Chapter 282 New Stage at College Basketball 6
After a while finally came the final game of that year, then the players could rest for two weeks before the next game, Jake was also eager for it, he liked to play basketball and his friends at the university, but he missed of your mother after so many months.
In that last game, the coach Smith was very worried and anxious to know if the team could win, the opponent of this game was the team Princeton Tigers who despite not having a very strong team in the individual skill of the players was very strong as a team.
This was one of the best seasons for the Princeton Tigers team, and the team's defense was very strong even if their attack was not too strong, so they kept a low average of points in their games and could win the victory several times.
The Tar Heels team arrived early at Princeton to compete in the game, so Jake decided to take a walk around the university and see if he was seeing Joseph who was studying at Princeton, but soon he knew that his friend had left shortly after the end of the holiday classes.
Jake so deduced that Joseph had gone out to visit Liza who was his girlfriend and had not gone home to see Oliver and Matthew, he got a little upset in not being able to see his friend after so long, but he had not arranged anything with Joseph and if it had been he would have gone on vacation to go home too.
So he went back to where the team were to prepare for the game in a few hours, Jake was not so worried about the next game because he knew in his past life the Tar Heels team had won this game, but the opponent was very difficult and the result of the game was very close at the end of the game.
Even the team players not having many points individually the school is known to adopt the offensive strategy called 'Princeton offense', this is a strategy where players do not have positions predetermined in the attack.
So even the opposing teams studying this game strategy was very hard to beat them using strategies, the best way to win this team was to rely on a better offensive, and that was exactly what the Tar Heels team did, with an offensive Strong using Jake, Vince Carter, and Antawn Jamison they were always trying to make more points than the opponent.
Even if it seemed simple needed talented players and if any of the three had a bad performance in the game the points that the team did also diminished, this was something that did not greatly affect the Princeton team that did rotations in the whole game.
The luck of the Tar Heels team was that the opposing coach was new and was under pressure to replace one of the biggest names in the university, so the team was undergoing minor changes at the beginning of the season.
In this game coach Smith emphasized much that they had to be careful with players entering the inner area in the plays, he also said that it was for players to use all their individual skills in the attack and not be annulled by the defense of the opposing team.
Coach Smith had easily analyzed the important points of the opposing team, this was really a season in which the Princeton Tigers team would have a great series of games losing few and would still have many players in the best defense of the season.
Fortunately, the Tar Heels team had the right players to make these kinds of plays, Jake, Carter, and Jamison, the three had the individual capacity to score points even in a tight defense and had the rapport to cross the defense of the Princeton Tigers team with Jake's assistance.
At the beginning of the game was a tied game as coach Smith said it would be, in the few opportunities that the Tar Heels team had to make the shots they were fumbled by opponents, and the Princeton Tigers team was also erring quite the plays.
In a play, Jake received the ball back near the three-point line and with game vision managed to make a pass that crossed the defense of the team Princeton Tigers and Jamison received the pass to make the layup and make two more points for the team Tar Heels.
In another move for the first time, the Princeton Tigers team was rapidly passing the ball as it circulated in the attack waiting for an opportunity to cross the team's defense Tar Heels and make the points.
After more than 4 minutes of game Jake had already analyzed part of the play style of the Princeton Tigers team, so when Brian Earl found that he found an opportunity he passed to Steve Goodrich who was entering the internal area of the defense of the Tar Heels team after getting rid of the mark of Serge Zwikker and was ready to receive the Earl pass and make the layup.
But Jake had also noticed this move and intercepted Earl's pass to Goodrich, Jake used his superior agility and soon accelerated to counterattack, when the Princeton Tigers team players tried to get back to mark Jake found that they couldn't keep up with Jake's speed.
So Jake ran up close in the painted area and made the dunk to cheer up his teammates, all were accustomed to Jake's speed in training, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison currently had skill levels similar to Jake, Anyway because of Jake's speed he always gained the advantage in the plays.
In another move, Jake made one feint in Mitch Henderson and seized an opening in the opposing defense and drive to the basket, but Goodrich tried to stop Jake who was faster and made a sudden stop and passed the ball to Vince Carter who was entering the painted area behind Goodrich.
Vince Carter received the pass and did not squander the chance by making a dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, so at the end of the first time, Jake played for 16 minutes and made 12 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals.
This was the hardest game for Jake so far playing on the Tar Heels team, so he failed to make many points as in other games, but his quick and precise passes could cross the hard defense of the Princeton Tigers team.
In the second time the game remained the same, even Carter and Jamison had difficulty attacking efficiently playing against the defense of the Princeton Tar Heels team, it was incredible that a high-level team that did not offer sports scholarship could play equally To the same with the Tar Heels team.
Fortunately, Jake was doing an excellent defensive game and the opposing team was also having difficulty attacking, yet with Jake making full use of his agility to make precise attacks the team Tar Heels still led quietly the game score.
The two teams were having difficulty finding good opportunities to make three-point shots, even Jake did not risk any shooting from outside in this game, as it was a risky move, he preferred to make individual moves to get the points for the team.
In the second game time Jake continued making precise passes for Carter and Jamison who could make the points with great difficulty, Jake also made precise attacks and took advantage of the steals he did to arm counterattacks and use his speed to make more points.
So, Jake played for another 15 minutes in the second game time and made 16 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 4 steals, was a great performance in other statistics that were not the points that in this game was below average.
The result of the game was a comfortable win of the Tar Heels team thanks to Jake's performance, but it was not an easy victory for opposing defense performance, the Tar Heels team made 78 points against 56 of the Princeton Tigers team.
With this difficult victory of this game the team came to an incredible sequence of 9 victories followed this season against only one defeat in a total of 10 games, after winning a strong and difficult team to face as the team Princeton Tigers coach Smith was satisfied and more confident in the performance of the team this season.
Mainly Jake who had been a talent discovered by coach Guthridge was the most important player for the team now for coach Smith, he did not know how Jake had not been awarded several times in his time at the same high School Playing it that well.
Usually, the coaches of the university teams relied greatly on the judging of the experts who gave the prizes and always sought to recruit these players, Vince Carter was a great example of this.
But Jake was one of the best but the best freshman in all of this year's college basketball season and not even received any nomination for the high School players' prizes.
This was a mystery that coach Smith would never know about the answer, Jake didn't know either, but he thought it might be because he didn't play the first two years or as a reserve for his basketball team.
Or the fact that his team has fewer games than other teams in other states during the season, maybe it could be by slander from coach Philips when he was the coach of the Elite school at the time that Jake was off the team.
Jake had naturally been upset about it, but he cared only for the most important NBA prizes that were what could give more glory to him in his professional career in the future.
Coach Smith did not mind losing some games as well since they ended up being champions at the end of the season, after all, he knew that his whole team had to lose in some time and had no way to maintain a sequence of such great victories in the season.
But what he did not want to see was that by the inattention of his players or by underestimating the opponents they ended up losing the games, but he would have to wait for the players to return from the holidays to work in their mentality for the upcoming games.
After returning to the university Jake celebrated with his friends for victory and soon started packing to travel home, he did not want to waste time and wanted to stay at least a week at home.