Chapter 325 1997 NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament 13 (1/2)

”True, the last game was the worst game of the Tar Heels team if you take into account team performance, but Jake, Jamison, and Carter played very well and so with a solid defense they were the winners of the last game.”

”Now we'll see in the upcoming game who will be the 1997 NCAA tournament champion.”

Jake was confident because the Tar Heels team beat the Arizona team that should have won this year's NCAA tournament, but even if the Arizona team won, it was only over time and Jake had already changed that reality by beating Arizona team.

So he hoped that his teammates were playing well in today's game, because only then could he do everything he could to ensure the victory of team Tar Heels in that game.

The game soon began and Jake began making several plays in the early minutes while testing his teammates to see if anyone was playing poorly in today's game, Jake advanced with the ball and after passing through the middle of the court went to Carter.

Carter advanced calmly with the ball, no one could see him or the other players of the Tar Heels team nervous in this important game because everyone had confidence in Jake and knew they played well.

Carter advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison held the ball for a while and tried to feint at the opponent and failed, so Jamison passed the ball to Jake behind, Jake received the ball and then passed to Williams it was open on the right.

Williams received the ball off the three-point line and understood that it was for him to try the three-point shot, so William who was free tried the outside shot to make the first three points for the Tar Heels team.

Everyone on the Tar Heels team was happy and went back to defense while the Kentucky Wildcats players were surprised, everyone hoped that Williams would not be given too many attempts to shoot them off because in the last three games only Jake had tried harder and Williams was put aside.

But with this move early in the game everyone started to doubt if Jake would pass the ball to Williams more often, after all, they knew that Shammond Williams was a player who had a lot of quality in the three-point play.

Kentucky Wildcats managed to make the 2 points for the next play and Jake received the ball to organize another attack, this time Jake advanced faster and passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison advanced with the ball as well, keeping pace with Jake.

Jamison passed the ball to Williams on the left and Williams passed the ball to Zwikker ahead, Zwikker held the ball for a while and passed the ball back to Jake further back, Jake quickly passed the ball to Zwikker again ahead.

The defenders did not expect this and Zwikker was free to move forward and score 2 points for the Tar Heels team, Jake was pleased with that and in the following moves made attacks with Jamison and Carter who also made the points easily.

So more than 5 minutes into the game had passed and Jake had no points and had 6 assists and 1steal in that game, after which time Jake could be relieved to see that his teammates were at least playing well.

He had no way of knowing if anyone was great at the game to help him much as Jamison had been in the past game, but he at least knew he could make the moves more smoothly with the support of his teammates.

”We have a well-balanced start to the game with Jake playing PG and making 6 assists so far, but that's not enough to have a smoother game, Jake has to get the ball more and try three more shots and plays painted area to make more points.”

”Only with Jake scoring as many points as he has done in the last few games that Team Tar Heels can open a big lead to try to win, even though they are now ahead can be a matter of time before Team Kentucky Wildcats turn the game and lead the scoreboard.”

”It's true, we see a few players do like Jake and not many get double-double because everyone who has the ability to score more points than their teammates does.”

”After all scoring is the most important thing in basketball, I'm not saying that teamwork and defense are not important, but at the end of the game it is the number of points that determines the outcome of the game.”

”Even more players like Jake who have the ability to hit more three-point moves, in more than 5 three-point shots the team earns more points than they would in two more normal 2-point plays.”

In the next few minutes, Jake had already taken the tests he needed and can see that his teammates were playing well and so can continue to play normally with much more freedom to play with his teammates and thus have more attack options for the Tar Heels team.