Chapter 314 1997 NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament 2 (1/2)
”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 classes 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.