Chapter 311 1997 ACC Men“s Basketball Tournament 7
In the second half of the game with no choice to change the style of play the NC State Wolfpack team came to try to change the outcome of the game and come out as champions, so they knew that if they missed the three-point move less they could change the outcome of the game.
But it was easier said than said, they never had players who used to have a good hit rate on three-point plays, so to hit more they would also have to try harder and make more mistakes.
Since the rebounds were from the Tar Heels team in this game they would be giving the opponents plenty of counterattacking opportunities, but they had no other options than trying to make such moves.
Jake remembered watching this game in his past life, the team Tar Heels also dominated the game he watched, the problem was that they missed many moves and had many turnovers and therefore lost several chances to make more points.
So in this game Jake was keen to own the ball and control and organize the plays for the Tar Heels team, Jake also said he would do that for Coach Smith and received the coach's approval.
After all Jake rarely had a turnover in games, so he was the one who had the most security with ball possession, so by the end of the first half Tar Heels team had a big lead on the scoreboard.
And the second half continued the same way, the NC State Wolfpack team tried more three-point play and missed more and rebounded the Tar Heels team, on the other hand, the Tar Heels team had the three-spot and three-point moves balanced points.
The Tar Heels team also missed much less and so by the end of the game, everyone knew who the ACC tournament champion team was.
In that second half, Jake played for 18 minutes and made 17 minutes, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, and 6 steals, with this brilliant performance of Jake the Tar Heels team easily won this game.
Jake had made a quadruple-double with 39 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, and 11 steals, after the game all just gathered in the center of the court and celebrated a lot, Jake was congratulated by his teammates for quadruple-double.
Even though everyone was happier to be ACC tournament champions, it was great to win that way because they knew they would not leave without any championships won this season and would try their best to win the NCAA tournament.
Team Tar Heels won this game and became champion by scoring 87 points against only 49 points by Team NC State Wolfpack, Jake remembered that this game in his past life was much harder and Team Tar Heels won with fewer points.
"What an amazing game we saw today here in this final game that decided who is the 1997 ACC tournament champion team, this time the NC State Wolfpack team failed to perform another miracle and their cinderella tale ended today, the Tar Heels team is the champion."
"All merit goes to Jake who got a quadruple-double that will go down in history, and to Antawn Jamison and Serge Zwikker who dominated the game in the painted area in both offense and defense."
"Shammond Williams also played very well today, but his performance was overshadowed by Jake's quadruple-double, Jake hit 9 three-point shots and Shammond can only hit 3 in that game."
"If the NC State Wolfpack team had someone with the same percentage of three-point shooting hits as Jake or Williams they might have won this game."
"True, total merit for Team Tar Heels, for Jake, for Zwikker and Jamison and even for Coach Smith who organized this incredible team, but we have to accept that part of the reason for the defeat of the NC State Wolfpack team was the very low achievement. of the three-point shots."
"That's right, but it really can't even be said that the three-point shootout was very bad because it's actually average for normal teams, is that comparing to the team Tar Heels' hit rate is really a difference huge in performance."
"That's not what I mean, their performance can be considered normal for a team that is bad at three-point shots, what I mean is if the team is that bad at three-point shots because they tried harder 50 shots of three points in one game!"
"The coach must know the quality of his players, so if he knew that the team was bad on all three points to try no more than 50 times! It's an ACC tournament final game and not a training joke!"
As the other commentator was saying, this commentator just realized the error of the NC State Wolfpack strategy because the Tar Heels team played so much better than them in every way.
As far as Jake remembered no one criticized the NC State Wolfpack team for attempting several three-point shots even though they had missed so many as in today's game.
"Think about it, Jake had an average of 60% three-shot hits today, which is considered a poor performance for him this season if he were on the NC State Wolfpack team and tried 50 three-point shots as they tried him would make 90 points alone! Now, do you understand why I think the difference is absurd? And that was a bad day for Jake."
With such a comparison even the people watching at home thought it was really a bad game for the NC State Wolfpack team, they were very bad for the opportunities they had in the game.
"But you can't use the performance of a player like Jake as a comparison, so look, he made a quadruple-double with 39 points on a day you said he had a poor performance on three-point shots."
"How many players in college basketball history do you think did what Jake did?"
While the commentators discussed what had happened in the game, the Tar Heels team players were celebrating the victory a lot, the NC State Wolfpack players seemed to be completely convinced later and see the performance of the Tar Heels team.
They weren't even sad about losing this game, everyone was already proud to have reached this final after starting in the first round, this NC State Wolfpack team had already made history.
As the players celebrated the players began to be interviewed by reporters and went to the live television broadcast, shortly after some of their teammates were interviewed Jake was called in for an interview as well.
"Hi Jake, first congratulations on winning the championship and for your amazing performance in the game today."
"Hahaha, thanks, the victory today is thanks to the effort of the entire team and the organization of Coach Smith."
"How do you feel about winning the ACC tournament in your first year playing at university?"
"I'm very happy, I have to thank my teammates who helped me better integrate into the team and adapt to the college level basketball game, I also have to thank Coach Smith who gave me the opportunity to play in those games."
"Jake, tell us your secret to having such a high three-point hit rate?"
"The secret is a lot of training, a lot of training and strength too, sometimes in games like today luck also helps the ball get in more often, and it is my teammates who help me get the chance to shoot three points with more freedom."
"And how does it feel to quadruple-double in such an important endgame like this?"
"I was very happy, I've had opportunities to do things like today, but in such an important game and with a strong opposing team like NC State Wolfpack is much more significant."
"One last question, what do you expect from the NCAA tournament after winning the ACC tournament?"
"This has not changed since the beginning of the season, our team has always been working hard and training to reach the NCAA tournament final and win at the end, after winning the ACC tournament what changes is that our team's confidence will increase."
While Jake was talking to reporter Serge Zwikker was taking down the nets to celebrate the victory, Jake naturally also took a piece of the net and left the rest with his teammates.
After they received the ACC tournament champion trophy and took the photo for a souvenir, everyone was very happy about it and the prizes continued, Jake was naturally chosen for the first team of the ACC tournament.
Lastly, Jake was chosen as the ACC tournament MVP, this was normal thinking about his performance in the last two games and today's game mainly, he celebrated with his teammates and was very happy with today's game.
After all the celebration the team returned the same day to university, they would have a week rest after today's game before the start of the NCAA tournament, if the team played well as Jake hoped they would play 6 more games after that.
Jake hoped this season would end with the team also winning the NCAA tournament, Jake had to admit it was much better to win the ACC tournament than the national high school championship.
So he was eager to know what it would be like to win the NCAA tournament which was much more important than the ACC tournament, he could only hope for it, for now, he would wait another week to rest before the next game.