1998 ACC Tournament
In another attacking move by the NC State Wolfpack team, Jake also took advantage of his speed when he landed a steal by intercepting a pass from the NC State Wolfpack team and advancing into the attack.
Everyone knew Jake's speed and his passing interception was known to all teams since he had an average of more than 10 steals per game, so when Jake ran for the attack with full speed only the player who missed pass tried to come back to defend.
Jake ran very fast and when he reached the painted area on the NC State Wolfpack team to score the points, the NC State Wolfpack player was not even close to the three-point line, so Jake went forward and dunk to score two more points for the team. Tar Heels.
Without Jake needing to say Coach Guthridge had also already realized that Carter was not doing well in this game, he knew Jake very well and knew why Jake was not passing the ball to Carter in the 1st half of the game.
Even so, Coach Guthridge was satisfied with the performance of the rest of the team, the Tar Heels team had a big advantage on the scoreboard and Jake was controlling the pace of the game so that the players of the Tar Heels team did not get tired in the game.
With the good performance of Jake and also Jamison who was well in that game, the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half of the game, winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard, with the NC State Wolfpack team not playing well they had more confidence to win this game.
In this 1st half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and had 17 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, as the NC State Wolfpack team was not playing so well and Jake was keeping the game pace slower he didn't do that much points even though he was mainly responsible for the advantage on the Tar Heels team score.
"So the Tar Heels team ends this 1st half by winning the game with a good lead on the scoreboard, the Tar Heels team clearly had the upper hand in the 1st half of the game and so they can win that game much more easily."
"The NC State Wolfpack team is not able to perform as well as it did in the last game against the Tar Heels team, in this game the defense of the Tar Heels team is preventing the players of the NC State Wolfpack team from attacking correctly."
"Jake Smith is playing very well again and it seems that as soon as the Tar Heels team got the advantage he kept on attacking, but he made the plays more slowly so that his teammates wouldn't get tired."
"It's true, coach Guthridge has already let the other players besides Jake rest for a few minutes in the 1st half to be in good physical condition in the next games if the Tar Heels team wins."
"This could be the opportunity for the NC State Wolfpack team to try to win, the way things are they have no chance of winning this game, so they could try to put pressure on the offense and defense when the reserve players of the Tar Heels team were on the court."
The coach of the NC State Wolfpack team had realized that Coach Guthridge was trying to preserve the Tar Heels team players and told the NC State Wolfpack team players to press forward and attack.
Coach Guthridge decided to leave Carter in reserve for most of the 2nd half and put Ed Cota in his place, Brendan Haywood and Makhtar N'Diaye would also enter the 2nd half so that Jamison, Williams, and Okulaja could rest.
Naturally, the players took turns and so the Tar Heels team did not have many reserve players on the court at the same time, so they returned to play in the 2nd half and the Tar Heels team still defended and attacked the same way.
The players on the NC State Wolfpack team pressed on the attack and defense, but even if they managed to defend several times they also wasted a lot of attacks because the players on the NC State Wolfpack team were not performing well.
And even if the defense of the NC State Wolfpack team put a lot of pressure, the players of the Tar Heels team had the quality to attack even with the defense of the opposing team putting pressure, as well as Jake's three-point shots and the points of the other players in the team. Tar Heels continued to maintain a good advantage.
In that game, Ademola Okulaja was having a very good performance and so Jake was passing the ball more to him, in another play the NC State Wolfpack team had managed to make the points and the Tar Heels team started the attack.
Jake advanced with the ball and passed the ball to Ed Cota on the left, Cota advanced with the ball and before the three-point line he passed the ball to Jamison further on the left, Jamison received the ball and tried the individual play.
The opponent pressed well in defense against Jamison and so Jamison had to pass the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball with freedom and tried the three-point shot and missed, so Okulaja managed to catch the rebound and made the 2 points for the Tar Heels team.
So the game continued and the lead did not diminish much, it seemed that the players of the NC State Wolfpack team were waiting for Jake to leave the court to attack, but Jake did not want to leave the court and Coach Guthridge would not take him away in this important game.
The game continued like this until the end of the team Tar Heels won the game making 85 points against 40 points of the NC State Wolfpack team, the coach Guthridge was satisfied with this comfortable victory in which he had managed to spare the players who were not so tired.
In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals, in that game in which coach Guthridge let the players rest Jake was unable to a double-double, but he played very well.
"The game is over and the Tar Heels team gets one more victory of the season and moves on to the second phase of the ACC tournament, the next phase can be called the semifinal and if the Tar Heels team wins the next game they will go to the final again."
"The Tar Heels team players performed well in that game and managed to attack and defend well, Jake played very well and as he always led the team to victory, only Carter did not perform well in that game, but he was the starting player who played less time in that game."
"The players of the NC State Wolfpack team did not perform well and the difference in skill between the two teams is very large, so the NC State Wolfpack team had no chance of winning that game."
"We will continue to follow the next games to see if the Tar Heels team can win the ACC tournament this season again."
After that victory the players of the Tar Heels team were much more confident, even Carter who did not perform well was even more motivated to play well in the next game against the Maryland Terrapins team.
Jake was concerned about this game that would be very difficult for the Tar Heels team, but he didn't think he needed to let Coach Guthridge know about it because everyone knew how important this game was for the Tar Heels team.
Jake only knew that in this game it was impossible to let some players rest thinking about the game in the final, they had to work even harder in this game to have a chance to go to the final and try to win the ACC tournament.
As the game would be the next day they would not have time to train or rest after that game, so they would not even return to the university until the ACC tournament was over.
After resting for one night the day of the next game in the ACC tournament had arrived, luckily the players of the Tar Heels team were not that tired and the opposing teams could not be much better than they were in physical condition.
The players of the Tar Heels team were confident to achieve victory in that game, everyone had forgotten the pressure they felt about having to keep winning just because of the winning streak and just thought about winning the game and then winning the ACC tournament and they knew it was the same with their opponent.
The opponent of that game was the Maryland Terrapins team that was doing very well this season and was in third place in the ACC tournament, because of that the players of the Tar Heels team and the coach Guthridge knew they could not underestimate the opponent.
Coach Guthridge didn't even talk about letting any player rest and just told the players to do their best and win the game, Jake was thinking about how he could play in that game to win more easily.
"Welcome to everyone who will follow this ACC tournament game with us again, it will be a game between the Tar Heels team and the Maryland Terrapins team, two strong ACC conference teams that will make a great game."
"The favorite to win this game is the Tar Heels team, with 56 victories in a row and without losing a single game in the season, the Tar Heels team that has Jake Smith and Antawn Jamison is certainly the favorite to win this game today."
"But the Maryland Terrapins team also has a lot of chances to win in that game, as the team that came in third at the ACC conference they are one of the teams that few would be surprised if they won that game."
"That's right, I think the Tar Heels team will win this game, if Jake has a great performance as he has been doing all season and the other players on the Tar Heels team play well the victory will certainly be on the Tar Heels team."
Soon the game started and the Tar Heels team started putting pressure on the attack, they knew this was going to be a difficult game so Jake thought it was better to start attacking well to get the advantage on the scoreboard in this 1st half and thus have an easier game later.
This was actually the strategy that the Tar Heels team used in most games this season, but as they had won all games this season it showed how good that strategy was.
Even so,
it looked like the Maryland Terrapins players expected the Tar Heels team to do that and they pushed on defense too, so if the Tar Heels players were playing well in that game Jake would have it easier.
Jake advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Williams from the right, Williams received the ball and the Maryland Terrapins team's defense soon pressed, so Williams passed the ball to Jake who was in the middle.
Jake was quick and as soon as he got the ball and made a quick pass to Okulaja who received the ball with freedom inside, so Okulaja just advanced and made the layup and made the first 2 points for the Tar Heels team.
The defense of the opposing teams used to ignore Okulaja in attack during the games because Okulaja was one of the players who scored fewer points in the Tar Heels team, so they defended more against Jamison and Carter within the three-point line.
But Jake thought of moving to Okulaja because in the last game Okulaja had a good offensive performance and so Jake felt that he could count on him in the attack and further complicate things for the defense of the Maryland Terrapins team.
After a few minutes of play, Jake could see that the Tar Heels team players were performing well in that game and he was more relieved, so he was more confident of victory even if the opponent performed well.
And this was also happening, the players of the Maryland Terrapins team were playing very well both in attack and defense, it seems that they had made a special strategy to play against the Tar Heels team because the ball did not pass very often near Jake.
As the opponent had no player who was playing so well Jake was on the three-point line without defending against just one player and only defending against who could attempt the shot from outside.
But with the Maryland Terrapins team playing like that Jake knew he wouldn't make as many steals as he did in the last few games and so the Maryland Terrapins team would be able to score more points, of course with the players playing far from where Jake was, their attack options were limited.
In another move, the Maryland Terrapins team made a good attack and the players were far from where Jake was, only one player was in the middle for Jake to defend against him, of course, Williams still defended outside the three-point line and inside the line of three points, the defense of the Tar Heels team was even stronger.
Laron Profit received the ball from the left and advanced after getting rid of Okulaja's defense, he tried a mid-range shot and scored 2 more points for the Maryland Terrapins team, the Maryland Terrapins team players had the quality to make plays like these and manage to make the stitches.
After that move, the Tar Heels team attacked again, Jake advanced until after the middle of the court and passed the ball to Carter from the left, Carter seemed quite excited to have a good performance in that game.
Carter was very upset by the poor performance he had in the last game and knew that maybe he had been left in reserve for longer because Coach Guthridge could be starting to lose confidence in him.
Jake could feel that Carter was thinking like that and he also saw that Carter seemed to be performing well in that game, so he decided that he would make more plays with Carter to make more assists and help his friend gain confidence for the next games.
Carter advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Williams who was on the right, unlike Carter, Williams was very confident at this end of the season, in almost every game he had a good performance and knew he was an important player in team now.
Williams passed the ball to Jamison on the left ahead, Jamison tried to make the move getting rid of the defense and failed, so Jamison passed the ball further back to Jake in the middle.
Jake moved forward and made a quick move getting rid of the player who was defending against him, Jake advanced and the Maryland Terrapins team's defense was to try to defend against him, when two players went to defend against him Jake passed the ball to Carter from the left.
Carter received the ball and advanced quickly to make the dunk and get 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, in this game the defense of the Maryland Terrapins team, even though he was strong, had difficulty defending against the Tar Heels team because all the players were having a good time performance.
Jake was a great PG because everyone knew that he could easily score more than 30 points in a game himself, so whenever he got the ball outside the three-point line or within the three-point line the defense of the opposing team had to defend against him.
Most of the time they had to have more than one player defending against him, Ed Cota was as good as Jake in assists, but Cota wasn't good at scoring a lot of points in games, so he didn't attract many players to defend against him and he had more difficult to get assistance.
The two teams continued to play very well, but with Jake organizing great attacks, the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half by winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard, if the game continued like this the Tar Heels team would go to the final of the ACC tournament again.
In this 1st half, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal, Jake took advantage of the good performance of his teammates to make many assists and because of the Maryland Terrapins team avoiding attacking near him, he didn't do many steals.
"Thus ends the 1st half of the game, so far this has been a very exciting game with both teams playing very well and having a game played, the Tar Heels team was winning with a good advantage because with Jake organizing the plays the team Tar Heels does not miss many attacks."
"The Maryland Terrapins team seems to have done something to try to avoid Jake's steals and blocks, they did it well in the 1st half, but because of that the players got more tired and they lost some attacks because the defense of the Tar Heels team has others players besides Jake."
"If the game continues as it is, the Tar Heels team has a good chance of winning that game and they are really the favorites to get the win, with Jake playing well it will be difficult for the Maryland Terrapins team to get a reaction."
"But the Maryland Terrapins team has also played a good game and they have a lot of chances of winning the game and ending the winning streak for the Tar Heels team."
The players of the Tar Heels team were more confident after finishing winning the 1st half well, so they continued to attack since the beginning of the 2nd half, but the Maryland Terrapins team that had to attack started to press on the attack to try to win.
So the two teams started to attack without thinking about defending so well, in other games this could be dangerous for the Tar Heels team, but with the players of the Tar Heels team having a good performance, this made the advantage on the scoreboard not diminish.
In another attacking move by the Tar Heels team Jake advanced until after the middle of the court and passed the ball to Carter on the left, Carter advanced with the ball and passed to Jamison on the left.
Jamison did not try to advance and held the ball until he passed back to Jake, Jake received the ball and soon saw that he had some space, so Jake stepped back and tried the shot from outside to make 3 more points for Team Tar Heels.
He was far from the three-point line when he stepped back and so he tried to shoot from very far from the three-point line and that took his opponent by surprise, so it was difficult to defend against Jake in the games.
When the opponent was very close to him, Jake made a move using speed and advanced to make the layup or dunk, and when the opponent was a little far away he found a way to get the three-point shot.
Even so, the Maryland Terrapins team was really good in that game and even until half of the 2nd half the advantage on the scoreboard did not increase or decrease even the Tar Heels team making many points.
In another play the Maryland Terrapins team managed to make a 2 point play and the Tar Heels team would attack to react, Jake received the ball and advanced and before passing through the middle of the court he passed the ball to Williams on the right.
Williams advanced with the ball and before the three-point line he passed the ball to Okulaja ahead, Okulaja soon received pressure from the Maryland Terrapins team's defense because he was playing so well.
So Okulaja had to pass the ball back to Williams again, this time Williams tried a pass to Jamison further down the left, but Profit from Maryland Terrapins managed to make the steals by intercepting the pass.
Soon Laron Profit and Rodney Elliott used all their speed to try to take advantage of this opportunity to diminish the advantage that the Tar Heels team had on the scoreboard, the two ran very quickly and left all the players of the Tar Heels team behind, only Jake who was further back he was approaching them.
Jake was very fast, but there were two players from the Maryland Terrapins team who were on the attack to make this move, entering within the three-point line of the Tar Heels Profit defense passed the ball to Elliott to score the points.
Elliot saw that Jake was very close to him and so he tried to make a layup to make sure he would make the 2 points, but Jake was waiting for that moment and was quick to jump and block on the basketball backboard just as he saw LeBron James do in several games.
With Jake doing this unexpected block the crowd at the Greensboro Coliseum got excited and started cheering more for the Tar Heels team and applauding Jake's move, some reporters who were more lucky to try to photograph Elliot's layup managed to photograph the block on the basketball Jake's backboard.
"What an incredible move by Jake in defense we could see now, a turnover by Shammond Williams whose pass was intercepted by Laron Profit ended in a dangerous counterattack by the Maryland Terrapins team."
"Laron Profit and Rodney Elliot were on the attack in this quick counterattack by the Maryland Terrapins team, only Jake who is the fastest player on the Tar Heels team managed to come back to defend."
"But against two players it was difficult to defend and so everyone thought it was almost certain that the Maryland Terrapins team would score both points."
"But when Elliot got the ball and tried to lay it out, Jake seemed to be expecting it and quickly jumped together to block on the basketball backboard and stop the Maryland Terrapins team from scoring."
"This was certainly one of the most incredible defensive moves I've seen in recent years at College basketball."
After this good defensive play by Jake, the Tar Heels team was more excited to attack and the Maryland Terrapins players were a little discouraged, after all, in almost the whole game they had to make moves to escape Jake's defense and in a play with this Jake got a block.
In another move the Tar Heels team was on the attack and Carter advanced the ball to the three-point line, Carter held the ball and passed it to Jamison who was further on the left, the Maryland Terrapins defense soon pressed in defense against Jamison and he passed the ball to Jake further back through the middle.
The defense of the Maryland Terrapins team soon paid more attention to Jake in the attack and a player went to defend against him, Jake did not try any feints and passed the ball to Williams who was more open on the right.
The player who was defending against Williams was further away to defend if Jake managed to get rid of the player who was defending against him, so Williams was free to try the shot from outside and score 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.
With the Tar Heels team playing so well they managed to win at the end of the game with the Tar Heels team making 85 points against 66 points of the Maryland Terrapins team, in the final part of the game after that block of games the Tar Heels team managed to increase even more plus the advantage.
In this 2nd half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and had 17 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block, even though Jake trying to defend well the Maryland Terrapins team did his best to avoid where he was defending and so Jake had few defensive moves like that block.
"What a great victory for the Tar Heels team in this game that was very disputed and the two teams did their best to achieve the victory, but the players of the Tar Heels team were playing very well and Jake managed to lead the team to another victory."
"That's right, the Tar Heels team was very good in that game, Carter, Jamison, Williams and even Okulaja were well in the attack in that game and Jake was fine too and even not being able to stand out in defense because of the Maryland team's game strategy Terrapins even managed to make that incredible block that gave the Tar Heels team more confidence to win the game."
"The players of the Maryland Terrapins team were playing very well in this game too, it was a more intelligent risky strategy to make attacks far from where Jake was defending, with that they managed to avoid several steals and blocks that Jake could make in that game and still press the Tar Heels team."
"But the Tar Heels team has great players and since last season they have been the best team in College basketball and so they have this sequence of 57 straight wins, now let's see if the Tar Heels team can win the ACC tournament again this season."
After that victory, the Tar Heels team players were very happy and excited, they were in the final of the ACC tournament and could win again and they would play against their biggest rival who was the Duke Blue Devils team that had not won against them in over 5 years.
Certainly against a rival like this the players would be more willing to win and would play even better, Coach Guthridge was not so excited about this because he knew the players were very tired after that game.
This was the first ACC tournament that the Tar Heels team would play with him as the head coach, so it was only natural that he would be a little insecure and expect a weaker team in the final, but of course he knew that the players on the Duke Blue Devils team too they should be tired and so they had a good chance of winning that game.
Jake was confident that if his teammates played as well as they did today they would win that final for sure, Jake had confidence in that and hoped to win the ACC tournament and then the NCAA tournament.
The players couldn't even sleep well that night and the day of the final game had arrived, everyone was looking forward to winning that final against the Duke Blue Devils team and winning the ACC tournament.
Before Jake went to the game site he received a call from his mother, Eva said she had closed the restaurant and would go to the final game with Anna to hope for Jake's victory, he was very happy to know that and could play with more happiness knowing that there would be support in the crowd.
Jake soon told this to his teammates, Carter and Jamison who were very close friends with Jake, knew well that he liked his mother very much and was not ashamed to say that to others and Jake was respected by friends for being like that.
This was a team full of good players and leaders like Jamison, Carter and Jake was also one of the leaders of this team and their support for always having good performances in all games, as well as seeing Jake happy and excited to play even better in this game they also gained more confidence.
Jake was always excited when his mom watched his final games in middle school, but as she was busy and couldn't see many games from him at university it was even more special, while Jake was excited he got another call.
"Hi, Jake, how are you?"
"Hi, Kate, I'm doing great, we're going to have an important game today, the final of the ACC tournament."
"I know that, I've followed a lot of your team's games whenever I have time, I know you play really well and you're the best college basketball player this season and also last season and your team won the NCAA tournament last season."
"I didn't expect you to like basketball that much, it's really cool to see that you follow the games of the Tar Heels team, so I can play more willingly knowing that I have you rooting for me."
Jake was really surprised to learn that Kate watched the Tar Heels team games, even though many Americans were in the habit of watching College basketball games he didn't expect Kate who was so busy watching the games.
"I'm not that much of a basketball fan, I started watching the Tar Heels team games when I heard that you played on that team, I called to say I had some time today and came to watch your final game here at Greensboro Coliseum."
Jake was really surprised to hear that, he was surprised to learn that Kate watched the Tar Heels team games just because of him and even more surprised to learn that she had come to the Greensboro Coliseum to watch the Tar Heels team final game.
He was already happy to know that his mother had come to the Greensboro Coliseum to watch the game and now he was even happier, he always wanted to meet someone who could follow his games just like his mother did and Jake knew how Kate she was busy and had to cancel several appointments to watch that game.
"I'm really happy to hear that you came to watch my game in the final, my mom also just called me saying she came to watch the game and I was already happy, now I'm even happier and more excited to play well in this game and win."
"I know how hard it must have been for you to find time to come and watch the game, Kate, really thanks."
"I had already decided some time ago that I would watch your game in the final of the ACC tournament, luckily as your team has a great winning streak your team was already expected to reach the final and I was able to prepare myself a long time before coming watch that game."
Then Jake talked to Kate for a while and then he had to hang up because he had to get ready for the game, he couldn't tell his teammates that Kate had come to watch that game because Kate wasn't his girlfriend yet.
But everyone could see that Jake was more focused and excited than usual for this game, they still thought that Jake was like that because his mother had come to watch the game, everyone knew that Jake was the most important for the team to achieve victory and that's why everyone was more confident too.
The opponent of this game was the Duke Blue Devils team, who hoped to win this game anyway, so they would break this shame of not winning for more than 5 years and win the ACC tournament in addition to ending the Tar Heels team's winning streak, any rival would want to win that game.
The Duke Blue Devils team also had great players, they had a great starting team and good players on the reserve who were also important to the team, so the Duke Blue Devils team was always one of the best teams in college basketball and not just of the ACC conference.
They were behind only the Tar Heels team that had a perfect season, so if they won that game and won the ACC tournament they would have more confidence to play the NCAA tournament.
"Welcome to everyone who came to follow this incredible ACC tournament game, a historic final between two rivals, the Tar Heels team against the Duke Blue Devils team, and only one of these teams will win the ACC tournament after that game."
"On the one hand we have the Tar Heels team that comes with an incredible streak of victories and also that won the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament last season."
"The Tar Heels team is a favorite because of that, but also because it has the best players from all over college basketball, there is Jake and Jamison who are the best players of the year, and great players like Carter who put on a show at every game, Williams who has been playing very well and is great at three-point shots and Okulaja who has been very important in recent games."
"On the other side we have the Duke Blue Devils team that has great players too, even though they are not as good as the Tar Heels team players individually, they are still great on this team."
"The Duke Blue Devils team comes second in the ACC tournament with a great season too and wants to win that game to win the ACC tournament and have the confidence to win the NCAA tournament."
Just as commentators said this had everything to be another exciting game, before the game Jake spent time looking at the crowd to find his mom and Kate, he found Eva and Anna easily and it took him a little longer to find Kate who looked have put on a discreet cover.
So Jake was more excited to play well in that game, he knew well that the Duke Blue Devils team would play well, but he was confident that the Tar Heels team players would perform well and he would also do the best he could to achieve victory.
In the first minutes of the game, the two teams were putting a lot of pressure in defense and also trying hard in attack, the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team was better than the defense of the Tar Heels team, but the attack of the Tar Heels team was better and therefore this beginning of the game was interesting.
Seeing the situation like this Jake would not let the Duke Blue Devils team do what he wanted and in the first minutes, Jake hit two shots from three points and soon made 6 points for the team Tar Heels putting the team at an advantage.
Jake intended to do as in the other games and help the team win without making all of the attacking moves alone, but at least at the beginning of the game, Jake soon showed that the Duke Blue Devils defense would not work against him.
After that the two teams started to press more in the attack and the defenses of the two teams started to have some flaws that were taken advantage of by the attacks, Jake controlled the attacks of the Tar Heels team so that they would miss as little as possible.
For what happened in the last game did not happen Jake was defending against Steve Wojciechowski and was paying attention to Trajan Langdon too, in another play by the Duke Blue Devils team after a good move the ball was left for Langdon who was away from Jake and tried the outside shot to make 3 more points for the Duke Blue Devils team.
The Tar Heels team did not care about these points and soon reacted by attacking, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left, Vince Carter was much more confident after the last game in which he had a good performance.
Carter advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Williams from the right, Williams held the ball waiting for Jake to approach and passed the ball to Okulaja later on, Okulaja played well in the last games and the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team pressed against him too.
Okulaja passed the ball to Jake further back in the middle, Jake quickly made a pass to Jamison on the left, Jamison went forward and got rid of the defensive player and made the layup to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.
After almost half of the 1st half passed, Jake can already see that the Tar Heels team players were performing well and that made him and the whole team more confident of victory.
Jake was also scoring more points than usual and so the lead on the scoreboard started to increase and the pressure on the Duke Blue Devils players also increased, they knew that if they continued like that, the Tar Heels team would surely win that game.
In another play, the Duke Blue Devils team was attacking and Jake was defending against Wojciechowski, so again the Duke Blue Devils team used this and the ball was passed within the three-point line to Roshown McLeod who advanced to make a layup and so 2 more points for the Duke Blue Devils team.
Jake was having a hard time defending in that game because the Duke Blue Devils team was playing very well and the players on the Duke Blue Devils team were very skilled and were performing well.
Even so, the Duke Blue Devils team made more mistakes in attacks than the Tar Heels team and so the advantage on the scoreboard continued to increase, the game continued like this and the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half by winning the game with a good advantage.
In that 1st half Jake played for 20 minutes and made 21 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals, Jake was making more points in that game because he wanted to help the Tar Heels team win and also because he had Eva and Kate rooting for him.
"The 1st half of the game ends, the Tar Heels team is doing very well in the game and the players are having a good performance and so that 1st half ended with the Tar Heels team winning with a good advantage."
"Jake is leading the attack for the Tar Heels team who are not making too many mistakes in this 1st half of the game, Jamison, Carter, and Williams are well on the attack as well and Okulaja looks like he will have another good offensive game."
"From what we have seen this season whenever the Tar Heels team finishes the 1st half by winning they end up winning the game more easily, but the Duke Blue Devils team can change that today."
"The players of the Duke Blue Devils team are playing very well and even though they have some mistakes in the attack they are still attacking very well and making Jake not be able to defend so well, if they press more in defense and make less mistake in the attack the Duke Blue team Devils can still try to win that game."
The commentators said so, but even they did not believe that the Tar Heels team would lose that game, Jake looked excited to have made 21 points and 6 assists in the 1st half and his teammates were also performing well.
Eva who was watching the game with Anna was happy because it looked like Jake's team would win again and Jake was doing very well in that game, she had realized that Jake had found her in the crowd.
Anna was also happy to see that Jake's team was winning, she had heard from Eva that Jake might not play at the university next season and so she convinced Eva to close the restaurant today and come to watch Jake's game.
If Jake made it to the NCAA tournament final they had already decided that they would also watch his game, and since Jake's team was playing well it was quite possible that they would go to the NCAA tournament final game as well.
Kate was also happy to see that Jake's team was winning and that Jake was playing very well in that game, she understood a little basketball and could understand what it meant for a player to score 21 points and 6 assists only in the 1st half of the game.
From what she watched from Jake's last games he always played well and scored a lot so that she could understand how talented Jake was, and Jake still ran in marathons and won many marathons in addition to having already participated in a film.
The two listened to Tar Heels fans calling Jake Captain America, it seemed that Jake's nickname when he was running was already starting to arrive at his basketball games, this showed how much the team liked Jake.
The 2nd half started with the Duke Blue Devils team trying to put pressure on the attack and defense, they had to try the best of them to try to win the game and win the ACC tournament.
Realizing this Jake held the game a little bit, the rush would only help the Duke Blue Devils team and also make it easier for the opponent to get the defense, in another move the Tar Heels team was attacking and Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Williams through right.
Williams was playing well in this game as well as a long time ago and he was important for the Tar Heels team to have made it this far, this was Shammond Williams' last season on the Tar Heels team and he wanted to win the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament and still play well to get well into the NBA draft.
Williams advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Carter from the left, Carter tried to advance and the Duke Blue Devils team's defense pressed and Carter had to pass the ball to Jamison, Jamison held on and passed the ball to Jake more behind.
Jake soon passed the ball to Carter who came free from the right, Carter had made the back turn in the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team and received the ball from the right behind the three-point line and tried an outside shot to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.
The Duke Blue Devils team continued to press to see if they could still win, the defense of the Tar Heels team also started to press and hinder the Duke Blue Devils team's moves, Jake also stopped defending only against Wojciechowski and hindered the attack much more. from the Duke Blue Devils team like that.
In another attacking move by the Duke Blue Devils team, they made a good move and the ball was passed to Wojciechowski who was further behind, Jake was away from him and tried to approach using his speed, but Wojciechowski soon tried a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Duke Blue Devils team.
Jake was doing it on purpose and making the Tar Heels team push in defense because of that too, the Tar Heels team still had a big advantage and that advantage had only increased in the 2nd half.
Then Jake realized that for some reason the Duke Blue Devils team was trying to attack more in just three-point shots, the players on the Duke Blue Devils team were good, but they weren't as good as Jake and Williams and so naturally they made a lot of mistakes more than they hit.
That way the Duke Blue Devils team wasted attacks and Jamison and Jake just had to fight for the rebounds, the Duke Blue Devils team coach seemed to approve of this and Jake thought they could use it to not get so tired.
Even so, the Tar Heels team continued to attack and Jake tried a three-point shot whenever the Duke Blue Devils team pressed hard on defense and he had already made many points in that 2nd half as well.
In another move, the Tar Heels team was on the attack and Jake received pressure from the Duke Blue Devils defense just after the ball, so Jake passed the ball to Williams and managed to move forward.
Williams advanced the ball for a while and passed it back to Jake in the middle, Jake continued to advance slowly and soon reached the three-point line and passed the ball to Carter from the left.
Carter held the ball for a while and then passed it to Jamison later on the left, Jamison was playing very well in that game too and had scored more points on the Tar Heels team after Jake.
Jamison soon received pressure from the Duke Blue Devils defense and passed the ball to Okulaja on the right, Okulaja also received pressure from the defense and passed Jake further back through the middle.
Jake received the ball and soon the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team sent two players close to him, Jake did not delay and passed the ball to Williams who was free from the left, Williams came out behind the defense of the Duke Blue Devils team to receive this ball and tried a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.
The game went on like this and the Tar Heels team ended the game by winning 106 points against Duke Blue Devils' 60 points, the Tar Heels team's lead advantage increased when the Duke Blue Devils players started to miss more shots from three points and Tar Heels team players did not miss many attacks.
In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and had 23 points, 6 assists, 7 rebounds, and 6 steals, with this triple-double Jake secured the victory for the Tar Heels team and was happy because the team won another ACC tournament.
It was Jake's best game in the ACC tournament and he was happier to help the Tar Heels team win and can also show his skills to his mom and Kate who had come to see the game.
"What a great game we had here today, the Tar Heels team won with a big advantage in this game full of rivalry and thus won for the second year in a row the ACC tournament."
"This victory for Team Tar Heels is well deserved for everything they did this season and also in that game against the Duke Blue Devils team, the first title for new head coach Bill Guthridge."
"It is true, I also think that the Tar Heels team deserved that victory, even if they had been out of the game without losing a game if they lost in that game the fans would not have been happy."
"The Tar Heels team currently has perhaps the best team in college basketball, with Jake Smith who made a triple-double today with 44 points, and with Antawn Jamison who made a double-double today with 22 points and 14 rebounds."
"The team also has good players and played a good game today, but they were unable to beat the team Tar Heels, who are champions of the 1998 ACC tournament, after that victory the team Tar Heels will try to win the NCAA tournament again and continue with the sequence. of victories."
Everyone celebrated a lot to win the ACC tournament and Jake was more relieved because one of his goals had been fulfilled, Jake was elected the best player in the ACC tournament, the best player of the year and also had the best conference averages.
Jake, Jamison, and Carter were chosen for the first team of the ACC tournament and Okulaja and Williams were chosen for the second team of the ACC tournament, this year Jake also joined the first defensive team of the ACC conference.
After celebrating a lot with his teammates Jake wanted to talk to his mother and Anna and also to talk to Kate who had come to watch his game, but the team had to go back to the university and Jake didn't want to ask too much for Coach Guthridge and so he just called them thanking and explaining what had happened.
They all understood why Jake couldn't meet them and was happy that Jake won the ACC tournament, Jake had to go back with the team because they would have 2 days to rest and then another day of training just before the next game.
If the Tar Heels team managed to reach the NCAA tournament final again, there would only be 6 games left until the end of this season, if they managed to win the NCAA tournament they would win the NCAA tournament for the second time in a row and enshrine this perfect season in history and still be able to break the record for second place victories.
The second record of undefeated games was for the San Francisco team that was 60 games without losing, the first place was impossible for them to achieve because it was 88 games without losing for the UCLA team.
The Tar Heels team was already 58 games without losing and with 3 more games it would break the San Francisco team record, so it was important that Jake was back with the team and that they were united in this important moment for the team.
Coach Guthridge was getting even more stressed than the players because this was his first year as a head coach and he could never have imagined that something like this could happen, he won the ACC tournament and now the team could win the NCAA tournament.
Bill Guthridge also thought that this record was not just theirs and was also that of coach Dean Smith who coached the team last season when that record of undefeated games had started, so he didn't want the team to lose.
Those two days of rest would help the players a lot, even though Jake, who had excellent resistance, had grown tired after playing three games in three consecutive days without resting, Jake had played 40 minutes in all games and was therefore very tired.
So he apologized to Yuen Woo-ping but said that he would not train this week at least, then he would have a few days of rest and he could train again not to be doing anything too.
Yuen Woo-ping naturally understood and knew that Jake had stopped his marathon racing training just to train with him, Yuen Woo-ping couldn't ask Jake to harm basketball either.
While Jake and his teammates rested the sports media only talked about them, the Tar Heels team had had an excellent season that had not been seen in a long time and they had won the ACC tournament and were close to breaking the record they wanted to break.
Even though the sports media always talked about how good the Tar Heels team was and how they hoped they could win the ACC tournament and break the game record without losing when it was really happening everyone realized how incredible it was and difficult to happen.
Players like Billy Cunningham, James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan who were excellent basketball players and played on the Tar Heels team talked about the current record-breaking team and talked a lot about Jake Smith, Antawn Jamison, and Vince Carter.
So the whole country was watching the Tar Heels team again to see if they would win the NCAA tournament again and continue to break records, of course, they would still have to beat excellent teams if they wanted to win the NCAA tournament again.
Jake was less nervous now that he had won the ACC tournament and also knowing that he had the support of his mother and also the support of Kate, he would do his best to win the NCAA tournament, but if he didn't win he knew they would break the record games without losing and you wouldn't feel bad going to the NBA draft.
As Jake also expected after his excellent performances in the last games and winning the ACC tournament being chosen as the best player and with the record of games without losing being close to being achieved by the Tar Heels team, the companies were looking for David Falk again.
Everyone who was negotiating and even the company that had decided to break the verbal agreement was looking for David again to try to get a new contract with Jake, everyone understood more in recent days about Jake's potential as a player and his commercial potential as well.
The companies that sponsored Jake like Tiffany's company and also Clara's company had excellent sales in the last few days, many fans who liked the Tar Heels team, who liked Jake or who simply liked basketball started buying products that they knew had an endorsement contract with Jake.
These companies even renewed some agreements with television companies to show the commercials that Jake had recorded again, this made the companies that had a verbal agreement with David happy to have continued and the other companies that were negotiating wanted a contract again.
Just as Jake had said before, if these companies really wanted a new deal with Jake they would have to pay twice what the deal was a few weeks ago, they had to pay $ 2 million a year for a maximum of 4 years.
Naturally, these companies questioned why the contract hadn't even started and some companies that agreed earlier would only pay half of what they did, but David didn't care.
After the Tar Heels team won the ACC tournament David had a new respect for Jake and thought he could get things done faster than he thought, maybe in another month the Tar Heels team would break that record and win the NCAA tournament again.
When that happened, Jake's NBA contract as a rookie would have to be even better, when these companies saw that David was decided they decided to wait a little longer, if Jake won the NCAA tournament maybe that new contract would really be worth it.
The company that most regretted was the one that broke the verbal contract with David on impulse, they could wait until they were close to the NBA draft to break that verbal contract, they didn't have to be so quick, because of that the situation was more complicated now.
What disappointed David was that Nike had not yet responded to the deal he had asked Jake for, it was the $ 52 million deal for a 5-year contract and another 4 percent of the profit for Jake-related shoes that were sold.
It was really a very demanding contract for a novice player, but it was a bet that they would have to make if they wanted to get a contract with Jake, even though they knew that Adidas was interested and could steal another player as they did with Kobe Bryant it seemed like the Nike had no interest in paying that much.
The good news was that Adidas had sent an official agreement that they had accepted Jake's requests, so David knew that he couldn't go any further and had to close a verbal agreement with Adidas.
David would get 10 percent anyway so he had no reason to care that Nike had lost an excellent contract again, David knew that Jake was resting before the next game, but that was an important decision and Jake had to decide.
"Hi, Jake, so I received a final proposal from Adidas to make a verbal agreement, they accepted your requests, Nike has not yet answered whether it would accept or not."
Jake was also disappointed with Nike just like David, he knew that in the future Nike would be the biggest sports shoe company, but Jake didn't really need the sponsorship money to earn his income.
So he just wanted a contract that paid what he knew it was worth, that contract might seem like a lot of money to a newbie, but Jake had a deal to play in the Lakers and in the next few years he could win 3 NBA title.
If that happened, Nike would have a new player who was NBA champion 3 times, for Adidas, it was even better because they also sponsored Kobe Bryant and so the main Lakers players would not be sponsored by Nike.
"You can accept the deal, David, we showed goodwill and Nike was not interested, we are going to have a good deal with Adidas that has always shown interest and respect."
With Jake having decided David soon sent a message to Adidas that Jake accepted the deal, there was little time left for the end of the season and the Tar Heels team could even win the NCAA tournament and thus it was difficult for that contract to be canceled.
The companies that had made a deal for Jake paying $ 1 million a year for 4 years would be very happy if Jake won an NBA title with the Lakers, and even if those companies agreed to pay $ 2 million they would be happy.
The media continued to talk about the Tar Heels team and about Jake and about the record they could break in the next games, this was to get the attention of basketball fans who did not follow college basketball games.
But with the attention that the media paid and seeing that it was Michael Jordan's team and with Jake's incredible performance this season, basketball fans started to become interested in watching the Tar Heels team's games.
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels team was having training after two days of rest before the next game that would be the next day, Coach Guthridge can relax seeing that the players seemed to be rested after that rest.
He knew how intense and tiring the game against the Duke team had been in the final, especially after a 3-game streak in 3 straight days, so the Tar Heels team did light training to regain the game and the next day he had to hope that the players would perform well.
So soon the game day arrived and the Tar Heels team went to travel to where the next games would play, the next game would be against the Navy Midshipmen team, the Navy Midshipmen team was good and was having a good season.
But the Patriot conference teams were not very good and so Coach Guthridge expected an easier game if he could he wanted to let the starting players rest for the next games.
After all, they were already at the end of the season and the Tar Heels team had a lot of games that season, he said this to Jake who soon understood what Coach Guthridge meant and would play at a slower pace.
The first two games of the Tar Heels team, if they won, would be at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut, the players of the Tar Heels team hoped to win that game and were, therefore, more confident after winning the ACC tournament.
"Welcome to everyone who came to watch this first game of the NCAA tournament, the Tar Heels team is the favorite to win this game after winning the ACC tournament in an excellent game against the Duke team."
"But the pressure to get a good result can get in the way of the Tar Heels team players in that game, the opponent of that game the Navy Midshipmen team also wants the victory to advance further in the NCAA tournament."
"That's right, I believe that the Tar Heels team will win this game, they are favorites to win the NCAA tournament again this season and with Jake and Jamison playing so well I find it hard to imagine this team losing."
"So I think that if the Tar Heels team players perform well in that game, victory is practically guaranteed."
Just as commentators said everyone thought this victory was almost certain for the Tar Heels team, so early on in the game the Tar Heels team started to press forward with Jake trying to attack at a slower pace of play.
The defense of Team Tar Heels was also firm to prevent the Navy Midshipmen team from attacking so that Coach Guthridge could let the players rest for a while.
So whenever the defense of the Navy Midshipmen team didn't defend against him Jake would soon try a three-point shot, so in the middle of the 1st half of the game Jake had already scored 12 points in the game, the opponents thought that the Tar Heels team would start slowly at Jake's slow pace, but soon they had a big lead on the scoreboard.
So for the remainder of the 1st half, the defense players of the Navy Midshipmen team had to defend more against Jake which gave him space to pass the ball to his teammates.
Coach Guthridge was very pleased with Jake's performance because he had more freedom to replace the players in the 1st half, it seemed that Ed Cota and Makhtar N'Diaye were also playing well which made things easier for Coach Guthridge.
At the end of the 1st half of the game, the Tar Heels team was winning with a good advantage in the game even though the coach Guthridge was putting the substitute players to play too, so the players of the Navy Midshipmen team started to get discouraged.
In that 1st half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and had 19 points, 5 assists, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals, with Jamison leaving the game for a few minutes Jake could pick up more rebounds and also scored a lot of points in that 1st half of the game.
"Thus ends the 1st half of the game and the Tar Heels team has dominated this game and has been winning easily with the great performance of Jake and also of the entire Tar Heels team, Jamison scored 10 points and played only 11 minutes in that 1st half of game."
"Clearly the Tar Heels team is easily winning that game and coach Guthridge seemed to be thinking of saving players for the next game since the middle of the 1st half, with Jake's good performance he played the 20 minutes in the 1st half of the game."
"Coach Guthridge seems to have confidence in his players and knows that Jake has the strength to play all 40 minutes of the game, after all, Jake played the 40 minutes in all 3 ACC tournament games that were three days in a row."
"It's true, I find it difficult for the Navy Midshipmen team to still win the game, but we will have to follow the 2nd half to see if the Tar Heels team can win another game."