Chapter 313 1997 NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament 1 (1/2)
After a few more days of training the first game day the NCAA tournament arrived, the game would be at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum which was where Wake Forest team normally played, if Team Tar Heels won they would play the next game there too.
After a few hours, both teams were ready for the game, Team Tar Heels was the first seed in this NCAA tournament and would face Team Fairfield Stags who were not having a good season so far.
So it was only natural that everyone expected the Tar Heels team to win this game very easily, everyone expected it and even Coach Smith was not worried about this game, Jake who knew that the team would win with some ease was not worried either.
But he remembered something that could end up changing the outcome of this game if he wasn't careful, Greg Francis who was one of the highlights of this team would be playing very well that day and would hit 8 shots from three points.
So Jake didn't know what position he would play in this game but made a point of asking Coach Smith to personally score Greg Francis, Coach Smith trusted Jake as a defender and accepted Jake's request.
That made Jake very happy, so he would defend Greg Francis the entire game and at least not allow the opposing player to score so many points in that game, as Coach Smith was confident in the team he decided to change the initial lineup for that game.
Jake, Carter, Zwikker, Williams, and Jamison were playing very well in the attack of team Tar Heels and Jake, Jamison and Zwikker also stood out in defense, so Coach Smith decided to let the five players in the initial lineup and leave Okulaja on the bench beginning of the game.
Coach Smith believed that in this game if they scored more points with this team the defense would not matter so much and they would still win, plus he was confident in defending his team for this game.
”Today all our viewers will be watching home the first round of this NCAA tournament, a first seed game from East Regional North Carolina Tar Heels against team sixteenth seed team Fairfield Stags.”
”Everyone looks forward to an easy win for the Tar Heels team in this game for the great phase the team has had 28 wins and only 2 losses to that match and comes from a winning streak of 19.”Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
”It's normal to think that in addition to winning a lot of games they have great players like Jake, Jamison, Carter, and others, and still managed to win the ACC tournament.”
”But we all know how unpredictable basketball can be and nothing is decided before the end of the game, the Fairfield Stags team can surprise us all in today's game.”
In the early minutes of the game, Fairfield Stags seemed to be in for the win and soon a very strong and unexpected attack began in the early minutes, only Jake expected it and was like a shadow defending closely against Francis.
Just in the first two minutes of play, Jake gave some space on purpose and soon saw Francis receive the pass when Francis tried the three-point shot Jake was already prepared and approached quickly and went to the block.
Francis was 1.90 m and did not expect the block, so Jake can easily take the ball off his 1.98 m, a few minutes later Jake again got a block against Francis.
After these two plays, Jake was sure that Francis's confidence was shaken and that he would hesitate to try the outside shot with Jake around, Coach Smith was very pleased with that on the bench and thought Jake was particularly good today.
In the first 5 minutes Jake also managed to score 5 points and 2 assists so Tar Heels team had the lead, Jamison and Zwikker were a little distracted at the start of the game so it was still a difficult start.
”Good start to the game for Jake in this game, it looked like the Fairfield Stags team was planning to start pushing in those early minutes and maybe open up some advantage, but Jake broke their hopes.”
”These two blocks at the beginning of the game were unexpected for the Fairfield Stags team and maybe even for the Tar Heels team, after all, Jake had only 3 blocks in the whole season and made over half of it today going to 5 blocks this year.”
”The most amazing thing is the detail of these plays, Jake defends closely against Francis and only for a few moments moves away from the defense, but is still watching closely Francis when Francis leaves the three-point line and receives the ball Jake still does not move.”
”Only when Francis starts the move to try the three-point shot that Jake quickly advances and still jumps after Francis to get the block, that's both.”
And that went on, the whole first time Jake realized that Zwikker and Jamison were not playing well so made more moves with Carter and Williams, the two matched by scoring a few points.