Chapter 426 1998 NCAA Tournament 8
Yuen Woo-ping wanted Jake to do very well in this film to be praised for his effort to learn the fight scenes, moreover, if he could teach Jake a lot of things he could invite him to a fight film in the future in Hollywood or even Hong Kong.
The truth was that for Jake’s character in this film, his fighting skills would be more important than his acting skills, Jake had a lot of acting skills also because of the years he trained in his life before going back in time.
Jake naturally knew that and his goal was not to be recognized as the best actor in the film, in fact, he was very concerned that his character could disrupt the story he knew and thus the film would not be that good.
Jake just wanted to have an important character in a movie that would be a success, so he would be proud and could be called an actor even if he did not make any more films in the future, Jake knew that with NBA games it would be almost impossible for him to find time to participate in the films.
But his career as a professional basketball player would not last forever, after the age of 45 he would certainly not be playing anymore, so Jake could continue working as an actor while running the marathons and running his businesses.
Of course, no one knew that Jake thought about it and Yuen Woo-ping thought that Jake’s goal was to be a famous actor and wanted to help him with that, the directors who worked with him also thought about it and were counting on Jake in the future.
After a few days Jake continued training with Yuen Woo-ping and the basketball team went back to training for the next game, the Tar Heels team players were confident and excited for the next game.
Everyone thought that the Tar Heels team would go to the final of the NCAA tournament this season and win again and that enthusiasm was affecting the players too, Jake was the most concerned about it and Coach Guthridge too.
Before the first day of training after the break, Jake decided to speak to Coach Guthridge about his concerns, after all in the past the Tar Heels team lost to the opposing team of that game when Jake did not play.
Jake told Coach Guthridge that he was very concerned and thought that the Tar Heels team might not win the next game, so he thought it was better for the players to train more before the next game.
Listening to this made Coach Guthridge even more concerned, he really thought the next game against the Utah Utes team would be very difficult, listening to Jake he was sure of it now after all the Utah Utes team had an even better defense than the UConn Huskies team which caused many problems for the Tar Heels team’s attack.
The Utah Utes team had a very strong defense that had taken over 70 points against just two opponents in the entire season, the next opponent the Utah Utes team was having a great season losing few games and even winning against the Arizona Wildcats team that he lost to the Tar Heels team in the semifinal of the NCAA tournament last season, but he would have won the NCAA tournament had it not been for Jake on the team.
This showed the strength of the Utah Utes team that they lost last season to the team that played in the final against Team Tar Heels, because of that Coach Guthridge changed his mind and decided to do intense training with the team in the next few days.
Before that Jake told what really happened in the last game that he made 6 shots out of 6 strokes in a row without passing the ball to anyone because he was angry at the poor performance of his teammates in that game.
He apologized and his teammates were surprised by this and accepted the apology and liked Jake’s honesty, they knew that Jake was not arrogant and normally didn’t do that and that he should be suffering from the pressure like all of them.
But what nobody knew was that Coach Guthridge would agree with Jake that the team played poorly at the beginning of the 2nd half of the last game and said that the team had to train harder if they wanted to have the chance to win in the next game and also in the final game if they won against the Utah Utes team.
So over the next few days, the training was really intense with the coach taking care not to make the players tired too much, coach Guthridge told the team to be careful with Michael Doleac and Andre Miller from the Utah Utes team.
He also said that in the next game Jake would have to make more three-point moves to try to break the Utah Utes team’s defense, and they too would have to defend very well if they wanted to have a chance to win.
To defend against the Utah Utes Doleac Center, Coach Guthridge decided to take Williams out of the starting team and put N’Diaye to strengthen the defense, N’Diaye had already been in many games as a reserve to help the defense of the Tar Heels team and that it had worked very well.
After many days of training came the day of the semifinal game that would be a very important game for the Tar Heels team, that game would be at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
It was a long way from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the team had to travel the day before and miss a day of training to be able to arrive rested for game day, yet the biggest crowd was for the Tar Heels team which gained a lot of popularity afterward to break the San Francisco team record.
"Welcome everyone who came to watch another game of the NCAA tournament, this is a game of the final four, a semifinal between two of the 4 best teams of College basketball this season, this is one of the most important games of this season."
"The Tar Heels team tries to win this game to further increase the incredible winning streak and also try to reach the final again and try to win for the second year in a row the NCAA tournament."
"The Utah Utes team has had an incredible season and has excellent players that make this team have one of the best defenses in college basketball, the Utah Utes team wants to win the NCAA tournament again after more than 50 years since the last victory."
"Okay, I think the Tar Heels team is definitely a favorite to win this game because of the players, Jake Smith, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, and the other players have done an excellent season and I think this NCAA tournament is going to be won by that team."
"But I wouldn’t be too surprised if the Utah Utes team won that game and then won the NCAA tournament."
Many of the media thought as the commentators thought, everyone cheered and hoped that the Tar Heels team would win this game, but if they lost it would also be an interesting thing for them to put in the reports.
The game started with the Tar Heels team attacking normally, Jake decided not to increase the pace of the game early in the game and leave his teammates tired, Jake knew that the Utah Utes team defense was very good and was not using the speed that they could make the stitches.
Fortunately, the Utah Utes team’s attack was also not very strong so if they managed to have a good game they would be able to win that game, the most difficult would be to defend against Doleac and it would be N’Diaye who would have to try harder in that game.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left, Carter advanced with the ball and passed to Jamison who was on the right, Coach Guthridge decided to leave Williams out of that game following Jake’s recommendation and for the plays, he would leave Jamison and Carter more behind.
When Jake advanced to the attack the two would enter the area too and so only Jake would be out of the three-point line, this could help the Utah Utes team to defend more easily, but it was also part of the Tar Heels team strategy.
Jamison passed the ball to Okulaja further on and the Utah Utes team’s defense soon pressed against Okulaja, so he had to pass the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Miller came to defend against him.
Jake managed to deceive Miller with a feint and tried the shot from the outside and thus the first 3 points against the Utah Utes team, that was the main strategy of the Tar Heels team at the beginning of the game, to count on Jake to make several shots from outside and to try to make the most points like that.
It seemed like a weak strategy, but with Jake’s average of 78% on three-point shots it was actually the best strategy against a team that had such a strong defense within the three-point line.
And the strategy didn’t end only with Jake making several shots from three points, the Utah Utes team would have to defend better against Jake and thus get some players out of the three-point line, so Jake would have more freedom to make assists and the team Tar Heels could attack better.
And luckily for the Tar Heels team, Jake was very good in the three-point shots at the beginning of the game of the six three-point shots he tried he hit 5 three-point shots making 15 points and missing only 1 of them.
It was different from the last game because the Tar Heels team spent the ball possession time and so 6 minutes had passed since the beginning of the game, the Utah Utes team also managed to score 11 points, but the Tar Heels team went through the most difficult time 1st half and it was the Utah Utes team that had to do something to stop Jake in that game.
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