Kengo Murasame

Murasame is arrogant, combative and dismissive of teams he considers inferior. Miuradai's previous experience against Kainan has left him with the belief that the reigning champions represent the only meaningful standard in Kanagawa.

He is also willing to use psychological pressure. Provoking opponents into losing their temper is particularly useful against Shohoku, whose lineup includes several players with histories of fighting.

His confidence declines once Shohoku's strongest players demonstrate the gap in talent between the teams.

Murasame is an experienced third-year forward with enough size to play physically on both ends of the floor. He contributes scoring and defense while functioning as Miuradai's emotional leader.

His style can become rough, and he is willing to exploit contact and provocation to disrupt opponents. This makes emotional discipline as important as basketball skill when facing him.

Despite his experience, Murasame is not presented as belonging to the same individual tier as Kanagawa's elite players. Once Shohoku deploys its strongest lineup, Miuradai struggles to keep pace.

Murasame leads Miuradai against Shohoku in the opening round of the Kanagawa preliminaries. The circumstances initially favor his team because Mitsuyoshi Anzai benches four of Shohoku's major players for their involvement in fighting.

With only Takenori Akagi of the usual core starting, Shohoku initially looks much less threatening. The balance changes dramatically as its stronger players enter.

Miuradai is eventually overwhelmed 114–51. In the manga, Sakuragi also receives his first game disqualification after accidentally striking Murasame in the head with the ball during a failed dunk attempt.

Hanamichi Sakuragi becomes one of Murasame's most troublesome opponents because of his strength, temperament and unpredictable beginner mistakes.

Takenori Akagi anchors the Shohoku lineup Murasame faces.

Kazuo Araki, Kazunari Miyamoto, Hiroshi Takatsu and Akio Kawasaki are fellow members of Miuradai's veteran starting five.

Tetsuya Naito is an anime-original Miuradai player whose physical ability supplements Murasame's team.