to score, but he was able to grab 6 rebounds already, 2 of them offensive.
Sendoh began to get worried. Jin was starting to heat up, and was now hitting shots with hands in his face. Sendoh worked to get himself more actively involved, setting picks, rolling off them and hitting shots. He got the ball more on the wing, breaking out a dazzling array of fade aways and dunks. In the space of seven minutes, he had closed the score to 51 to 45.
Ryonan was on offense again. Sendoh glanced at the clock and saw that it read 1:39. Sendoh knew it was important for them to be no more than 4 points down. Again, Sendoh had the ball on the wing. He was guarded tightly by Hiro. Gritting his teeth, he faked the jumper. When Hiro began to react, Sendoh used that opportunity to get by him, then getting around Nobunga. He went up to take a shot against Mouta, when he was hammered by Nobunga from behind. He knocked into Mouta, and came down, landing awkardly on his ankle. He tried to spin with the fall to lessen the impact on his ankle, but Nobunga also came down, on Sendoh's ankle. Sendoh's attempted roll went out of control as pain ripped up through his right leg, into his brain, and back into his ankle. His mind was devoid of anything except the pain, and a thousand different curses.