Tryouts: Part 3

The game continued in similar fashion and my teammates and I continued to dominate the practice games. Takao and I were decent passers and we could run the pick and roll with our bigs. Takao was also very good at driving in, drawing defenders and kicking it out to the perimeter. This must have been one of the reasons why he was so compatible with midorima, I must learn from him one day.

Passing and defending were the 2 skills which were not included in the system. I think this is because passing is something which requires intelligence, not just skill. Skill wise, having a good handle usually directly translated to being a good passer.

As for defending, the only skill you need is athleticism and footwork everything is just your grit and determination to shut down your defender. If you give half assed defense, you are going to get scored on no matter how skillful your are.

Ryo continued to knock down shots. His accuracy from the perimeter was slightly less than mine, he could shoot around 40% from beyond the arc while I shot around 50% in games.

As for me, I continued to dominate in similar fashion. I drove to the basket, shot over players and crossed players like it was nothing. I dug deep into my bag of tricks hoping to boost my score so I could finally beat the club legend.

I received the ball from Takao and started bringing the ball up. This was the last play of the last practice game of the day. It was time to make a highlight. I signaled to my teammates for an isolation play and asked them to clear the space for me. Now, it was just me and my defender by ourselves, time to go to work.

I started rhythmic dribbling, something like what James harden does. Every time I dribbled the ball, I jabbed my feet slightly in one direction, hoping to throw my defender off balance. Left, right, left, right, between the legs.... I did at least 5 dribble moves before I saw an opportunity, my defender had moved slightly to the left, perfect for me to drive right.

I burst to the right and suddenly pulled the ball back, behind my back. My defender did not anticipate this and went flying. I stepped back behind the three point line and shot the rock, swishing it, letting everybody know their place.

The clock then sounded, letting everybody know the end of the game. Damn, I took 12 seconds to make one isolation play, I should start training some isolation moves or I may get shut down if a better defender got placed on me.

"Okay everybody, gather in the middle. We are going to slot you into your respective teams and positions." the head coach said.

He then started listing off a few names and giving them the positions which suited them best. Most players went into team 3 with a third going into team 2.

"Kazunari Takao. Scored 75 points in drills and 73 points in the practice game. Total 148 points, team 2."

"Ryo Sakurai. Scored 70 points in drills and 75 points in the practice game. Total 145 points, team 2."

Oh, not bad, not bad at all. They were the 2 current highest scorers of this batch. The third highest scorer was 13 points lower than Ryo. No wonder they became starters in their firsts years in high school.

"Nakamura Kaen."

I perked up when I heard my name being called.

"Scored 85 points in drills and 92 points in the practice game. Total 177 points, team 1. That's it for everybody who made the teams. I hope you work hard and contribute to your respective teams." With that the coach ended his speech.

"Damn, he set the new record for the highest score." I heard one of the seniors whisper.

"He's insane, he made it to the first team in his first year." I heard another say.

Everybody was looking at me like I was some kind of monster. Well, can't really blame them as I'm going to be one of the MC's in this anime.I just shrugged my shoulders and turned to Takao and Ryo.

"Yo Takao, Ryo, you guys better make it to the first team next year. I better have some people from my batch with me or I'll get lonely."I said with a grin.

"No problem, just don't slack off or we'll catch up to you in no time."Takao replied, and we bumped out fist.