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The Teiko basketball club in Kuroko no Basket is described as an incredibly strong team with over 100 members that won the championship three times in a row.

However, only 6 in the main roster and 2 of their senpai(s) are actually shown and mentioned in the whole anime. The other 92+ players were never mentioned and are literally useless. They also affected the basketball in middle school, where they themselves got more and more bored and their enemies gave up before even playing.

So I'm wondering why would 92+ players even join the basketball club when they obviously have no chance to play in a real match?

nhahtdh
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tung
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    Isn't that pretty normal for sports teams at big schools? There's generally going to be more people who want to play than you can fit on your 5-person-plus-substitutes team. This is especially true for Teiko, which was known as a major basketball school even before the Generation of Miracles showed up - I don't think it's too odd that they would have lots of students choosing to matriculate there in hopes of playing basketball. I know that (American) football teams tend to have a whole goddamn army of second- and third-stringers who may never play in an actual game. – senshin Feb 15 '15 at 22:05
  • @senshin but in the american football you have a lot more players who can really play (offense and defense) also the risk of injurity is higher so they need some more substitues – tung Feb 16 '15 at 14:21

3 Answers3

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The second/third string in Teiko play matches against weaker schools. In one of the OVAs (Tip Off) Kise (when he first joined) and Kuroko help the second string in an exibition match.

Also, first years and even second years would not usually make first string right away in a bigger school, but they still need training so that they can possibly join later.

They could just have joined to play/practise basketball. Remember that it's a club not just a team. I doubt that anyone would even attempt to join if they had to make first string. It's pretty clear playing in matches is a privilge for most people, not an expected outcome.

Laiseran
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If it's anything like when I was in school (which isn't too long ago):

  • There may be age-limited leagues.

    When I was in my first year, there were leagues that only allowed first year players to compete.

  • There may be multi-tiered leagues

    Much like soccer, there could be an A-league, B-league, C-league, etc. Generally our school would put one team in each league - according with skill of course.

  • Players join for the fun of it, rather than the competition

    I had a short stint at playing volleyball and really enjoyed it - I didn't want to play it competitively though, and that's the attitude a good few others might have too

  • There's still the opportunity to get in the lead team with enough time and effort.

    If there's no real games to be played by the other players, there's still the opportunity to get on the team that plays. Anime sports rosters don't change that much, but if a coach sees one player who is really good but isn't playing - they'll probably bring them onto the team.

nhahtdh
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Toshinou Kyouko
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I'm not sure how this works in Japan, but I could imagine that the school has multiple teams for different age groups.

Maybe they couldn't get into the main basketball team, and play in a lower or younger team.

Ero Sɘnnin
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Kjenos
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