bhwS

by Cr0w0019

this is a fanfic of a bhwS book i read with a little bit of things edited to make it better

22. Chapter 22

1997 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament

After a few more days of training the first game day the NCAA tournament arrived, the game would be at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum which was where Wake Forest team normally played, if Team Tar Heels won they would play the next game there too.

After a few hours, both teams were ready for the game, Team Tar Heels was the first seed in this NCAA tournament and would face Team Fairfield Stags who were not having a good season so far.

So it was only natural that everyone expected the Tar Heels team to win this game very easily, everyone expected it and even Coach Smith was not worried about this game, Jake who knew that the team would win with some ease was not worried either.

But he remembered something that could end up changing the outcome of this game if he wasn't careful, Greg Francis who was one of the highlights of this team would be playing very well that day and would hit 8 shots from three points.

So Jake didn't know what position he would play in this game but made a point of asking Coach Smith to personally score Greg Francis, Coach Smith trusted Jake as a defender and accepted Jake's request.

That made Jake very happy, so he would defend Greg Francis the entire game and at least not allow the opposing player to score so many points in that game, as Coach Smith was confident in the team he decided to change the initial lineup for that game.

Jake, Carter, Zwikker, Williams, and Jamison were playing very well in the attack of team Tar Heels and Jake, Jamison and Zwikker also stood out in defense, so Coach Smith decided to let the five players in the initial lineup and leave Okulaja on the bench beginning of the game.

Coach Smith believed that in this game if they scored more points with this team the defense would not matter so much and they would still win, plus he was confident in defending his team for this game.

"Today all our viewers will be watching home the first round of this NCAA tournament, a first seed game from East Regional North Carolina Tar Heels against team sixteenth seed team Fairfield Stags."

"Everyone looks forward to an easy win for the Tar Heels team in this game for the great phase the team has had 28 wins and only 2 losses to that match and comes from a winning streak of 19."Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"It's normal to think that in addition to winning a lot of games they have great players like Jake, Jamison, Carter, and others, and still managed to win the ACC tournament."

"But we all know how unpredictable basketball can be and nothing is decided before the end of the game, the Fairfield Stags team can surprise us all in today's game."

In the early minutes of the game, Fairfield Stags seemed to be in for the win and soon a very strong and unexpected attack began in the early minutes, only Jake expected it and was like a shadow defending closely against Francis.

Just in the first two minutes of play, Jake gave some space on purpose and soon saw Francis receive the pass when Francis tried the three-point shot Jake was already prepared and approached quickly and went to the block.

Francis was 1.90 m and did not expect the block, so Jake can easily take the ball off his 1.98 m, a few minutes later Jake again got a block against Francis.

After these two plays, Jake was sure that Francis's confidence was shaken and that he would hesitate to try the outside shot with Jake around, Coach Smith was very pleased with that on the bench and thought Jake was particularly good today.

In the first 5 minutes Jake also managed to score 5 points and 2 assists so Tar Heels team had the lead, Jamison and Zwikker were a little distracted at the start of the game so it was still a difficult start.

"Good start to the game for Jake in this game, it looked like the Fairfield Stags team was planning to start pushing in those early minutes and maybe open up some advantage, but Jake broke their hopes."

"These two blocks at the beginning of the game were unexpected for the Fairfield Stags team and maybe even for the Tar Heels team, after all, Jake had only 3 blocks in the whole season and made over half of it today going to 5 blocks this year."

"The most amazing thing is the detail of these plays, Jake defends closely against Francis and only for a few moments moves away from the defense, but is still watching closely Francis when Francis leaves the three-point line and receives the ball Jake still does not move."

"Only when Francis starts the move to try the three-point shot that Jake quickly advances and still jumps after Francis to get the block, that's both."

And that went on, the whole first time Jake realized that Zwikker and Jamison were not playing well so made more moves with Carter and Williams, the two matched by scoring a few points.

Jake also calmed the team and valued each time before completing the play, Jake still hit 4 shots from 3 points in 7 attempts and was therefore unable to support the team with several steals and rebounds as in other games.

In compensation by the end of the first half, Jake had made 6 blocks, 5 of them in Francis and yet Francis managed to make three points in that first half, it did not look like he had lost confidence even after several blocks of Jake.

In the first half, Jake played for 19 minutes and managed to score 18 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 6 blocks, with this excellent first-half performance of Jake the Tar Heels team was winning easily.

"What an incredible first half Jake has been leading the Tar Heels team in this game, a normal performance for him in offense considering the other games, but in defense, he has been saving the Tar Heels team from perhaps finishing behind in that first half."

"You say normal, but he was directly 34 points out of the 42 points that the Tar Heels team scored in the first half, we can't treat that as normal even if he does the same every game."

"He seems to be really paying attention to Francis in this game, Jake made 5 blocks in Francis in the first half, we don't know if any of these three-point shots would hit, but Francis certainly has the team's confidence in this game."

In the second half, the Fairfield Stags team played at the same pace trying to win the game, but the Tar Heels team improved a lot in the second half, Jamison and Zwikker who was not playing so well began to show a great performance.

Especially Zwikker who was taking several rebounds and doing more than double the points in the first half in that second half, Jake still controlled the game calmly and always defended against Francis.

In the second half, Jake made another 5 blocks and 4 more of them in Francis, yet Francis still scored 6 more points in this second half of the game, even though Jake could feel that Francis could have a better average hit than him in this game if Jake allowed.

Before halfway through the second half everyone knew that the Tar Heels team would win this game, Coach Smith was calm and even smiling when talking to the players, it was completely different from the difficult game that Jake saw in his past life.

In that second half, Jake played for 18 minutes and managed to score 15 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 5 blocks with another triple-double. Jake secured an easy game for the team and he disrupted the best player of the team Fairfield Stags in this game.

Team Tar Heels won 94 points against 61 points for Fairfield Stags, it was a difficult game that was made easier because Jake was on the court, yet Jake did not perform so well and even missed a lot of three-point shots.

Even though he was pleased with the triple-double and being able to make 11 blocks in this game, it was shameful for him to have made only 3 blocks this season, so he took advantage of knowing that a player from the opposing team would have a great performance and even made several blocks.

"And so ends that first round of the NCAA tournament, a great game and an easy win for the Tar Heels team, Jake Smith as always controlling the game and Serge Zwikker having another great game as well as Vince Carter."

"Defensively Jake did exactly what he set out to do and so the Fairfield Stags team failed to play so well and lost by so much difference, just by those 9 points that Francis did even with Jake in defense already showed how he was inspired by this game. "

"Hahaha, that's true, I'm sure Francis will have nightmares with Jake after this game, a player who had only 3 blocks in the whole season decided to play very well in this game and made 9 blocks in it, Francis must be very angry."

"This is another game that perfectly illustrates Jake's versatility as a player, I'm sure he will make history in the NBA as he is already making history in college basketball."

"That's right, a few games ago Jake made a quadruple-double and now he shows that one day maybe he can make a quintuple-double playing like that."

Commentators naturally praised Jake for the great game and because the Tar Heels team seemed to be doing well to win this year's NCAA tournament, so reporters came to interview the players.

The first interviewee was Greg Francis who had made an interesting dispute with Jake who was the best of the game in this game, reporters were curious about what Greg Francis was thinking.

"What did you think of this Francis game?"

"I thought the Tar Heels team played very well and deservedly won, our team did what we had trained to do and yet we lost by a large margin of points."

"What did you think Jake Smith marked you all this game and made 9 blocks?"

"Was it 9? I didn't think it was that many, I can say that neither I nor the team was prepared for it, Smith didn't have a history of blocking this game, our team had planned that I would have more three-point play attempts."

"I was feeling very good and confident in my ability for this game, proof of this is that I still scored 9 points even with Smith making 9 blocks, I can say that Coach Smith and Jake Smith are to be congratulated for coaching this."

They expected to see Francis more nervous, but he was just sad to have lost and admired Jake's skills, so soon someone went to interview Coach Smith to find out why he had Jake defend against Francis in this game.

"Congratulations on winning Coach Smith today."

"Thank you so much, I am very pleased with my players' performance in today's game and happy with the win."

"Coach, I'm curious what you thought when you told Jake to defend against Francis in this game? Francis is the best player on the Fairfield Stags team, but Jake doesn't usually play as well in defense as he does today."

"Actually, I didn't order Jake to defend against Francis in this game, he asked for it before this game, and since Jake is one of the best players in the defense of the Tar Heels team and never asked for anything like that I just agreed."

"Even though I was a little surprised by Jake's 11 blocks in this game, I always knew about his potential in defense, he's one of the best players in the team's defense and can do more than he usually does in games."

"From the 9 points that Francis still scored in three-point shots even though Jake made several block defenses against him, I can see that Francis was in great shape today, so I'm glad Jake stopped him."

Everyone was surprised to find out that it was Jake himself who asked to defend against Francis in this game, but by the time they considered interviewing Jake, he had already entered the locker room.

So it was Charles who asked Jake why he had decided to defend against Francis in this game and made 11 blocks in this game, when Charles asked about it all the other players paid attention to Jake's answer.

"In fact, I asked Coach Smith to let me defend against Francis because he is the best player in the Fairfield Stags three-point play."

"And I managed to block this game because Francis tried more three-point shots, it's hard for me to find a three-point player playing against our team who tries so many three-point shots."

When Jake said this everyone accepted that it must be true because he had logic, Jake had naturally thought of it before even asking Coach Smith to let him defend against Francis.

After all Jake could not say that he asked to defend against Francis because he had come from the future and knew that Francis could get 8 shots of 3 points in this game and could harm the team and that's why he had the easiest to block Francis.

After that everyone went back to university because in two more days they would have their second NCAA tournament match at that same venue, the coach was happy with the whole team at that game and hoped they would continue to do so.

Jake also talked quietly with his roommates and still did his daily training for athletics, it could be said that Jake did much more than any player on the Tar Heels team.

Coach Davis was already receiving his salary after signing the contract with Jake and was quiet even after he had prepared Jake's daily training routine, every morning he followed Jake's training at university.

He also knew that Jake was very serious with his training and had trained even while in Miami visiting his mother, so he could just oversee Jake's training and teach the correct running positioning for short and medium distances.

Coach Davis had no problem because Jake was very talented and did everything he said, plus Jake's training was considered too heavy even for other elite athletes so Coach Davis couldn't even think of increasing the heavy training until Jake is on vacation.

After a few weeks training Jake he could well understand why Jake could win multiple marathons and break the world record while playing basketball and studying at university, it was because he was very dedicated to training and talented.

In classes after nearly two semesters studying Jake could not hide his intelligence either, as they say, that even hidden gold is still the same, everyone realized that even playing basketball and doing other activities that did not know well Jake still always got high marks.

Jake, even trying to sneak around, still taught some classmates how he used to do in high school, and these friends he taught got excellent grades too, even in a room of over 50 people Jake still stood out.

Luckily everyone thought Jake was just humble and he had no problem even standing out in class, Jake was glad that at university things were different and so he could rest easy.

Many also found that in addition to playing on the basketball team Jake had been an actor, with Jake's current fame it was difficult for him to go unnoticed anywhere, much less at the university where he played who had many fans of the basketball team.

Jake didn't know, but the movie in which he appeared a few minutes ago was earning more box office because almost everyone at UNC watched Jake's movie at least once, at university the fans were much more intense than normal fans.

Of course, the companies that sponsored Jake were also getting a lot of attention and the products were selling better, the university and the college basketball association pretended not to realize this because Jake never advertised the companies that sponsored him at the university.

At Jake's request even the companies they sponsored kept description and did not talk about college basketball, which of course greatly enhanced UNC's prestige too with Jake being so talented.

After a few days came the day of Team Tar Heels's second game in the second round, the opponent was Team Colorado Buffaloes who beat Team Indiana Hoosiers in their first game.

The Colorado Buffaloes team was having a great season and had a great player who was Chauncey Billups, Billups played for 17 seasons in the NBA and played in several teams and even won an NBA championship.

But as far as Jake remembered Billups didn't play so well in this game and so Jake didn't take much interest in him, yet Jake would probably be sent by Coach Smith to defend against Billups.

After a few hours, both teams were ready to start this game, everyone expected it to be a much more closely match than the previous game and so were excited, only Jake knew it would not be so.

Zwikker and Carter who had a great game a few days ago would not be playing very well and it would be Okulaja and Ed Cota who would perform well in that game, but Ed Cota would not play if Jake was on the team and Shammond Williams would play well in that game either.

Coach Smith seemed to have realized something like this and put Williams playing SG and took Carter out to put Okulaja in the initial line-up, even if Zwikker wasn't quite offensive, he would still catch a lot of rebounds and play well defensively.

It was very good for Jake to remember what it was like in his past life because this way he could know who to pass the ball to and who he could tell the most in this game for reliable play.

In the first half of the game, Jake was playing well as usual and made more plays with Williams and Jamison than Okulaja, the Colorado Buffaloes team was playing well defensively, but in the attack, there was no player featured.

So in the first half Tar Heels team managed to open a good lead by playing well, Jake played for 19 minutes and managed to score 20 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals, Williams and Jamison also received some assists and managed to play well.

In the second half the team Tar Heels continued to play well and was opening more and more advantages and thus the willingness to attack and defend the team Colorado Buffaloes diminished and the game became easier.

Jake was well on the three-point shots in this game and the defense could do nothing against him, and his assists found the players of Tar Heels team in the best position, it could be said that in a different way from the last game Jake led the team to the easy victory.

So after a game that was under Jake's control the Tar Heels team could win, in the second half, Jake played for 19 minutes and managed to score 22 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Team Tar Heels won the game by 88 points against just 48 points for Team Colorado Buffaloes, with another triple-double Jake managed to lead the team for another easy win and Team Tar Heels advanced to Sweet Sixteen.

Jake was happy that the team would continue to win the games they won in their past life and hoped they could win the semifinal and the final as well and so the Tar Heels team would be the champion in the NCAA tournament.

After this game the team Tar Heels returned to university to rest before the next game in a few days, even Jake was a little worried about the next game and was happy that the team would have almost 1 week to rest before the last authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

At university, he called his mother who watched the game and celebrated with his friends who were excited about the Tar Heels team advancing so far in the NCAA tournament in those years and Jake leading the team in the victories.

Jake was happy to have a week to rest and just doing his training that was easy for Jake, he wouldn't risk going home even though he had almost a week to rest before Sweet Sixteen, it was obvious that Coach Smith would not like it at all.

For the next week Jake was planning on just hanging out with his friends and relaxing beyond training, but the next day Tiffany called saying she wanted to meet him at a restaurant near the university.

Jake naturally accepted and was glad Tiffany came to the university to visit him again, only she and John came to visit him at the university in almost a year he was studying, of course speaking of people Jake has some business with.

Last time Tiffany had come more to talk than to tell Jake about Coach Davis, so this time Jake hoped Tiffany had just come to talk to him this rest week.

So after classes and training with the basketball team, Jake went out to meet Tiffany, she was beautiful with always wearing a very elegant suit made for business women like Tiffany.

"Hi Tiffany, you look beautiful as always."

"Oh thanks for the compliment, Jake, you're also looking like a grown man now after you are 18, it's amazing to see how you grew up these last few years since the first time I saw you."

"It's normal for me to grow a lot since before I was 14 if I didn't grow up I couldn't become a basketball player, maybe I'll keep growing."

"You can't keep growing, I've always hated wearing high heels and have to wear when meeting you, now just sitting at a table I can look you in the eye, Hahaha."

They both laughed for a while, it was fun to remember the past when two people had known each other for several years like Tiffany and Jake, especially in this situation where Tiffany met Jake when he was just a kid.

"I've been watching your games this season Jake, you have been doing very well this year, since I met you and saw you playing I always thought you had a basketball talent, but I'll admit that until this year I found it hard to imagine you playing in the NBA like the pro gamers, but now I can imagine you being very successful."

"Thank you, I was lucky to choose such a good team as the Tar Heels team, only in that team I think I would have the opportunity to play my best and play so many games, I hope we keep playing until we win the NCAA tournament."

"I hope so, I'm rooting for you and your team, but honestly seeing your team in the last few games I can't imagine you losing."

Tiffany was honest, unlike Eva, she was someone who knew basketball well after following Jake for a few years, yet she also thought that Jake played at university as he played at high school.

Of course, she knew that college basketball games were much harder than in high school, but even though it was harder the results were still the same, especially this string of multiple wins that the Tar Heels team had.

"What do you think about the coach I found for you, Jake?"

"I found Coach Davis very good, he has some difficulties with his family and so accepted my demands, but he still does his job very well and doesn't interfere with my plans for the year."

"And you plan to run a marathon this year?"

"Sure, I'm going to compete in some marathons until the Chicago marathon later this year, I don't plan on running in New York that year again, and I plan to win every marathon I run."

"That's great, I hope you win a lot of marathons this year, you have the world record now, you can't start losing this year."

Jake naturally did not intend to lose any marathon nor did he think it was possible to lose any marathon, but just as happened in New York a few years ago unforeseen events can happen.

"I came here to talk to you Jake, and because I want to tell you to prepare a few days for us a few months from now on your university vacation, my company and our company plan to make a commercial this year for our companies."

"So you decided to make a commercial? That's good, I'll prepare some time so, I hope sales will increase even more, but you remember you can't make any implications for basketball in commercials, right?"

"Of course, we remember that your agreement with the university does not allow, we hope to enjoy your popularity with basketball and the movie you made at the end of the year, by the way very good your acting in the movie, I watched, you did well in keeping a secret from me."

"Depending on when the commercials come out, it may end up using some popularity of the marathons I'm going to participate in mid-year."

"It would be nice, at the end of the year we will send you a report of the investments that our company will make, if you want to give some idea you can talk to Clara."

"No, I left everything in her hands, if she wants to buy me the shares I'll sell to her anytime, I'm too busy this year and don't understand much of sporting goods to give Clara any advice."

After that, they talked some more time and Tiffany soon left for Miami again, after all, she was president of her company and couldn't just go out and walk around whenever she wanted.

Jake had hoped Clara would want to make a new commercial this year because soon their contract would end and Jake said he would not renew again.

After that, he went back to college and talked to his friends all day, after that day in the batting cage Zack's brother would almost always come to talk to them.

Just as William had said Brett was very nice and even though Zack said he didn't like his brother he always had fun when Brett was with him, Aaron who also had an older brother said he should be just jealous.

The other day before Jake went to training with the basketball team he got a call, he answered naturally as only his closest acquaintances knew his number and hoped it was some friend.

"Hello, is this Jake Smith's phone?"

"Yes, I'm Jake Smith, who is it?"

"It's a great pleasure talking to you Mr. Smith, here is David Falk, I'm a sports agent and I got your number from reporter Eric, I'd like to meet with you today to talk."

"So it's Mr. Falk, I have some time later after basketball training and I can meet you."

Jake then arranged a dinner with David Falk, one of the greatest sports agents of the time. Jake didn't expect to meet anyone like this but soon realized that it was normal for skilled basketball players to be approached by sports agents.

Jake had never thought of hiring any sports agent before, but seeing how busy he was he realized that he probably wouldn't have time to talk to sponsors and NBA team managers about contracts while playing.

Jake also wanted time to run marathons and spend time with his mom and maybe even make some movies, and no one better than Michael Jordan's sports agent to get him a great deal.

A few years ago Jake didn't think of having a sports agent so he wouldn't have to give anybody part of the money he made, but after the meeting, he had with the Nike representative he realized that it wouldn't be that easy in the future.

Plus, with his investments and shares in various companies, Jake probably didn't even have to mind the few million that could be paid at most from commission to David Falk, it was the same with his investment company.

Clients like friends of Emily and Matthew's dad might find 10 percent too much for Jake to receive from commission for hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, but if it weren't for Jake they wouldn't have made those investments and made that money in the first place.

The same was true of a sports agent, it was the sports agent who got the sponsorship deals and best deals from the NBA managers, if Jake as an NBA novice wanted to negotiate a contract the NBA managers would probably laugh at him.

But if it was David Falk who was a multi-star agent like Michael Jordan surely an NBA manager and a Nike representative would respect a lot more when negotiating a contract.

Not to mention that David Falk had several contacts with companies that could pay a good sponsorship deal for Jake in his early years, so it seemed that having a sports agent was the best choice for Jake's career at the moment.

Later that day he went to meet David Falk, Jake hoped the conversation was just as Falk was not trying to hire Jake but to work as his sports agent and Jake was also interested.

"Hi Mr. Smith, it's a pleasure to meet you in person."

"It's a pleasure, Mr. Falk, you can call me Jake."

"Call me David then Jake, I'll confess I became your fan after this season of yours on the Tar Heels team, I hope you can win the NCAA tournament this year."Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I hope you can too, it's always good to win and I hate to lose."

"I realized from this great winning streak of your team, Hahaha."

"So what did you want to talk to me about before these important games, David."

"You can already imagine Jake, after seeing you playing this season I couldn't help but think that you could become the future NBA main player in a few years, and playing PG as your style no one will compare you to any player , you can create your own style and master the NBA with it."

Jake had to admit that he was a little excited after hearing the great David Falk saying that he could become the future NBA lead character in the coming years, especially since he was someone who had always been close to Michael Jordan.

Since his past life, Jake had a dream of being a great basketball player, in this life he was having this opportunity and didn't want to waste it so he trained so much and even lost marathons to playing college basketball.

Jake was already in a situation where he had the money to live the rest of his life from the investments in Matthew's companies and the investments his investment company made that he would have a part beyond the investments in the company Amazon that would guarantee billions of dollars to Jake in the future.

He could also dominate a sport like athletics if he kept pushing himself the way he was and maybe even getting other gold medals in different sports, but Jake still struggled in basketball and wanted to become a star and leave his name on history.

Still, Jake knew how difficult it was to realize this dream even with all his talent and the help of the system, so hearing David Falk saying something like that after playing a great season on the Tar Heels team made Jake more confident.

"I'm glad to hear you say that David, to be honest, I really am very ambitious with my career as a basketball player, I say nothing to others not to sound arrogant, but I really want to become an NBA star."

"I don't really care much about money, but I want to get paid just as much for my skills and achievements playing basketball, so I really want someone to find several companies to sponsor me."

"Besides, I want to get good contracts where I win what really reflects my value and in the contract I find possibilities to compete in marathons and maybe do other things like acting."

"After all, I know that only if I can really make a lot of money and make my team make a lot of money can I really be considered a basketball star."

Jake decided to say everything he really thought to David Falk, he knew very often that being too modest can cause a negative result, what David Falk was looking for was a star who had confidence in his abilities and had high ambitions.

Jake said he didn't need any money, but he still wanted to have a lot of advertising deals and great contracts with NBA teams, so he would let David Falk know that he could do his best to get Jake better and get a good commission.

Just as Jake thought David Falk was very pleased that Jake was ambitious because Jake had the ability to be arrogant if he wanted to, so David hoped Jake still wanted to run marathons even playing in the NBA and he could get it for him on contracts.

A team plays over 80 games a year and wouldn't mind if Jake lost 3 games a year to run and still bring more publicity to the team, as Jake didn't care about money but still wanted several sponsorship deals and the best contracts in basketball.

David didn't believe it at all, but he agreed with Jake's view that only a player making a lot of money and making a lot of money for the club would really be recognized as a basketball star.

"I can make sure that in your contract with your future NBA teams you have permission to lose some games if you need to compete in marathons."

"I myself believe this is very good for your image as an athlete and as an American citizen winning multiple marathons and continuing to win gold medals in the Olympics."

"Companies may not want to pay a lot for an athlete who only knows how to run, but you will be an NBA star who is also an athlete, this is unique and maybe it will be unique forever, so we have to use it to value your brand."

"You Jake Smith, you have to make your name a brand, you will have to become a brand, I know it is not very easy to do that, but we will have to preserve as much as possible your reputation and both social and professional life."

Jake wondered why David was saying this, many basketball players have hectic people lives and have fights with their teammates and coaches, but sports agents can't rule the basketball stars.

So some sports agents have to rush around to clean up the mess players make and try to protect the public image of the players, Jake could guarantee it wouldn't be because it wasn't his personality.

But even he could not deny that in the future he could end up having problems with other players and even with coaches of the basketball teams he passes, after all, something like this has happened in the past.

"I can say that I don't like doing things like this and my personal life will be pretty quiet, but I can't guarantee that I don't have problems with other players or coaches, it will depend on a lot of things, but I will try not to cause too many problems for you."

"It will be great if you try not to cause me too much trouble, some minor problems I can solve for you myself, after all, it's part of my job."

"Just like I told you, Jake, I think you're very talented and have a unique basketball style, besides, you're a marathon runner and a great one at that."

"So I think you can start out in the NBA with star status, in the first year you won't be so recognized, but in a few seasons I think you can be a major player and an NBA symbol like Michael Jordan is now."

"Also, it's great that you decided to go to university instead of going straight to the NBA, you could go to the NBA directly last year and get a good salary."

"But even with your talent, it would take you a few years to become a respected player and even longer become one of the top players on your team."

"It's like Kobe Bryant, a great player who decided to join the NBA directly instead of going to college, missed a great opportunity to gain much more recognition at the university and create a legacy and decided to join the NBA directly."

"I'm sure that in the next few years he will be on the bench at the beginning and only after a few years he will be able to play like the other players, but if he had spent those next few years at university he would receive much more recognition and improve his skills."

"I think he has the talent and could be one of the best NBA basketball players in a few years, but even if that happens I'll still think he missed that opportunity."

Jake was surprised by what David Falk was saying, Kobe Bryant was starting in the NBA now, and David Falk was talking exactly what would happen to him in the NBA, of course, Kobe Bryant must not have regretted joining the NBA before.

And in a few years, LeBron James would do the same as Kobe Bryant did, and just the Nike contract he would make would be worth going straight to the NBA, and LeBron James started playing in most games of the season since the first year.

But in reality today Jake himself knew that it would be a better option to play college first before joining the NBA, and with the help of the Jake system he could play up to 45 years old if he wanted to.

"I'll tell you something, the next few years will be complicated in the NBA and a lot of things will change in that time, even a few years later the situation may take a while to get back to normal."

"Maybe in just a few years even Michael Jordan and some great players will decide to retire, so it will be the end of an NBA era and no player can replace Michael Jordan today."

"So I think the coming years are the best time for newcomers like you to join the NBA, so you could build a legendary career and even become the new NBA head player just as Michael Jordan is now."

"It will all depend on the end of your talent and how much you are able to make in your NBA seasons, but I'm sure you're unique and it will get you critics' attention in the coming years."

Jake knew that David Falk was talking about the NBA stoppage that would take place in the 1998-99 season where for the first time in history the season would have less than 60 games, David Falk would be indirectly involved in that and so warned Jake.

After a few seasons earning more than $ 30 million a season, Michael Jordan has decided to retire on high than earning less than half in the next few years.

And David Falk was suggesting to Jake that maybe this would be a great opportunity for Jake to become one of the best and top NBA players while the whole NBA had the lowest audience attention.

So Jake thought David Falk might be looking for a client like Michael Jordan to keep earning a lot and feel motivated to work for the next 20 years, and Jake could be maybe that player or at least Shaquille O'Neal's level of skill and ability to make money.

"After saying all this I think we're pretty much already working together, don't you, David?"Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I hope so, as soon as you decide to leave university and join the NBA Draft I sign a contract with you, meanwhile I will talk more superficially with some sponsors and when you decide to join the NBA you may already have some proposals. "

"A Nike representative has already talked to me and offered me a very bad proposal a few months ago."

"So you don't want to work with them anymore? That's a shame, I have good contact with some Nike directors after a lot of deals I've done with them, but I can try to get a good deal with Adidas and Reebok."

"You got me wrong David, I want to work with Nike, in fact, I'm not interested in what other companies can offer before you try to get as much as possible from Nike."

David was confused about why Jake seemed to like Nike more than other companies, Nike has grown a lot in recent years thanks to the influence of Michael Jordan, but Adidas and Reebok were also big companies.

"I thought that because they had underestimated their value by offering a bad offer you wouldn't want to work with Nike, or would prefer Adidas or Reebok unless Nike offered an indispensable offer."

"That's because you don't know me, David, this is business and it's nothing personal, more than offended I'd say I was disappointed with Nike's offer, I thought they'd be smarter."

"After all a few months ago I had achieved a lot of things in the marathon and was playing very well at the university, with a decent offer I could sign with them and they could say they had signed with an Olympic champion and world record holder."

"Especially because I'm an American and they currently have more clients in the United States, and in the future at least it was almost certain that I would join the NBA, but they offered less than my other sponsors paid."

"You even know how fearful they are to make new contracts, even with Michael Jordan they asked for several clauses in case it didn't work out they could terminate the contract."

"And Michael Jordan wasn't annoyed at being underrated and renewed his contract with them a few years later."

David was amazed that Jake could calm down and think about it alone without having any unnecessary pride or arrogance, after all, Michael Jordan had him to advise making the most rational decision.

Also, times were different and even Michael Jordan thought it was normal for Nike to doubt that this deal could have worked, of course, he was glad he made that deal and lost a little at the time because he would continue to receive royalties for life by Nike for the shoe brand with his name.

"I think you're right and did well not to hold a grudge, which I don't understand is why do you prefer Nike over other shoe companies?"

"It's partly because of you, David, I believe Nike will make many billions in the future and win a lot of basketball market because of you and Michael Jordan, because of you the Nike brand will be much better known."

"For you too, many new talents will want to sign with Nike and they will grow even more so it will be good for me to associate with this growing brand."

David thought for a moment and realized that Jake was right, Nike had grown and gained a lot of market in recent years even though it was a less influential company than the other companies because of Michael Jordan.

Even after Michael Jordan retired he would still be an idol for many athletes, and other talented players might want to sign with Nike to try to replicate Michael Jordan's success just as Jake wanted to do.

"And like David yourself, with your Nike contacts and their trust in you, it will be easier to get a better contract with Nike for me, everyone believes that if you think I'll be a star then I'll probably be a star."

"I think you're right to think so Jake, so I'm going to talk to them too, looking like I'll try to convince you to sign a contract with them for my friendship with Nike."

"I will also say that you are much more interested in signing a contract with Adidas or Reebok, so they will have more pressure to offer a better offer if they believe you are talented as I believe."

Jake thought David's idea was great, he even remembered to warn David that his current annual sponsorship was over $ 4 million, so companies that wanted to renew with him would have to offer at least the same each year to get a contract.

Otherwise, it would be better for Jake to just renew his contract with the companies he works for now, David was impressed to see how much Jake received even though he had never had a sports agent and to convince himself even more of Jake's potential to make money.

After that meeting Jake wouldn't see David Falk for a while, after all, David had many clients in the company besides Jake who couldn't even pay him for now, but Jake believed David would keep looking for better sponsors for him as soon as he finished college.

So Jake now just had to concentrate on playing well and winning more marathons in the coming months to have a better chance of getting a contract, so in the next few days, Jake and the Tar Heels team continued to train while resting before the next game.

Everyone was looking forward to the next game and confident, after all, they came from a great winning streak that lasted for months and everyone felt that the team had been performing better in recent authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

So after a few days, the day of Sweet Sixteen's game came, if they won this game the Tar Heels team would have only three games to win the NCAA tournament, but the opponent of that game would not be easy and even Jake was worried about the outcome of the game.

The opponent was the California Golden Bears team who also had a great season this year and a very strong team, Jake remembered that this was a game where no one performed well and the team Tar Heels won by few points of advantage.

This was also because the best players of the California Golden Bears team were in this game without the best player of the team and the main responsible for the team has had this great season and reaching this stage of the NCAA tournament.

This player was Ed Gray who this season had an incredible average of over 24 points per game that was higher than Antawn Jamison's average, so Jake even thought that if Ed Gray played in this game the Tar Heels team could have lost.

So with Ed Gray not playing this game, Jake had to focus and do his best to ensure another easy win for Team Tar Heels, after a couple of hours both teams were ready for the game.

In the first half, Jake realized that only Jamison and Carter were better at this offensive game and Zwikker was catching up with Jamison, the rest of the team seemed to have difficulty playing well even though they were rested.

Knowing this Jake concentrated on making a few individual plays trying three-point shots, plus he always tried to play with Jamison and Carter, it was harder this way because within minutes of the first half the California Golden Bears team soon realized what Jake was doing.

That made it even harder to play with Jamison and Carter, yet with Jake's effort the Tar Heels team opened up more advantage in the first half, in one of the plays Jake received the ball after Zwikker caught the defensive rebound and advanced to the back attack.

Jake was always trying to make good use of the ball in every play of this game after all the team Tar Heels was winning and the team California Golden Bears was without the best player and so the players became more agitated and rushed to try to reverse the score as Time passed.

Jake advanced with the ball and after the middle of the court passed Jamison on the left, Jamison could not advance long before a player of California Golden Bears arrived in defense.

So Jamison moved to Williams who was playing in Okulaja's place for most of the first half, Williams was also getting the California Golden Bears marking because he wasn't playing badly in that game.

Williams tried to advance with a feint and speed, but the California Golden Bears defense was very good, so Williams passed the ball back to Jake, the plays went several times that way in the first half.

Over time the Tar Heels team players learned to trust Jake for most plays and especially in the most difficult times, as did Ed Cota for what Jake remembered in his past life.

But Jake got even more confidence from his teammates because even if he couldn't make the assist he could still score the points, Jake got the ball and made a foul by taking the California Golden Bears player off the pitch.

Soon another California Golden Bears player came to the defense and Jake made an alley-oop pass for Carter who took the ball high to make the dunk and 2 points for Tar Heels team, this move in a game like this was more a feature to make points than to give a show.

So in the first half with Jake having a good performance and being able to organize the plays even with the defense of the most difficult opponent team Tar Heels got a good advantage and was calmer in a difficult game like this.

"What a great first time for Jake in this game again, it's amazing how well he always performs, we can clearly see that this is his normal performance, his great performances are when he gets over 40 points or gets a triple-double."

"Jake may not be performing well, but it's not his fault, after all, Jake plays PG and if the team is not performing well he also can't stand out without making individual plays."

"I really don't understand, you can tell by seeing this game that the California Golden Bears team is working harder on defense because they are without their best player, but the Tar Heels team is complete."

"Even though the California Golden Bears defense is fine, it's hard to understand why the Tar Heels team is having such a hard time making the moves, only Jamison is performing well and Carter is playing only moderately."

"This is certainly something we cannot understand, but the Tar Heels team fans can rest assured that Jake is doing his part very well and is thus leading the Tar Heels team to an easier win."

Jake was really struggling to make moves involving his teammates to see them gain more confidence in the game and make a better match, in another move Jake made a steal intercepting a pass from the opposing team.

Jake decided not to run as in other plays and held the ball waiting for his teammates to advance to the attacking court, Jake advanced and after passing through the middle of the court passed the ball to Williams on the right.

Williams advanced and continued to advance on the left even after receiving pressure from the California Golden Bears defense, Williams passed the ball to Jamison who was on the left.

As soon as Jamison received the ball, he could see that California Golden Bears' defense was stronger in the painted area, so Jamison chose to step outside the three-point line and restart play.

Jamison wanted to pass to Jake, but soon a defender appeared in the path of his pass, so Jamison passed the ball back to Williams who was more to the left, Williams received the ball with some freedom.

In that first half of the game, the right side of the Williams He and Zwikker Tar Heels team attack was not enjoying Jake's passes, so when he received the ball more freely Williams stepped back and then attempted a three-point shot.

Unfortunately, the ball didn't come in and Williams missed the three-point attempt, Zwikker jumped and got the rebound and tried to push in to make another 2 points, but he also missed and then had to jump again to catch the rebound.

Zwikker did not attempt another attack and passed the ball to Carter on his left, Carter caught the ball and left the painted area and passed the ball back to Jake, Jake naturally had no problems with Shammond Williams and Serge Zwikker.

His reason for not passing the ball to them is because he knew they were not having a good game, so Jake held the ball to pass the time and thus made the opposing team more nervous as they were more than 6 points behind on the scoreboard.

When the time of possession was nearing its end Jake advanced into the three-point line, Jake made a quick crossover and took his defender off the pitch with this dribble, Jake took the speed boost and found a place to authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

With speed and agility, Jake drove to the basket and made a dunk to get 2 points more for the Tar Heels team, after this play that spent almost 1 minute the first half soon ended.

"A first half that looked more like a two-team defense attack and had no good times ended with the Tar Heels team to great advantage thanks to the good performance of Jake and Jamison."

"Carter has also had a good first half, but even he missed a few plays in that first half, and Williams was the wrongest in the attack along with Zwikker and the two almost didn't get many Jake passes."

"Jake knows his teammates very well and has never been selfish in the plays, he is often criticized even for not trying more individual plays, but if in this game he didn't pass the ball to Zwikker and Williams it was because he felt that his teammates were not having a good day."

"I understand who criticizes Jake for passing the ball too much, he should not even be a PG and should play SG for his box score statistics, he has over 65% hit rate on three-point shots and over 72% hit in the attempts total shots in the game."

"With such a performance I can understand why some people say Jake should try more than 15 shots of at least 3 points per game, so in fact, he would help the team a lot more."

"But if he did that he wouldn't have so many triple-double and a double-double in the games, moreover, just because Jake is like PG who can help the team so much in the games."

"But Ed Cota could also be a good choice for PG in this team, even playing a short time he has always made more than 2 assists in every game that comes in."

"But between leaving Jake as SG and taking Carter out to put Ed Cota who makes a lot of assists and doesn't score points and leaving Jake as PG who makes a lot more assists and still can always make more than 30 points per game the decision is obvious."

"Also, Jake himself says that if he made more than 16 three-point shots per game he would probably have a much lower hit rate in the games, so it's not worth it in the end."

Commentators talked about Jake's chances on the team with always in the break, the first half was over and Jake had played for 18 minutes and scored 18 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and 6 steals.

Jake wasn't able to assist much in this game with his teammates missing so much, but in defense, he was doing very well and thus further ensured the team's advantage.

What happened was that even with many steals, Jake had no way of knowing if the moves where he steals the ball or intercepts his opponents' passes would really prevent them from scoring or if his opponents would miss the attack anyway.

After all in several games, Jake made more than 7 steals or more and his opponents had as many points as he remembered to see in his past life, of course, that's not why he would stop stealing.

Coach Smith was unsure of what to do in the half-time but spent a few more moves and encouraged the team to play better, after all, he also realized that Williams and Zwikker were not well in the first half.

But Zwikker still helped a lot in defense and rebounds, and Williams struck two three-point shots in that game and was not playing so badly in addition to drawing attention from the opposing team's defense thus making room for his teammates to make the plays.

Defending the team was not a problem and when he put Okulaja in the game the team's attack didn't improve either, so Coach Smith could only hope that Jake would continue to play well.

In the second half of the game, the California Golden Bears team was losing by many points the game and so had to stop defending so much and try to attack more, this ended up giving Tar Heels more opportunities to attack.

Also, while attacking the Tar Heels team with Jake so well was very good in defense as well, it was almost impossible for opponents who didn't have a player like Tim Duncan to get offensive rebounds against the Tar Heels team.

When Ademola Okulaja was on the court the team's defense of the Tar Heels team was even better even though the team's attack usually got weaker, but against teams like California Golden Bears that were not attacking well in the game, Shammond Williams was a better choice.

In another play Jake had got another steal in the game to the desperation of team California Golden Bears, Jake as in the whole game preferred not to attack in a hurry and took advantage of the ball possession and the attack time.

Even though the Tar Heels team also had fewer attack opportunities this was the NCAA tournament's Sweet Sixteen game, and even scoring fewer points it was much better to secure the win.

After the team advanced Jake also went to the offensive court and after the middle of the court passed to Carter, Carter also did not hurry and calmly advanced from the left until before the three-point line.

Carter passed the ball to Williams on the right, Williams had been given a little scolding by Coach Smith for attempting too many individual plays and stopped risking more shots, Williams passed Jamison further left.

Jamison received the back pass to the basket and soon saw the defense arrive and had to move back to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and held for a while before attempting another crossover.

The opposing player in defense did not risk and went back in the painted area to not let Jake advance further, so Jake made a step back and was totally free to try the three-point shot.

So the game went on with Jake calmly leading the team to an easy win while the whole Tar Heels team also played very well in defense, with several three-point shots and many dunks and layup Jake also scored many points.

In the second half, Jake played for 19 minutes and scored 19 points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals, with this Jake performance Tar Heels team, won the game very easily by scoring 82 points against just 49 points.

"So the game ends with the expected victory of team Tar Heels in a game that had a big difference in the final score between the teams, but team Tar Heels was not playing that well."

"As well as Jake's excellent performance that ensured victory for the Tar Heels team and the good performance of Jamison and Carter also the Tar Heels team secured that easy victory today."

"I think you're being very tough with your assessment of the performance of the Tar Heels team players in today's game, everyone had a great defensive game and Williams scored 15 points hitting 5 three-point shots."

"Zwikker also got 9 rebounds in this game both defensive and offensive rebounds, I think this team has always played very well and that's why they have come so far in this NCAA tournament and it's a favorite to win."

"But of course if you compare Jake to his teammates it wouldn't be fair, even Jamison with 27 points would seem to have played poorly compared to Jake."

"I agree that this team has been playing very well this season and comes from a 22-win streak with today's game and could reach 25 wins if they win the last three games and are the champions of this NCAA tournament."

"But it's precisely because it's an elite team that I have to be so picky to judge if it wasn't for Jake on that team I'm sure they wouldn't have that big winning streak this season."

"Speaking of Jake it's a shame he didn't get a triple-double in today's game, with 2 more assists and 1 rebound he could get one more Quadruple-double even though it was a great performance."

As they did after every game the commentators spoke very well of Jake's performance in the game, the other players were not very upset that everyone said it was thanks to Jake that they won so much.

That's because, with such a big winning streak and the real chance of winning the NCAA tournament they had no reason not to be happy, it was the same with Jake's high school team as long as they kept winning nobody cared if everyone said it was just because of Jake.

Of course, it was different because the Tar Heels team also had great players who could win many games even without Jake on the team, but it was undeniable to all of them that Jake was important to the team.

In addition, they were confident that if they performed well the NBA team scouts would know their real quality in the games, and if they won an NCAA tournament that would surely greatly enhance their performance at the university.

So all the players just had to thank and be happy Jake was on the team, his teammates had even forgotten that at the beginning of the season they were jealous of Jake is the only one with a sponsorship.

With Jake's performance, this season as a freshman and the world record plus all the victories he had in the marathon it was certain that it was only fair that Jake was an exception at university, to complete Jake was always the best in his class in grades.

If someone wanted to use Jake's example to also get a university sponsorship loophole they would have to play very well and excel in two sports just like Jake and still have good grades, it was almost an impossible mission.

From returning to college Coach Smith asked everyone to rest until the next game, it would be in two days then the team would have only one day to rest before the next game, even if the players were not tired it was better not to risk it.

Jake spoke to her mother who had watched the whole game over the phone upon arrival at university, Eva was very happy for Jake and as the weeks went by watching television she began to realize how different games at university were in importance from games at the high school.

So she was even happier knowing that her son was winning even though the games were more difficult and important, Eva always had confidence that Jake would become a pro and play in the NBA as he had always wanted since the age of 10.

His roommates were also happy to see Jake being so successful on the Tar Heels team at the university, the strange thing was that since they were Jake's friends they couldn't see him as one of their idols who played on the Tar Heels team a few years ago.

It was normal if it was thought that it is often difficult to see people close to each other differently even when they become famous or suddenly rich, after all, people do not change suddenly and remain the same as their closest friends and family.

After two days the day of the next game soon arrived, this was the game between the teams that qualified for the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament, this was an honor that all players wanted to spend at least once at the university.

The opponent of this game was the strong team Louisville Cardinals who had a very strong team and had a great season too, the players of team Tar Heels were nervous to have come so far in the NCAA tournament.

Coach Smith did not require any training but instead asked the players to think hard about the strategies and formations the team would use in this game, only Jake was more relaxed in this game.

As far as he was concerned, the Tar Heels team easily won this game contrary to what everyone expected, even though with Jake this team was different it was possible to have as a reference that the team would be well in the game and the Tar Heels team attack was effective against the Louisville Cardinals team.

From what Jake also remembered, the Louisville Cardinals team's defense wasn't very good this season and they always tried to score more points than their opponents with their players who were good at three-point shots.

After a few hours, both teams were ready for the start of the game, with Jake playing the Tar Heels team was a favorite for this game and everyone expected another easy win for the Tar Heels team again.

In the early minutes of the first half unlike previous games Jake decided to accelerate the attacking pace of the team, the team Tar Heels was strong in attacking Jake did not want to take advantage of possession and worked with his team to reach the points.

In one of the first plays Jake advanced into the attack quickly and only passed the ball to Carter before the three-point line, Carter attempted a feint and managed to get past the opponent to the painted area.

The Louisville Cardinals defense soon adapted and tried to stop Carter's breakthrough, so Carter passed Jake back again, Jake passed the ball quickly to Williams who was free in the back of the court on the left.

Williams received Jake's pass and was clear off the three-point line, so he did not hesitate and tried the outside shot to score three points for the Tar Heels team. William was surprised to receive the pass early in the game because in the Last game Jake made few assists for him.

For everyone on the Tar Heels team, Jake's style of play was a mystery and no one could know who he would pass the ball to, only Jake knew he chose who he knew was good at passing the ball.

In another move, Jake advanced with speed again and his teammates followed because it had been the whole game that way, after passing through the middle of the court Jake passed the ball to Carter on the left.

Carter quickly advanced too and held the ball even before the three-point line and passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison received the ball and soon received the strong defense from Louisville Cardinals, so Jamison had to pass to Williams on the right.

Williams received the ball and had the opposing defense very close and had to pass the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and just walked off the three-point line while having only one player in defense.

Jake made a feint using speed and took his defender off the pitch and advanced into the three-point line when team defender Louisville Cardinals broke up to defend against Jake he made an alley-oop for Zwikker who jumped and caught the high ball to make the dunk and two more points for the team Tar Heels.

"What a great first half start for the Tar Heels team, they have been hitting almost every attack and thus managed to open the lead for the Louisville Cardinals team, if continuing this will be another victory for the Tar Heels team."

"True, Jake has been playing as well as ever, he has been instrumental since the first game of the ACC tournament, with Jake the whole team can play the best in the game safely and ensure the outcome."Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Sure enough, Jake has been doing great in these knockout games, but all season Jake has been performing consistently and we've never seen a game where he's been bad."

"The whole Tar Heels team this season is made up of great players, but in many games, we see Williams, Zwikker, Jamison, and Carter having ups and downs and some great and bad performances, but Jake always maintains a minimum standard which gives more security to the team."

The commentators spoke what the NBA team scouts also noticed, even though many criticized Jake for sometimes trying to pass when he could simply shoot the three-point himself.

It was undeniable that Jake was the kind of player that all NBA teams needed, scored high points, was good at defending, knew how to organize the team and pleased all fans which could improve the ticket sales of the team he played.

The first half continued and as time went on, everyone would realize that the Tar Heels team was doing very well in today's match, so by the end of the first half, the Tar Heels team had a very comfortable lead for that game.

In that first half, Jake played for 19 minutes and managed to score 24 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals, with this excellent performance especially in the three-point shoots Tar Heels team was quiet in the game at the end of the first half.

On the other hand, the more time passed the more anxious the Louisville Cardinals players became if the Tar Heels team attack was fast with Jake the other side the Louisville Cardinals attack was slow.

The biggest reason besides the excellent defense of Team Tar Heels was that the coach of Louisville Cardinals asked the players to avoid passing the ball near Jake, the coach was concerned about the many steals and interceptions that Jake made in the games.

So the Louisville Cardinals team took longer to attack, but they didn't miss too many passes and didn't miss as much attack unless they missed mid-range and three-point shots.

Even so, when the Louisville Cardinals team did not try to dodge Jake he got 3 steals in the first half, after which the Louisville Cardinals players became more cautious and tried to avoid authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

So in the second half, the Louisville Cardinals players tried even harder to make moves away from Jake, but the moves only slowed down and the Louisville Cardinals players still scored.

"This was already happening in the first half of the game, but it seems that players of the Louisville Cardinals team are avoiding attacking and passing the ball where Jake was defending, I've seen it happen with big Centers, but rarely with a PG."

"I think it's a good decision for the Louisville Cardinals team to do that, taking off the rebounding and blocking abilities Jake is the best defender of the Tar Heels team, and we all know that he can take several rebounds and block if he wants to. in another game."

"So I think it's valid for the Louisville Cardinals players to try to avoid making plays near Jake in this game."

"I don't agree, that way they lose space to attack her and a player in the attack being defended by Jake, if he always made multiple blocks in games I could accept it too, but just for some steals it's not worth it."

"You may not have looked at the statistics on Jake's box score this season, but he made 191 steals before this game, with the three of them today he reaches 194 steals this season and may still have two more games after today, he has already broken the previous record."

The other commentator did not know this information and was surprised, he saw Jake always making multiple assists and over 30 points in most games, but did not know that Jake had already become the player with the most steals in a season, and this is the season of him as a freshman.

"And even though some might imply that he did it because he played more than 32 games this season, we can't forget that for at least 4 games Jake didn't play for 20 minutes and in some, he didn't play for 15 minutes."

"Knowing Jake's statistics on steals is normal for team coach Louisville Cardinals to avoid Jake in offensive plays."

Jake didn't know they were talking about him and kept playing normally, in fact, he didn't even know he had broken this record that the commentator was talking about, after all in many games he couldn't even make 5 steals.

In addition, the NBA steal statistic was not much appreciated by players and even fans, many players hardly ever average 1 steal per game in their career and the highest average players only have 2 steals per game.

Jake could not know the reason for that for sure, but it could be related that against more skillful opponents steal attempts can end up being fouls, so a player cannot often try the steal so as not to end many fouls.

Jake didn't have this problem because his reflexes and speed of thinking were so fast, so he could act much faster and even give up trying to steal if he could be missed in a few moves.

Also, most of the steals that Jake got in games were intercepting passes and not really steal the ball in the opposing players, this he could continue to do without risking a foul even in the NBA.

The game continued in the second half with the Tar Heels team maintaining the lead and the players became more confident and seemed to get more right while the Louisville Cardinals players seemed to get more anxious as time went on.

In one of the plays, Jake was passing inside the painted area after losing the fight for the defensive rebound and managed to intercept a pass that would go to the Center of Louisville Cardinals.

The player who missed the pass was annoyed to see this, it was hard for the Louisville Cardinals team to get an offensive rebound in today's game and they ended up losing the attack with Jake whom they were avoiding by stealing.

Jake took advantage of this move and used his speed to attack, but no player on the Louisville Cardinals team could keep up with Jake's speed so he could finish the move with a dunk to score 2 points for Tar Heels team.

In another play after Louisville Cardinals scored 2 points Jake received the ball to start the attack for Team Tar Heels, he advanced quickly and passed the ball to Jamison after passing the middle of the court.

Jamison received the ball and advanced until after the three-point line and with a feint and a crossover managed to get rid of the opponent, Jamison advanced and passed the ball to Carter when another player arrived for defense.

Carter went free into the painted area and when he went up to layup he suffered a foul, but still managed to score 2 points and still got a try for Free Throw, everyone was excited about this move could be a three-point play if Carter hit the Free Throw.

In games, Jake was rarely missed because his body was too strong and Jake was too fast, only rarely did this happen in games and it happened more when the Tar Heels team were few points in front of the scoreboard and the opposing players wanted to stop the clock.

That's why Jake had a 100% hit rate on Free Throw, as he didn't have many Free Throw to try and commentators didn't talk about it, yet the whole Tar Heels team had high hit rate being the season average of 70% average.

Carter converted Free Throw and scored 1 more by making it a three-point play, with the fast pace of the Tar Heels team being more common in this game seeing plays like this were only 3 players touched the ball before the team scored the points.

Jake was making more quick plays because all the players on the Tar Heels team were performing very well in today's game, so Jake also had more opportunities to make three-point shots.

In that second half, Jake played for 20 minutes, Coach Smith let Jake played for the entire time of the second half as the team would play again just after almost a week of rest.

In these 20 minutes of the second half, Jake managed to make 29 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals, with this incredible performance of Jake doing a triple-double Tar Heels team won the game much more easily than anyone thought.

The Tar Heels team managed to win the match by making 133 points against just 68 points from Louisville Cardinals team, Jake alone made a triple-double with 53 points, 18 assists, and 11 rebounds.

"What an amazing game that Team Tar Heels played today, almost double points than Team Louisville Cardinals, exactly 65 points more than their opponents in a game at the NCAA Elite Eight tournament is something no one expected."

"Jake also had another game to go back to history, another triple-double and his second game scoring over 50 points this season, scoring 53 points is really amazing."

"And it can't even be said that this was Jake's best performance this season, after all, he had a game in which he made a quadruple-double."

"True, the important thing was that not only did Jake have a good game and the whole team played well, so they are sure to be very confident in the next game."

"That's right, the Tar Heels team had a great season this year and especially in the last few games and now the team is in the NCAA Tournament Final Four, and even though this is a great achievement for the Tar Heels team I'm sure with Jake on the team they will try to win the NCAA tournament."

Just as commentators said the Tar Heels team players returned to university very excited after this victory, so Jake was very happy because he had a great performance and the whole team played very well.

Jake celebrated a lot with his mom on the phone and his roommates, in the next few days everyone could rest well before the next game and Jake wanted to train well this week because after the end of this season with the basketball team he would still have to run some marathons.

Thanks to the system and his year-round training, Jake felt he was still better than last year's race, yet he couldn't relax because he knew he was competing with the best runners in the world.

Jake also felt that Coach Davis's training routine was making a difference, he was training briefly and he still had to miss several days of training because of the games, so he would only know for sure in a few months.

That meant Jake wouldn't have a vacation like the other players on his team, fortunately even though he had to run marathons Jake would still have time to stay in Miami with his mother, after all, he wasn't used to being months without seeing Eva yet.

Especially since Jake had seen Eva die in her past life, and even after spending more than 7 years with her and knowing she was fine in the restaurant, it was hard for him to forget the feeling of knowing his mother was dead.

Jake even thought of taking Eva and opening a new restaurant for her in the city where his NBA basketball team is, but he would have to talk to his mother because even if she was in the same city as him, Jake would still spend most of the year traveling to play.

Even though Jake was pleased with his current life, after all he thought he was very relaxed for almost 15 years in his past life just working and doing what he wanted, in this life he wanted to make every effort to fulfill all the dreams and wishes he had.

Also, Jake found out in this life that he was really very competitive and didn't like to lose, so he was still very happy even playing for several months if he didn't lose and in marathons, he almost always won and Jake also enjoyed running.

Jake had already increased Zack's running training to almost 20 km a day with a rest day after a day of running, Jake also spent part of the training that Coach Davis did for him for Zack.

What Jake intended was that after a few more months Zack would be able to run a full marathon and with Zack's previous training it would take almost a year for him to run a marathon.

Aaron was also fortunately completely recovered from the injury he had, so Aaron had already started doing some light physical training to regain his fitness, after all after the injury Aaron eventually gained some weight from being depressed.

As Aaron plays as WR he had to be in great shape to handle the races and the race to receive QB passes, it seemed that early next year he could try to get a seat on the university's football team.

For him who was nearly two semesters injured was a joy to be able to retrain, Jake hoped that Aaron could really play again, fortunately, Aaron's physiotherapist said that as he spent more time in recovery he had no sequelae of the injury and his body I was totally healthy.

Over the next few days, Jake did his marathon training and had no training with the basketball team, but after three days of rest, Jake advised Coach Smith to train for the next few days even if it was a little.

"I don't know why you're asking for it Jake, our team is at the end of the season and all the players are tired, I know you have more stamina than other players, but the others need these next few days to rest and be well for this important game."

"I know that coach, but I have a feeling this next game will be very difficult for our team, even though I don't have confidence that our team can win the game for sure."

"It's the same as what I felt in the games against Team Wake Forest when you said I wouldn't play for missing training, but this time with me playing I'm worried that our team might lose."

Jake was really worried after resting for a few days, just after the excellent game that Team Tar Heels had Jake was full of confidence and so didn't even think about the next game and just wanted to rest and do his marathon training.

But after a few days when the excitement of victory passed Jake began to worry, after all in his past life his team lost the next game, so far he was very confident because his team would win this game even in his past life without him playing.

In addition, Jake had more confidence that with him playing Team Tar Heels could win games that would normally lose without him playing, proof of this was that after the game against team Wake Forest the Tar Heels team have not lost any games, even though in his past life they had lost another 4 games.

But despite being confident Jake couldn't help but worry, because the other games were normal games, but this next one would be a game in the NCAA tournament Final Four and if the Tar Heels team lost they would be eliminated and the season would be over.

Still confident Jake decided to try to do a few more things before the next game, and the only thing he can think of was to talk to Coach Smith for the team to train a little more before the next game even though it probably made no difference.

Coach Smith saw that Jake was really serious and worried about the next game, which was not good because Jake was the main player of the team and should be calm and confident before the next game.

In addition, Coach Smith recalled that sometimes this season as well as the Wake Forest team match where Jake said that Team Tar Heels could lose and Coach Smith had to acknowledge that in those games if it wasn't for Jake to team would lose.

So after some thought he decided to do some more training before the next game, so that could calm Jake more and give him more confidence before the next game, and training more would not hurt the team.

"Alright then, Jake, in the next few days we'll have some more training."

Jake was very happy about it and was more relieved to think that he had done everything he could before an important game like this, now he just had to focus on making the best performance in the next game, Jake remembered one more thing and told to Coach authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Coach Smith, in the next game I will personally score Mike Bibby and recommend that the coach send some players to watch out for Miles Simon, I think they will be the most dangerous in the next game."

"That's right, you can defend against Mike Bibby and I'll tell the other players about Miles Simon."

After Jake left Coach Smith was thoughtful for a while, he remembered that the last time Jake asked to tag someone he had made 11 blocks in the game, he didn't expect anything like this to happen again, but if Jake could play better than which in other games would be great for the team.

Coach Smith brought the team together to inform them that everyone would have training in the next few days before the next game, to his surprise no player was upset and on the contrary, it seemed that everyone wanted more training before the next game.

So Coach Smith told the players about Miles Simon and warned everyone to be careful in the next game against the Arizona Wildcats team, Jake was also training seriously and so all players started to feel the pressure of the next game and began to train more seriously.

After a few more days the day of the Final Four game finally arrived, contrary to what Jake was thinking everyone thought the Tar Heels team was a favorite to win this game.

Especially because of the team's excellent winning streak and better season than the Arizona Wildcats team, besides, what was being talked about everywhere in the country was about Jake's great freshman season.

Jake had already broken a number of records this season and impressed everyone with a unique style of play in which it looked like he could play in every position on the court and could do everything.

In addition, three-point shots averaging over 60% were the highlight of the season and in recent years in college basketball, many said Jake should go to the NBA draft this year after this season.

The RCA Dome was packed with people who came to watch this game, plus those who came to cheer for both teams had many who came just to watch Jake play, everyone was talking about whether Jake would do another triple-double, or a quadruple-double, or another game of more than 50 points.

After a few more hours the two teams were ready to start the game, the Arizona Wildcats team came with the initial lineup with Mike Bibby, Miles Simon, A.J. Bramlett, Michael Dickerson, and Bennett Davison.

The Tar Heels team came with the initial line-up with Jake Smith, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Ademola Okulaja, and Serge Zwikker, before the game Jake advised that it was better to put Okulaja in the game in place of Williams to improve the team's defense.

Jake's opinion as the best player on the team was very important to Coach Smith before such an important game, so Coach Smith did what Jake suggested, only Jake knew he recommended it because Williams was playing so badly in that game.

In this game Jake could only count on Carter and Jamison in the attack, the two would be playing well in this game and the others would be bad in the attack, it didn't affect Jake much because he always trained more with Jamison and Carter throughout the season.

In rebounds he would count on both Zwikker and himself to get more attack for the team and prevent the team from Arizona Wildcats having more chances to score points, so soon the most important game for Jake so far would begin.

"Soon we will see another exciting game this season, the Tar Heels team playing against the Arizona Wildcats team in an NCAA Final Four game."

"The Tar Heels team has been having a great season with just two losses and Jake playing very well and being a revelation like we haven't seen in college basketball for a long time."

"Arizona Wildcats has been having a very good season as well, but they haven't won as much as Tar Heels, however, one of Tar Heels's only two defeats this season was in the first game of that season for Arizona Wildcats."

"Will Team Tar Heels' third defeat this season be another for Team Arizona Wildcats? Or will team Tar Heels advance to the final and get a rematch against team Arizona Wildcats?"

"We'll see all this in the game that will start next."

Soon the game began and the Tar Heels team started to take the lead, Jamison and Carter were fine and Jake was also, in the first 5 minutes the Arizona Wildcats team scored just 2 points and the Tar Heels team had 21 points.

It was the same as Jake remembered in his past life, it was as if the Arizona Wildcats team had not really entered the game in those first 5 minutes, but the Tar Heels team missed more and then lost control of the game by what Jake remembered in your past life.

However in this game, Jake knew well how to use these minutes to open a great advantage, now he would have to be careful to maintain and increase that advantage that would be enough to win the game.

In one move Jake received the ball after Zwikker got a rebound, Jake advanced calmly with the ball, the Arizona Wildcats coach had asked for a time after Tar Heels had 19 points lead in 5 minutes.

So Jake wanted to save more time for the Arizona Wildcats players to start getting anxious after going through the middle of the court. Jake passed the ball to Carter.

Carter was excited about this early start and had already scored 6 points, Carter advanced to pass the ball to Okulaja on the right, Okulaja advanced and held the ball a little before moving to Zwikker, Zwikker felt the pressure from Arizona Wildcats defender and passed it back to Jake.

Jake made a feint and took Bibby out of play and made a pass for Jamison that crossed the defense, Jamison received the ball with freedom and advanced to layup and get 2 more points for the team Tar Heels.

In another play shortly thereafter, the Arizona Wildcats team worked the play well and the ball went through several players until it reached Simon, Simon attempted a three-point shot and Carter lost time and could not defend.

So Simon scored his first three points in the game and was happy, but he did not know that his points alerted all players of Team Tar Heels and Coach Smith of the warning that Jake had made.

Another similar move came soon after and this time Carter was more attentive and managed to hinder the attempt to shoot from outside of Simon and Jake caught the rebound calmly, Jake advanced with the ball calmly and can already perceive the players of the team Arizona Wildcats beginning to get agitated.

After passing through the middle of the court Jake passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison, who was also playing well having scored 6 points early in the game, advanced with ease, after advancing further he passed the ball to Okulaja on the right.

Okulaja tried the trick and when he failed to hold the ball and passed back to Jake, Jake made a crossover and tricked Bibby who was in defense, but instead of stepping forward Jake stepped back and tried an outside shot to make three more points for the Tar Heels team.

After a few more minutes the game was halfway through the first half and was much quieter, but the Tar Heels team led by 24 points and the Arizona Wildcats team became increasingly agitated by this difference.

The game was similar to what Jake remembered in his past life, but the Tar Heels team gave a lot of space after the first 5 minutes and so after the 10 minutes the Arizona Wildcats were just 2 points behind on the scoreboard.

"A very good start for the Tar Heels team, the game started at a very fast pace and after 5 minutes we saw the Tar Heels team with a 19 points lead, then unexpectedly Jake slowed down and the Tar team Heels started to enjoy almost all the time of possession."

"This seems to have worked very well because with that the Tar Heels team did not make many mistakes and the advantage only increased now after we got in the middle of the first half."

"I thought Jake took control of the game at the right time, with 19 points already enough to ensure victory at the end of the game, so Jake decided it was time to just manage the advantage even if it was just at the beginning of the game."Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Now over time the Arizona Wildcats team will have to push harder to try to recover in the game and reduce that lead on the scoreboard, but I don't think Jake will allow it."

"Another thing we have to talk about at the beginning of the game is that the defense of the Tar Heels team is very good, which is why Coach Smith decided to put Okulaja in place of Williams in the initial lineup."

Just as the commentators said Jake just decided to keep up the pace and manage the result, in other games he would not try to do that and would just try to make even more points to win more easily, but he was very concerned and unsure about this game.

Coach Smith realized what Jake was trying to do and I supported his idea, after all the important thing was for the Tar Heels team to win, and with Jake's three-point shots it was more assured that Jake could control the outcome of the game.

At the end of the first half due to nervousness the Arizona Wildcats team made a lot of mistakes and Jake used most of those mistakes to make more points, he always wanted to arm every move so that his team didn't make mistakes.

So the game continued and at the end of the first half Tar Heels ended up winning the game with a big advantage of 28 points, Jake played for every 20 minutes of the first half and made 21 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 6 steals and, 2 blocks.

"What a great first half for the Tar Heels team, at the beginning of the game both teams attacked quickly and in the first 5 minutes the Tar Heels team already had 19 points ahead, then Jake held the pace and made sure that almost all thrown at his hands."

"This turned out very well because with that great advantage and with a slower pace of play the team Tar Heels were just having more advantage, Jake played very well in defense and took advantage of the Arizona Wildcats nervousness in the second half of the first half to make 2 blocks and most of him 6 steals."

"The Tar Heels team played very well, Carter and Jamison played very well, but surely Jake was primarily responsible for this great advantage of the Tar Heels team in the first half."

"We could see that both teams were very anxious in the early minutes and it was amazing to see Jake deciding to just calm down without coach Smith asking for a time, clearly Jake had control over that first half."

At half-time Coach Smith asked all players to listen to Jake in the game and pass the ball over to him to pitch, everyone understood that Jake had a great decision early in the game and knew they could rely on this freshman.

One thing Coach Smith meant was for Jake to stop trying to defend against Bibby, because Bibby only tried two three-point shots in the first half and Jake made the block in one of them, but it was Simon who was playing better in that game.

Even with Coach Smith's warning to the players Simon still managed to score some points in the first half and was the Arizona Wildcats team's main player in that game offensively.

But in the end, Coach Smith decided to rely on Jake's judgment, after all the team was winning with a lot of advantage and with Jake in the game he could say the game was practically won by the Tar Heels team.

In the first 10 minutes of the first half of that second half the Tar Heels players were playing poorly, even Carter and Jamison were not playing well and even in the defense that was the highlight of the team was going badly.

Jake realized that too and saw that it could be a turning point for this game even with the advantage of 28 points, so in those first 10 minutes of the second half, Jake was fighting for all the balls in defense.

He always tried to catch the rebounds and not allow the opposing team to score as many points while still defending against Bibby, so at the beginning of the second half he scored 15 points hitting 5 three-point shots in 7 attempts.

In addition, he made 4 blocks, 3 of them in Bibby and one of them in Simon, plus some steals, yet he couldn't stop the lead from falling to 24 points, but Jake was happy because he knew the hard part of the game had finished.

"What a bad start to the second half for the Tar Heels team, with such an advantage they shouldn't play that bad at any point in the game, if it wasn't for Jake in that early game the advantage they accumulated in the first half could have diminished or to vanish."

"Just as you said the Tar Heels team played very poorly at the beginning of this second half, it could be said that besides Jake it was the worst game of that team this season and what's worse in the Final Four game against a strong team like Arizona Wildcats team."

"True, it can't happen to either team playing a part of the game as badly as the Tar Heels team has been playing, but we have to also say about Jake's 15 points in those first 10 minutes of the second half."

"Anyone who hears about this thinks he's playing quietly, but no, sometimes there are two players in defense against him, and Jake can find space to try the three-point shot, even though he missed two shots off, the moment the team lives in the game, Jake's 15 points is even more important."

Coach Smith called the whole team to talk after asking for a break, only Jake received no scolding from the coach, after which the players seemed to have cheered up a bit.

Jake knew that in the second half the Tar Heels team could not play very well, so he just tried to make the right plays with Jamison and Carter who were playing better in today's game.

In another move Jake received the ball and advanced calmly, after passing the middle of the court he passed the ball to Carter, Carter advanced the ball and passed to Okulaja, Okulaja held the ball and passed to Jake behind the three-point line.

Jake made a feint that deceived Bibby and made an alley-oop for Carter to catch the ball in the air and make a dunk to score 2 points for Team Tar Heels, the end of the game was coming and Jake made 2 alley-oop with Jamison also in this second time.

Thus at the end of the game the team, Tar Heels won by 92 points against 52 of the Arizona Wildcats team, Jake played for 20 minutes in that second half and made 22 points, 4 assists, 9 rebounds, 6 steals, and 6 blocks.

Coach Smith did not want to risk a difficult game like this and let Jake play the 40 minutes of the game, and it was the right decision because Jake was the one who ensured Tar Heels's victory in that game.

"What an exciting game, even though not playing well, the Tar Heels team managed an easy win with a great performance from Jake and a good game from Carter and Jamison."

"This was certainly a game in which the team Tar Heels only won because Jake was in the team, he made a quadruple-double in that game with over 40 points scored, so what Jake did in the first half of the first half we can see how he led the team to this victory."

"After this game where Jake led the team alone to the NCAA tournament win and final, I think there's no doubt that he deserves the best player of the year at the university and the NCAA Tournament MVP award."

"True, we hope that the players from the Tar Heels team will play better in the next game, only if all players perform well will the Tar Heels team have a chance to win this NCAA tournament."

After this end of the game the team Tar Heels returned to university, all the way Coach Smith said nothing to the players and with that everyone was more nervous, even with that win and the team going to the NCAA tournament final, no one was happy about it for the team's performance.

Only Jake was more relaxed and was quite happy with the team going to the NCAA tournament final, he naturally knew that the team would not perform well in this game and just hoped that because of it they could play better.

So he was undecided about whether the team could win this game even with him playing, which is also why he told Coach Smith to ask the players to defend against Simon after all the team played this game well and helped to win.

Jake was already preparing well before to have to take responsibility and play very well in this game, he made another quadruple-double and the most important was that the team won.

Also, with Carter and Jamison playing very well in today's game it made it much easier for Jake to play so well and for the team to win, Jake always thought that with two other players besides him playing well they could win almost any game.

As soon as everyone got to college Coach Smith found everyone at the Dean Smith Center to talk to the players, everyone on the team besides Jake was nervous, even Carter and Jamison who had made a great game were nervous about this conversation.

"I'll have to say, after this game I couldn't help but be disappointed with our team, even if I didn't expect much from you in this game I would still be disappointed, so imagine how I was even more disappointed when I expected you to were the champions of this NCAA tournament?"

The players were all quiet and ashamed as they listened to what Coach Smith was saying, the worst for them was that they had betrayed the coach and fans' confidence in this game.

"I'll assume that I have some fault with that too, the team had been playing so well and in the last game we had maybe the best performance this season that I thought didn't need to talk to you guys to play well in this game."

"I just didn't think it was the same team as the last game, it looks like in a week off you got worse than you were before, I didn't expect that."

"Defensively at least you had a good performance on this game, Carter and Jamison also played well and especially Jake who saved our team from losing this game even when the whole team was playing poorly."

"Our next game is this season's final and the NCAA tournament final, I don't even have to say how important this game is to your basketball career or even to the life of those who don't want to go pro."

"If you win the next game all of your names will be in history as is the name of Michael Jordan and many other players, in two days we will have this game so I will let you rest, don't let me down again in this final."

Jake was the only one more relaxed with this conversation, he just sat down and pretended that Coach Smith wasn't talking to him, after all, he knew he had done very well in this game and all season, but he had to admit that the coach Smith knew how to motivate players.

He showed his dislike for this last game and criticized the team while praising who had a good game and the team's good defense, which is why he has managed to coach the team so well for many years and win several titles.

Jake was perhaps the only one who knew this year would be Dean Smith's last year as coach of the Tar Heels team, so even though it seemed that Coach Smith didn't like him very much, Jake was still trying to learn as much as he could from him, especially in authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Jake later celebrated with his friends who also went to watch the game and with Eva, Eva had said that if Jake was the NCAA tournament final she would definitely go with Anna to watch the game even having to close the restaurant for a day.

In fact, Jake didn't know, but Eva had already refused months of reservation at the restaurant for the day of the NCAA tournament's final game, showing how confident she was that Jake's team would reach the final.

Jake was much more relaxed about the next game that hadn't happened in his past life, so he didn't have to worry about a lot of things and just play the best he could.

The downside to this was that he couldn't know who was playing well before the game began, but with Jake's intelligence and his familiarity with his teammates within minutes he would know who was playing well or not.

Jake's roommates were even more excited than he for this game, they were surprised to learn that Jake was on the college basketball team, but they could never imagine that Jake would become the team's first player in his first year and that Tar Heels team reached the NCAA tournament final.

The Tar Heels players were already like idols to the other college students who followed and liked basketball, Jake especially that even trying to be humble drew a lot of attention in the classes he attended, especially for the good grades he had.

William and the others naturally also had more friends and some even had a few girlfriends for a short time just being Jake's roommates and friends, only Jake in the class had no relationship this year.

The other day while the players rested Tiffany and Clara, as well as John and Alan, appeared as Jake's sponsors to watch the game the other day and to congratulate Jake on this great achievement.

Knowing this Jake first scheduled lunch to talk with John and Alan earlier and a dinner to talk with Tiffany and Clara, after all even though they were his sponsors, Jake treated them differently.

Jake hoped everyone would come right before the final game, even if Jake had a contract prohibiting him from relating his sponsors to college basketball, it was obvious that Jake was playing so well and his team was in the NCAA tournament final is very good for his sponsors.

"Congratulations Jake, it was a great debut season you had at college basketball this year."

"That's right, coming to the NCAA tournament final and winning the ACC tournament is an amazing start."

"Thanks, I'm glad to see you both here, John and Alan."

"Of course I would come, you are one of the best college basketball players and also one of the players who have the most potential to become an NBA star, plus you still have your marathon achievements, it was very lucky for me company to sign a contract with you."

"I agree, my company just wanted to know what it was like to have a sports rep of ours, after all, a razor company doesn't have much to do with athletes, but after having this contract with you our company is selling more than ever."

"Of course I know that we are selling so well because we are sponsoring you and it wouldn't work out so well with other athletes, but it was the best investment our company has made in recent years and I got a lot of promotions from my work for it."

Jake was also very happy to have John and Alan as representatives of his sponsors, even though he didn't need that money was very supportive and Jake received a lot of confidence getting so much money even though he is not an NBA player.

"Plus, with our investment in last year's commercials we won't have to make any new commercials over the next two years, so we just have to keep the commercials being broadcast on television."

"Do you think your team is likely to win the NCAA tournament this year?"

"I think our team is a favorite for this final if the players on my team play well and it doesn't happen like yesterday's game I have confidence that we will be the champions."

Jake was very confident because in his past life the team they defeated in the last game would be the winning team, just as Jake playing the Tar Heels team was a favorite to win this final.

This made John and Alan more reassured and confident about the victory of Team Tar Heels because everyone who cheered for Team Tar Heels became more worried after the last game, but they knew that if Jake was confident it was quite possible that the team Tar Heels won because Jake led the team to the victories.

"And are you ready for the marathons you will have on your vacation? Just give me a list of which marathons you will want to attend that I sign you up, I have already received several important marathon invitations inviting you to participate, but as you told me to just refuse during the season I am just refusing."

"I do intend to participate in several marathons, after all, I am also a marathon runner and I love running and I am not just a basketball player, if I do not run even this year I am in college I can not even think about continuing to compete when I am in the NBA."

John was very happy to hear that, he could imagine how tiring it was to play a whole season like college basketball which is so much more intense and more games than in other sports.

Alan didn't care much about that, but John knew that besides the incredible talent Jake was most special about was that he could compete at a high level in two major sports like basketball and athletics, so if Jake gave up running because he really didn't need to he would lose part of what made him special.

After that Jake talked to them for some time and returned to university, the evening he went to meet Tiffany and Clara who also wanted to congratulate Jake who reached the NCAA tournament final.

After they talked about the commercials Jake was going to record after a few months and about Clara's company, Jake found it interesting that Clara was really thinking of doing like Matthew and giving half of the profit share to the shareholders and investing in the company only half.

Even though Clara didn't like Robert very much she realized how he and the other shareholders were happy to receive a good profit share as dividends and not just have to wait to see the company's stock appreciate in order to increase assets.

Jake understood that well, but he was also not against Clara's previous method of investing all the company's profits again and not delivering dividends to shareholders, after all, that was what Amazon was doing for over 20 years and so she was has become one of the largest companies in the world.

Jake thought that a company only paid dividends when it no longer intended to develop much or if the entire structure of the company was developed and the company did not need all the profit to continue developing.

Typically top tech companies were an example of this or could continue to invest in other media and find other ways to increase the company's influence and sell more products as Amazon does.

After they talked for a while before Jake left to prepare for the game the other day, they had a nice conversation, but it was much less comfortable talking the three together than when it's just two people, many subjects can't be talked about.

Even though Jake was happy to have Tiffany and Clara watching their final game, he would also have his roommates and Eva along with Anna, almost all of his friends and closest people who could come to watch the game.

Matthew and Oliver couldn't come because they were busy with their jobs, who Jake hopes would come and didn't come was Eric, even though a few years ago Eric said he would no longer cover high school and university games as a reporter, as a friend Eric could appear in some Jake games.

He understood that Eric might be busy with his work and might not be able to come watch the game, but at least as a friend he could have called Jake to wish him good luck, Joseph didn't expect it because his friend didn't like it and basketball

The other day came the day of the Tar Heels team final at the NCAA tournament, it was Jake's first university final and well into his freshman year, even though he expected it when he decided to play for the Tar Heels team he was still looking forward to it.

Jake wanted to win this year because, in addition to adding a lot to his career and the fact that he didn't like to lose, he found it important to take the pressure off him to win an NCAA tournament, he would be much more relaxed next season and he was sure that with the whole team would be the same.

Coach Smith said a few more things to the team before the game and highlighted how important this game was to the Tar Heels team and to all the players, after which everyone was more excited but nervous about the game.

After a few hours, the two teams were almost ready for this final game, Jake could see where his mother was with Anna, but couldn't see Tiffany and Clara as well as their other authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Seeing that Eva came for this game Jake was much more thrilled and motivated to win this game, he hoped his team would be a favorite because they beat the team that should have won this game.

But the opposing team was also very strong and had an almost better season than the Tar Heels team, the opposing team in this game would be the Kentucky Wildcats team, in Jake's opinion this was the team with the best cast of players having 6 players who would play in the NBA in the future.

The Kentucky Wildcats team came with an initial lineup consisting of Ron Mercer, Anthony Epps, Scott Padgett, Nazr Mohammed, and Cameron Mills, players Wayne Turner and Jamaal Magloire would also play, but for a shorter time and didn't score much.

For this difficult game Coach Smith decided to use a more offensive initial formation putting Williams in place of Okulaja, in the past game as Williams did not play long and did not have many opportunities to shoot off Coach Smith did not know he could play very bad.

Jake was fine with that because he knew nothing of what could happen in this game, so he would have to rely on his teammates to help him lead the team to win Heights and become champions of the NCAA tournament after today's game.

Everyone was determined to do their best because this was the last and most important game of the season, after this game everyone would be on vacation so they could play until they were completely tired.

"And finally we are here, the last game of this season and the NCAA tournament final, two great teams have come to this game with incredible seasons, the Tar Heels team had 35 games and won 33 games losing only 2 of them."

"In addition, the Tar Heels team comes from an incredible 24 straight streak, they don't lose well over half of the season and even with an amazing team, they have a key highlight for this campaign which is the freshman Jake who has been doing one of the best debuts in college basketball history."

"Jake has been breaking a number of records and in this game is the player who gives the most security for the team Tar Heels to win today's game."

"On the other side we have the Kentucky Wildcats team who have also had a great season so far, they have had 39 games so far and have 35 wins and 4 losses so far, they lost more than the Tar Heels team, but just because they had more games."

"It's true I rarely saw two teams coming to the NCAA tournament final as a favorite and with great seasons like them, plus the Kentucky Wildcats team cast is also very good and if it wasn't for Jake could be the best cast in the game of today."

"I also think the Tar Heels team is a favorite because Jake is on the team, but if the Tar Heels team players play as badly as they did last game, it will be hard to know who will win today's game."

"True, the last game was the worst game of the Tar Heels team if you take into account team performance, but Jake, Jamison, and Carter played very well and so with a solid defense they were the winners of the last game."

"Now we'll see in the upcoming game who will be the 1997 NCAA tournament champion."

Jake was confident because the Tar Heels team beat the Arizona team that should have won this year's NCAA tournament, but even if the Arizona team won, it was only over time and Jake had already changed that reality by beating Arizona team.

So he hoped that his teammates were playing well in today's game, because only then could he do everything he could to ensure the victory of team Tar Heels in that game.

The game soon began and Jake began making several plays in the early minutes while testing his teammates to see if anyone was playing poorly in today's game, Jake advanced with the ball and after passing through the middle of the court went to Carter.

Carter advanced calmly with the ball, no one could see him or the other players of the Tar Heels team nervous in this important game because everyone had confidence in Jake and knew they played well.

Carter advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison held the ball for a while and tried to feint at the opponent and failed, so Jamison passed the ball to Jake behind, Jake received the ball and then passed to Williams it was open on the right.

Williams received the ball off the three-point line and understood that it was for him to try the three-point shot, so William who was free tried the outside shot to make the first three points for the Tar Heels team.

Everyone on the Tar Heels team was happy and went back to defense while the Kentucky Wildcats players were surprised, everyone hoped that Williams would not be given too many attempts to shoot them off because in the last three games only Jake had tried harder and Williams was put aside.

But with this move early in the game everyone started to doubt if Jake would pass the ball to Williams more often, after all, they knew that Shammond Williams was a player who had a lot of quality in the three-point play.

Kentucky Wildcats managed to make the 2 points for the next play and Jake received the ball to organize another attack, this time Jake advanced faster and passed the ball to Jamison, Jamison advanced with the ball as well, keeping pace with Jake.

Jamison passed the ball to Williams on the left and Williams passed the ball to Zwikker ahead, Zwikker held the ball for a while and passed the ball back to Jake further back, Jake quickly passed the ball to Zwikker again ahead.

The defenders did not expect this and Zwikker was free to move forward and score 2 points for the Tar Heels team, Jake was pleased with that and in the following moves made attacks with Jamison and Carter who also made the points easily.

So more than 5 minutes into the game had passed and Jake had no points and had 6 assists and 1steal in that game, after which time Jake could be relieved to see that his teammates were at least playing well.

He had no way of knowing if anyone was great at the game to help him much as Jamison had been in the past game, but he at least knew he could make the moves more smoothly with the support of his teammates.

"We have a well-balanced start to the game with Jake playing PG and making 6 assists so far, but that's not enough to have a smoother game, Jake has to get the ball more and try three more shots and plays painted area to make more points."

"Only with Jake scoring as many points as he has done in the last few games that Team Tar Heels can open a big lead to try to win, even though they are now ahead can be a matter of time before Team Kentucky Wildcats turn the game and lead the scoreboard."

"It's true, we see a few players do like Jake and not many get double-double because everyone who has the ability to score more points than their teammates does."

"After all scoring is the most important thing in basketball, I'm not saying that teamwork and defense are not important, but at the end of the game it is the number of points that determines the outcome of the game."

"Even more players like Jake who have the ability to hit more three-point moves, in more than 5 three-point shots the team earns more points than they would in two more normal 2-point plays."

In the next few minutes, Jake had already taken the tests he needed and can see that his teammates were playing well and so can continue to play normally with much more freedom to play with his teammates and thus have more attack options for the Tar Heels team.

So by the time halfway through the first half, Jake had already scored 5 points and the Tar Heels team opened a small lead, on the Kentucky Wildcats side was different because the players were making a lot of mistakes in the attacks.

Especially since Derek Anderson who was one of the team's top players could not play in this game, besides, the defense of the Tar Heels team was very strong and Jake and his teammates dominated the defensive rebounds and some of the offensive rebounds.

In another play Jake began to organize another attack for the team Tar Heels, after passing the middle of the court he passed the ball to Carter on the left, Carter advanced slowly and held the ball for a while.

Team Tar Heels played slower after the second half of the first half because Team Tar Heels had a slight lead and in several games when it was so Jake controlled the pace of the game while gradually increasing the lead.

Carter passed the ball to Jamison who was before the three-point line, Jamison tried the feint and failed and so held on to Jake behind, Jake made a feint and then stepped back to try the three-point shot.

But when Jake went to try the three-point shot the player who was defending against him fouled to prevent Jake from hitting the three-point shot, Jake was taken by surprise and so missed and missed the three-point shot.

Team Kentucky Wildcats seemed to have a strategy of making several fouls taking advantage of the team's rotation with reserve players to hold the game, Jamison and Carter had already fouled and now it was Jake.

But what surprised him was that it was very rare for an opposing team to decide to foul when a player is attempting the three-point shot, because Jake would now have three free throw attempts.

Jake hit all three attempts and so scored all three points the same way and was unsure why the Kentucky Wildcats team decided to do so, in another move the Kentucky Wildcats team was advancing for another attack.

It was almost the end of the first half and the Tar Heels team had already increased the lead by now 10 points and the Kentucky Wildcats players were getting more anxious about it.

When possession time was almost over Nazr Mohammed screened and prevented Jake from continuing in defense, so Anthony Epps was free to go before the three-point line and attempted a shot from outside.

The ball didn't come in and Nazr Mohammed managed to get the rebound, Mohammed who caught the rebound tried to make the 2 points and Jake appeared to make the block, Epps got the ball and tried to make the 2 points again and Zwikker made the block this time.

Ron Mercer got the ball and tried again, but before that Jake made the steal and got the ball, after this thrilling play in which the defense of Tar Heels team was better Jake advanced quickly on the counterattack.

After rapidly advancing the defense of Kentucky Wildcats failed to keep up with him, so Jake advanced until he finished the game with a dunk and made 2 more points increasing the advantage to 12 points.

After that Kentucky Wildcats managed to score another 2 points and reduce Tar Heels's team lead to 10 points, but it was clear to everyone that the Tar Heels team had a great leader throughout the game, the whole team was fine and Jake was too he was making a good game.

"What a great game we saw in that first half, the team Tar Heels played very well and unlike the last game the whole team was playing very well, so much so that Jake made more assists and fewer points."

"The defense of the Tar Heels team that has always been the strong point of the team is doing very well in this game and securing Tar Heels's team advantage in the game."Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"But that does not mean that the Kentucky Wildcats team is playing poorly, the attack is making a lot of mistakes in the painted area and they have been losing plays against the defense of Tar Heels team, but the team's defense has also been doing a good job and disrupting the team Tar Heels with some fouls."

"We will still have to see what the second half will look like, Jake had a slow start making more assists that helped the team a lot and in the second half of the first half he has been improving and getting more points."

"If in the second half Jake starts to score more points as he has in the last few games, the Tar Heels team is sure to win this game and win the NCAA tournament."

Jake was not playing really worse than in the other games, but just as the commentators said the Kentucky Wildcats defender was fine and in the first few minutes Jake was testing his teammates.

In that first half, Jake played every 20 minutes and scored 16 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, in an excellent game that showed all of Jake's versatility in basketball.

In the first half, he made more assists because he realized that all of his teammates were playing well so that he could pass the ball more instead of fighting head-to-head with Kentucky Wildcats' strong defense.

Earlier in the second half, Jake decided to try to increase the gap further, as it was a decision he made because of the confidence that Coach Smith had in him and so he could decide what plays would make in the game no one else knew about.

So in the first 7 minutes, Jake scored 12 points hitting 4 shots from 3 points out of 6 attempts, plus Jake made those moves while passing the ball quietly and making the points as if it were just a momentary decision to end the play.

When the Kentucky Wildcats players realized something was different, Jake got the team back to play as it was in the first half, but at that point, the lead increased to 17 points.

Team Kentucky Wildcats was behind the scorecard and yet made many mistakes while attacking, so it was only natural that the advantage would only increase even if the players of Team He He also made mistakes.

In another play Jake advanced quickly and passed the ball to Carter, Carter who was having a good game today made a feint and advanced to the inner area, when another player arrived in defense Carter moved to Williams behind.

Williams held the ball a little before moving to Jamison ahead, Jamison tried to spin and score 2 more points but missed and he himself rebounded by passing the ball back to Jake.

Jake held the ball and calmed the team down, after passing a few seconds of possession he made a feint and an alley-oop for Carter who jumped and caught the ball in the air to make the dunk and get 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

"What a great start to the second half for the Tar Heels team, they enjoyed a great start from Jake who made a completely different start from the first half and scored 12 points in a few minutes."

"Team Tar Heels also knew how to take advantage of the Kentucky Wildcats second-half bad start and so increased the lead on the scoreboard to 17 points, with half of the second half last time Kentucky Wildcats will have to play very well and hope that Tar Heels team makes a lot of mistakes trying to turn this around."

"That's right, I think it's very difficult for the Kentucky Wildcats team to win this game and it looks like the Tar Heels team is already well underway to become the champions of this NCAA tournament."

"Also, with Jake on the team, I find it hard to imagine that Team Tar Heels will allow Team Kentucky Wildcats to turn around and win this game, this big advantage is something Jake is very good at managing."

Just as the commentators thought the Tar Heels team supporters thought so and were already celebrating the victory in advance, Tiffany and Clara were also happy to see that Jake would win this year's NCAA tournament.

John and Alan were also excited and could imagine sales of their companies increasing with Jake's victory at the NCAA tournament, Eva and Anna were also celebrating as well as Jake's and the Tar Heels team's victory.

Even if there were still 10 minutes left Eva wasn't afraid to celebrate her son's victory, because she had been thinking for many months that Jake would win this NCAA tournament as well as all the other games he won, everyone could say she was very optimistic, but It ended up happening as she imagined.

For the rest of the game Jake slowed the game even more and tried to spend all the ball possession and score on all attacks, Jake was wanting the Kentucky Wildcats to try to make more fouls because some players from the opposing team already had 3 or 4 fouls and would be expelled from the game.

Coach Kentucky Wildcats also realized this and could not begin to foul all Tar Heels team ball possessions with 10 minutes left to finish the game on the other hand Coach Smith was very pleased with Jake's performance at that game.

Earlier in the season, he thought Ed Cota would be the best for this position and with Williams also playing in that position a few times, but over the course of the season, Jake showed that he deserved a prominent place in this team and after that started leading the team to several victories.

At the end of the season with the most decisive games, all players had some bad games and only Jake kept the great performance in all games becoming the main player of the team.

Coach Dean Smith was thinking of leaving the Tar Heels team this season if the team won or even lost, but he was very grateful and happy to see that he could leave the team as an NCAA tournament champion.

As time went on and nearing the end, the Kentucky Wildcats team began to make many fouls to speed up Tar Heels's team plays, most players had 70% hit in free throws and so the score has not yet decreased much.

Especially since Jake and Williams sometimes hit a three-point play and so the advantage only increased with the errors of the Kentucky Wildcats attack, by the end of the game some Kentucky Wildcats players had already been sent off for making the limit of fouls

"Now there are only a few minutes left to finish this game, a final that was not as exciting as everyone expected and had no show from the players of both teams."

"But those who support the Tar Heels team will leave here very happy after this game because they will be the champions of this year's NCAA tournament."

"Everyone will also be delighted to see Jake perform an excellent game and will be a future NBA star, this is the fourth NCCA tournament won by the Tar Heels team that last won in 1993."

"An excellent Tar Heels team game where all the players were doing very well both in attack and defense, Kentucky Wildcats played very well and had only a few problems in attack so they lost today."

So after a few more minutes the game was over and the Tar Heels team won the NCAA tournament, the players began to celebrate a lot on the court and everyone looked very happy, while the Kentucky Wildcats players looked sad even if they accepted defeat.

Team Tar Heels scored 92 points against just 69 points for Kentucky Wildcats, it was a huge lead that Jake had controlled since the end of the first half and increased in the final minutes of play.

Since mid-season, many have said that the Tar Heels team was a favorite and had the best players and today they were the winners. Jake was very happy and celebrated with his teammates because he knew he couldn't go to celebrate with his mother.

All of Jake's friends who came to see the game were very pleased, especially John and Alan who knew how the companies that sponsored Jake could make a lot out of it, it was really lucky that they sponsored Jake.

After a while, the Tar Heels team could lift the NCAA tournament trophy and everyone celebrated a lot again, even though many thought the game had been easier than they expected it was because Jake controlled the game from start to finish.

In that second half, Jake played again every 20 minutes and scored 21 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocks with a triple-double. Jake was certainly one of the best first seasons of any professional basketball player.

By the end of the season, it would be announced that Jake won almost every single award except for the best defensive player who went to Tim Duncan, in fact, Tim Duncan would have won several of those awards that Jake won, but after all Jake did was an injustice don't give the prizes to him.

The list of awards he received was

MVP ACC tournament 1997

John R. Wooden Award

NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player

Oscar Robertson Trophy

Naismith College Player of the Year

Adolph Rupp Trophy

Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year

NABC Player of the Year

Sporting News Men's College Basketball Player of the Year

NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans

ACC Rookie of the Year

USBWA National Freshman of the Year

After everyone went back to university and Jake called Eva and Anna to go to university too, Jake wanted to talk to his mother, but he also wanted to celebrate with his teammates.

Eva naturally agreed and on championship day Jake can celebrate with the whole team this amazing achievement for the team, Jake was happy to win and was even happier that this long season was over, now he would have more time to run the marathons and do more things.

The other day Jake stayed almost all day with his mother and Anna and showed them various places in North Carolina, at the end of the day they had to go back to open the restaurant again and soon Jake could come home to see Eva and authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

He had not seen Lola and felt that something had changed after this semester between them, Jake would be glad to know if Lola could forget about him and maybe even fall in love with someone else.