Chapter 271 The Beginning of the Season at College Basketball 3

When Jake arrived at the university everyone was asleep, he also went to sleep when he felt tired, when he woke up in the morning it was almost time to go to classes, Zack had left to run in the morning and William and Aaron praised Jake for winning more a marathon.

After attending classes with William, Jake went to basketball training to do the training and warn Coach Smith that he had returned, the coach had to know that he could count on him for the rest of the pre-match training.

For Jake and the team, this marathon stop was great before the first game, Jake had received the same statistic reward he received the first time he won in Chicago, with 1 more Resistance point and 1 agility point better for the first game.

In addition, this would make Jake's 50 km high-speed running training much easier, and basketball training was not a problem for Jake at the moment, but it could be when the basketball team games started.

Jake also talked to his mother about the race victory and Tiffany who was very happy, after basketball training he can talk to Zack who also congratulated Jake on winning.

After that Jake focused only on his training with the basketball team, Coach Smith decided to leave Jake in reserve and play with Ed Cota as a starter, Shammond Williams would play part in the position of PG and part of the game in position of SG.

So Ed Cota and Vince Carter who would spend a few minutes taking turns, Jake would also play PG taking turns so Shammond William would probably play more in SG's position and Vince would have to stay a few minutes in reserve.

Makhtar N'Diaye would play in PF position and so with Antawn Jamison playing as SF the team was complete, Coach Smith also planned to let Jake play as SF and put Antawn Jamison as PF at some points in the game.

So Center Serge Zwikker would be the least likely to have to take their position in the game and could play longer on the court, Coach Smith had problems with how to scale players but was happy to have those skilled player problems left in the team.

This was the team decided for the first game, after forming this team Coach Smith organized more specific training to train players for the first game of the season.

Usually, the first games of a new season at university were more complicated, because sometimes some players were still out of shape and the team would have to get used to the new players.

After a few weeks, the day of the first game had arrived, on November 22, 1996, the first opponent was the Arizona Wildcats team, the Wildcats had won the NCAA National Tournament after eliminating the Tar Heels team that Jake was now.

So you could see how strong the opponents of the first game were, in this game in Jake's past life the Tar Heels team had lost that game, so this time probably the same would happen if Jake didn't play in the game.

Even though Jake wasn't worried about that, the opposing team was strong and if Jake couldn't play many minutes he knew it wouldn't make much difference in this game, the game would be at Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, MA.

The whole team was excited for this first game, even if the opponents had tradition no one was afraid because the Tar Heels team also had the tradition, of course, if they knew what Jake knew would probably be different.

Coach Dean Smith did a great job of motivating and encouraging the players, for the most talented players often working with the confidence of the players was more important than the tactics that had already been put into training.

College basketball rules were different from high school, the games had two 20-minute strokes each and a 15-minute break, so Jake's Resistance would make a lot more difference if he played a full game.

Everyone knew on the day of the game what position they would play in or if they would be in reserve, Jake naturally as he hoped would be in reserve, but he did not expect Ed Cota to stay in reserve either.

It would be Shammond Williams who would play in PG position and Ademola Okulaja would play as PF, Vince Carter would start in SG position and the others were the same as training when the game started Jake was very excited to finally be playing his first game in university.

Jake knew the skill of his teammates very well and so was paying more attention to the opposing team players in the first half of the game, Michael Bibby was the opposing team's PG and Jake knew him a little.

He played in the NBA for 14 years as a pro and then became a coach, never managed to win an NBA champion ring of the season, but took his team to some playoffs, earning some NBA All-Rookie honors in 1999.

He was not a player Jake considered very good, but had a stable performance usually averaging over 12 points per game and 5 assists plus a few rebounds, yet managed to play for 14 years in the NBA which was impressive.

Michael Dickerson was playing as SG and sometimes switching positions with Miles Simon and playing as SF, Michael did not play in the NBA long after leaving university because of an injury, he was a player who scored many points in the game.

Miles Simon started playing as the team's SF and made a great pair with Michael Bibby, Miles didn't play long in the NBA after college either, he was along with Michael the team's top scorer.

Bennett Davison was the team's PF and didn't play in the NBA either, he averaged less than 10 points per game and caught a lot of rebounds with A. J. Bramlett who was the Center who played the NBA for a short time.

Jason Terry was an SG and played as the team's sixth player entering important moments, Terry played many years in the NBA over 19 years, won the NBA championship with Dallas in 2011 and was a great sixth player and also very good at the shooting of 3 points.

The reason Jake chose this team besides being a fan of Michael Jordan was that it was a very strong team that didn't win titles, he could play with the legendary coach Dean Smith and several players he was a fan of.

The biggest weakness of this team oddly enough was that they didn't score much with 3-point shots, the players didn't risk much and missed a lot in important games, even though Ed Cota who debuted in the games was a big PG with In his assists he did not make many points.

So most points were scored by Vince Carter, Shammond Williams, and Antawn Jamison, and the three did not have many games with more than 20 points which made the situation of the team complicated.

Jake's strength was the 3-point shots and he made more than 30 points per game on average, so Jake thought he could be the player this team needed to be a champion, not to mention that he could make multiple assists and defend well too.

At the beginning of the first half, the two teams were very much alike in the game, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison were playing better and creating more moves besides making a few points, the commentators were also excited about an equal game like this.

"The game is very popular here at Springfield Civic Center, in those first 5 minutes of the game Vince Carter scored 4 points and Antawn Jamison scored 6 points, we received information that both are a classmate and so has a lot of rapport."

"Yes, even though Shammond Williams is not as talented as PG as he is in SG position he is making a great game too, yet the opponents are equally talented."

"The Wildcats team is playing a great game with Michael Dickerson performing well and freshman Mike Bibby doesn't seem to be debuting today and is playing very well."

"Speaking of freshmen, Jake is also a freshman who had a great time playing very well in high school being MVP for two straight years and also getting a sponsorship even though he was in college after winning several marathons and a gold medal in the Olympics."

"Yes, but we have never seen him play so we can't say he plays that well, and Coach Smith doesn't seem to trust the freshmen so much and has left everyone on the bench, even Ed Cota who also got the spotlight is on the bench."

"Especially with such a game, I don't think Coach Smith would risk a change that would break the balance of the game in favor of the opponent."

Just as they said Coach Smith did not think of putting anyone in early in the game, yet he had thought of a tactic and after a few minutes put Ed Cota in place of Ademola Okulaja and Vince Carter defended the opposing PF when Ed was on the court.

Shammond Williams played as SG when Vince moved in defense and Ed Cota was the team's PG, so Shammond Williams had more freedom to drive to the basket or shoot from outside.

"Both teams have different playing styles, while Wildcats try more from outside and mid-range shots, Tar Heels tries to score more in the opposing area, both tactics have their advantages, but if the Wildcats have a good aim they won this game."

In the first half of this game the two teams remained very much the same, only Ed Cota, who was in reserve, entered the game for a few minutes while coach Dean Smith rotated the players.

By the time the 20 minutes into the first half were over, both teams were tied for points, Ed Cota was making good plays and assisting as he entered the court, which pleased Coach Smith.

Jake didn't look like he'd have a chance in the first half, maybe it was a coach's punishment for missing training in marathon competitions, even if he had won and the university was happy with that, the coach wasn't happy to split his player with another sport.

Only Jake was more apprehensive because without him on the court the game ended the way he saw in his past life, if it went on they would lose.

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