Rukawa learns something about Coach Anzai that makes him determined to become Japan's best high school basketball player. Then, while the Shohoku team goes to practice with another team in the ten days before the beginning of the national tournament, Sakuragi stays behind for special practice sessions that will push him to the limit and hone his skills.
Shohoku, trailing Ryonan in the final seconds of the game, has the opportunity to beat their rival when Hanamichi blocks a shot, giving Kaede Rukawa a chance at shooting the winning basket.
Sakuragi gets a break when Coach Anzai decides to give him a crack at playing center, but, with only three days before the game against Takezato, that means a gruelling training regimen of five hundred shots a day.
Sakuragi Hanamichi tries to leave his bad-boy image behind and start anew on the school's basketball team, but when he does not see eye-to-eye with the team's captain, he struggles to stay on the right path.
Hanamichi finally has a chance to prove himself on the basketball court when he is allowed to play in the place of Akagi, who is injured, but his efforts might not be enough to make him the next team captain.
Xavier decides to give up his work as a driver for Emilio, a drug runner, and rejoin the track team, but when Emilio taps his fourteen-year-old brother Hugo as his replacement, Xavier knows he has to take stronger steps to keep everyone safe.
The students at Bayport Elementary get ready to compete for Field Day, in which prizes will be offered to the winning grade and the student with the overall high score, but Frank and Joe uncover a mystery when they discover someone has tampered with the equipment the day before the competition.
Joe joins his school's basketball team, but finds that the players are disorganized and lacking in discipline--so he sets out to use the skills he has learned in kung fu to bring the other players together as a functioning team.
