Chapter 325 1997 NCAA Division I Men“s Basketball Tournament 13
"True, the last game was the worst game of the Tar Heels team if you take into account team performance, but Jake, Jamison, and Carter played very well and so with a solid defense they were the winners of the last game."
"Now we"ll see in the upcoming game who will be the 1997 NCAA tournament champion."
Jake was confident because the Tar Heels team beat the Arizona team that should have won this year"s NCAA tournament, but even if the Arizona team won, it was only over time and Jake had already changed that reality by beating Arizona team.
So he hoped that his teammates were playing well in today"s game, because only then could he do everything he could to ensure the victory of team Tar Heels in that game.
The game soon began and Jake began making several plays in the early minutes while testing his teammates to see if anyone was playing poorly in today"s game, Jake advanced with the ball and after pa.s.sing through the middle of the court went to Carter.
Carter advanced calmly with the ball, no one could see him or the other players of the Tar Heels team nervous in this important game because everyone had confidence in Jake and knew they played well.
Carter advanced to the three-point line and pa.s.sed the ball to Jamison, Jamison held the ball for a while and tried to feint at the opponent and failed, so Jamison pa.s.sed the ball to Jake behind, Jake received the ball and then pa.s.sed to Williams it was open on the right.
Williams received the ball off the three-point line and understood that it was for him to try the three-point shot, so William who was free tried the outside shot to make the first three points for the Tar Heels team.
Everyone on the Tar Heels team was happy and went back to defense while the Kentucky Wildcats players were surprised, everyone hoped that Williams would not be given too many attempts to shoot them off because in the last three games only Jake had tried harder and Williams was put aside.
But with this move early in the game everyone started to doubt if Jake would pa.s.s the ball to Williams more often, after all, they knew that Shammond Williams was a player who had a lot of quality in the three-point play.
Kentucky Wildcats managed to make the 2 points for the next play and Jake received the ball to organize another attack, this time Jake advanced faster and pa.s.sed the ball to Jamison, Jamison advanced with the ball as well, keeping pace with Jake.
Jamison pa.s.sed the ball to Williams on the left and Williams pa.s.sed the ball to Zwikker ahead, Zwikker held the ball for a while and pa.s.sed the ball back to Jake further back, Jake quickly pa.s.sed the ball to Zwikker again ahead.
The defenders did not expect this and Zwikker was free to move forward and score 2 points for the Tar Heels team, Jake was pleased with that and in the following moves made attacks with Jamison and Carter who also made the points easily.
So more than 5 minutes into the game had pa.s.sed and Jake had no points and had 6 a.s.sists and 1steal in that game, after which time Jake could be relieved to see that his teammates were at least playing well.
He had no way of knowing if anyone was great at the game to help him much as Jamison had been in the past game, but he at least knew he could make the moves more smoothly with the support of his teammates.
"We have a well-balanced start to the game with Jake playing PG and making 6 a.s.sists so far, but that"s not enough to have a smoother game, Jake has to get the ball more and try three more shots and plays painted area to make more points."
"Only with Jake scoring as many points as he has done in the last few games that Team Tar Heels can open a big lead to try to win, even though they are now ahead can be a matter of time before Team Kentucky Wildcats turn the game and lead the scoreboard."
"It"s true, we see a few players do like Jake and not many get double-double because everyone who has the ability to score more points than their teammates does."
"After all scoring is the most important thing in basketball, I"m not saying that teamwork and defense are not important, but at the end of the game it is the number of points that determines the outcome of the game."
"Even more players like Jake who have the ability to hit more three-point moves, in more than 5 three-point shots the team earns more points than they would in two more normal 2-point plays."
In the next few minutes, Jake had already taken the tests he needed and can see that his teammates were playing well and so can continue to play normally with much more freedom to play with his teammates and thus have more attack options for the Tar Heels team.
So by the time halfway through the first half, Jake had already scored 5 points and the Tar Heels team opened a small lead, on the Kentucky Wildcats side was different because the players were making a lot of mistakes in the attacks.
Especially since Derek Anderson who was one of the team"s top players could not play in this game, besides, the defense of the Tar Heels team was very strong and Jake and his teammates dominated the defensive rebounds and some of the offensive rebounds.
In another play Jake began to organize another attack for the team Tar Heels, after pa.s.sing the middle of the court he pa.s.sed the ball to Carter on the left, Carter advanced slowly and held the ball for a while.
Team Tar Heels played slower after the second half of the first half because Team Tar Heels had a slight lead and in several games when it was so Jake controlled the pace of the game while gradually increasing the lead.
Carter pa.s.sed the ball to Jamison who was before the three-point line, Jamison tried the feint and failed and so held on to Jake behind, Jake made a feint and then stepped back to try the three-point shot.
But when Jake went to try the three-point shot the player who was defending against him fouled to prevent Jake from hitting the three-point shot, Jake was taken by surprise and so missed and missed the three-point shot.
Team Kentucky Wildcats seemed to have a strategy of making several fouls taking advantage of the team"s rotation with reserve players to hold the game, Jamison and Carter had already fouled and now it was Jake.
But what surprised him was that it was very rare for an opposing team to decide to foul when a player is attempting the three-point shot, because Jake would now have three free throw attempts.
Jake hit all three attempts and so scored all three points the same way and was unsure why the Kentucky Wildcats team decided to do so, in another move the Kentucky Wildcats team was advancing for another attack.
It was almost the end of the first half and the Tar Heels team had already increased the lead by now 10 points and the Kentucky Wildcats players were getting more anxious about it.
When possession time was almost over Nazr Mohammed screened and prevented Jake from continuing in defense, so Anthony Epps was free to go before the three-point line and attempted a shot from outside.
The ball didn"t come in and Nazr Mohammed managed to get the rebound, Mohammed who caught the rebound tried to make the 2 points and Jake appeared to make the block, Epps got the ball and tried to make the 2 points again and Zwikker made the block this time.
Ron Mercer got the ball and tried again, but before that Jake made the steal and got the ball, after this thrilling play in which the defense of Tar Heels team was better Jake advanced quickly on the counterattack.
After rapidly advancing the defense of Kentucky Wildcats failed to keep up with him, so Jake advanced until he finished the game with a dunk and made 2 more points increasing the advantage to 12 points.
After that Kentucky Wildcats managed to score another 2 points and reduce Tar Heels"s team lead to 10 points, but it was clear to everyone that the Tar Heels team had a great leader throughout the game, the whole team was fine and Jake was too he was making a good game.
"What a great game we saw in that first half, the team Tar Heels played very well and unlike the last game the whole team was playing very well, so much so that Jake made more a.s.sists and fewer points."
"The defense of the Tar Heels team that has always been the strong point of the team is doing very well in this game and securing Tar Heels"s team advantage in the game."
"But that does not mean that the Kentucky Wildcats team is playing poorly, the attack is making a lot of mistakes in the painted area and they have been losing plays against the defense of Tar Heels team, but the team"s defense has also been doing a good job and disrupting the team Tar Heels with some fouls."
"We will still have to see what the second half will look like, Jake had a slow start making more a.s.sists that helped the team a lot and in the second half of the first half he has been improving and getting more points."
"If in the second half Jake starts to score more points as he has in the last few games, the Tar Heels team is sure to win this game and win the NCAA tournament."