Time passed quickly, at least for Alex Walker.
The content taught by the teachers in class was not difficult for him, having struggled in the rigorous education system in China and being admitted to a prestigious university. Therefore, Alex basically spent every class in a drowsy state. Being able to occasionally open his eyes and look at the blackboard was the greatest respect he could offer the teacher.
Of course, to prevent the teacher from forming a negative impression of him as a "slacker who doesn't study," every time a teacher called Alex to the blackboard to answer questions, he would answer them perfectly.
Initially, teachers might have thought Alex's success was just luck. However, after consistently performing well, the teachers of various subjects had no choice but to accept that "this guy is a genius, even if he doesn't listen in class." They ultimately concluded that he wouldn't affect their teaching.
On the contrary, it seemed that every teacher would like the whole class to be full of students like Alex.
So, with the teacher's tacit approval and his classmates' admiring eyes, Alex basically listened to half of the class and slept through the other half. The only class he could listen to for two-thirds of the time was Japanese history.
After all, if you are not a professional in this field in China, you have never learned it.
In this way, every day naturally passed very quickly for Alex.
Even the most boring and longest study periods passed by in a flash, and the team practice sessions later were even more fleeting for Alex.
Coach Harris is not a famous coach, so the training plan he made for the Miuradai Basketball Team is naturally quite basic.
During training time, they'd run a few laps to warm up, followed by half an hour of personal training. If you are not good at shooting, practice shooting; if you are not good at dribbling, practice dribbling; if you are not good at breaking through, practice breaking through. Then they'd play a training game half an hour later and evaluate based on performance.
After the training match, they practiced some tactics and routines, which were mostly based on Alex's strategies.
Once tactical training was over, it was almost half-past five.
Finally, there was another hour of individual training, and the training ended on time at half-past six, and everyone went home.
If players were willing to continue practicing in the gym after hours, it was up to them. If they had other commitments, they could leave. This was the daily training schedule of the Miuradai basketball team.
Every time Alex hadn't practiced enough, the coach announced the end of the training.
There was no other way, so Alex had to call like-minded teammates to practice together. Before he was satisfied with the practice, his teammates would say goodbye and head home.
Not every player at Miuradai is like Alex, who is determined to keep pursuing basketball and eventually join the NBA. Most people just want to rely on this specialty to help them get into a good university in the future, that's all.
In this regard, Alex can only sigh that everyone has their own aspirations and cannot be forced.
A week... two weeks...
Half a month passed quickly, and Alex was also looking forward to another thing.
Finally, on Wednesday afternoon of the third week, Coach Harris brought the news that Alex wanted to hear the most.
Clap... Clap... Clap...
Coach Harris, who appeared at the door of the basketball hall, clapped his hands, attracted the attention of all the players who were practicing in the hall, and said, "The county meeting will start soon. Our opponents for the friendly match have also been decided. We will go to Westfield High School this Saturday morning and face Tsukuba High School here next Sunday."
Westfield and Tsukuba... both teams have standard county quarterfinal strength, but after all, Miuradai's best result in recent years is the quarterfinals, so we can only meet such opponents.
Alex thought helplessly.
In fact, he had been looking forward to seeing if Coach Harris could invite players from Shoyo or even Hainan. Now it seems that he really thought too much.
If it was just a team with the strength of Westfield and Tsukuba, even without him, with the current configuration of Miuradai, they could still secure a small victory over their opponents. After all, since the graduation of the third-year students last year, Westfield has been completely supported by a first-year player, Ryoma Oda, this year. The key is that Oda is not the kind of player who can really carry the whole team alone.
So in the plot, although Westfield was able to make it all the way to the quarterfinals thanks to Oda's outstanding performance, they were beaten by the powerhouse Hainan in the group finals. Hainan only sent out a half-main lineup to beat Oda and make him doubt his life.
As for Tsukuba, there is no need to say more. Although it is mentioned in the original work that Tsukuba once suppressed Shohoku with its tactics at the start of the game, they were eventually defeated by Shohoku. This proves that Tsukuba's team is actually just a one-trick pony.
Their tactic stunned the enemy, and the more they fought, the smoother they won the game. Once the enemy parried their attack, they immediately ran out of energy and were overturned.
These two teams are at the standard level of the quarterfinals. They have certain strengths but also have fatal shortcomings.
Seeing the unhappy expression on Alex's face, Coach Harris had to explain helplessly, "There is no other way. I could only invite these two teams. I also tried to invite Buri and Shoyo, but was rejected. The rest are not as good as them."
"It seems that our Miuradai is underestimated."
The first person to stand up was not Alex but the captain Ken Mura.
In his opinion, Shoyo is at least a strong team in the county with strength and fame second only to the affiliated team of Hainan University. It is normal for them to have their own arrogance, and he would not say anything if they were rejected by them.
But who gave you the confidence in Buri? Didn't they just rely on a group of third-year seniors to make it to the semifinals last year? This year, the heroes who led the team to the semifinals have all graduated and gone to college.
Suddenly, compared to Hainan, Ken Mura wanted to face Buri as soon as possible in the county meeting and teach them a lesson.
"Well, if you still have extra energy, you can vent it on the court! The next game is against Westfield High School. That's a well-known devil's home court in the whole county, so don't be stage fright!"
Coach Harris encouraged the morale.
"Yes!" Everyone roared in response.
"Continue training!"
Alex did not continue his shooting training but found Ted Naito again.
"Ted, let's practice passing the ball a hundred times a day in the next two days. Practice the coordination a little better, and when the game comes, I promise to let you score to your heart's content!"
"Okay! That's what you said! At least pass me ten assists by then!"
**Weekly Task**
Strengthening Assists: In the next week, you must complete 200 assists every day.
**Current task completion status:**
- Catches: 79/200
- Completion times: 27
In the first two days, Alex asked Ken Mura to help him. Today, he thought it was time to change people. After all, as someone who loves assisting, it is necessary to share the opportunities equally.
After completing today's task indicators with Naito, Alex found a few teammates who stayed behind to practice and played half-court 3-on-3, honing their mutual understanding through the game.
As usual, it lasted until nine o'clock in the evening. After all the teammates had left, Alex was the last one to turn off the lights and doors and leave the school.
On the way home, Alex suddenly remembered that some daily necessities at home needed to be replenished.
And with the official game about to start, he should buy a new set of equipment to get a good start.
Thinking of this, Alex turned and walked towards the largest shopping mall nearby.
However, just as Alex was about to walk into the mall in front of him, he suddenly heard a female scream coming from the parking lot not far away.