Chapter 362 College Basketball Season Begins 6
Tar Heels team won this match by scoring 105 points against 59 points for the Seton Hall team, in this last quarter Jake played for 10 minutes and scored 11 points, 2 a.s.sists, 1 rebound, and 3 steals, so Jake made the first double-double in this quarter. season.
After this victory, even slightly tired Tar Heels team players were still excited about the great start of the season, the next day would still have another game before returning to normal games of the season.
The great performance of the Tar Heels team this early season was receiving a lot of praise from the media and even coaches from other teams for Coach Guthridge and the team, some hoped that the Tar Heels team might not have a good season and these games were the answer.
Even though the whole team was happy about this great start to the season, many players were nervous because they didn"t know if they could continue in Coach Guthridge"s initial lineup this season.
Only Jake, Jamison and Carter have confirmed players on this starting team, Okulaja had a position in every game but knew that he could go out to N"Diaye to play anytime, Williams who thought the chance of him being a player in the initial formation had arrived almost did not play in these last games.
And Ed Cota who had almost given up hope of having more playing time got excited again after playing almost the entire last game, this was good for the team as players would not settle in and would train harder after those games to secure a seat on this team.
This was making Coach Guthridge happier and the whole team also because of this compet.i.tion for team positions they kept winning, even though Jake, Jamison, and Carter who had the positions secured always struggled in every game for the best of the team.
After everyone rested for just one night the other day had the last game in a row that they had to play, the players were tired for that game because even though it was just the beginning of the season they still didn"t have the ideal fitness they would have after Halfway through the season.
So in this game, Coach Guthridge had to rely on Jake to lead this team more than usual, before the game Jake told Coach Guthridge to put Williams back in the team and take Carter out to put N"Diaye in this game.
The coach trusted Jake"s vision and decided to do so, all the more so because this game would be harder than the others because it faced another team that had great players and was doing well this season in a game where players were more tired.
After a few hours, both teams were ready to start this game, the opponent for Team Tar Heels in this game was the strong Purdue Boilermakers team, the Purdue team would have a great season as Jake remembered.
Last season of this team was not very good, but even with the same players with more experience this year"s season would be much better for this team, one of the best players of this team was Brad Miller who played in several NBA teams and was very talented.
So Jake recommended that N"Diaye who could play as Center play in place of Carter who would play poorly in today"s game so that they could strengthen the team"s defense, Williams would play very well in that game and so had to go back to the team.
Jake was expecting a very difficult game and so wanted the team to be careful and to put pressure on the defense and to work hard on attack, but that was hard to ask when the players were tired.
That is why Williams, who was rested for almost not playing in the last games, would be important for the attack of the team Tar Heels and N"Diaye could help more in the defense, yet Jake remembered that in this game Brad Miller would be playing very well and that is why It would also help in defense.
"We"re here to follow another College basketball game this season between Team Tar Heels and Team Purdue Boilermakers, which we hope is another easy win for Team Tar Heels as in the last 5 games."
"Sure enough, last season we saw the Tar Heels team win most games and lose only 2 games and end the season winning the NCAA tournament, and we have almost the same team with Jake who is the best player on that team."
"One of the only players that the Tar Heels team lost this season was an important player for the team and for the NCAA t.i.tle conquest Center Serge Zwikker, in this game we will once again see how the Tar Heels team does without a quality Center to playing against the Brad Miller Purdue Boilermakers team."
"That"s right, I"m sure Brad Miller will be very active in this game against the Tar Heels team precisely because the team is trying to play some games without a Center in defense and attack."
Coach Guthridge was also worried about this and thought that maybe N"Diaye couldn"t stop a talented player like Miller in this game, but he agreed with Jake that N"Diaye was the best for this game.
In the first minutes of the first quarter the Purdue Boilermakers team started attacking, they did not hurry and attacked calmly to try to get the points, Jake was focused on defense and Jamison was also.
Only the most concentrated players were playing in this formation and everyone wants to win even if they did not think their opponent was strong, the Purdue Boilermakers team knew how to play well and the ball was pa.s.sed to Miller who can make the 2 points even with the N"Diaye"s defense.
Jake wanted to help N"Diaye, but could not simply abandon his position in defense, he would have to find the right opportunity to steal the ball in the other plays, Jake received the ball and went to attack to tie the game.
After pa.s.sing through the middle of the court Jake pa.s.sed the ball to Williams on the left, without Carter playing in this game Williams played as SG normally and the positions were better defined.
Williams advanced with the ball and then felt the pressure of the Purdue Boilermakers defense, Williams tried no further and pa.s.s the ball to Okulaja, Okulaja held the ball and then pa.s.sed to Jake behind.
Jake saw that the Purdue Boilermakers team was trying to pressure the Tar Heels team attack and so started attacking himself, Jake made a feint and the opposing PG was not fooled but was shaken so Jake made the quick crossover and pa.s.sed him.
Purdue Boilermakers PG managed to recover in defense because Jake was not so fast and Jake took the opportunity to step back and back off the three-point line to try an outside shot.
Jake got it right and scored 3 points for the Tar Heels team and so pa.s.sed the lead, Purdue Boilermakers tried to attack again and with pressure from the defense of the Tar Heels team missed the attack, but Brad Miller caught the rebound and made 2 more points.
In another attacking move by the Tar Heels team, the ball went to Okulaja who missed the attack and Brad Miller caught the offensive rebound again, Jake realized he could count more on those attacks with Jamison, Williams and himself.
But Jamison and Williams were well defended in this first quarter and so Jake was having difficulty making a.s.sists, so he had to attack himself to get the Tar Heels team to finish that first-quarter upfront.
Thus at the end of the first quarter, Team Tar Heels ended up leading on the scoreboard with Jake scoring 9 points. .h.i.tting three three-point shots in that first quarter as Purdue Boilermakers tried to press Jake with more players in defense Jake was a.s.sisting.
In that first quarter Jake played for 10 minutes and made 9 points, 1 a.s.sist, and 1 steal, it was a tough first quarter for the whole Tar Heels team, but Purdue Boilermakers also failed to attack easily.
Before the start of the second quarter coach Guthridge spoke briefly as the players, he spoke more to N"Diaye and Okulaja asking them to try to further upset the Purdue Boilermakers team"s defense for Jamison and Williams to have more opportunities to make the plays.
Jake was playing very well and just needed the right opportunities to a.s.sist his teammates, coach Guthridge was also worried about Miller and asked N"Diaye to be more careful in defense.
In the second quarter, Jake had more pressure from the Purdue Boilermakers defense, but with the movement of the Tar Heels team players Jake had more options to a.s.sist, he preferred to move to Jamison and Williams, but he would move to Okulaja and N"Diaye if they are free to make the points.
So in the second quarter the game was more disputed and both teams attacked and defended with quality, Jake still found opportunities whenever he could to make the a.s.sists, but if not could create a chance to make the points.
In the second quarter, Miller was still fine and even though N"Diaye struggling was hard to defend against Miller that day, Jake could only find two opportunities and so made 2 steals to retrieve the ball and prevent Miller from scoring more points.
Williams and Jamison were much better in this second quarter as well and scored a lot of points that helped the Tar Heels team finish ahead in the second quarter as well, so Tar Heels team had a bigger lead, but Purdue Boilermakers still had a chance to look for them the victory.
"Good game so far for both teams, the Purdue Boilermakers team has been surprised by putting a lot of difficulty into the Tar Heels team to attack and playing very well so far with Brad Miller making a great game so far."
"But even with Jake playing very well as always and Jamison and Williams scoring several points in this second quarter, the team has a good lead before the third quarter."