Chapter 21 : Scouting the Opponent
Two days later, Furihata found himself waiting in line, watching his teammates doing a sprint while his coach keeps shouting from the sideline.
"Next group, go!"
"Faster everyone! Faster!"
"Kawahara-kun! You are left behind!"
"Fukuda-kun! Izuki! Keep running!"
"Good pace, Kagami-kun!"
"One more lap, Furihata-kun!"
"Okay, good job everyone!"
With the whistle getting blown by Riko, everyone finally stopped running and fell down on the floor while they panted heavily.
"So, how is our new workout?" She asked, amused at the sight of how dead-tired her player is.
"I can't believe that it would be this intense. When I heard your explanation, I thought it would be easy." Izuki spoke while still trying to steady his breath.
"Well, that is interval running for you. No one would believe how hard it is until they do it on their own." Riko shrugged as if that was not a big deal.
Interval running is a workout that involved periods of high-intensity running alternated with low-intensity between each of them.
Basically, Riko put five cones on the court, one under the board, then in the center of the free throw area, then in the middle of the court, in the center of the other free throw area, and under the other board. Each one of them had to run to the first cone at full speed, then go back to the starting point with a walk, then run again at full speed to the second cone, go back to the starting point with walking, and so on.
They keep doing that until Riko stopped the training, and it took thirty minutes for them to go through this training.
"I will incorporate this workout into your training. You will do it once in two days, and it will be mixed with the other physical workout. And when summer comes, we will do it on the beach and start with our pool training. Is there any question?"
No question was asked as all the players groaned loudly at what she just said. After all, who likes doing physical training when you can just go and play basketball?
However, they all see the necessity of it and didn't make a single protest.
"Good! Now, I have exciting news for you. The bracket for the inter-high is finally out, and you can see it here."
She waved a piece of paper in her hand, gaining the full attention of her players. When Hyuga received the paper, he observed it with his teammates carefully to see who they are gonna face first.
"Shinkyo Academy? Is that just a normal private school?" Hyuga muttered lowly after seeing Seirin's name on it. Everyone who heard what he said sighed in relief, thinking their enemy wouldn't be too hard.
"Don't be happy yet. We will face a big problem against Shinkyo Academy." Hyuga was taken aback by his warning.
"What do you mean? Last time I heard, they were swept by Seiho, right?"
"Yes. However, look at this." She gives him her phone that shows a single photo of a black man far taller than Kagami wearing a Shinkyo jersey.
"That is Papa Mbaye Shiki, a third-year transfer student from Senegal with a height of 202 cm and a wingspan of 207 cm. It could be said that he is the tallest player in this tournament. Moreover, I heard the rumor that he would be in the Chinese Basketball League draft class next year, even though he didn't go to university. We will have to face him in the first round."
"What the hell.." Everyone was speechless at the profile of this Papa Mbaye Shiki.
"Then, why did someone so high profile like him went to Shinkyo Academy? Is that school rather weak in basketball?"
"He failed the academic test for Shutoku High." All of them stare at Riko with dumbfounded faces, couldn't believe that is the real reason.
"Hey, that was what rumor said! And even though he is indeed a very talented basketball player, he still went to Japan with a scholarship program. Of course, he needs to have good academics."
"Well.. When you put it like that.."
"Speaking of this Mbaye Shiki, how do you plan to stop him?" Hyuga asked before they went out of topic and start gossiping.
"Well, Fortunately for us, it is only him that I deem dangerous from this team. We can put Kagami-kun to guard him. Do you know how to guard someone bigger and taller than you?"
She turned around and asked the red-hair who she suspects didn't listen to the discussion at all.
"Of course, I know! I just have to block him like against Kise, right?" He only received a deadpanned face from Riko.
"So, you don't really know. Speaking of defense, if I remember clearly, you couldn't even stop Kise for once until the last play. You only use your high speed and reaction to face him, that is why he could fool you so many times. We really need to work on your defense."
"Hey, I am a good defender! I won, right?!" Kagami voices his protest. However, nobody really cares about it, as they see the truth of Riko's words.
"Fortunately for you, Kagami-kun, we have a lot of great defensive players here! You will have special training for defense, but you can choose who would you rather be with. Furihata-kun? Tsuchida? Or Mitobe?"
"I choose him." Kagami pointed his finger at Furihata without hesitation, startling the others, especially Furihata.
"Any special reason?"
"He stopped Kise twice. And he talked so much shit to me. I want to see if he has the ability to back up his mouth or not. Moreover, if I win against him, would I be the better player than Kise?" Kagami shrugged nonchalantly, making Furihata roll his eyes.
"There are a lot of flaws in your logic, Red. But sure, we can do it if the coach agrees."
Even though both of them can get along pretty well on the court, there is still a hint of animosity between Kagami and Furihata. However, Riko finds this is the chance to mend their relationship before it went too far.
"Good! The game will be played on Friday two weeks from now, so we will start the preparation tomorrow. For now, let's discuss the other team here. Junpei, the paper please." Riko asked for the bracket paper and bulleting a few teams on it before giving it back to Hyuga.
"That is the strong team that we need to beat if we wanted to go through the final league just like last year. However, we are unlucky in this drawing. We would have to face Seiho High in the fifth game and Shutoku High in the sixth game first. All of the senior members here still remember the humiliation last year, so you all still remember how tough playing against them, right?"
The atmosphere suddenly turned grim as the senpai members nodded, some of them showing their depressed faces.
"Haaa~ I cannot believe we have to face them so early," Izuki uttered his depressed thought loudly.
"Yes. However, we are lucky we don't need to face Toho Academy before the final league. God knows we don't need any strong opponents more than this."
"Toho Academy?" The players look at each other, confused by the school's name.
"Sorry, Riko. But I don't think I have heard this name before. Why do you think they are a threat?" Hyuga asked to clear their confusion.
"Of course, you don't know. They are a new private school that has a very rich owner, and they want to build their school as a sports academy. It was established two or three years ago, I think. But they climbed into the sports community very quickly. I heard they won the football national tournament last year, and this year they wanted to focus on basketball. They recruited a lot of national-level players, but I think one name stood out the most. You are familiar with the name Daiki Aomine right, Kuroko-kun?"
All of them turned around and looked at Kuroko who hasn't spoken anything in this discussion. The former Teiko member nodded without hesitation as he replied,
"Yes, he was our ace in Teiko."
The answer was short, but it brought the full attention of his teammates.
"The ace of the GoM? Seriously?"
"Is he scary?"
"How is he compared to Kise?"
More questions were fired to Kuroko, yet he didn't give them any answer. Seeing the situation is going to escalate quickly, Riko clapped her hands, calming down her players before things got uncontrollable.
"Okay, everyone! I know you have a lot of questions about this team. But we would only play against them if we could advance through the final league. So, leave it for now. Understood?"
"Yes, Coach!"
Then, all of a sudden, Kagami busted out a laugh, surprising his teammates.
"Hahahaha! I thought it would be a long time before I could face another GoM. Who would have thought it was this close? I cannot wait to destroy all of them! This is so exciting!" He grinned widely, excitement could be seen on his face.
"You stupid!" Hyuga suddenly scolded the red hair, a thick vein could be seen on his temple. "Did you hear what Riko said before? We have to worry about Shutoku and Seiho first. Don't you hear the story about our humiliation last year?"
"Don't worry, captain. We are stronger now. There is no way we could lose to anyone who doesn't have the former Generation of Miracles on their team." Kagami replied with full confidence in his tone, resulting in a sigh released from Hyuga's mouth.
"Okay, that's enough, Junpei." Riko interfered quickly before Hyuga loses his temper. "Kagami-kun, your confidence is appreciated and well-noted, but I don't want you to be overconfident, okay? You couldn't even beat Kise until the end, so I don't want you to look down on any of your opponents in the future. Do you hear me?"
"But I won at the end" Kagami protested for a bit, but after getting a stern glare from the coach, he backed down with a nod.
"Good." Riko nodded too, satisfied that she could deescalate the high tension between the team. "Moreover, you don't need to wait for a long time to play against one of them. Their shooting guard, Shintaro Midorima, joined Shutoku High this year, making it harder for us to advance through the final league."
Silence dropped into the gym as nobody could believe what they just heard, especially the senior members. The only thought that could be formed in their mind was full of curses until Izuki managed to speak slowly,
"Shutoku is already that strong, and now they have the former member of the GoM? Seriously? Are you fucking kidding me?"
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Author note:
The next chapter would be back to basketball again!
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