Chapter 148 : Training Camp III
'What the hell is this 'Barrier Jumper'? Is that just a normal step-back jumper? Why in the hell did Captain turn into a Chuuni?'
Unfortunately, not everyone shared the same sentiment. In fact, Furihata was probably one of the few who questioned Hyuga, as the other was too immersed in the cool name for the new move.
"Good name, Captain!"
"Yeah! It was a cool name!"
"Goddamnit! I want to have a new move too! Kagetora-san, can you teach me?"
"No way! He should teach me first!"
"I don't get it." Kagami suddenly butted in with a lack of enthusiasm. "Isn't that just a normal step-back jumper? Why do you have to name it?"
'Yeah! Tell them, Red!' Furihata nodded silently in the background. Unexpectedly, all he received was hostility from his teammates.
"Shut up, Kagami-kun!"
"Having your own signature move and naming it yourself is every man's romance!"
"Yeah! You just don't understand!"
Hearing those arguments, Furihata really wanted to bury himself in embarrassment. The cringe level here was so immaculate that he suspected it could kill anyone with a normal shame level who overheard that. Surprisingly though, the three coaches didn't bother about it. In fact, they even encouraged this kind of behavior.
"So, how fast do you think the name could be spread?" Alex whispered, asked seriously.
"I am not sure," Riko replied with equal seriousness. "It would be hard without the direct combat result. The best way to spread the name is to let the opponents see it for themselves."
"You are right."
'….' Furihata who overheard that became more speechless. 'Did they just lose their mind or what?'
It seemed his state was noticed by Alex who just smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, Furihata-kun. We are not crazy. But you have to know, that fame brings intimidation. I dare to take the bet after the name 'Barrier Jumper' spread among our opponents, Hyuga-kun's shooting percentage would increase significantly."
"Is that so?" Furihata asked with a dubious tone. Surprisingly, it was Kiyoshi who answered his doubt.
"I would dare the same as Alex-san." The power forward smiled. His mind drifted off for a second as if recalling something before his expression returned once again. "My former teammates also used this trick. He had his signature moves named pretty cool which bring intimidation to his opponents. Until now, it was a good laugh among us his former teammates. However, his opponents would be trembled in fear when they heard his heaven and earth shoot. That's the power of fame."
"You got it right, Kiyoshi-kun!" Alex smiled happily. "Even though it was no use in the highest-level competition, this kind of intimidation was effective in a teenage game. I still remember boys in the States used to make a lot of silly names like 'God's Judgment' or 'Thor Hammer' to make their plays look more awesome. Even though it was cringe, but hey, they are teenagers. What do you expect them to do?" She shrugged nonchalantly at the end.
Furihata was speechless on the spot, not knowing what to say. Inwardly though, he was half convinced at what he just heard. He even had the thought of naming a move for himself, before he cringed at his idea.
'What the hell am I thinking about? I am not a chuunibyou like them!'
Furihata shook his head, putting back his focus on his training. This small episode passed in a blink, and everyone was back on their own training pretty quickly. Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky as Hyuga who had his breakthrough just a few hours after the training began. In fact, the common trend here was frustration as everyone kept throwing a brick.
*Clank!*
"Come on, Izuki! You haven't scored even once at all!"
*Clank!*
"Fukuda-kun, don't hesitate! You gave too much time to your opponent to recover!"
*Swish!*
"That's the fifth airball today, Kuroko-kun! Come on!"
Riko on the sideline started to worry about her players' states. She could see anger was ready to explode, especially from the hot-tempered players like Kagami.
"Should we say something to them?" She asked hesitantly.
"No." Alex shook her head decisively. "I know you are worried, but this is not something they could improve overnight. If they want to be a good player, they have to overcome this. If they just give up on the first day, I would be disappointed."
"This…" Riko still had hesitation on her face. "Kagami-kun looks like he would explode. Should we appease him a bit? Telling him that his progress is alright?"
"Nah. Don't worry about that boy." Unexpectedly, Alex just waved her hand nonchalantly. "I have watched Tiger-chan grow since he was a child, and even among the American kids, he always had the smoothest path. Sooner or later, he would face this wall, and if he wanted to go further as a basketball player, what he needs is not our cuddle, but for him to climb the wall by himself."
Riko nodded, even though with hesitation, still decided to trust Alex. Even though she had already been Seirin's coach since last year, that didn't mean she grew conceited. It only made her realize her shortcomings.
She had never played in a competitive game, so she could never understand the player's point of view. Her only advantage is her ability to see players' physical state in detail, and that was what she relied upon last year. Now that the team had Alex, a former competitive player to coach them, it also covered her shortcomings, making it easier for her to just focus on maintaining and improving the players' physical state.
That was why in terms of players' technical growth development like this, Riko decided to trust Alex blindly.
"Switch partner! Koganei-kun, you are with Tiger-chan! Furihata-kun, you help Kuroko-kun!" Alex's shout snapped Riko from her daydreaming.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Riko narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to understand Alex's instructions. Unsurprisingly, the blonde woman also noticed her gaze and explained, "Tiger-chan started to cheat and began to exert his physical dominance upon Furihata-kun. I replaced his partner with Koganei-kun who had similar mobility and a stronger physical state compared to Furihata-kun. And I hope as one shooter to another, Furihata-kun could help Kuroko-kun too."
Riko nodded, could see why the older woman arranged that.
"Speaking of which, is it alright to not arrange anything for Furihata-kun?" She couldn't help but ask. "He is our rising star and our best performer against Yosen High. Would it be alright for us just to arrange him as a helper for the other?"
At first, Riko just asked this question to satisfy her curiosity. She did not doubt Alex's arrangement. Unexpectedly, the blonde woman fell into silence for a moment before sighing.
"To be honest, I also feel I wronged him. However, he gives me the biggest headache here." Her gaze fell onto Furihata who had a conversation with Kuroko. "He is probably the most comprehensive player on this team. As a combo guard, he had no visible weakness. He could facilitate and organize, act as an off-the-ball shooter, and could create space for himself and his teammates, and he is always smart in his decision-making. If I didn't see his resume, I wouldn't believe he is just a rookie without competitive experience."
Hearing this, Riko also had a headache. "What about training the zone?" She tried to make suggestions. However, it was denied by Alex straight away.
"No, it was too risky." Alex shook her head quickly. "You also saw how bad his physical state was after activating the zone. I heard you even prohibit him from training for a week, right?"
"Yeah." Riko nodded.
"That's how risky the zone is for Furihata-kun right now." Alex let out a deep sigh. "To be honest, Furihata-kun's only problem right now is his lack of experience and his undersized body. We couldn't do much about the first, but we could help him for the second by letting him get used to playing against bigger opponents."
They both fell into silence, staring at Furihata helplessly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The personal training continued for another two hours until lunchtime arrived. After that, came the most boring and arduous part, the tactical session. Not only did each player have to listen and remember the instruction, but they had to be able to perform it to the level Alex and Riko were satisfied with. For a team whose strategy was just to move the ball faster before, having to study a lot of tactical terms and apply them on the court was not something easy.
Fortunately, the tactical set they trained was in line with their usual playing style. They just did the drill to smoothen the cooperation between each other. For example, in their run-and-gun style, they usually just run forward blindly and wait for the ball from Izuki. But in this training, Alex showed them where to run, how to open space for themselves and their teammates, and what to do when they didn't receive the ball.
The same rule from playing on the beach before was also applied here, to execute the ball within 10 seconds. From what Alex said, she wanted the team to overwhelm every opponent with their fast tempo and not let them breathe easily. But to do that, all the Seirin players had to be comfortable with the pace first, or the point would be moot.
Of course, it wasn't the only strategy they trained. If run-and-gun was a transitional battle, for a positional battle, they honed the 'Princeton System' they had learned until they were proficient enough to use it casually on the game.
Even though the progress of the second strategy was not as smooth as the first one, that was just because the players were not used to it. Once they can do it casually without any mistake, this will also be a lethal weapon for Seirin. However, Alex was satisfied with the result. Especially when she noticed several players who were able to adapt and became the key to each strategy. She bit her lips, writing down her idea.
Run-and-gun: Izuki, Kiyoshi, Kagami.
Princeton: Mitobe, Furihata.
The more she thought about it, the more satisfied she became. This line-up was pretty versatile. If she wanted to go with run-and-gun, she had two elite rebounders in Kiyoshi and Kagami and a decent facilitator in Izuki. They tested it several times, and unsurprisingly, Izuki who had eagle eyes was the best in this position, not even Furihata could match it. He could pinpoint all of his teammates' movements pretty well and was smart enough to decide where the ball should go.
The most important part of this strategy is the mobility of those three. They could grab the defensive rebound and initiate the quick transition on their own without difficulty. Their performance was enough to satisfy the two women on the sideline.
And if she met an opponent who could deal with their run-and-gun, she could bring Mitobe and Furihata from the second unit. The quiet center could facilitate the entire team from the high post, and coupled with how lethal Furihata's off-the-ball movement, the combo of those two was enough to blow up every opponent's bench unit.
What made her happier was the fact that besides Izuki, the other players she wrote as the key of her strategy were good enough scorers. That gave her a lot of options depending on what the team needed.
Normally, she would have Hyuga as the fixed-position shooter and Kuroko as the joker to smoothen the offense. But if she needed versatility from the mid-range, she could choose between Koganei and Fukuda who trained on that trajectory. And if she wanted to be defensive, Tsuchida and Kawahara were the options to bring. And she could choose all of that without messing up the team's offense as her key players were already good enough as scorers.
This versatility kinda made her happy.
'This team is full of rough diamonds. I cannot wait to see how far they could go…'
-----------------------------------------------
The training continued for more than two hours. Fortunately, they only trained for two strategies, or it would be easy for the players to get a headache. Tactical arrangement is not something anyone could learn in one day. Remembering what to do and where to run in several different cases was already hard enough. There was no need to make it torturous for the players.
Unexpectedly though, before the training ended, there was another player who had a similar breakthrough like Hyuga.
*Splash!*
There was a silence for a moment as all eyes fell onto the one who scored. The protagonist himself had no extraordinary reaction at all, just walked back with his usual calm and flat expression. And a second later, the silence broke by the cheers that exploded from the other players.
"Nice shoot, Kuroko-kun!"
"Yeah! That was one hell of play!"
"Good job!"
Yeah, it was Kuroko who just scored the ball. However, it wasn't just because of who was the scorer, but also how the play went before the ball went to the basket that made everyone excited.
In a normal run-and-gun play, Kuroko would always mingle on the high post and get ready to redirect the ball to anyone who had a good position. However, this time, instead of passing the ball directly, he caught it, catching the defender off guard, and shot the ball without hesitation before he could be stopped. As a result, the ball went in without any difficulty.
Alex who saw that on the sideline nodded in a satisfied manner.
'Good. His mindset started to shift from passing to shooting. He had a solid enough basic skill. With his misdirection ability and lack of presence, it would be a pity to only use it as a passer.'
After that, the excitement exploded as everyone trained with a new spirit. Seeing someone have a breakthrough always gave them hope that it would be them someday. Unfortunately, there was no one else to have that until the end of the day.
"Good job, everyone!" Alex smiled as she saw Riko distribute the mineral water to the players. "You have done a good job today. I hope you can maintain your spirit until the end of the week, okay?"
"Yes, Ma'am…"
The answer lacked enthusiasm. However, Alex didn't mind about it at all. She knew all of them were exhausted, so she didn't have any intention to keep the meeting longer.
"Anyway, before we go back to the inn, I have one more thing to announce." She smiled mysteriously, attracting the players' attention instantly. "At the end of the training camp, we will have a sparing game against a strong team. So, I hope you can play well, okay?"
This perked up everyone's interest.
"A strong team?"
"Which one is it?"
"Definitely not local. Chiba didn't have a strong basketball school."
"So, it was the team who also held the training camp here?"
All the eyes turned to Alex with full curiosity. Unfortunately, the blonde woman didn't waver at all and still maintained her mysterious persona.
"Don't worry. You will know about them soon."
-------------------------------------------
Author note :
If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes
You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 168 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 29 too.
Thank you! :)
-Zeta Faes-