#nobamaki basketball au

[chiarrara]

(part two of this ask from @distorzija-misli6 <3)

Basketball AU: I don't know as much about Basketball as I do about Baseball, so this is a good chance for me to think through positions & what each character's role on the court would be! (and decide if I want to make them taller than their canon heights)

Nobara: I talked about how Nobara likes to drive to the basket and draw (or make) fouls a lot. She's also got a good midrange shot and can make three pointers. She can play anywhere on the court, she's a really versatile player, and she always goes hard. She's also a huge shit talker. She has a reputation for elbowing, pushing, and doing anything to get the ball. Basically, the way she sees it, everyone on the other team is an enemy and she doesn't care what happens to them as long as she gets the basket & her team gets the win. She's not super sappy and motivational with her teammates, she's more into tough love. But she's also super loyal and trusts her teammates fully. I maintain she'd be a sixth man off the bench who can easily sub in for a shooting guard or a forward. (also I might bump her up to be at least 5'5" or 5'7" girly is so short)

Maki: She's a team leader. Cool headed, very skilled, hard worker--she practices more than anyone. She's great at taking charge on the court & directing plays. She's an amazing ball handler, she can dribble the ball up the court, make tough passes, get out of traps, and throw the ball in, all without making a turnover (losing the ball and giving it up to the other team). She has a natural commanding presence and her teammates look up to her and follow her lead. She is absolutely a tough love girly, though. She will tell you exactly what you suck at and need to improve, and you're not gonna get a lot of praise from her. But that just means it means even more when you do get it. Ya girl is a point guard with a good shooting arm and amazing court sense and game knowledge. (I might bump her up to 5'9" or 5'11" just to keep her height on Nobara)

Megumi: Since Megumi is also really strategic I think he started out as a point guard on the men's team, but when the teams merge, he and Maki have to compete for the spot. He kind of wants to just give it to her, but she absolutely won't let him so they play for it. Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, he just isn't as driven, is too unselfish with the ball, doesn't go all out and loses (queue Gojo-Megumi heart to heart). After that, I think he transitions to more of a shooting guard/small forward position. He's a defensive focused player, he gets near the basket to get rebounds, he creates opportunities on offense by running plays that confuse the defense, he blocks players on the other team to create scoring opportunities for his shooters. He can score from anywhere on the court, but he often passes the ball when he should be taking a wide open shot. Room for improvement. (we'll make him 6'1"-6'2"?)

Yuuji: He's a tough player, strong and athletic, but he's not fouling on purpose like Nobara does. He plays under the basket a lot, he's a strong shooter. He's got all kinds of layups, jump shots, and the occasional three. Any opportunity to dunk he's taking it. Any opportunity to block the other teams shot, he's taking it. He's extremely coachable, if you tell him to jump, he literally asks how high. Great free throw shooter because he can just turn off crowd noise & distraction and focus in. He's the notorious D1 athlete in a post game interview. His answer to everything is "we left it all on the court" or "we gave it 110%". One time he broke his nose colliding with a guy and had to wear one of those bizzare looking face guards for like a month after. (6'0" he's gotta be shorter than Megumi, sorry)

Yuuta & Toge: They're both shooting guards, knocking down three pointers. Yuuta tends to defend more under the basket because of his height where Toge is out on the perimeter. Toge's a great ball handler and can make quick passes and weave around the defense. Yuuta's great at getting in position, side-stepping, shot faking, at shooting from mid-court. They're both supportive teammates and are great cheerleaders from the bench. (Yuuta is 6'4" and Toge is only 5'10" on a good day)

Panda: He's the tallest, the biggest, and the strongest. He's posted up under the basket making layups, blocking shots, getting rebounds, and boxing dudes out so they have to take bad shots. He can go absolute beast mode on a counter attack and jump over a dude to get a slam dunk. He's the biggest morale-booster & the heart of the team. (he's still 6'7")

Shoko: She was the head coach of the women's team and when they merged, she got the position to coach the coed team. She's decisive, outwardly unemotional, and extremely effective. She doesn't pump the team up with big speeches, she's much more subtle, but she develops the relationships in practice and throughout the season so when it comes to a make or break moment, her team believes her when she says, "Well, I know you can win, so are you going to?

[chiarrara]

This is gonna be the wildest hyperfixation blend I’ve come up with BUT hear me out: Set in the basketball au, the gang travels to Britain for a game and after winning decide to stay a few days longer. But - it’s may. And it just happens that they’re right in time for the Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling And Wake event . Gojo (thinking ab it now would he be their coach in this au? ) sees this as a perfect opportunity to celebrate their victory with a potential new one .

While it’s a lot of fun it’s also incredibly dangerous (feel like at least one of them got concussed ) and they end up getting scraped up by Geto after reaching the bottom of the hill . Honestly I do think Toge would win

(Side note Nobara lowkey reminds me of the woman who won the womens league last year despite passing out, and still said she’d come next year again. Legend behavior .)(another note I’m so sorry on my lack of knowledge on sports the only ones I know about are stuff like this. I nevertheless love this au)

So. Okay. Yeah. Okay.. I can see it, I see it.

So:

a) Shoko is actually the head coach in the basketball au. But I think Gojo was the coach of the men's team before the merge. Either he's on the coaching staff as an assistant of some kind. Or he got a promotion and works in the Athletic Director's office. Or he is the Athletic Director. idk. I think I want Nanami to be the Athletic Director??? Doesn't matter, he's around. And yes, he would suggest something like this.

b) May is definitely in the off season. Which actually makes this somehow more likely. They're in the UK for some exhibition tournament, sure why not. Couldn't do it from like Nov-Mar because they had regular season games and postseason games. Some off-season oversees marketing gimmick is definitely withing the realm of possibility.

c) This however, is an absolutely insane thing for a sports team to do. Just actively seeking out injuries that could end their season or even their career. Cost them scholarships & opportunities. Risk their teams chances at a winning season, good tournament seeding, championship titles......

and yet

I do think it's something Gojo would suggest, and I do think they would pretty much all do it. Megumi might sit out. Unless Yuuji or Yuuta convinced him. Nobara would get overly competitive with Maki as a backwards flirting attempt. Maki would play along at first, then actually get really competitive back because she hates losing. They would both try to sabotage each other and end up both loosing their footing and tumbling down the hill together.

Yuuji would try to go as fast as possible, lose his footing and absolutely face plant into a rock or a tree (I assume there's not trees on this hill. I hope there are no trees on this hill.) He re-breaks his nose.

Panda would immediately tuck and try and roll down the hill like he is a wheel of cheese, but his cheese would veer off and run into someone else, knocking them out and he would make it to the bottom without his cheese (I'm assuming this disqualifies you?)

Megumi would literally walk.

Yuuta sits out. He wants to give the others a chance to win. He came here last year and absolutely decimated everyone, stayed on his feet, not a scratch on him. But no one else on the current team was on that trip so none of them actually know this, and he doesn't want to dim anyone's shine.

And Toge wins. He just kind of, survives at a decent pace. And the dude is good on his feet, what can you say.

Geto (who is also on the coaching staff) originally thought it was a bad idea (because it is) but honestly thought it would be really funny so didn't put up much of a fight. He helps them all up at the bottom with his charismatic little smile that basically means "you're all idiots, but this was very entertaining, and watching you whine about all your aches and pains on the plane ride home will also be very funny because I will give you so much shit" and then takes Yuuji to the hospital.

This was a very funny, very bizarre scenario, ty for the ask lol

[chiarrara]

You know for the baseball and basketball au’s I almost considered a football one as well simply because I am a bit more familiar with it plus because of how homoerotic it can get (esp when celebrating a goal) but since you’re more familiar with those sports what do questionably gay moments look like there

haha I literally grew up playing soccer, but for some reason I can't get my head around an au about it?? I think it would be good, I just don't know how to talk about it I guess. If you do a football au let me know!

In basketball, there's a lot of ass slapping, like so so much. Which I think would create some tense situations after the integration. Like when Yuuji thoughtlessly slaps Nobara on the ass one day at practice after she makes a good shot. She nearly bites his head off. A lot of 'touch me like that again and you're dead'. Then half an hour later, Maki does the same thing and she's all heart eyes (Yuuji: what the fuck). And there's always the classic tension of a one-on-one.

(Love & Basketball is such a classic)

In baseball, there's not a lot of contact, everyone's pretty spread out, but winning a championship you'll get those celebrations like in soccer. Lots of jumping on each other, outpouring of emotion, all that. Could be good for a climactic momentttt...

I think the most homoerotic stuff happens in the dugout though. Baseball games take a lot of time, and for half of it you're just hanging out in your own little fort with your best buddies, chewing gum, spitting out sunflower seeds, goofing off, cheering on your team, and celebrating runs.

just to get a feel for the vibes