Chapter 43 The Basketball Team 3
So Jake came home and went to dinner with his mother.
"And my son, how was your day today?"
"It was a very good mother, in cla.s.s everything was the same as always and what I wanted to tell you is that I joined the basketball team and I will be the captain."
"That"s great, my son, now you can do more what you like and make new friends."
Jake told his mother that he would be the captain just to make her proud and happy of him, he did not even care about it, this team for him is just a pa.s.sing thing he had decided that if he did not win the tournament this year he would speak with Joseph to choose a school that had a better basketball team.
So Jake went to his room and was thinking about today"s game, he still could not take any hasty conclusions because he had not yet seen how the t.i.tular team would play together, and he also did not know what the level of the other teams" players was.
After all, he seems to have heard that the team last year had a good chance of reaching the national champions.h.i.+p, this could mean that the other teams are not that good either.
They still had 3 of the top players last year, he did not know how the PF was anymore thought impossible that the PG was even better than him, so he was sure he could take the team at least to the national champions.h.i.+p, so he would have a chance of being called by some sponsor.
"Fate, can you tell me what is the average ability of my team players compared to the best of Middle School?"
[Of course I"ll tell you, just for you to have referenced your average is S, and you"re just not SS for your defense, after all, your position is geared more towards the attack, your team"s SG has an average A plus almost B, he has some ability and his defense is very good, but he is not good at 3-point shooting and his pa.s.s and dribble are average.]
[Your team"s SF has average B, has good dribble and ball control, his mid-range shot is good and his layup too, plus his pa.s.s is bad and his 3-point shot too, his defense is weak.]
[The center of his team is almost C-B, he"s very good at defense and rebound, medium in the pa.s.s is very poor in attack and dribble.]
[The PF is D is bad at defense and attack, I think he can improve, but it will be at most B in a year.]
The skills of his team is as he thought, the PF will be the weakness of his team in the compet.i.tions, even if he can improve it will be the only medium, and that is to say that he will not have anyone high in the bottle that can score this is another disadvantage, at least his defense is not too bad, he can send his PF to score the worst opponent and so not lose many points because of him.
It"s not that bad, but according to the system he said it is not enough for him to win the national champions.h.i.+p, yet he will have to try to take his team as far as possible, in order to be able to be seen by someone.
He was in a hurry to get a sponsors.h.i.+p now because Jake wanted to get his mom out of the restaurant as fast as possible, as he knew she had died of stress in her other life, he knew her mother had a fragile heart, and now it was the only time he would need to, because when he is close to 16 and starts investing in the stock market he will not have to worry about money anymore.
The other day Jake went to school normally, cla.s.ses pa.s.sed quickly and soon came the break he met with Joseph.
"So you joined the basketball team and became the captain, I would have been a bit surprised if you had not told me what you did at the street tournament, now this is what I expected for you."
"It"s annoying how you get used to things very fast, it was very funny that you surprised me when I showed you the photos."
"I think nothing you do more will amaze me so much, you seem to be good at everything, in studies, at sports, leave something to us mere mortals."
"There"s a lot that I can not do, go there and be the best in one of them."
They played for a while and after school, Jake went to his first basketball practice, so after two hours the training was over.
Jake went home disappointed with the level of school training, it seems he did well at home training last year, the first half hour is warm up, then half an hour of basic training that is worse than what he does at home only in a team, then a tactical and positioning training, at least one good thing in that, and then the last half hour of a lightweight game for the players to do what they just learned.
As he was disappointed he went to ask if it was always so with SG Lucas.
"Is it always like this? Almost always, only on weekend days, we have the whole day that is much more intense, we train everything we did today for a longer time and is well pulled in the physical part, I do not think we have much to train, after all, we already learn the basics before. "
"What if there"s someone who does not know the basics?"
"If you have someone like that you will not be able to join the team, the most basic training is often done even in physical education, so it"s rare for anyone not to know."
So Jake understood, he had thought wrong, if he had tried to join the team last year or pa.s.s the test he would pa.s.s so he would not have a chance to improve, it seems he had the right decision to stay to train in his bas.e.m.e.nt.
In addition, after today he completely lost hope that the PF will achieve a level of power to help with the team in time to play the champions.h.i.+p games.
So spent a few weeks of training, as Lucas said on weekends the training is better, more often than not training 3-point shots, so everyone on your team is bad at it, if he did not train as much he would be too.
Jake also learned a few things in these training, such as tactics and strategies that can be used in a game, and whenever he could he would go to Center Owen to learn some things about defense and harnessed and taught some things about how to attack.
Plus he could not teach much, just how to make baskets in the bottle, because the way that the Centers play in a game is a different way he does not know the coach Roy also seems not to know, so it"s not Owen"s fault to attack more than he had no one to learn.
When Jake told Owen that he could try to learn by watching others play he almost picked up from the center, only Jake is able to do something like that, normal people do not just learn by watching, they have to be taught step by step, and then train a lot to finally learn.
Jake always talked to other players and tried to make them combine signals to make at the time of the game, after all, he can not tell the game to play in front of his opponents.
Jake was also trying to combine signals for more complicated moves that involved several moves of his team players and even many pa.s.ses so they could score more easily.
When Jake heard that Owen could not score, he wondered how coach Roy could let such a player play in his team, after all, it would be like having an attacking player less on the court, but how the training went through Jake learned why.
Owen did all the other roles that a Center had to do, he was a good reference center to pa.s.s the ball quickly in the bottle and he could give more possibilities of pa.s.s that Jake would not have in his position, also Owen was very good in rebounds , he would take the majority of what he disputed in the training, so it gave more security to those who wanted to risk a shot from further away.
So he was a good player, if they had a better PF they could have more chances to go further to the champions.h.i.+p.
One day when the training was over Roy saw Jake sighing in the middle of the court as he looked at the players, the coach did not understand that the workout had been good and his team was even better than last year with Jake in the team.
"What you"re sighing at, Jake, your teammates are looking so bad."
Roy asked jokingly, but Jake did not respond and just smiled.
"You really think the team is bad, boy you"re very demanding, you"re much better than last year, and if nothing goes wrong to go to the national champions.h.i.+p, it"s not good for you."
Jake glanced at his coach and decided to speak his thoughts.
"It"s not that coach, it"s not that they are bad, I think that besides Luke everyone is above average only that for what I wanted is not enough, and in two weeks the regional tournament begins, I do not think they get better. "
Roy also agreed with Jake"s vision, taking out Luke everyone was above average, especially Jake, yet he did not understand what he was not satisfied with.
"And what did you want me to think these good players are not enough?"
"To be champion of the national champions.h.i.+p"