Sakuragi's road to NBA superstardom

Chapter 103 Training Session

For such a trial training method, Sakuragi has long been prepared.

Sakuragi touched the sole of the shoe, and then rubbed the shoe on the ground a few times. With his back to Coach Odom, he walked to the three-point line.

He spread his arms inside the three-point line at the top of the arc and started the most basic defensive slide. Sakuragi repeatedly made monotonous slides along the three-point line.

Sakuragi's sliding steps are extremely solid, without any slack under his feet, and the 4-minute high-intensity sliding steps did not slow down at all.

With 1 minute left, Sakuragi sprinted to the opposite field, picked up a basketball, and dribbled it back at high speed.

Sakuragi dribbled the ball beyond the three-point line in the bottom corner, took off with all his strength, shot a three-pointer, and made a hollow hit!

Sakuragi picked up the ball and came back here again, raising the knife again!
After picking up the ball, Sakuragi came out of the three-point line at a forty-degree angle on the right, and still shot a three-pointer.
Two bottom corners, two 45 degrees, and one arc top position. Sakuragi made two shots at each of the five three-point points. Except for two missed shots at the arc top position, the rest of the shots were all hit!
With 4 minutes of high-intensity defensive sliding, plus 1 minute of self-shooting and self-picking three-point shooting without intervals, Sakuragi believes that in these 5 minutes, he has shown the best of himself to Coach Odom.

Continuous high-intensity defense, and stable three-pointers when physical strength is close to the limit, these two housekeeping skills are Sakuragi's current bottom-line skills.

Odom: "Very well, you managed to impress me in those five minutes.

You're smart, and you know how to put your best qualities on the table. "

The quality that Sakuragi showed is something that every coach likes.

3D players are a type of players who can cross the level of confrontation. As long as they can do a good job in defense and three-point shooting, some of their own defects can be cleverly avoided.

Sakuragi: "Thank you for your approval.

But I think my biggest advantage is that I can always appear in the most correct position and make the most correct choice. "

Sakuragi gasped heavily and said.

Odom: "Assemble! I'm going to introduce you to a new teammate!"

Odom is now somewhat fond of this bright Asian student.

Sakuragi knows that if he wants to gain a firm foothold in an American team, he must integrate into American culture.

Many Huaxia players who stayed in the United States suffered from this aspect, because they were out of tune with their teammates, and they did not fully realize their talents.

But Sakuragi, who has experienced it, of course cannot repeat the same mistakes. He can speak well, and he quickly became one with his teammates.

Since the NCAA has old players leaving and new players joining every year, the head coach inspects the players within one or two months of the new school year.

Who can finally represent the team in the official competition depends on the performance during this period.

This year's coach Odom has high expectations for the team. Tim Duncan, who he personally recruited from the Virgin Islands, is a rare insider wizard in decades!

It's just that after getting along with him recently, Odom feels that this kid is impeccable on the basketball court, but his personality is a bit too restrained.

However, the Sakuragi recommended by Dr. Philip can make Duncan show a different appearance from usual, which makes Coach Odom have higher expectations for Duncan.

After all, basketball is a team sport. If Duncan can be more cheerful and establish good communication with his teammates, then the combat effectiveness of the Devil Deacon team will be improved to a higher level.

In the past, the NCAA referred to in the country was generally the NCAA tournament. Starting from March every year, the top 64 in the United States competed for the final king through a single elimination system.

The media are used to calling this annual basketball event "March Madness".

Before March Madness, hundreds of NCAA teams will start fighting in their respective minor leagues for the final 64 spots starting in November.

The Wake Forest University Devil Deacon team belongs to the ACC Atlantic Coast Conference, which has always been one of the strongest minor leagues in the NCAA.

In 1993, there were nine teams in the ACC league: Vickerson State University Devil Deacon Team, Duke University Blue Devils, Maryland University Terrapins, Clemson University Tigers, North Carolina University Tar Heels, Virginia University Cavaliers, Florida State University Seminoles, North Carolina State University Wolfpack, Georgia Tech Hornets.

Even basketball fans who don't know much about the NCAA will know several famous teams in the ACC league.

Before Duncan and Sakuragi joined the team, Rodney Rogers, the former head player of the Devil Deacon team, had just been selected by the Denver Nuggets with the ninth overall pick in the first round.

This also made the Devil Deacon team's tactical play in recent years have to be completely overthrown and rebuilt.

Because the ACC league has maintained a super high level all year round, except for the ACC league championship team that will directly enter the top 64 of the NCAA tournament, other teams also have a great opportunity to enter March Madness through other channels.

Therefore, the regular round-robin games of the ACC League in the past few months are not very important to each team. The traditional powerhouses also use this game to test the lineup and test the players.

In the first training that Sakuragi participated in, Coach Odom did not arrange too much training content.

In addition to basic physical training, coach Odom also arranged a half-court five-on-five offensive and defensive training.

In the short playing time, Sakuragi struggled very much.

On the offensive end, because ten players landed directly in the half court, Sakuragi had no room for three-pointers in the small space.

And his low-value dribbling ability cannot break through the opponent's fast lateral movement defense.

On the defensive end, facing a 195+ swingman opponent, Sakuragi can neither limit the opponent's strong attack, nor interfere with the opponent's pull-up jumper.

The seemingly loose half-court offense and defense caused a great consumption of Sakuragi. He has always been good at physical fitness, but for the first time he was at a disadvantage in the physical competition.

And his opponent is just a marginal player in the team who is similar in status to himself.

Odom: "Sakuragi, your current level is still far from the players on the roster.

But I am very optimistic about your training attitude, and I hope you can make a staged improvement in a short period of time.

Only in this way can I have enough reasons to write your name into the final registration form. "

Coach Odom encouraged Sakuragi who was beaten without temper.

Sakuragi: "I can do it!"

Sakuragi also encouraged himself.

The daily basic training of the Devil Deacon team has surpassed the intensity of the Japanese high school national competition.

Although Yingmu Huadao also had a short-term sense of frustration, such a competitive environment has greatly stimulated his competitive spirit!
(End of this chapter)