Chapter 20: Preliminaries, Start!
This day marks the day of the preliminaries in Nara Prefecture. Since Nara Prefecture have received 2 slots for the Nationals this year, the preliminaries' format will be different from other prefectures.
The preliminaries in Nara Prefecture this year will have two blocks; Blocks A and B, where each block will have a total of four rounds. The tournament's schedule will go on like this:
Day 1: Block A; Round 1 and Block B; Round 1(Seeded teams automatically enter round 2)
Day 2: Block A; Round 2: Quarter Finals and Round 3: Semi Finals
Day 3: Block B; Round 2: Quarter Finals and Round 3: Semi Finals
Day 4: Round 4: Finals in both Blocks
Day 5: Round 5: Exhibition Match from the Winners of Blocks A and B
Compared to Tokyo who regularly have two teams enter the Nationals because of how many schools they have, Nara Prefecture didn't have that much schools that are eager to participate in the Nationals every year. Most gifted children were moved by their parents to Tokyo in order to have a chance at entering a better middle school.
Aside from that, those who initially don't have any intentions to leave gets scouted by a middle school team or something. This is mostly the reason why Tokyo was able to produce championship teams every year.
That's the reason why the competition in this prefecture isn't that tight compared to a metropolis like Tokyo. In fact, this is the first time a school from Nara invited a great coach like Chu Lin to teach their team. When Chu Lin wasn't around, teams who enter the Nationals is almost always at random.
This year, Kyōsen and their so called rival, Tōdaiji, is placed in different blocks: Blocks A and B. If they both win the three rounds they will be playing, Kyōsen and Tōdaiji will face each other in the finals exhibition match between them that will determine just who is the best team in the whole Nara Prefecture.
Unlike Kyōsen who have a really great coach, Tōdaiji Private Middle School didn't hire any great one to join their school. Chu Lin even mentioned that it was such a waste not giving that team a great coach since there is someone who's as talented or maybe even more talented as Akagi, Wakamatsu, Hyuuga, and Izuki there.
※・※・※・※
「Nara Preliminaries, Day 1, Block A and B; Round 1.」
The Sika Deer Arena, an arena that was built a few years ago for the purpose of hosting basketball games in the Nara Prefecture, will be the one hosting the preliminaries. This arena is quite unique in a sense that people see and play with tamed sika deer in an open meadow located in a few places inside the arena.
These forests are artificially made so that tourists who visit this arena could see the popular deer. Of course, there are even more intricate details hidden inside the design of this arena but that's a thing for later.
Sika deer and the arena aside, Block B, the block where Kyōsen is placed, doesn't contain any strong teams that could pose a threat to the team. Even though that is the case, the entire Kyōsen roster still watched the matches during the first day. Chu Lin taught them that it doesn't hurt to know the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.
When they arrived at the venue of where the preliminaries are taking place, people from every walks of life immediately recognized them due to the white and blood red tracksuits that they're wearing. Of course, not many of these people are their fans. In fact, the majority of them hates this team.
"Ya see these young un's who wear that white and red tracksuits? Those er the famous chokers of our prefecture."
"Those guys over there? They sure look intimidatin' fer someone who chokes every year…"
"You bet'cha. Those guys are very consistent at being inconsistent."
"You stole those words right out of my mouth. Those kids er just like you said, inconsistent."
As the populace kept on talking about them, Fukuda could barely control his urge to beat them up. However, seeing Akagi look at him with his stern gaze, Fukuda controlled himself and put on his headphone to cancel out the noise of the crowd.
Like Fukuda, everyone on the team is either frowning or have a despondent look on their face as they continued to walk towards a row of empty seats.
During their walk, Neko couldn't help but say, "They're quite cruel aren't they? Speaking ill of us like that."
Akagi is the first one to respond as he gave a 'gentle' look to Neko.
"They're not really wrong either. Our team has been fairly inconsistent in performance in the past nationals so their anger is understandable."
"However, how they express their anger is not great. Well, we don't have any rights to tell them how they should express their anger though so it's better if you just ignore them," Kogure said.
"We'll just show them how wrong they are in the Nationals," Wakamatsu added.
Everyone seems to have agreed to him as they all nodded simultaneously.
Once the team found their seats, the team began to speak out their thoughts as to who their opponents in the second round tomorrow will be. The winner of match that they are watching right now, Tenri Junior High VS Seisho Junior High, will be their opponent next round so the team chose to watch this match.
"Both teams looks to be at the same level in my opinion."
"Yep, they look about the same to me."
Wakamatsu and Fukuda didn't even wait for the game to start before voicing out their own opinions. Meanwhile, Hyuuga, Izuki, Seiji, and Akagi remained silent, wanting more information before saying anything.
"I really wonder who our team will face. Both teams look like they're at the same level, right Riko-senpai?"
Riko is one of those who remained silent but since Neko asked, she voiced her own opinion regarding the matter.
"Based on what I can see, Seisho is slightly weaker than Tenri. I can't see through their clothes so I'm not entirely sure about this."
"Is that so? Ma, I don't know much about basketball so I wouldn't know what those stats would translate into even if I know them like you. Hehehe."
Riko just face palmed at her junior's behavior. This girl is just so silly at times.
While everyone is talking about their own opinions about the outcome of the match, the players from both teams finally arrived while wearing their team's tracksuits. Tenri Junior High have a blue and white colored tracksuit while Seisho have white and green colored tracksuits.
Everyone of them took off their tracksuits and got ready for some warm up exercise.
※・※・※・※
A good thirty minutes later, the warm up exercises finally ended for both teams as they lined up on the opposite sides of the court, facing the half court line.
"The game between Tenri Junior High and Seisho Junior High will now begin!"
"""Let's have a good game!"""
*buzzz*
At the sound of the buzzer, the game between Tenri Junior High and Seisho Junior High officially began. The two centers of both teams stood right in the middle of the court while all the remaining players surrounded them, waiting for the referee to start the tip off.
*whooosh*
With the sound of the referee throwing the ball in the air as the queue, the two centers waited for the right timing before they both jumped up simultaneously. It looks like they both will reach the ball at the same time but the center of Tenri had a slightly larger wingspan, resulting in him being able to tip the ball to the direction of his teammate.
The player who got the ball into his hands seems to be the point guard and captain of the team as he immediately shouted some orders once he got his hands on the ball.
"Run! The first point of the game will be ours!"
Everyone in the Tenri team ran towards the hoop like their life depended on it, passing the ball from one person to another. This clearly shows that Tenri Junior High is intending to immediately score a point.
On the stands, Hyuuga was the first to react as he said, "Hee… a run and gun tactic huh. That's actually a good strategy."
In response to his words, Akagi and Kogure, the captain and vice captain of the team, also voiced their own opinions.
"Uh huh, it is. If your team is able to ride the momentum that the first score will give you, you're sure to win games."
"I guess it was their coach who taught them this. However, they really look like they're still not used to this tactic. Is it taught to them a few weeks before the preliminaries or something?"
While the Kyōsen Junior High basketball team is having this conversation, the Tenri Junior High scored their first two points via an easy finger roll layup. Riding the momentum of their first score, everyone immediately went back to defense, tightly guarding their mark.
Since both teams are about the same, skill level and team composition wise, there really were not many weakness Seisho Junior High could exploit. The point guard of the Seisho Junior High had no choice but to create an opening himself through his drives.
After a hard dribble using his left hand, the point guard of the Seisho team immediately leaned forward before doing a between the legs dribble to his right. Then, seeing that the defender followed him, he immediately did a crossover dribble before driving by his defender through the left side.
Before he could look around to see whether a teammate of his is free, he saw a help defender leave his mark and go for him. This made him slightly panic. Forgetting that one of his teammates is now free since a help defender came his way, he forced a mid range jumper from 15 ft.
Since the shot is a contested and a panic response to a power forward coming his way to defend him, the shot of course missed big time. It only managed to hit a small portion of the rim before easily falling into the hands of Tenri's center who's waiting just under the basket.
From then on, the momentum completely shifted to Tenri's favor. Even though it wasn't one sided since both teams can score against each other, the initial momentum shift during the first quarter decided who will win this match.
"Well, it looks like our opponent tomorrow is already decided. Unless Seisho could pull off some kind of miracle, this match is already in the bag for Tenri," Wakamatsu said rather bluntly.
"Looking at the current circumstances, that's quite impossible," Izuki coldly analyzed.
Seiji, on the other hand, murmured something that everyone was not expecting.
"Seisho could have won if only that point guard maintained his cool. Also, the coach didn't let that sophomore in their bench play for some inconceivable reason, even though that guy is clearly more skilled than their third year Shooting Guard that's currently on the court."
Riko heard his bold statement so she directed her gaze at the slightly lanky looking teenage boy who's currently sitting on the bench while gnashing his teeth.
"He does look like he'd do better than that third year shooting guard. It looks like he put in a lot of effort in his training. However, it seems that it isn't as effective as the training menus that sports trainer suggests."
Neko also directed her gaze at where Riko is looking and saw the teenage boy.
"If I remember correctly, we have some data about that guy. Wait… ummm… it appears that his name is Jin Soichiro. His talent is said to be above average while his shooting skills are poor for someone of his position. I wonder why he insists to be a shooting guard if his shooting is weak?"
"Well, you'll see when the time comes. It's just that their coach aren't as good as ours so he can't see his potential."
All of them looked at Seiji and wondered whether what he's saying is true.
※・※・※・※
To be continued…
[A/N¹: It came to my knowledge that there aren't that many schools in Nara Prefecture. Atleast not as many as what I wrote here(32), since both blocks has 16 teams. This is why I added Alternate Universe in the tags.]
[A/N²: Jin Soichiro is a part of Kainan University Affiliated High School(Kainan) in SlamDunk as the Shooting Guard. He's a great catch and shoot type of shooting guard who needs open looks, but he can't create separation himself to make some space on his own shots. If a capable on-ball defender is the one guarding him, he'll immediately have a hard time sinking those threes.]
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
JadePanda003
JadePanda003 Now that we've reached the 20 chapters mark, I would love it if you guys could kindly leave a review. It would be great if you could give me some of you guy's thoughts about this fanfiction. Receiving your feedbacks will be of great help to me.
You could also just not give a review and wait for the whole volume 1 to end. That will be around 20+ more chapters.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone