Chapter 304 Using a Coach as an Assistant 10
Even though Jake was not satisfied with his performance and the rest of the team were all happy to have won this game, they now had a winning streak of 11 and were more confident about the next games.
Now there were only 5 games left until the end of Regular Season and they saw that they had a good chance of finishing with an amazing winning streak and so an excellent season, at the conference they had only one loss and every season just two losses and against two teams strong.
At this time of the season, they were leading the Atlantic Coast Conference, and if they won 5 more games as well as remaining conference leader they would have much more confidence for the upcoming ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament.
All media that talked about college basketball always highlighted the performance of the Tar Heels team this year, the whole team seemed to have a lot of strength in every position, even though in some positions the players didn't stand out so much they were still fundamental to the team.
The biggest highlights were Jake, Vince Carter, and Antawn Jamison who accounted for much more than half of the team points in all games and most of the rebounds as well, even the reserves like Ed Cota, Shammond Williams who had even more time. of the court were also spoken.
"I think the Tar Heels team is definitely the favorite to win the NCAA tournament this year, they come very strong with two very good winning streaks and just two losses all season."
"It could have been said before that it could still be too early to talk about favorite teams, but now there are only 5 games left for Regular Season, then we go to the ACC tournament, so I think it's time to see who's favorite."
"I agree with that, the Tar Heels team lost only two games this season, and those two defeats were for teams that can also be considered favorites and have a very strong team for this year."
"Wake Forest is definitely a favorite with a very good season so far and with Tim Duncan on the team who is an excellent player and should go to the NBA draft this year and is a favorite to win several top player awards of the season."
"The other team they lost to is the Arizona Wildcats team that for the past 10 years has been showing their strength in college basketball and is a favorite to win this NCAA tournament with a good team making a good season."
"That's right, besides, we have to point out that Jake is one of the best freshmen of the last 30 years or so in college basketball and comes with scary statistics this season fighting even to be the best player of the year."
"He has an average of fewer than 30 minutes per game, playing the position with Shammond Williams who has been playing very well this season and Ed Cota who was one of the hopes for a great season this year."
"Jake averages over 30 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals per game, plus an average of over 60 percent on both the three-point and field goal average."
The commentators who were talking about Jake were impressed by this average box score statistics for this season's games, not nearly the biggest names in history, but in that, much more competitive 90's basketball was hard to even for players' geniuses score 30 points per game in a season.
"That's because this season in more than 5 games Jake played for less than 20 minutes, in the two games that Team Tar Heels lost he played less than 20 minutes in the whole game, so I think with him playing more 30 minutes these two defeats would not have happened."
Jake's confidence in this commentator was surprising, but the others had to admit that the dice matched that description, so if Jake had played for more than 30 minutes the result could really be different.
Everyone knew that at this time of the season it was almost impossible for Coach Smith to leave Jake out of games, so they could know if that was right in the next games, which was certain with Jake on the Tar Heels team they were stronger.
"Also, let's not forget that Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison are still on that team, these two are excellent players that are highly anticipated on NBA teams in the coming seasons."
"Even though Jake averaging nearly 30 points per game these two also maintain an average of more than 15 points per game, the three usually make more than half of the team points in all games."
"Serge Zwikker and Ademola Okulaja have also been having a great season, both with more than 10 points per average game, even though Okulaja playing less time than the others he is still important to the Tar Heels team strategy."
"Not forgetting coach Dean Smith who has been leading this team for several seasons, he's one of the most successful coaches in history and knows how to organize a good team."
With all this, they had to admit that this year surely the Tar Heels team was a favorite to win this year's NCAA tournament, in the next 5 games the Regular Season would end and they could see what it would be like afterward.
Over the next few days, the Tar Heels team continued to do hard training to continue the winning streak, Jake also continuing his daily training while waiting for Coach Davis to finish his training routine.
So as soon as the day of the next game came, it was a game with the weak Georgia Tech Yellow team against whom they easily won this season with the Tar Heels team making double the Georgia Tech Yellow points.
So along with the 11 game winning streak, it was normal for players to be confident about this game, even though Jake didn't believe this game would be any problem, yet he would concentrate on playing the best he could.
It was another away game so the opponents were confident in this game even though they lost so much in the last game, so at least in confidence, both teams were equal for this game.
In the first half, Jake was playing well as always and so the whole team had a good first half, yet Georgia Tech Yellow was unexpectedly playing well in the attack and gave some problems to the defense of Tar Heels.
Even though they finished the first half with a big lead on the scoreboard, Jake played for 17 minutes in that first half and made 21 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, thus leading the team in a good first half.
In the second half, Tar Heels continued to dominate the game and so Georgia Tech Yellow started attacking less and trying to defend more, but with Jake having a good game it was difficult for the defense to stop him.
Thus the game ended with a comfortable victory for the team Tar Heels, Jake played for another 17 minutes in that second half and made 23 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals, with another good game led the team to victory.
Team Tar Heels win by 89 points against 68 points from Team Georgia Tech Yellow, with another double-double scoring 44 points and 11 assists Jake brought Team Tar Heels for another easy win.
The Tar Heels team now had a 12-win streak and their next game would be at the Dean Smith Center, the perfect setting for a rematch game against one of the only teams that defeated Tar Heels this year.
This upcoming game against the Wake Forest Demon team was a much-awaited game by all the media and players of the Tar Heels team, everyone was confident that with Jake on the team they could beat the Wake Forest Demon team even if their opponents had Tim Duncan on the team.
Jake was also confident of victory in the next game, after all the same time the two teams were different from the beginning of the season, the team Tar Heels was the leader of the conference while the team Wake Forest Demon was second.
Even if they expected to win this game in order to have a chance to finish Regular Season first, the Tar Heels team would play this game at home, so the Tar Heels team was considered a favorite for the next game.
So in the next few days the Tar Heels team spent preparing for the next game after a few days game day arrived, the Dean Smith Center bleachers were full that day and Jake's friends were present to watch this exciting game.
After a couple of hours, both teams were ready for the game, the Tar Heels team had the same initial formation as the other games with Jake playing as PG, Vince Carter playing as SG, Antawn Jamison playing as SF, Ademola Okulaja playing as PF and Serge. Zwikker in Center position.
The Wake Forest Demon team came with the same team from the last game they beat Team Tar Heels, Jerry Braswell as PG, Tony Rutland as SG, Ricky Peral as SF, Tim Duncan as PF and Loren Woods playing as Center.
This was to be expected after all as they had won the last game they did not need to change the initial lineup, yet the opposing team coach was more concerned with the change in the initial lineup of Tar Heels.
After all unlike the last game between them, Jake was starting in the game, it showed that the team Tar Heels hoped to win this game and would not give the team Wake Forest Demon chances to do as in the last game.