Sannoh Industry Affiliated High School basketball team

The Sannoh Industry Affiliated High School basketball team is a fictional Japanese high school basketball team depicted in the manga series "Slam Dunk" from Akita Prefecture. They are one of the few teams depicted in "Slam Dunk" who do not appear in the anime.

Sannoh has been the defending national champion for three years running and is ranked as an AA team. They are considered the top high school team in Japan and have been a dominant force in high school basketball for years. The team has mastered the full court press defense and can trap even the fastest point guards and immobilize their opponents' offense.

Aside from the players here mentioned, their ranks also include shooting guard Minoru Matsumoto (jersey #6), which is a standard starter unless Ichinokura is designed to replace him.

Players

Kazunari Fukatsu

(深津一成　"Fukatsu Kazunari"):Year: 3rd Year:Height: 180 cm:Jersey Number: #4:Position: Point Guard

Fukatsu is the captain of this multi-talented champion team. He is able to read and control the flow of the game quite well. He always plays with a calm and cool demeanor, looking to exploit any flaws in the opposing team. He possesses great passing skills, an accurate three point shot, and excellent defensive prowess. He forms the core trio of the Sannoh team, along with Masashi and Sawakita. He has an odd habit of adding "pyon" to almost everything he says, that seems to be dragging on for some time - Masashi told reporter Yayoi Aida he used to always say "beshi" before switching to "pyon" (even though Fukatsu is still caught saying "beshi" in isolated moments).

atoshi Ichinokura

(一ノ倉聡 "Ichinokura Satoshi"):Year: 3rd Year:Height: about 170 cm:Jersey Number: #8:Position: Shooting GuardSatoshi is a defensive specialist who has the most stamina and endurance on the team. He is known for his sticky defense and starts the game against Shohoku with the sole purpose of wearing down Mitsui. He is quite proud of his stamina and endurance. His accomplishments include never running away from the team's training camps, winning the school marathon over members of the track team, and finishing a test despite having a ruptured appendix.

Masashi Kawata

(河田雅史 "Kawata Masashi"):Year: 3rd Year:Height: over 190 cm:Jersey Number: #7:Position: Center

Masashi is considered the top high school center in Japan. Unlike a traditional center, he possesses speed and long-range shooting ability to complement his height, power and rebounding. Masashi was initially quite short as a first-year student (165 cm), but rapidly grew over the next year (25 cm); as his height increased he played different positions. This provided him with the opportunity to develop skills other centers lack. When Shohoku meets Sannoh in the National Tournament, Akagi is completely outplayed by Masashi and concedes that Masashi is the better player. His younger brother Mikio is also on the team. Masashi seems to be a bit jealous of Sawakita's popularity with the girls. Sakuragi calls him "Gori-ball" ("because he looks like a round-shaped Gori", as he explains to Mikio).

Mikio Kawata

(河田美紀男 "Kawata Mikio"):Year: 1st Year:Height/Weight: 210 cm, 130 kg:Jersey Number: #15:Position: Power forwardMikio is the younger brother of Masashi Kawata and the largest player in high school basketball. He uses his large size to his advantage by posting up under the basket for an easy shot (even pushing back his marker to do so), and Sannoh hopes to have him become an eventual starter. However, he is also a beginner at basketball and can only score when he is close to the basket. As such, he lacks experience, and having such a talented player as Masashi for an older brother to look up to puts additional pressure on him. Sakuragi takes advantage of this to try and get him off the game. He has a habit of apologizing to his brother whenever he does something wrong. He also bears a striking resemblance to his mother. He is the tallest player in the Interhigh, followed by Hiroshi Morishige from Meiho High.

Masahiro Nobe

(野辺将広 "Nobe Masahiro"):Year: 3rd Year:Height: 198-200 cm:Jersey Number: #5:Position: Power forward

Masahiro does not stand out for scoring abilities, but is a great rebounder. Because his team already has several scoring players, he is allowed to focus on rebounding. When Kakuta is matched up against him, he succeeds in blocking Kakuta out of his position and exhausting him, although Kakuta is only on the court for a few minutes. Sakuragi is probably the first opponent who beat him on rebounding by succeeding in psyching him out, great timing, and jumping ability, as well as scoring an alley-oop dunk over him. His teammate Masashi Kawata is the only other player who beat him. Masahiro is called "totem pole" (or just "pole") by Sakuragi because of his height.

Eiji Sawakita

(沢北栄治　"Sawakita Eiji"):Year: 2nd Year:Height/Weight: 189 cm, 67 kg:Jersey Number: #9:Position: Swingman/Small Forward:Birthday: July 2Though he often wears an innocent expression of the boy next door, Sawakita is actually the best all-round player in Japanese high school basketball. His offensive ability is nearly unstoppable and is equally matched by his defensive ability. A basketball prodigy since childhood (mostly thanks to his father, Tetsuharu "Tetsu" Sawakita, who doctrined him in the sport and with whom Eiji played one-on-one since when he was four) armed with extraordinary skills and outrageous stamina, no high school player can offer a true match-up with him. Sawakita beat Sendoh in junior high. Rukawa attempts to play him one-on-one in the second round of the National Championships, but Sawakita proved that he was the better player and forced Rukawa to change tactics. He managed to shutdown Rukawa's scoring ability. However, his play style was as selfish as Rukawa's had been, and eventually Sannoh lost. His signature shot is a finger-roll layup (teardrop shot), which has a release so high it is impossible to block, even for Sakuragi. Sawakita plans to go to America following the National Championships.

Coach

Goro Domoto

Domoto is Sannoh's coach, and the youngest high school basketball coach shown in the series. It is not revealed how long he has been Sannoh's coach, but under his leadership, Sannoh has continued to maintain its dominance of high school basketball. Like Riki Takato of Kainan, Domoto also has a tough training regimen, which has motivated his key players such as Sawakita and Masashi Kawata to have previously skipped sessions.

Despite Sannoh’s legendary reputation, Domoto does not rest on his laurels and yearly reiterates to his players that no team is guaranteed to win a match. This carries over to the preparations he makes for the match against Shohoku even though they are ranked low (C in comparison to Sannoh's AA ranking). To prepare, he has his players watch some game footage of Shohoku, and has his current team play some of his former players who are now basketball stars in college and who comprise the current all star team, having the former Sannoh players wear jersey numbers corresponding to their Shohoku counterparts to simulate the upcoming match. Even though his current team beats the team of former Sannoh players, this does not cause an underestimation of Shohoku. Domoto remains cool and collected during the Shohoku-Sannoh match, and only makes two mistakes that end up costing Sannoh the match. The first of these is matching up Mikio Kawata with Sakuragi, who emerges from this match up with more confidence and determination in himself. The second is underestimating Sakuragi's drive to win the game in its final seconds and discounting him as a result of his injury. Domoto thus does not call a timeout that he intended to take.