That evening, the entire Miuradai Basketball Team once again gathered in Coach Harada's room to watch game footage of Sanno Technical High School.
They first watched last year's semifinals between Sanno and Kainan, as well as the finals against Hakata Shodai Affiliated High School. Then came this year's Akita Prefecture Tournament finals, followed by yesterday's Round of 16 match.
After watching footage of four consecutive games, they saw Sanno crush their opponents every time. Their narrowest win had been last year's 113:83 victory over Kainan, while their largest margin had been yesterday's 135:50 rout.
But it had been a Round of 16 match, and the opponent's strength had been nothing special, so there was not much reference value. Coach Harada paused the footage at the ten-minute mark.
"What do you think?"
Coach Harada looked at everyone and asked.
"..."
The atmosphere in the room was exceedingly grave. They had just watched four one-sided games, and the team responsible for those crushing victories would be the opponent they had to face tomorrow.
Leaving aside the last match, where Sanno had simply bullied a weak team.
But which of the remaining three teams had been weak?
Taking it a step further, even if they dismissed Akita Prefecture's runner-up as a weak team, there were still two left: Hakata Shodai Affiliated High School, last year's national runner-up, and Kainan University Affiliated High School, the kings of Kanagawa and last year's national semifinalists.
Surely those two carried enough weight, right? Yet Sanno had still demolished them by 35 points and 30 points respectively.
And according to the results released today, Sanno had likewise crushed another established national semifinalist, Aiwa Academy, by 39 points.
Three games, all victories by more than 30 points, and every opponent had been a powerhouse at the national semifinalist level.