Chapter 307 1997 ACC Men“s Basketball Tournament 3
Before the match against the Clemson Tigers team Coach Davis finished the new training plan for Jake, so he sought out Jake the day before the match against the Clemson Tigers team.
Coach Davis knew naturally that Jake should be busy for the next day's game, but his job was just to create the training plan and see how Jake was executing that training plan.
It was Jake who decided which day to train and if he agreed to follow that training plan, Coach Davis also followed up some Jake training with the basketball team that also included training at the university academy.
Even though Coach Davis was required to be flexible and did not add any gym training to Jake and just ordinary training, he also decided to maintain Jake's 50 km of training and just added some aerobic and cardiovascular exercises.
That was Jake's daily training routine and some training would also have to be changed a few weeks before competitions or when Jake was on vacation, with that training enough for Jake to be able to run in the three modalities he wanted to try for a gold medal at the Olympics.
With more time Coach Davis would also add some positioning training and other techniques needed to run shorter distances, with the lack of training time that was what he could prepare for Jake.
If Jake was a full-time athlete he could prepare for training at various times of the day and even elsewhere besides the track where Jake was currently training, unfortunately, Coach Davis knew that Jake was trying hard to take some time to train.
So Coach Davis made sure to give Jake this training plan and explain why it was so similar to his current training, Jake understood what Coach Davis was saying and was happy with the coach's consideration.
Jake agreed with the coach that on his vacation he would have more time to know what Coach Davis's full training was like, after all, Jake still had the classes he attended every day and another month of games with the basketball team before the holidays.
If the team reached the NCAA tournament final there would still be 10 games left by the end of the season, so naturally Jake wanted the team to reach the NCAA tournament final, the reason Coach Smith is rotating the team now is the ACC tournament.
If the team reaches the final they would have to play 3 games in 3 straight days without any rest, Coach Smith naturally had confidence in his team and hoped they would reach the ACC tournament final.
After the last game the Tar Heels team spent the next few days training for the last game of Regular Season, they now came from a sequence of 15 straight wins and already had one of the best seasons in history for the Tar Heels team.
This last Regular Season game would be even more special, it was a game at Dean Smith Center against their rival team Duke Blue Devils, in the last game they had a tough game even with Jake playing the whole game and doing a double-double.
So everyone hoped that even though the Tar Heels team had the advantage would be a difficult game, Jake was glad to hear that his friends would be watching the game and the Dean Smith Center should have the bleachers full of fans waiting to see the Tar Heels team win.
On the day of the game players were nervous even though they were playing at home, even though Jake was a little nervous about this game, Coach Smith didn't even need to cheer up the players because everyone knew how important winning this game was.
After a few hours, both teams were ready for the start of the game, Team Tar Heels was the favorite to win this game, but Team Duke Blue Devils was the second team in this conference.
At the beginning of the game contrary to what everyone expected Jake didn't have a double mark and only one player was placed to defend against him after all the team coach Duke Blue Devils knew that the whole team was strong and not just Jake.
With an average of over 30 points per game and several double-doubles, everyone was thinking that only Jake led the team in victory, but if it was well observed the rest of the whole team was having a great season in Jake's shadows.
Antawn Jamison averaged over 20 points per game and took just slightly fewer rebounds than Jake, Vince Carter also with his dunk and good indoor moves had more than 15 average points per game because he played less time sharing his time on the court with Shammond Williams.
In addition to them, Serge Zwikker and Ademola Okulaja were also having a great season and even Charlie McNairy and Ed Cota with less court time also played very well at the time they were on the court.
Only by having such a team could they have 24 wins in 26 games of the season, only Jake alone could not do that if he was on a weaker team, so team coach Duke Blue Devils knew that if they couldn't stop Jake with just one player in defense they could not win.
It was a bet by team coach Duke Blue Devils based on trust in his players, so in the first half different from what happened in other games Jake was performing well and his colleagues were having a hard time playing.
So in the first half, the game was more equal between the teams, yet Jake could more freely find the ways to get his teammates to receive the passes and he scored several points himself.
In that first half, Jake played for 19 minutes and managed to score 18 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, so Tar Heels team managed to open a small lead on the scoreboard at the end of the first half.
In the second half of the game, both teams made some changes in strategy, but the focus of the game was still on Jake, he was a good player and playing in PG position what he did determined if the team played well.
Also, even though Jake had the freedom to play, he never forgot to make moves so that the team scored the points and not that he had more points, so Coach Smith trusted Jake to be the PG, otherwise Coach Smith would already have placed Jake as SG.
In that second half, Jake can play for 18 minutes and managed to score 20 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, so he made another double-double and led the team to another victory, the Duke Blue Devils team played a lot well, but the Tar Heels team was simply superior.
"And so we see another amazing game to crown the end of this Regular Season, we follow the top two teams from this conference, Duke Blue Devils team made a good game, but Tar Heels team still came out with a comfortable win."
"This was expected, the Tar Heels team has had a better season and their players are better, even some of the Tar Heels team reserves could play in other teams in the initial lineup."
"Also, Coach Smith has been doing a great job with this team, we can see that they have a lot of different ways to score the points on each move, so it's hard for a team to defend against them."
"That's true, and there's Jake who can become the leader of any team at all universities, this is just his freshman season and he's been doing that, I hope to see for years to come."
"With Jake as an opponent it is difficult for a coach to organize the defense strategy in the game if the Tar Heels team were weak it would be easier, but with such a strong team if two players were placed to defend against Jake the rest of the team can play quietly."
"Soon we will be watching the ACC tournament games, and these teams can meet again, and at that moment we'll see if the Tar Heels team can win again."
"I think the Tar Heels team is a favorite to win the ACC tournament, no team rivals them this season, only the Duke Blue Devils team they lost today and the Wake Forest team can threaten them, but I think this year the team Tar Heels will be champion of the ACC conference."
Team Tar Heels won the game by 98 points against Team Duke Blue Devils' 87 points, so Team Tar Heels ended this year's campaign in Regular Season with ACC's # 1 conference team with 16 wins and a loss in 17 games.
With all this, it was impossible to say that the Tar Heels team was not a favorite to win the ACC tournament and even the NCAA tournament, after which game players would have four days to rest before the first ACC tournament.
With the rest, the players had in the last games with Coach Smith's rotation they would have to be at maximum physical strength after that rest after all the ACC tournament would be in 3 straight days of games.
Only someone like Jake would be comfortable with this sequence of games, Jake was confident of victory because in his past life the Tar Heels team had won and this year he would also be playing.
Over the next few days, the team had only rest without any training before the first ACC tournament game and Coach Guthridge came to talk to Jake personally banning him from running in the next few days.
Jake knew he would have no problem even if he trained, but as the next few days were important to the team he agreed to be without any training, after all, it would do just fine for him to be the next few days without any training.