Chapter 14: Captain Akagi’s College Debut.

While the High School Basketball season is underway, the college and the professional season also started.

With the very first game is going to be between the Shimazen University against the number 1 university in the country, Hanasho University.

Two outstanding high school players will debut today for Shimazen University, that two was Shoyo's Kenji Fujima and Shohoku's Takenori Akagi.

At the Shimazen Locker Room.

[FUJIMA: Are you nervous, Akagi?.]

Akagi looked up at Fujima and shakes his head.

[AKAGI: No, not at all.]

But, his hands were shaken and Fujima giggled a little bit at Akagi's expression.

Shimazen was the visitor and they were playing at the gymnasium of the Hanasho University.

A few moments later, both Shimazen and Hanasho players were on the floor and they started to warm up.

While warming up, Akagi who were running to get the ball who was rolling on the side of Hanasho, the ball gets picked up by a man and when Akagi looked up, it was the Number 1 center in the whole Japan.

The graduating player, Shouichiro Mishima.

[MISHIMA: Hello, Akagi-Kun.]

Hands over the ball to Akagi.

[AKAGI: Hello, Mishima-Senpai.]

Akagi was in disbelief of how tall and wide Shouichiro Mishima is, if compared to Masashi Kawata or Mikio Kawata, the Kawata Brothers were little boys.

Shouichiro Mishima stands at 205cm and weighs at 104kg, he overpowered his opponent and alongside his skills in the paint. Mishima was difficult player to defend.

And it shows when the game starts, Hanacho gets on hot starts as the 2 other star players of Hanacho gets on rhythm.

Joji Kawamura, the star shooting guard makes 2 threes and total scores 10 points in the first quarter.

The Hanacho's power forward, Kenjiro Watanabe also dominated the glass, he collected the offensive rebounds and scores on follow up. He tallied 14 points all by put back rebounds.

That's is the reason why the coach of Shimazen decided to put Akagi at the power forward position to stop and limit the offensive rebounds of Hanacho.

Shimazen is moving the ball around and with Fujima as the point guard, the ball really gets to move all around. Fujima gets the ball back in the middle and he moves to left where Akagi is positioned to the left mid of the paint.

Fujima pass the ball to him, Akagi gets the ball and he was being defended by Kenjiro. Akagi dribble once and starts to back down Kenjiro.

[KENJIRO: Damn! His body is heavy.]

Akagi spins to the left and he gets past Kenjiro, Akagi goes up to score but he was blocked by Mishima. Hanacho gets the rebound and starts a fast break.

Shimazen was also fast to get back to stop the offense of Hanacho, Hanacho re-gatheres and their possession gets into the hands of Mishima. Mishima was being defended by the same year center, Hattori Kondo. Mishima starts to back down Hattori's defense and Mishima spins to the left and shoots a left handed sky hook, Hattori tried to block it but Mishima was so tall and his arm was also too wide that it was impossible for him to block the sky hook. Mishima easily scores.

In the next possession, Shimazen wasn't able to see a single opportunity to score, and with the ball on his hands, Fujima had to shoot otherwise they will get a shot clock violation, so, Fujima shoots a very deep three pointer where he missed. Thankfully, Akagi gets into a great position to get the rebound and when he does, Akagi goes back up and dunked the ball hard with two hands.

After that, Akagi continues to have a great game but Shouichiro Mishima and Joji Kawamura was too much for both Akagi and Fujima, who also have a good game. And the game finished with Hanacho University defeated Shimazen University with the final score of 112-98.

Takenori Akagi in his first game as a college player, he scores 17 points alongside 11 rebounds and 2 blocks. Kenji Fujima finished with 15 points alongside 7 assists and 4 rebounds.

At the Shimazen Locker Room.

[FUJIMA: That was a good game, Akagi.]

[AKAGI: Yeah, you too, Fujima.]

Fujima seats besides Akagi.

[FUJIMA: I heard from a kouhai of mine who watched the Shohoku game, that Rukawa and Sakuragi improved so much that it was hard for opponents to stop them.]

[AKAGI: Yeah, I also happen to heard it from my little sister. I can't say that I predicted it, but if it those two, they can win in a national championship.]

[FUJIMA: Possibly, but, Kainan is still a contender.]

The two continued to talk for a while and when they get out of the locker, Akagi gets approached by a Japanese National Committee member, it was about the National Team duty for the under 20, but, they didn't guarantee that Akagi will be playing for the national team, it was a merely an invitation to attend the camp and it can be withdrawn if Akagi didn't play the same as he did today.

Akagi smiles.

[AKAGI: I'm ready to play for the national team, if you want me to play the same way today. Then, I will play and make sure that I'm ready to compete for spot in the final roster of the national team.]