Moichi Taoka is the coach of Ryonan and a contemporary of Kainan's Riki Takato, who is a year younger. They have known each other since high school when Taoka was known as "Kanagawa's Taoka." Interestingly, Taoka compares himself to Sendoh, which his players find hard to believe. Despite their friendship, they remain rivals.
Taoka trained his team so rigorously that just asking them to close their eyes and think about it made them anxious. His dream team would include Sendoh, Uozomi, Mitsui, Miyagi, and Rukawa, with the latter three playing the same positions they currently hold at Shohoku. Although he personally recruited them, each declined for various reasons—Mitsui and Miyagi because of Anzai, and Rukawa due to Shohoku's proximity to his home. Nonetheless, Taoka is content with his current team and believes it has trained harder than any other team he has coached. He even thinks this team could beat his dream team.
Taoka is a capable coach but has made errors in assessing his players and opponents. However, he has a keen eye for talent, recognizing Uozomi's potential and encouraging him when his skills were weak and he considered quitting. Taoka also identified that Sendoh and Fukuda would become key players upon joining the team. Unfortunately, his method of criticizing Fukuda while praising Sendoh backfired. Fukuda's sensitive personality led to him snapping after a year of criticism, resulting in an attack on Taoka during a practice match. This incident led to Fukuda's suspension, explaining his absence during the practice match against Shohoku. Learning from this mistake, Taoka effectively utilized Fukuda during the match against Kainan.
In the league round match against Shohoku, Taoka underestimated the growth of Sakuragi's abilities and Kogure's skills. These miscalculations cost Ryonan a chance at the national championships, a fact Taoka acknowledged after the game.
