Chapter 293 Unhappy Beginning of Year 5
Jamison received the ball, but did not attempt the move into the inside area, when the defense arrived he pa.s.sed to Carter on the right, Carter made the feint and invaded the inner area and when the opposing defense arrived he pa.s.sed to Okulaja.
Okulaja pa.s.sed the ball back to Jake who was free, Jake waited for the defense to arrive and made a pa.s.s tearing the defense for Jamison, Jamison received the ball with freedom and advanced to layup and 2 points for Tar Heels.
With Carter joining the Tar Heels team, they were now with more options in offensive moves, Jake and Okulaja could try more outsiders and Carter and Jamison could continue trying in-house moves.
"In that second half Coach, Smith made the right decisions by leaving Jake on the team from the start and s.h.i.+fting the offensive tactic to three-point attacks."
"True, early in the second half he put Williams in to focus more on the three-point play and Maryland Terrapins defender began to defend more outside the box and Jamison had more room to attack."
"Then Coach Smith noticed this change in defending Maryland Terrapins and put Carter back in play to further explore this opening in defending Maryland Terrapins."
"It"s all because Jake is on the court that the Tar Heels team has won several attack options, perhaps we can see the Tar Heels team gaining the lead on this match."
After a couple of plays, Tar Heels got the lead after 2 minutes, which was when the Maryland Terrapins coach decided to give up three-way play and defend more inside.
That was the right decision because at that point in the game, Team Tar Heels had the strongest offensive inside with Carter, Jamison, and Zwikker, and the Maryland Terrapins defense was stronger inside.
Jake was still tagged, but only one player remained in defense, even though the tactics were set by the Tar Heels offensive lineup being stronger in the inside plays Coach Smith did so because he trusted Jake.
So it was in another play when Jake organized the attack after taking a defensive rebound, it was the chance for the team Tar Heels to increase the advantage that was 2 points, Jake pa.s.sed to Okulaja who left to receive the pa.s.s.
Okulaja received Jake"s pa.s.s and then advanced to the back of the court on the left when the defense came to press him, Okulaja moved to Carter inside, Carter managed to get rid of the player who was marking him and advanced into the inner area.
The way he advanced had two players from the Maryland Terrapins team and his fellow attackers Jamison and Zwikker were well marked in this defensive formation on the Maryland Terrapins team, so Carter moved to Jake who was off the three-point line.
Jake received the ball and easily got rid of the player who was scoring him and tried the shot from outside to score 3 points for team Tar Heels, the defense of Maryland Terrapins did the right thing, but using the individual skill of the players Jake managed to make 3 more points and increase the lead on the scoreboard to 5 points.
"What a great move from Team Tar Heels this time, after getting a rebound even with the Maryland Terrapins defense well a.s.sembled they managed to find a s.p.a.ce to make the 3 points.
"This is Jake"s 4-point three-play in this 5-game game, he"s been getting a good average of hits in the last games and this game is clearly better."
"Jake has confidence in his three-point play, we can clearly see that he only shoots off when he is sure he has a chance to hit, not to mention that he trusts his teammates to catch the rebound if he misses."
It was just as the commentators said, Jake firing only when he thought he could get it right and he could always firing with confidence when he knew his teammates could get the rebound.
In the game against Wake Forest, he had no such confidence because he knew that Duncan could end up catching rebounds, yet he ended up not missing so many three-point moves in that game.
After a few more moves Jake got a steal in antic.i.p.ation of the opposing team pa.s.s, he used his speed to advance to the attacking court but had two players on the Maryland Terrapins defensive court reacting in time and Jake had to wait for his teammates.
Luckily Jamison and Carter were quick and the fast play turned a three on three attacks, this was a chance to increase the lead to 7 points and Jake didn"t want to miss this opportunity.
So Jake ran farther to the right where Jamison was attacking and near the three-point line he seemed to make the pa.s.s for Jamison, the opponents also thought the pa.s.s would go to Jamison and s.h.i.+fted the defensive to the right.
At the last moment, Jake made his move unique that he created "elastic pa.s.s" and with his fingertips changed the direction of the pa.s.s to Carter, this move took everyone by surprise and Carter almost let the ball slip out of his hands.
Luckily he recovered quickly and finished the game with a dunk to make 2 points for the Tar Heels team, the game was 15 minutes into the second half and 7 points ahead Tar Heels practically secured the victory.
"Another incredible move from Team Tar Heels, Jake started with a steal and advanced with speed, he was smart to wait for his teammates to appear to continue the attack."
"So he tricked his opponent with a different play and Carter got the free pa.s.s to make the 2 points."
"What an amazing move from Jake, let"s see in the replay… see what an interesting move, he totally fooled his opponents and even his teammates, his whole move was to pa.s.s the ball to Jamison, even though his body was adjusting from that way to give the pa.s.s."
"But in the end with his fingertips, he managed to change the trajectory of the pa.s.s for Carter to receive the ball, Carter was surprised by that and almost lost the play."
"I don"t know if I"ve ever seen a similar move in basketball before, but I"m sure no one can do something like that at speed and fooling opponents even with body movements."
After another 2 minutes, Coach Smith still decided to take Jake out at the end of the second half, yet Jake was applauded by the crowd at Dean Smith Center, clearly Jake was responsible for that win.
Jake played in this second half for 18 minutes and scored 22 points, 6 a.s.sists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals, so he practically guaranteed the team"s victory in this tough game, Jake knew this more than anyone else because in his past life his team I had lost.
The game ended with Tar Heels winning at home by 88 points against 83 points for Maryland Terrapins, it was the first game Jake could change the result he had seen in his past life and knew he could continue to do so and secure the win at the NCAA tournament.
Coach Smith was very happy to win but was upset when he admitted that Jake was right, without him in this game they would have lost again and maybe after a two-game losing streak the team would get discouraged and lose the next game as Jake said.
Even though he was proud he was not stupid, he realized that Jake was right and not arrogant and had to accept it and let Jake play again, originally he thought of leaving Jake out of the team just for a few minutes in the wake forest match as punishment because Jake was late for training.
Coach Smith coached basketball teams for many years and coached the team that had Michael Jordan playing too, he knew that sometimes there were some great players who did different and special things without being arrogant and he had to accept that Jake was a genius like this.
After the game Jake celebrated with his friends who had gone to watch the game in person, Jake saw them when they were in the break from the first to the second half, everyone was happy to see the Tar Heels team winning this game and Jake being happy about it.
After Jake called his mother who was very happy when she watched Jake win in the restaurant, she said on the phone that the team only won because Jake played longer in this game and if Jake had played so long in the last game they would have won again.
Jake did not know what to answer because he himself did not know if the outcome of the game would be different if he were playing, he knew that they would have lost with fewer points, but did not know if he could have changed the outcome of the entire game.
He could know if it would be any different the next time they faced the Wake Forest team, so Jake went to rest happily after winning this game over.
The next day he did his daily training with Zack as he did every day and later went to basketball team training, everyone was very happy to have won this game and seemed to accept that Jake was really a special player.
Some still wondered if Jake was the best player on the team because they still had Carter and Jamison who played very well in different positions, but how PG Jake was certainly the best player with his a.s.sists and how he controlled the game.
None of the coaches came to talk to Jake in training and it seemed like they wanted to forget about the subject that Jake talked to Coach Guthridge, Jake really wanted to forget it and was happy that Coach Guthridge didn"t seem to be mad at him anymore.
Jake respected Coach Smith a lot, but he cared more about what Coach Guthridge thought because Coach Guthridge was the one who brought him to the team and he was the head coach next year.
The team had to focus on the next game because they had lost from what Jake remembered in his past life, he thought it was because they lost two games in a row, but there could be another reason he didn"t know, so it was better to train harder for them change the outcome of this game too.