Chapter 63: Rakuzan's Scouting Report

How to judge whether a player is strong or not.

There is no absolute standard.

However, Hakugane Eiji firmly believes that a player who can put up excellent stats must be a good player.

Especially in a powerhouse like Teiko, a player who can put up flashy stats must have his own exceptional qualities.

This is his trust in his peer, Shirogane Goro.

Teiko is not some Whampoa Military Academy; every year, a large number of geniuses emerge among the students advancing to high school.

It's just that the players who come out of Teiko are indeed all top-tier.

This has to do with Teiko's strict selection system; in a basketball club of dozens, there are fewer than 15 first-string starters.

It can be called a meticulous selection.

In previous years, he would also pay close attention to Teiko's basketball club.

For a basketball club to remain evergreen, it must ensure that strong and powerful fresh blood is injected every year.

For example, Nijimura Shuzo, the Teiko captain; not only was he targeted by Harasawa Katsunori, but Hakugane Eiji also highly coveted this versatile power forward.

Rather than saying he was scouting Teiko, it would be more accurate to say he was scouting Nijimura Shuzo.

Yet his assistant brought him a group of such monsters?

"This... do you have the footage?"

Faced with this question, the assistant coach inexplicably blushed.

Exchanging footage between men always feels a tiny bit shameful.

"Coach... do you still watch that kind of film?"

"What kind of film? I want the Teiko game footage."

Oh, it was that.

The assistant shook his head regretfully, "No, but I can go find it for you."

"As soon as possible; this might be the only thing that can make me feel slightly happy this week."

After sending the assistant away, Hakugane Eiji picked up the documents again to study them carefully.

The more he looked, the more unscientific it felt; how could there be such energetic kids?

And five and a half of them popped up all at once!

Why five and a half?

Because Haizaki was also counted, but due to limited playing time, he wasn't as consistent as Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi and the others, so he only counted as half.

Finally, he picked up Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi's file to watch it seriously.

His assistant's evaluation of this player was surprisingly high.

Besides recording Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi's stats, there were also some player reports.

Offense and defense in one, superb basketball IQ.

"As of now, he is the most versatile small forward I have ever seen among this batch of players."

"He is good at both offense and defense. In the three round-robin matches, he was entrusted with the heavy responsibility of marking the opponent's primary perimeter scorer. Under his tight defense, no opponent scored in double digits."

"He is very adept at using steals to disrupt the opponent's shooting, driving, and passing. Any ball-handler facing him must be on high alert, because one careless move and the possession will change hands."

"Besides that, he possesses the soft touch that a scorer desperately needs; his shooting range covers the entire half-court."

"He can shoot three-pointers and hit mid-range shots, can go to the basket to finish layups after battling the opposing center, and can also contribute explosive dunks."

"He has a rich arsenal of offensive weapons; in terms of scoring, I believe we have nothing to teach him."

"What's even more commendable is that he also possesses a one-in-a-million basketball IQ. When facing the iron-wall defense of Zenbu, he once used a brilliant pass to assist a teammate in scoring, tearing apart Zenbu's overall defense single-handedly."

"Weaknesses: As a player, Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi has almost no weaknesses. If one must be mentioned, his personality is very flamboyant and extremely self-centered; he might not take our Rakuzan reputation seriously."

"From what I know, he has already ignored invitations from two traditional powerhouses in the Tokyo region..."

That really is a formidable weakness.

Hakugane Eiji reached out, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

He had absolute confidence in Rakuzan; no genius could refuse their invitation.

At least the three junior high players he had contacted this year seemed very happy about his invitation.

Rakuzan had the most glorious history and the most championship trophies in the high school basketball world.

No matter what kind of little monster they were, as long as they crooked their fingers, they would obediently come knocking.

But this kid named Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi...

For some reason, Hakugane Eiji just felt that he wouldn't pay any attention to his Rakuzan.

"No, I still have to make contact before deciding."

A little monster of this level was worth Hakugane Eiji lowering himself to invite personally.

Similar things were happening at major high school basketball clubs across the country.

With the end of the National Tournament qualifiers, information on this batch of new tea was already placed on the desks of head coaches at various basketball clubs.

Nowadays, Hakugane Eiji wasn't the only head coach eyeing this group of Teiko monsters.

These basketball departments were sending out scouts one after another to continue collecting information on these monsters.

After all, it was only the qualifiers; only by proving themselves on the final stage of the National Tournament could they be considered true geniuses.

Take Nijimura Shuzo, for example.

The Teiko captain only attracted the attention of so many basketball clubs after making a name for himself at the National Tournament.

Meanwhile.

Having finished the qualifiers, Teiko gained a valuable period of rest and adjustment.

Even with deep bench strength, the players' average playing time was limited.

But Shirogane Goro still had the team enter a state of adjustment immediately to dissipate the fatigue accumulated during this period.

They were junior high students after all; day after day of devilish training could easily break people.

As for Momoi, she had been a bit busy lately, running between various school basketball clubs.

She went to collect intelligence.

After a week of adjustment, Teiko officially entered preparation mode.

Shooting practice and the like were naturally indispensable, but what increased was team tactical drills.

Previously, Teiko had always used Nijimura Shuzo as the core, running many pick-and-roll and drive-and-kick tactics.

Now, Shirogane Goro had established Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi as Teiko's new core, so the tactics naturally had to lean toward Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi.

Nijimura Shuzo had no objections, because Shirogane Goro had discussed it with him beforehand, and Nijimura Shuzo was also very happy to yield the "ace player" status to Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi.

Let the capable occupy the position!

After many days of effort, Shirogane Goro finally chose the triangle offense as Teiko's new tactic.

His reason for choosing the triangle offense was also very simple.

By now, information about Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi had probably spread to every household; almost every team qualified for the National Tournament had a copy.

To ensure his own ace wouldn't fall into the trouble of being double-teamed from the start, Shirogane Goro believed this was the most suitable tactic for Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Tian Lizi.

Because the foundation of the triangle offense is a tactic designed to allow the core to play one-on-one more comfortably.