181 Here We Go Again

The sands of time slipped, and time passed quickly. Once again, the season of middle school tournament was about to begin.

Unlike high school, the middle school only had one tournament. Two if you separate preliminaries and the national competition.

Like many middle school teams, Tokiwadai had also entered the final stages of preparation.

Shun walked around the gym, checking out what the other members were doing.

He saw Narumiya and Sora playing with other first-string members. He stopped and watched them for a while. In one of the plays, Sora shot a long-range two, but the shot missed because of a shot-contest.

Shun frowned and called out to the two second-years.

Shun: "Narumiya, Sora!"

The two second-year starters turned to the direction from where they heard their captain's voice. There they saw Shun with his brows furrowed. Both of them gulped and got ready for a lecture.

Shun: "Narumiya, you were near Sora. For the love of God, set a screen for the guy. You are a shooter, you know how helpful a screen can be, right?"

Narumiya nodded in response, and Shun continued.

Shun: "So, whenever you see your teammate with the ball, set up a screen."

The lecture wasn't over as he turned to the other second-year, and started, which caused the short hawk-eye wielder to flinch.

Shun: "And Sora, that last shot had a poor placement and selection, you don't need to hurry, just move the ball around.

And one little advice, don't shoot long-range two-pointers. Move a little out for a three, or move inside for better accuracy."

Shun clapped his hands loudly and spoke.

Shun: "Now, continue, and keep what I just said in mind, alright?"

Narumiya and Sora stood in attention and replied in unison.

Narumiya & Sora: "Yes!"

Shun nodded and finished.

Shun: "Good!"

-*-*-*-

He moved on to another court and stopped to watch Kurumatani playing in a 3v3. Shun crossed his arms and silently observed the starting small forward's play.

In the game, Kaitani got the ball near the sideline and immediately moved for the offense. Shun's eyes shined with approval, and he noted.

Shun: 'He immediately moved without giving the defense to shift, and from the looks of it, he didn't move recklessly. He is doing good.'

Kaitani dribbled towards the basket at a fast speed, and just as he entered the three-point arc, a player came to defend him, but Kaitani was ready. He made the defender freeze by a standard left-to-right crossover, and once again, moved to the basket, but this time he was a notch faster.

Seeing that, all the defenders moved closer to the basket expecting a rim-finish, but Kaitani fooled them by stopping at the spot and shot a close-range two-pointer with plenty of space and comfort to shoot.

Shun on the sideline clapped in approval and shouted while pointing at Kaitani with his index finger.

Shun: "Kaitani, that was a good play. Keep hooping!"

Kaitani grinned and did a two-finger salute.

Kaitani: "Aye-Aye, Captain."

-*-*-*-

At last, Shun came to the last court of the gym. He stopped and put his hands in his pocket. Shun gazed at the court and observed Yuki and Hyakuzawa, and see how they were doing.

Shun was strict with Narumiya and Sora as those two tend to make silly mistakes, and needed their mistakes pointed out repeatedly before they would take them out of their game.

Sora worked hard, but he was clumsy, and it took a lot of practice on his part to get things down. In the past year, Shun pestered him so much that he got sick of it and began to practice lengths that came only short of Yuki and Shun. Even if it was only shooting, Sora could proudly say that he spent more time on it that Shun did.

It took a different route to make Narumiya improve himself, and to provide him the motivation, Shun took on himself to keep Narumiya grounded. The second-year loved to show-off, and Shun made sure that he was there when Narumiya was showing off. Shun outdid him in front of everyone by just a little bit, which irked Narumiya a whole lot, and made him go back train more. Shun repeated this almost every time, but sometimes he would go and praise Narumiya in front of everyone to nurse his bruised ego.

Kaitani only needed to be told once, but you had to completely convince him that he was making an error. Only then he would work to improve his mistakes. Which was a good trait, as it gave Kaitani a full understanding of what he was doing wrong. The only fault with Kaitani was that he sometimes got worked up while playing, and that made his performance fluctuate. Neither Shun nor the coach could fix that and had to handle it when the problem came.

But Shun expected the most out of Yuki and Hyakuzawa. They were the base of Tokiwadai's defense, and the current Tokiwadai was stronger in the defensive area than the offensive area.

Yuki, as always, was consistent with his performance. He worked hard and dedicated his whole focus on defending, and helped the team on every stage of the game. Het set up screens, locked down his mark, and participated in rebounds. Yuki did a lot of work that a lot of players didn't like to do. If one had to point out a mistake, then it would be that Yuki moved the ball around a bit too much. Shun had to work a little extra to make him score on his own. If Shun didn't choose a good time and if Yuki thought that there was a chance of him getting blocked, then Yuki would end up passing the ball, sometimes the offensive aggressiveness was needed, but Yuki lacked that because of his defense-oriented style.

Hyakuzawa, on the other hand, didn't have Yuki's problem. He worked on both sides of the court. He was a serious threat to rebounds, and with his height, he could score against almost all the people. He could dunk with his height, and on the coach's insistence, practiced the hook shot to gain another option. A usable hook shot combined with Hyakuzawa's reach made him a crazy productive center. The coach only had one problem with Hyakuzawa, which was that he didn't use his weight to his advantage. Hyakuzawa didn't have any problem with using his height, but he didn't ample use of his weight during contact.

But, the team didn't have any problems with the members' individual flaws. The team members knew each other's weaknesses and worked together to cover them. The coach drilled the players to cover for each other.

Plus, the team had Shun, and he was the glue that kept the team together and acted as the bridge for the team. He had been practicing his positionless player for a long time, and he practiced it by supporting the other players when they were in trouble, and he was the point guard, so Tokiwadai worked with excellent team play.

Tokiwadai Middle School was ready for another season.