 This is mirrored in the character of Hanamichi Sakuragi, who starts playing basketball to impress the girl he likes.has long been regarded as an underdog and a one-man team solely dependent on team captain Takenori Akagi, with no competition success whatsoever even at the prefectural level for two years running.It is not until Akagi's third and final year in the team that things begin to turn around for Shohoku, and they start to become a team to be reckoned with.