Chapter 314 1997 NCAA Division I Men“s Basketball Tournament 2
"What did you think Jake Smith marked you all this game and made 9 blocks?"
"Was it 9? I didn"t think it was that many, I can say that neither I nor the team was prepared for it, Smith didn"t have a history of blocking this game, our team had planned that I would have more three-point play attempts."
"I was feeling very good and confident in my ability for this game, proof of this is that I still scored 9 points even with Smith making 9 blocks, I can say that Coach Smith and Jake Smith are to be congratulated for coaching this."
They expected to see Francis more nervous, but he was just sad to have lost and admired Jake"s skills, so soon someone went to interview Coach Smith to find out why he had Jake defend against Francis in this game.
"Congratulations on winning Coach Smith today."
"Thank you so much, I am very pleased with my players" performance in today"s game and happy with the win."
"Coach, I"m curious what you thought when you told Jake to defend against Francis in this game? Francis is the best player on the Fairfield Stags team, but Jake doesn"t usually play as well in defense as he does today."
"Actually, I didn"t order Jake to defend against Francis in this game, he asked for it before this game, and since Jake is one of the best players in the defense of the Tar Heels team and never asked for anything like that I just agreed."
"Even though I was a little surprised by Jake"s 11 blocks in this game, I always knew about his potential in defense, he"s one of the best players in the team"s defense and can do more than he usually does in games."
"From the 9 points that Francis still scored in three-point shots even though Jake made several block defenses against him, I can see that Francis was in great shape today, so I"m glad Jake stopped him."
Everyone was surprised to find out that it was Jake himself who asked to defend against Francis in this game, but by the time they considered interviewing Jake, he had already entered the locker room.
So it was Charles who asked Jake why he had decided to defend against Francis in this game and made 11 blocks in this game, when Charles asked about it all the other players paid attention to Jake"s answer.
"In fact, I asked Coach Smith to let me defend against Francis because he is the best player in the Fairfield Stags three-point play."
"And I managed to block this game because Francis tried more three-point shots, it"s hard for me to find a three-point player playing against our team who tries so many three-point shots."
When Jake said this everyone accepted that it must be true because he had logic, Jake had naturally thought of it before even asking Coach Smith to let him defend against Francis.
After all Jake could not say that he asked to defend against Francis because he had come from the future and knew that Francis could get 8 shots of 3 points in this game and could harm the team and that"s why he had the easiest to block Francis.
After that everyone went back to university because in two more days they would have their second NCAA tournament match at that same venue, the coach was happy with the whole team at that game and hoped they would continue to do so.
Jake also talked quietly with his roommates and still did his daily training for athletics, it could be said that Jake did much more than any player on the Tar Heels team.
Coach Davis was already receiving his salary after signing the contract with Jake and was quiet even after he had prepared Jake"s daily training routine, every morning he followed Jake"s training at university.
He also knew that Jake was very serious with his training and had trained even while in Miami visiting his mother, so he could just oversee Jake"s training and teach the correct running positioning for short and medium distances.
Coach Davis had no problem because Jake was very talented and did everything he said, plus Jake"s training was considered too heavy even for other elite athletes so Coach Davis couldn"t even think of increasing the heavy training until Jake is on vacation.
After a few weeks training Jake he could well understand why Jake could win multiple marathons and break the world record while playing basketball and studying at university, it was because he was very dedicated to training and talented.
In cla.s.ses after nearly two semesters studying Jake could not hide his intelligence either, as they say, that even hidden gold is still the same, everyone realized that even playing basketball and doing other activities that did not know well Jake still always got high marks.
Jake, even trying to sneak around, still taught some cla.s.smates how he used to do in high school, and these friends he taught got excellent grades too, even in a room of over 50 people Jake still stood out.
Luckily everyone thought Jake was just humble and he had no problem even standing out in cla.s.s, Jake was glad that at university things were different and so he could rest easy.
Many also found that in addition to playing on the basketball team Jake had been an actor, with Jake"s current fame it was difficult for him to go unnoticed anywhere, much less at the university where he played who had many fans of the basketball team.
Jake didn"t know, but the movie in which he appeared a few minutes ago was earning more box office because almost everyone at UNC watched Jake"s movie at least once, at university the fans were much more intense than normal fans.
Of course, the companies that sponsored Jake were also getting a lot of attention and the products were selling better, the university and the college basketball a.s.sociation pretended not to realize this because Jake never advertised the companies that sponsored him at the university.
At Jake"s request even the companies they sponsored kept description and did not talk about college basketball, which of course greatly enhanced UNC"s prestige too with Jake being so talented.
After a few days came the day of Team Tar Heels"s second game in the second round, the opponent was Team Colorado Buffaloes who beat Team Indiana Hoosiers in their first game.
The Colorado Buffaloes team was having a great season and had a great player who was Chauncey Billups, Billups played for 17 seasons in the NBA and played in several teams and even won an NBA champions.h.i.+p.
But as far as Jake remembered Billups didn"t play so well in this game and so Jake didn"t take much interest in him, yet Jake would probably be sent by Coach Smith to defend against Billups.
After a few hours, both teams were ready to start this game, everyone expected it to be a much more closely match than the previous game and so were excited, only Jake knew it would not be so.
Zwikker and Carter who had a great game a few days ago would not be playing very well and it would be Okulaja and Ed Cota who would perform well in that game, but Ed Cota would not play if Jake was on the team and Shammond Williams would play well in that game either.
Coach Smith seemed to have realized something like this and put Williams playing SG and took Carter out to put Okulaja in the initial line-up, even if Zwikker wasn"t quite offensive, he would still catch a lot of rebounds and play well defensively.
It was very good for Jake to remember what it was like in his past life because this way he could know who to pa.s.s the ball to and who he could tell the most in this game for reliable play.
In the first half of the game, Jake was playing well as usual and made more plays with Williams and Jamison than Okulaja, the Colorado Buffaloes team was playing well defensively, but in the attack, there was no player featured.
So in the first half Tar Heels team managed to open a good lead by playing well, Jake played for 19 minutes and managed to score 20 points, 7 a.s.sists, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals, Williams and Jamison also received some a.s.sists and managed to play well.
In the second half the team Tar Heels continued to play well and was opening more and more advantages and thus the willingness to attack and defend the team Colorado Buffaloes diminished and the game became easier.
Jake was well on the three-point shots in this game and the defense could do nothing against him, and his a.s.sists found the players of Tar Heels team in the best position, it could be said that in a different way from the last game Jake led the team to the easy victory.
So after a game that was under Jake"s control the Tar Heels team could win, in the second half, Jake played for 19 minutes and managed to score 22 points, 6 a.s.sists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.
Team Tar Heels won the game by 88 points against just 48 points for Team Colorado Buffaloes, with another triple-double Jake managed to lead the team for another easy win and Team Tar Heels advanced to Sweet Sixteen.
Jake was happy that the team would continue to win the games they won in their past life and hoped they could win the semifinal and the final as well and so the Tar Heels team would be the champion in the NCAA tournament.
After this game the team Tar Heels returned to university to rest before the next game in a few days, even Jake was a little worried about the next game and was happy that the team would have almost 1 week to rest before the last game.
At university, he called his mother who watched the game and celebrated with his friends who were excited about the Tar Heels team advancing so far in the NCAA tournament in those years and Jake leading the team in the victories.