Rebirth In Kurokonobasket - Chapter 182

Coach Koetsuji walked around the first-string gym, observing his students practicing and playing on different courts. Once in a while, he would enter the courts and would advise his students on topics he thought were relevant to them. The veteran coach was very hands-on with his players and would personally show them moves, no matter what they asked.

The coach moved to the court on the right side. The side court was hosting a 3v3 game on half of its court, and on the other half, he could see three players playing together. He moved to the sideline on that half and stopped to scrutinize the three players.

Two of the players were holding extender pads in their hands, which increased their reach by fifteen inches. Those pads were used by basketball clubs across the world to train players for the defense put up by taller players by allowing regular sized players/trainers to increase their reach artificially. The pads were light in weight and didn’t hinder the holder’s mobility and were an efficient piece of equipment for training players.[1]

The two holding the pads were third-year first-string members, who didn’t see much playtime. Currently, they were helping out by playing double-team defense against their team captain, who was training himself with a more robust opposition. The coach observed his students for some time and saw a slight problem with Shun’s offense.

He decided to move towards the group of three and called out to the students.

Coach: “Ichi, give me the pads. You can take a rest. I will play for you.”

He took the pads from the player named Ichi and stepped in his place to play defense against Shun. The coach looked at Shun, lightly hit him on the side with one of the pad, and smiled at his star player.

Coach: “Kageyama, you aren’t using the court and the defense’ to your advantage. You need to look at them more than you are doing know.”

He saw Shun furrowing his brows, looking down at the ground for a while before looking up and questioning.

Shun: “What do you mean? I can’t think of something that I am missing.”

The coach spoke while swinging the pads around, exercising, and loosening his shoulders for the defense he was about to play.

Coach: “Everything doesn’t need to be so complicated. As I can see know, you are moving towards using sophisticated moves more and more, but that isn’t the answer you are looking for.”

He smiled and asked the third-year captain a question.

Coach: “Do you remember the time when you came to me for advice regarding change of pace for you dribbling.”

He saw recognition in Shun’s eyes, so he continued.

Coach: “What we talked about was how complicated dribble patterns was slowing you down, and you needed a way to simplify things, and needed something that would solve that, and you chose a change of pace.

The current case is similar to that. Because you have so many options to choose from, you are complicating things for yourself.

You need to watch how the defender is reacting to you. Usually, there are two ways the defense can go.”

He stepped back a step from Shun and talked about the first case.

Coach: “The defender, which is me, will maintain a gap from you so that I can be prepared for a drive towards the basket. This position will give me enough time and space to move to defend against you.”

Then, he moved closer to Shun, eliminating all the space between them, and started about the second case.

Coach: “The second case will be the defender staying nice and close for blocking a shot attempt.

Now, I won’t spoon feed you the answer. Think about what I said, and see what you can take out of it.”

The coach didn’t continue talking and ordered his players to continue to play, and as he was defending against Shun, he gave him pointers on how to improve his game as they played.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Coach Koetsuji stood on the sideline intently watching the mini-game between his students, and his eyes were shining with approval. If it was two years ago or even a year in the past, he would’ve been shell-shocked from what he was seeing. But now? Now, he was used to what he was seeing.

Just a week before, he had given Shun the advice about looking at the defender and simplify his movement patterns, and here he was seeing Shun implementing his advice in his playstyle.

Koetsuji couldn’t help but laugh in delight as he saw Shun weave around the players and play on the court with pure skill.

He watched Shun get the ball near the three-point arc, and Shun gave a glance to the basket and immediately moved towards in a quick dribble. In response, three of the opposition’s defenders took the glance as an indication of Shun scoring on his own, and seeing him charge towards the basket, they backed up and decided to meet him near the basket for a block.

If this was the Shun from a week before, he would’ve charged to right below the basket. And shot the ball formlessly with the horde of defenders on him trying to cover him from all sides. But, the situation had changed, and Shun was looking at how the defenders reacted to him. He stopped at the left elbow (edge) of the free-throw line and pulled up for a mid-range, face-up jump shot, and sunk the ball into the hoop without a defender to contest his shot.

The defenders froze in their place as they saw the ball drop into the hoop and g.r.o.a.n.e.d as they either held their knees or waist in frustration that they gave Shun so much space to shoot.

The coach had the urge to clap loudly and praise Shun, but he restrained himself from doing that so the players could play without disturbance. He didn’t check the wide, beaming smile on his face as he followed Shun with his eyes.

Coach: ‘He made the defenders think that he was going for a rim-finish and when they gave him space, he stopped and shot from mid-range. A strong inside game turned into the perfect decoy for a mid-range play to shine.’

The coach knew that if Shun was able to fully grasp all the style that he had set out to copy and didn’t get overcrowded by the sheer amount of choices he had, then he would become a genuine positionless player in all regards.

Coach: ‘A player with no skill-related limitations, a person who could walk on the court and feel at home no matter which area he stood in.’

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The coach’s analysis was spot on. Shun currently did feel facing a little overwhelmed with the choices he had. He wasn’t even all the way through with summer camp playstyle integration, but he was already feeling confused with the number of options he had.

The number of choices made Shun hesitate to decide what he wanted to use. Even though it wasn’t affecting his game against players in the club, but that hesitation could cost him dearly if he was facing against the Generation Of Miracles.

The coach’s advice to use simple moves had given Shun a temporary relief and relieved the pressure he was feeling, but the problem was still not solved and still lurked around Shun’s playstyle. There was nothing wrong with using simple moves, and if you could score by sticking to simple moves, then it was a show of skill, but Shun was sure that he won’t be able to get by with those against Generation Of Miracles.

He still had to complete his intended integration and then solve the problem that was plaguing his playstyle. Even taking Ivan’s playstyle as a reference wasn’t helping.

Kageyama Shun was going through a difficult phase of his transformation.

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