Slam Dunk: Muguro

Chapter 26 SD's Strongest Muscle Man
Ikegami stood up from the bench and trotted onto the court.

That’s right, the strongest muscular man in SD is Ryoji Ikegami!

When it comes to muscular men, most people subconsciously think of Shinichi Maki and Masashi Kawata.

However, in a handwritten illustration by Takehiko Inoue, there is a ranking of the strongest muscular men.

Among them, the first place was Ryoji Ikegami of the Ryonan team.

Ikegami plays as a power forward. As the defensive pioneer of the Ryonan team, he always performs well in key games.

In the game against Hainan High School, Ikegami successfully stole the ball from Shinichi Maki at the last moment, which was also the key for Ryonan to tie the score.

In the match against Shohoku, Ikegami, who came on in the second half, successfully froze Mitsui Hisashi. Unfortunately, Ryonan, which was not the protagonist team, still lost the game.

To see how strong Ikegami is, you can compare his height and weight to Shinichi Maki.

Ikegami: Height 183 cm, weight 83 kg!

Amu: Height 184 cm, 79 kg.

You wouldn't have thought that Ikegami, who is one centimeter shorter than Amu, weighs eight kilograms more.

But the body shapes of the two people seem to be not much different, this is a muscle compression bag.

In addition, Uozumi and Akagi both weigh only 90 kilograms, which is only 7 kilograms heavier than Ikegami.

Fun fact: Ikegami and Rukawa share the same voice actor.

With Ikegami coming on the court, Ryonan's lineup changed.

Among them, Inoue Toyoshi replaced Uozumi as center, while Ikegami served as power forward.

Although Ikegami's physical fitness is not at the top level, it is still first-class.

As for Ikegami's characteristics, in addition to his excellent defense, he also has certain mid-range shooting ability and has the potential to become a top 3D player.

shuh~
As soon as Ikegami came on the court, he received a pass from Yusaku Ozawa and hit a mid-range shot from the corner.

The Shohoku team served the ball, and when Muguro came to the front court, he found that the person standing in front of him was no longer Yusaku Ozawa, but Ikegami.

Looking at Ikegami in front of him, Mu Mu did not look down on him. Ikegami in the future is the best defensive player in Ryonan, and he is also one of the best in the country.

SD has three players who are famous for their defense, and they are also the defensive pioneers of their respective teams. They are Ikegami of Ryonan, Hasegawa of Shoyo and Ichinokura Satoshi of Sanno Industrial.

These three have one thing in common, that is, they have all faced off against Mitsui Shou.

Judging from the effectiveness of defending Mitsui, Ikegami's defensive effect on Mitsui is the best, and Hasegawa and Ichinokura Satoshi are not much different.

Hasegawa was strong in the early stages, but in the later stages he encountered the explosive Mitsui, which caused him to have mental problems, and this also caused him to lose a lot of points.

Ichinokura Sou's defensive effect on Mitsui can be said to be the worst among the three, until he changed his defensive strategy and used sticky defense to prevent Mitsui from receiving the ball, which limited Mitsui's performance on the offensive end.

There is no way. Ichinokura Satoshi has two fatal flaws: one is that he has no confrontation ability, and the other is that he has no height. This is also the main reason why he cannot limit Mitsui.

At this time, Ito Katsu passed the ball to Murasakibara again.

Facing Ikegami's defense, Murasakibara tried it out and then used a skillful cross step to break through.

Ikegami was still relatively immature during this period, and his defense obviously had not reached its peak, so he was easily broken through by Murasakibara.

Inoue Toyosu wanted to provide assisting defense, but was confused by Murasakibara's fake pass. By the time he reacted, Murasakibara had already entered the three-second zone and scored a layup.

But in the next round, Akagi lost his temper.

Akagi back-attacked Inoue Toyoshi, and although his ability to fight was stronger, it was limited.

His confrontation ability has not yet reached its peak.

Akagi spent a lot of effort and finally pushed Inoue Toyosu into the three-second zone.

During this process, Inoue Toyoshi secretly performed small actions on him, causing Akagi to become restless.

So while turning around, Akagi got hot-headed and hit Inoue Toyosu in the chest with his elbow.

bang~
Inoue Toyosu fell to the ground in pain.
"Red Team No. 10, personal foul!"

The referee made the decision immediately.

Inoue Toyosu rubbed his chest and stood up from the ground with a smile on his face.

"hateful!"

Akagi cursed and turned back to defend.

"Akagi, you must stay calm!"

When returning to defense, Murasakibara gave a timely reminder.

However, in the last few minutes of the first half, Akagi struggled.

Compared with the immature Uozumi, Inoue Toyoshi is more experienced in defense, has many key moves, and occasionally uses words to pressure Akagi.

This directly caused Akagi's mentality to become extremely unstable. The more impatient he was, the worse his performance became, and his hit rate dropped significantly.

In just a few minutes, Akagi accumulated three fouls and fell into foul trouble. Ryonan seized the opportunity and quickly expanded its lead.

Murasaki felt helpless about this.

As Akagi's good friend and teammate, Murasakibara naturally knows Akagi very well.

The reason why Akagi's mentality is not stable is mainly because he has experienced too many failures.

When he graduated from junior high school, Akagi was confident that he could be recognized by a top team.

However, reality dealt him a heavy blow as he was ruthlessly rejected by Hainan High School and Xiangyang High School, which severely undermined his self-confidence and even made him question his own abilities.

He needs time to adjust his mentality and regain his lost confidence.

As Akagi was in foul trouble, Murasakibara had to increase the frequency of singles.

Unfortunately, Ryonan obviously strengthened its defense against Murasakibara, causing his hit rate to begin to decline.

Soon, the first half ended.

35:45
In just a few minutes, Ryonan widened the gap to double digits.

Of the 35 points scored by the Xiangbei team, Akagi and Murasakibara scored the vast majority, with the other three teammates scoring no more than ten points in total.

In addition, most of the Xiangbei players were panting when they left the court, while the Ryonan players seemed more relaxed.

In terms of physical reserves, Ryonan is clearly superior to Shohoku.

In terms of training intensity, only Hainan High School and Sanno Industrial can be compared with Ryonan.

Due to Coach Anxi, the Xiangbei team usually neglects training. Although they have tried a lot in the past few days, there will not be much improvement in the short term.

Mu Mu sat on the bench, breathing slightly heavily.

His physical fitness is still good, but too many one-on-ones in the first half caused him to consume a lot of physical energy.

If he continues like this in the second half, he will most likely face the problem of physical exhaustion like Rukawa Kaede.

"Everyone, I need to arrange the battle plan for the second half!"

Suddenly, Coach Anxi's voice sounded.

The Xiangbei players were obviously stunned for a moment. Coach Anxi arranged tactics. This was the first time this year!
After realizing what was happening, the Xiangbei players immediately adjusted their attitude and followed Coach Anxi's instructions.

"In the second half, we played like this..."

For some reason, Coach Anzai glanced at Murasakibara and then began to arrange tactics.

After hearing this, Mu Mu couldn't help but look at him strangely.

(End of this chapter)