Preparations And The Upcoming Preliminaries

After that day's match and the major announcement that coach Chu Lin have said, the players went home after cleaning the gym. Seiji went home with his friends and Mia, with Riko and Kosaki promising to celebrate once again after the club is done with their preparations for the Preliminaries.

Days passed and Seiji continuously polished the skills that he already have. He polished his dribbling skills to the point that he could almost free form it while he also improved his outside shooting and shot placement. By asking his teammates to contest his every shot, Seiji got more and more comfortable at making the shots even when someone tries to contest him.

Aside from that, Chu Lin also taught Seiji some important skills to learn like off-ball movements, how to place screens, and how to pass the ball properly. Chu Lin also taught him how to transition from each dribbling moves in order to confuse his opponents more effectively, making Seiji's already scary offensive arsenal to become even more deadly. He was told that adding or not adding float in his dribbles during each transition could become a great asset for him in the future.

On the defensive end of things, Seiji was assigned to Akagi and Wakamatsu to be taught. Wakamatsu, and especially Akagi, are great defenders in their own right. They were taught by Chu Lin ever since they were first years so they have more experience than Seiji regarding this.

Although Seiji managed to learn all the basics at a very short amount of time, he just couldn't do it like how Wakamatsu and Akagi does it. This is when Chu Lin approached them and told them to make Seiji go on a 1 on 1 against Fukuda. Fukuda will be able to practice his offense while Seiji could practice defense.

A few minutes after the practice started, Seiji noticed just how talented Fukuda is on offense. He didn't notice it that much during the match since Fukuda was kind of overconfident with himself and is taking shots that Seiji could block with just using his instincts alone but Fukuda could really finish inside the paint in a variety of ways.

Coach Chu Lin further elaborated that it is Fukuda's talent. Fukuda's ability is named as 'Scorer's Instinct'. Chu Lin described it as a kind of talent that assistant Fukuda on how to take the shot at any given situation to score a basket.

In this prefecture, Fukuda is well known for being able to score even with the use of circus shots, a shot that is commonly described as a shot that requires a lot of luck to be successful. A circus shot is a low-percentage shot, generally from close range, taken while the shooter is off balance, falling, facing away from the basket or otherwise out of control.

"However, in Fukuda's case, he could just heave the ball from a difficult angle and position and still make the shot."

That was what Chu Lin told Seiji.

In this training, Fukuda didn't hold back and although he was blocked multiple times, he still was able to make most of his shots. This frustrated Seiji quite a bit but he still remained level headed.

'I'm just purely relying on my instinct to defend. Even though I could 'feel' what he's about to do, it would almost always go from different ways that even my inhuman reflexes couldn't cope up on the fly. Am I missing something? Am I relying on my instincts too much or am I doing it incorrectly?'

As Seiji was deep in thought, Fukuda started another round of offense. He didn't wait for Seiji to go back from his reverie as he lunges towards the restricted area, intending to score another point.

However, everyone was surprised when Seiji, who looks extremely absentminded, moved his body suddenly in a very fast and fluid motion. A few seconds ago, Fukuda have already passed him. The next second, Seiji is already in front of him, stealing the ball away from his hands.

Nobody made a single sound for a few seconds as they only looked at Seiji in pure astonishment. To everyone's surprise, it was Seiji who made the first reaction.

"Eh? What did I just do?"

Riko, who is one of the onlookers, couldn't help but ask the question that is in everyone's minds.

"What happened earlier Seiji?"

"That… I think my body moved on its own in instinct?"

Seiji himself is unsure of what he did but he suddenly remembered the description of one of his abilities, 'Superhuman Physiology'. It gives him near precise control of his whole body through conscious and/or subconscious commands.

When he was absentminded, his body moved subconsciously. He's still unsure but Seiji thinks that the subconscious commands came from his instincts. Although Seiji relied on it when defending, he would take some time to think what the opposition would do next, making him half a beat slower.

Maybe, if he were to follow his instinct more and use his faster speed of reflex and thinking ability, he would be a much better defender. To test out this theory, Seiji asked Fukuda for a few more rounds of practice.

During those rounds, Seiji focused intensely on the little details that his senses picks up. Through this, his instincts, reflexes, and mind started to sharpen even more. His already heightened instinct got enhanced even more, making his instinct resemble that of a wild beast. Fukuda is the very first person to experience this as he felt a very wild aura come from Seiji.

When Chu Lin saw this, he immediately told Akagi and Wakamatsu to teach Seiji all he needed to know in defense and then let him test it out through one on ones, to help Seiji digest those knowledge faster. Not only that but Chu Lin also taught his team a new type of offensive strategy, the Princeton Offense.

This offensive strategy emphasizes on constant motion, passing, backdoor cuts, picks on and off the ball, and disciplined teamwork. With Chu Lin teaching all of his players the pick and roll and the importance of it, his team already have the base down for this offensive strategy. Seiji and Izuki are elite ball handlers in middle school standards while the others are above average when it comes to ball handling.

With those things in mind, Chu Lin orchestrated this offensive strategy so that they could create more open looks. However, this strategy needed more than one playmaker in the team to up the scoring efficiency. With Akagi, Wakamatsu, and Seiji on the court, they didn't have to worry about not making their shots.

If Akagi or Wakamatsu managed to get the rebound from a missed shot, they could kick the ball to either Hyuuga or Izuki, both players who are only second and third to Seiji when it comes to sinking three pointers. When it comes to Seiji getting the rebound, coach Chu Lin told him that he could either kick the ball out to Hyuuga or Izuki too or just create his own shot with his handles.

If Fukuda is on the floor, in place of Wakamatsu, they would rely more on pick in rolls rather than taking volume shots. Seiji and Fukuda are good at driving through the lanes so they could either draw the defenders then kick the ball to a free shooter or finish in the rim when the opposition don't have any help defenders.

It was hard to execute at first, with many of them committing mistakes like misjudging where their teammates are, resulting in passes that would fly off the court. During their first practice games against other schools, they were even laughed at for having too many turnovers in one game.

However, when everybody got the feel for it, the entire team just went ham on offense. Hyuuga and Seiji are running around on the court to create open looks for themselves. Their off-ball movements confused the enemies while the constant passes annoyed them to no end.

Even if they try to tighten their man to man defense, Akagi, Wakamatsu, Fukuda, or Seiji would either dunk the ball on their faces, drive past them and then finish with an easy layup, finish inside the restricted zone in more ways than one, or just make you go crazy with the dribbles before shooting a three right in front of your very eyes.

After this, the teams would go through a vicious cycle. With everyone of Kyōsen Junior High creating screens for their teammates, resulting in open looks, Hyuuga and Izuki would contribute with their three point shots.

With shooters creating a lot of space on the floor, Wakamatsu, Akagi, and Seiji could drive through the lanes or muscle in a lot easier. The offensive strategy suited the team very much that coaches from other teams are starting to have a headache as to how they're going to stop them.

Seeing his team win another practice match against a pretty strong team who is within the top 8 in their own prefecture, Chu Lin felt extremely satisfied.

"You youngsters are ready to trash those other teams in the Nationals. We just first need to get through the preliminaries."

※・※・※・※

To be continued…

[A/N¹: Fukuda's circus shots is very similar to Aomine Daiki's Formless Shots but it's range is limited only to the area in the paint. Unlike Aomine's 100% accuracy, Fukuda's still have some room for error.]

[A/N²: Seiji relied only on his eyesight when he was a kid and never really used his other enhanced senses, that's why he's pretty late in realizing that he had such an animalistic instinct.]

[A/N³: Princeton offense

An offensive basketball strategy which emphasizes constant motion, passing, backdoor cuts, picks on and off the ball, and disciplined teamwork. Used and perfected at Princeton University, it is especially designed for a unit of five players who can each pass, shoot, and dribble at an above-average level.]