bhwS

by Cr0w0019

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

33. Chapter 33

1998 NCAA Tournament

Just as commentators had hoped the Tar Heels team continued to dominate the game at the start of the 2nd half, Coach Guthridge let the starting players play the first few minutes to further increase the advantage and soon started to replace again.

Jake was really playing very well and also hit a lot of three-point shots, which left the players of the Navy Midshipmen team with no hope of winning that game and the Tar Heels team can dominate the game even more.

So the Tar Heels team won with 112 points against the Navy Midshipmen team's 48 points, it was a great victory because Jake didn't need to rest and still scores several points in three-point plays.

In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 21 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals, with this triple-double Jake ensured an easy victory for the Tar Heels team and his teammates were able to rest more in that game.

"Another victory for the Tar Heels team, a really dominant game that was an easy victory for the Tar Heels team that moves on to the next game with many chances to win with the rested players."

"Jake made another triple-double making 40 points again, this is not surprising anymore because we are used to it, but it is incredible for a player to make 40 points easily in an important game like this, Jake hit 10 shots from three points in that game to achieve this."

"Jake certainly has the record for the Tar Heels team and perhaps all the college basketball teams with the most points in an NCAA tournament game this season, what was the maximum he achieved in an NCAA tournament game anyway?"

"It was a game last season against the Louisville Cardinals team in which he had 53 points and 18 assists, he sure has the record for points, assists, and steals in games, Jake just doesn't have the record on average for points because of Austin Carr. "

"The Navy Midshipmen team had no chance of winning this game even though they played well, now we will continue to follow up to see if Team Tar Heels wins the NCAA tournament this season again."

After that first game, the players on the Tar Heels team were more confident to win this NCAA tournament, Jake was concerned about the next game, but he was confident that the Tar Heels team would win more easily.

The Tar Heels team had only light training the other day to not tire the players and Jake can see that everyone was fine for the next game, Jake hoped that the opposing defense would put more pressure on him in the game so that his teammates would have more freedom to make the stitches.

Coach Guthridge called Jake after training to say he had some concerns for the next game because of the next opponent and Jake spoke what he remembered that could cause the team's defeat in the next game.

It was Coach Bill Guthridge who chose Jake for this Tar Heels team, so Coach Guthridge had a lot of confidence in Jake, especially now that the Tar Heels team was having such a good season and Jake was primarily responsible for that.

If the Tar Heels team won this season, Coach Guthridge knew that Jake would be responsible for that, Coach Guthridge knew that Jake thought about leaving the team this season even though Jake didn't say anything.

But Coach Guthridge thought Jake was right to do that, after that season the whole team would almost go to the NBA or some players would end their time at university, Jake had already won two ACC tournaments and an NCAA tournament, no one could say that he was unimportant and helped the university.

So another day passed and the day of the next Tar Heels game in the NCAA tournament came, the players were confident, but did not underestimate the opponent because of that and were focused to win.

The opponent in that game was the Charlotte 49ers team, that team was also having a good season and played in a conference with strong teams which made them a more difficult opponent.

Jake told Coach Guthridge that they had to be especially careful with Sean Colson, DeMarco Johnson, and Diego Guevara, he himself would defend against Sean Colson and defend against Diego Guevara when he was playing.

If the two were playing it was for Shammond Williams to defend against one of them, the other players had to put pressure on defending against DeMarco Johnson so that they could hinder the Charlotte 49ers team's attacks.

"Today we are going to watch another NCAA tournament game this season, the Tar Heels team that has been having an incredible season and is fighting to win the NCAA tournament again this season plays against the Charlotte 49ers team."

"In the last game, the Tar Heels team had an easy win with an excellent performance by Jake who made 40 points, in addition, the players of the Tar Heels team were able to rest because the coach Guthridge put the reserves to play longer."

"So with the excellent season that the Tar Heels team has been doing and with the best players they have the advantage to win this game."

"But the Charlotte 49ers team also want to seek victory and continue advancing in the NCAA tournament, to achieve this they have a team with good and experienced players."

"So we are going to monitor which team will win and continue in the NCAA tournament."

The Tar Heels team started strong in the attack against the Charlotte 49ers team, Jake knew this was going to be a difficult and tiring game and so he wanted to try to start winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard to make his teammates more confident and send the pressure for the Charlotte 49ers team.

Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left, Carter quickly advanced to the three-point line and passed the ball to Jamison who was ahead, Jamison tried to advance and soon the defense pressed on the defense preventing his advance.

So Jamison passed the ball to Carter in the back, Carter soon passed the ball to Jake who was in the middle, Jake received the ball and the Charlotte 49ers team defense immediately pressed, Jake was not nervous and passed the ball to Williams who was more open on the right.

Williams received the ball and received the signal from Jake and thus tried the shot from outside to hit and make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, Shammond Williams had an agreement with Jake that depending on the play Jake had to warn Williams to try the shot of three points.

It was Coach Guthridge who had thought about it because there were games that Williams would try 13 shots from outside if not controlled, he was very good on average at three-point shots, but there were games that he tried too hard.

After Coach Guthridge did that, Williams' three-point hit average had improved a lot, and Williams had more respect for Jake who had an average of 78 percent hit on three-point shots.

The Tar Heels team really started to push forward as opposed to the last game and soon everyone could see that all the players on the Tar Heels team were performing well in that game, so the Charlotte 49ers team was forced to be on the defensive early in the game.

Jake was well in the game too and together with Williams and Carter they were dominating the three-point line and in the middle of the 1st half, the Tar Heels team was winning with a good advantage in the game and Jake already had 9 points.

So the Charlotte 49ers team had to react and started to attack more, in another move the Charlotte 49ers team was on the attack and Jake was defending against Colson and the Tar Heels team was defending against Johnson, even so, the Charlotte 49ers team tried to force the move.

Johnson received the ball and tried to make the turn against Okulaja's defense, Johnson made the quick turn and tried the layup and managed to make the 2 points and still missed Okulaja, then Johnson hit the Free Throw and made 1 more point for the Charlotte 49ers team.

The defense of the Tar Heels team was good in the three-point line, but against more skilled and tall players in the painted area, the Tar Heels team was not able to defend very well, that was the problem of not having a good Center in the team.

The Charlotte 49ers team started to react and the advantage that the Tar Heels team had on the scoreboard began to diminish, even so with the good plays of Jake, Williams, and Carter the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half winning with a good advantage on the scoreboard.

In this 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 16 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks, Jake was still managing to defend well against Colson and from what he remembered the Tar Heels team could win more easily the Charlotte 49ers team like that.

"What an exciting game in that 1st half, the two teams pushing forward and playing well in defense too, Jake, Williams and Carter managed to hit a few shots from three points and so the defense of the Charlotte 49ers team failed to react that well."

"The defense of the Tar Heels team was not able to defend well against DeMarco Johnson and so the Charlotte 49ers team managed to diminish the advantage in the Tar Heels team on the scoreboard, Jake defended well against Sean Colson and managed 3 blocks in this 1st half helping the Tar Heels team."

"The players on the Tar Heels team seem to be performing well in this game and also seem to be in good physical condition, if they continue like that I see another victory for the Tar Heels team."

"The Charlotte 49ers team needs more attack options and Colson needs to get rid of Jake's defense to get more three-point shots, and they need to defend better against the Tar Heels players on the three-point line."

Coach Guthridge praised the Tar Heels team players at halftime and asked them to continue attacking and defending so he also asked the Tar Heels team players to try not to make too many fouls while defending against Johnson of the Charlotte 49ers team.

Jake was also praised for controlling the Tar Heels team's attack well, Jake, Williams, and Carter attacked well on the three-point line and Jamison, Okulaja and even Carter did not have the opportunity to attack that much within the three-point line.

So in the 2nd half, Jake planned to attack more with moves within the three-point line and only sometimes try a few three-point shots and also count on Williams for that, so the Charlotte 49ers team's defense would be confused by that.

Jake also complained to his teammates who did not defend well against Diego Guevara when he entered the game, in the 2nd half the players in the defense had to defend better against him.

Everyone wanted to win and Jake knew how the Charlotte 49ers team could be a dangerous opponent in this game, they had to win and not get too tired to continue well in the NCAA tournament, so overtime would be terrible for the Tar Heels team in that game.

The 2nd half started with both teams pushing forward, the Charlotte 49ers team had a harder time attacking and had to rely on Johnson or another player who could get rid of the Tar Heels defense.

In another play, the Charlotte 49ers team was attacking and the ball was passed to Johnson again, he tried to make the play and failed to hit and Jamison got the rebound, he passed the ball to Jake who advanced for the attack with speed.

After passing through the middle of the court Jake passed the ball to Williams from the left, Williams advanced with the ball and after the three-point line he passed the ball to Okulaja later on, Okulaja had played well in the last games and so the defense Charlotte 49ers team soon pressed against him.

So Okulaja had to pass to Carter who was further back on the left, Carter received the ball and soon passed to Jake further back, the Charlotte 49ers team's defense soon prepared to defend against Jake, Carter, and Williams who were outside the line of three points.

But Jake did not attempt the shot and passed the ball to Jamison on the left in a long pass, Jamison received the ball and soon got rid of the player who was on defense to make a dunk and 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

Just as Jake expected the defense of the Charlotte 49ers team, he didn't expect a move like that, so Jamison managed to make the dunk easier, so the Tar Heels team managed to increase the lead a little.

In another move, the Charlotte 49ers team was attacking and Colson and Guevara were playing, the Charlotte 49ers team seemed to have realized that Guevara was playing well and besides Jake, the other players on the Tar Heels team did not defend well.

So Jake was more focused on defense, Colson received the ball and Jake was not close to him to prepare to react, but Colson did not attempt the shot because Jake had already managed to make 4 blocks on him in that game.

So Colson passed to Guevara who was free on the left after passing behind the defense of the Tar Heels team, so Guevara did not hesitate and tried the shot from the outside, Jake was attentive and reacted quickly and even managed to jump and block.

Guevara did not expect this because Jake was away from him and defending against Colson, but now the two have become more cautious against Jake to try the three-point shot in that game again.

The game continued and the Charlotte 49ers team was on the attack again, this time Colson and Guevara were wide apart and Jake was defending against Guevara so Colson tried the shot and missed.

Johnson still managed to catch the rebound, but before he tried to layup Jake did the steal and advanced to the attack at speed, Jake always fought for the rebound and when he saw that Johnson won the rebound against Jamison he took the opportunity to make the steal.

Jake moved forward using all his speed for the attack, Colson and Guevara were still further behind and managed to react and returned to defend, but Jake was clearly faster than them and Guevara tried to hinder Jake before.

Jake made a feint and then a very fast crossover and Guevara ended up falling to the ground trying to react to Jake's speed, so Jake continued to advance with speed and Colson who was within the three-point line of defense tried to defend too.

So Jake who was away from the painted area decided to make the special move that was created by him, Jake made the Ghost move that made the ball disappear in front of the opponent and Colson was unable to see the ball for a moment.

So Jake passed easily and then did the dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, this Ghost move was the movement that Jake had created and was really very useful and easy to do, but it could be done only when he was in 1 on 1.

That's because the other players and the crowd could clearly see what Jake was doing with the ball, only the opposing player who was in front of him didn't see the ball for a moment and couldn't defend unless he made a foul on Jake.

So when Jake made this move, the crowd and commentators did not celebrate the dribble and just thought it was strange that Jake could easily pass the opponent.

That would only change once the opponent who received the dribble told the media that Jake had made a dribble that he was unable to see the ball, but no opponent would want to praise the player who tricked him.

The game continued with the Tar Heels team maintaining the advantage even with the Charlotte 49ers team playing well, so the Tar Heels team managed to win the game by making 94 points against 70 points of the opponent.

In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 17 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 3 blocks, with this triple-double, Jake helped the Tar Heels team to achieve another victory and without the players if they got so tired.

"And so the game ends with another victory for the Tar Heels team that advances to the next game in the NCAA tournament, a game in which the players of the Tar Heels team played very well and even though the Charlotte 49ers team was well off the team Tar Heels still won with a good advantage."

"Jake led the Tar Heels team in that victory by making another triple-double, with Jake organizing the attacks and defending the Tar Heels team well and managed to win without the players getting so tired."

"Jamison, Carter, Williams, and Okulaja also played well in this game and all of this helped the Tar Heels team to secure the victory and match the record of 60 games without losing that they want to break this season."

"That's right, the Tar Heels team drew with the San Francisco team with a record of 60 games without losing, so in the next game, the Tar Heels team may have managed to complete one of the team's goals for the season and gain more confidence to win the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row."

"I am confident that the Tar Heels team will manage to win the next game, with a team with excellent players like Jake Smith, Vince Carter, and Antawn Jamison I think it is difficult that they will lose the next game."

After this victory, the players of the Tar Heels team celebrated this important victory a lot in this difficult game and went back to the university before the next game, the players were not so tired and the next game would be only after 5 days.

So the coach Guthridge decided to let the players rest for 2 more days and train only for 2 days before the game after all the players were playing well and the biggest concern of the coach Guthridge was that the players would get tired before the next games.

With so many days before the next game Jake told Yuen Woo-ping that they could train in the next few days, after all, they would soon have to go to Australia to join the film crew and Jake had to have learned everything by then.

Jake had to stop running training because he had the responsibilities to the basketball team and the movie he was going to participate in soon, and also because Jake knew that even without training he would not lose his fitness and time did it in marathons.

What made Jake very happy was that Zack continued with the training every day even without Jake to keep him company, Jake had arranged with Zack and intended to fulfill that he would run the Chicago marathon or one that was before her.

In this marathon, Zack would try to run the entire marathon with time below 3 hours, which was a challenge for amateur athletes, after running below 3 hours an athlete could be considered an elite athlete with chances of winning a marathon.

To achieve this with the help of Coach Davis he continued to try Jake's suicidal training, now Zack ran 20 km every day and once a week he ran 30 km, after almost two years of training every day and going to the gym Zack was able to do that.

Once every two months Zack also ran a complete marathon as training, he already knew he was able to do that so it was great training for Zack to gain confidence.

This could be called suicide training because running so much if Zack continued for many years he could have several problems in his knees and also in his hip bones, so Jake would ask Zack to change training after running this marathon that year.

Another thing that was happening was that Aaron continued to train with the American Football team, with the training he did with Jake while he was away from the team helped Aaron to get a prominent place on the team.

Aaron hopes he could play this season and the next one together with the team and if he went well who knows he might have a chance to go to the NFL, Jake hoped for Aaron a lot even though he knew it was difficult for his friend to go to the NFL because he hasn't played in the first two seasons.

In the next few days while Jake trained with Yuen Woo-ping the sports media just talked about the Tar Heels team again, everyone was excited after the Tar Heels team managed to match the San Francisco team record of 60 games without losing.

With Jake on the team, everyone knew that the Tar Heels team had a good chance of breaking that record and many even talked about the possibility of the Tar Heels team breaking the UCLA team's 88-game record without losing.

This was not impossible because there were still 4 games left for the end of this season and then the Tar Heels team had to win just 25 more games without losing in the next season, of course, few thought this was possible, but the media also thought it impossible that the team Tar Heels broke the San Francisco team record of 60 games without losing earlier this season.

In addition, all the broadcasters that broadcast the games were excited about this because the latest games by the Tar Heels team broke the broadcast records at College basketball, this was normal because the Tar Heels team was doing an incredible thing that was difficult to see in modern times.

Several basketball fans who didn't use to follow College basketball and even College basketball fans who didn't watch other teams' games were looking to see the Tar Heels team making history.

The UCLA team record was unbreakable, so seeing the Tar Heels team break the San Francisco team record of 60 victories was the maximum they would see, and many broadcasters thought that these fans would continue to follow the Tar Heels team until the NCAA tournament final. if the Tar Heels team went to the final.

So as the broadcasters saw this as an opportunity, they talked about the Tar Heels team's next game whenever they could, the other sports media also wanted to talk about it to sell more to fans.

The NCAA was happy to authorize Jake to be the first sponsored player to play at College basketball, after all, Jake was instrumental in bringing even more visibility and fame to College basketball at a time when several players were considering joining the NBA directly.

Of course, not everyone could do like Jake who received sponsorship because he was also an athlete who ran marathons and won several marathons and even an Olympic gold medal, but that helped a little to solve the problem.

The Wachowskis brothers were happy with this situation because when everyone knew that Jake was making a film as an actor again and this time he would have an important character in the film, many basketball fans would definitely go to the cinema to see The Matrix.

Of course, they thought Jake was a great actor and so they invited him into this film, but his fame would only help publicize the film, if Jake knew about it he would laugh because he knew how successful the film would be even without him.

In the coming days Jake continued to learn a lot from Yuen Woo-ping and also doing Sparring with him every day, it was only a few weeks that they trained, but Yuen Woo-ping thought Jake had already learned more than the actors who spent months training with him.

Of course, Jake really had to learn more because he would have to fight in the movie and also Jake hadn't learned to fight using cables yet, it would be more difficult to fight to be in the air hanging by cables.

In addition, Jake was an athlete and could learn more without tiring and the actors did not have this facility and took more days to learn, even so, Yuen Woo-ping had to admit that Jake was very talented.

While training with Yuen Woo-ping, Jake also trained with the basketball team after everyone rested for 2 days, the players were all much better after that rest and much more excited because of the record they could break in the next game and also because the season was ending.

So the day came for the next NCAA tournament game, the next two games for the Tar Heels team if they won would be at the Greensboro Coliseum again, it was the place where they played the entire ACC tournament this season and last season, so the Tar Heels team I was more comfortable playing at the Greensboro Coliseum.

The crowd was much greater for the Tar Heels team that was close to breaking the San Francisco team record, which made the Tar Heels team players more confident and more excited to achieve victory.

The opponent for this game was the Michigan State team, the Michigan State team was playing very well this season and was in a good conference too, so this had everything to be a difficult game.

But the pressure on that game was greater for the Michigan State team and it was impossible for them to have such confidence in playing against the Tar Heels team that they wanted to win to have a streak of 61 straight wins and had the best players of the season.

In addition, the Tar Heels team was the current NCAA tournament champion and was the favorite team to win this season again, so it was impossible for them not to feel the pressure with everyone in the stands cheering for the Tar Heels team.

But Jake knew that in the coming years this team would have a great season and would win the NCAA tournament in the 1999-00 season, in addition, they would arrive in the NCAA tournament semifinal in the next three seasons.

It showed how strong the Michigan State team was and would be even stronger, so even though Jake was confident he still knew he had to be very careful against this opposing team.

"Welcome to everyone who came to watch this NCAA tournament game, this game could be historic if the Tar Heels team wins again because of the Tar Heels team wins this game they broke the San Francisco team record of 60 games without lose."

"So the Tar Heels team will have a record of 61 games without losing and will be the second team with the highest record after the UCLA team that has an unbreakable record of 88 games without losing."

"That's right, I believe that the Tar Heels team is the favorite to win this game with a team that has Jake Smith, Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter, but the Michigan State team is also doing very well this season."

"So I think this can be an exciting game that the Tar Heels team players will have to do their best to achieve victory."

The game started with the Tar Heels team attacking very hard in the first minutes pressing in the attack, the players were very rested and the opponent was difficult, so Jake wanted to take advantage of the fact that the opponent would be feeling the pressure to increase the advantage on the scoreboard at the beginning of the game.

Just as Jake expected the Michigan State team backed off when he realized that the Tar Heels team would press on the attack, everyone knew that the Tar Heels team had the best attack of the season and the Michigan State team had a good defense and preferred to rely on that.

In this game Jake did not intend to have anyone from the team on the three-point line to play with him, only he would do the three-point shots and the rest of the team would stay within the three-point line to make the points, so Jake thought he could make things more difficult for the opponent.

In another move the Tar Heels team was attacking with speed and Jake passed the ball to Williams from the right before passing through the middle of the court, Williams advanced with the ball and passed ahead to Okulaja who was playing well in the last games.

The defense of the team Tar Heels soon pressed Okulaja who had to pass the ball to Jamison on the left, Jamison received the ball and passed back to Williams, Williams received the ball and tried a feint and managed to get rid of the opponent, then Williams drive to the basket and made the layup to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

In this move, the Michigan State team's defense expected Jake to receive the ball and did not defend well against Williams who managed to advance and lay up in a good move, that was another thing that Jake had discussed with the other players, the attack moves they didn't need to go through it for players to score.

This was the opposite of what Jake normally did and what Coach Guthridge asked the team, so he could take the Michigan State team's defense by surprise at the start of the game and thus increase the lead.

Just as Jake had said in the first minutes, the Tar Heels team managed to score a lot and increase the lead, when the Michigan State defense managed to straighten the defense, Jake also made more three-point shots.

So the Michigan State team decided to attack with more intensity so as not to give freedom to the players of the Tar Heels team to worry only about the attack, Coach Guthridge expected this to happen and had already given the instructions for the defense.

Jake would defend against Mateen Cleaves who was the best player on the Michigan State team and Williams would defend against Charlie Bell, so the Michigan State team could not attack smoothly even if he wanted to.

In another attacking move by the Michigan State team, after a good play the ball was left for Cleaves, Jake did not approach to defend, but Cleaves knew it was more dangerous that way and he did not think about trying a shot from outside.

Cleaves thought about making a move with Bell and tried the pass, Jake anticipated the pass and managed to intercept making the steal, so Jake wasted no time and advanced with speed to attack.

Cleaves who saw Jake doing the steal tried to run after Jake, but soon saw Jake entering the painted area and doing the dunk making 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, so Cleaves realized how difficult it was to play with Jake defending against him.

In another attacking move by Tar Heels Jake passed the ball to Carter from the left before the three-point line, Carter was playing very well in the last games and was regaining confidence with the victories.

Carter passed the ball to Jamison later on, Jamison was also playing well in the last games, but it was not as good as in the regular season, so in this game, he wanted to be one of the highlights and help the team to win.

Jamison tried to advance twice by deceiving the opponent who was defending against him, seeing that he couldn't Jamison passed the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball with freedom and then stepped back and tried the shot from outside.

This time Jake missed the three-point shot and Jamison managed to catch the rebound and went up again to make the dunk and 2 more points for the Tar Heels team, with this move the players of the Tar Heels team showed how well they were even when they missed an attack.

So the Tar Heels team continued to play like that and dominated the 1st half and ended up winning with a good advantage, the players of the Michigan State team defended well and tried to attack, but failed to stop the Tar Heels team.

In this 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 14 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block, in this 1st half Jake played very well, but not as well as in the last games because his teammates had more prominence.

"And so the 1st half ends, the Tar Heels team is winning with an excellent performance from all players, Jake also stood out in defense and was the best player in that 1st half, so the Tar Heels team is closer to victory after getting that big advantage."

"Most of the people here at the Greensboro Coliseum are rooting for the Tar Heels team to win and break the San Francisco team record, it certainly helps the players to perform better."

"It's true, in addition to helping the players on the Tar Heels team, it also puts more pressure on the players on the Michigan State team, the players on the Michigan State team are playing well, but they are no better than the Tar Heels team in this game."

"We will continue to monitor whether the Tar Heels team continues to play well and will achieve victory against the Michigan State team and break the record."

Coach Guthridge spoke to Jake at the break asking how the players were in the game and how their opponent was doing, Coach Guthridge was thinking of putting the players in reserve and letting the starting players rest more if the game was easy.

Jake said the game was not easy and they were just winning with a big advantage because the Tar Heels team players were playing well, so it would be a mistake to place the reserve players and take out the players who were playing well because the opponent was difficult.

Coach Bill Guthridge trusted Jake a lot and so decided to give up on letting the players rest and just asked Jake to slow down the attack, Jake said he understood and so the Tar Heels team went back to the 2nd half.

Just as Jake had said the Michigan State team had not given up on winning the game and started the 2nd half by putting pressure on the attack, as Coach Guthridge asked Jake to slow down in the attack it looked like the Tar Heels team was being pressured.

In another attacking move by the Michigan State team, after a good move Cleaves who was being careful with Jake passed the ball to Bell more open on the left, Williams pressed the defense and Bell passed the ball to Jason Klein who was open on the right.

Klein received the ball with freedom and tried the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Michigan State team and to diminish the advantage of the team Tar Heels, seeing this the coach Guthridge understood why Jake said that the game was difficult.

But that did not make the Tar Heels team players worried, in another play after a good play the ball went back to Jake further back, Jake was quick and made a high pass and Carter took the ball high to make the dunk and complete the alley-oop making 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

Jake had to reorganize the attacks and made more attempts to shoot from three points and thus managed to maintain the advantage on the scoreboard even with the Michigan State team attacking well in the 2nd half, Jake also stopped defending only against Cleaves and got more steals.

So the game continued to be exciting until the end and the Tar Heels team won making 85 points against 62 points of the Michigan State team, even with the pressure of the Michigan State team the Tar Heels team still managed to win.

In that 2nd half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocks, Jake had to organize the Tar Heels team attack in the 2nd half and helped in the attack, so he still got a double-double.

"End of the game, the Tar Heels team wins once again and breaks the San Francisco team's historic record, it was a record made in 1955 and that was broken only by the UCLA team that won 88 games in a row."

"Even if the Tar Heels team did not break the UCLA team record, to be able to break the San Francisco team record is already incredible, so the Tar Heels team advances to the next NCAA tournament game with more confidence."

"It's true, there are only 3 games left this season if the Tar Heels team reaches the final, having won the NCAA tournament last season, the Tar Heels team is the biggest favorite to win the NCAA tournament this season."

"Today all the players on the Tar Heels team played well and Jake couldn't even score as many points as in the last games, the Michigan State team played very well in that game too, especially in the 2nd half, but with the support of the crowd, the Tar Heels team won and starred in history once again with this incredible team."

"We will continue to follow the Tar Heels team on this incredible record that continues and also to see if they win the NCAA tournament again."

The Tar Heels team players celebrated as if they had won the NCAA tournament, even though the players did not show the pressure to stay so many games without losing trying to break the San Francisco team record put a lot of pressure on the players.

Even more with favoritism for being the current champions of the NCAA tournament, so after finally breaking that record the pressure on them would be much less, they would just continue to win the NCAA tournament again this season.

The players had no pressure to break the UCLA team record because many players knew that this was their last season on the team Tar Heels, Shammond Williams, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, and Jake Smith would leave the team this season and they didn't need to care more with the record.

Many reporters wanted to do an interview and ask questions of the Tar Heels team players after that victory and that record break, but Coach Guthridge already knew this would happen and denied all interviews claiming that the players were tired.

The players had only 1 day of rest and would have a difficult game in 2 more days, but Coach Guthridge knew that if he just refused he could irritate the NCAA and the sports media who wanted to know about it and use it as a promotion for College basketball.

So before that game, he had already made an agreement with some sports media and broadcasting stations to organize the players 'interviews the next day when the players were more rested and only some media could participate in the players' interviews.

It would be something like a press conference, but it would be just some sports media in the hotel room that the Tar Heels team players would stay in so that the players could celebrate quietly and then rested until the next day.

Jake even called his mom to talk to her about the game and talked to Kate too, after Kate showed up at the ACC tournament final game, Jake was talking to her on the phone and Kate's manager had already approved this possible dating in the future.

Kate's manager thought it was better for her to always talk to Jake on the phone than to set up meetings with him that it was riskier for the media to know about it, so after talking a few times they were getting even closer.

Jake always had to think about what he said to avoid telling him some secrets like the fact that he was going to the NBA this season, but Kate didn't seem to care and said several things that Jake felt was supposed to be a secret.

Kate had told Jake that she was recording a new music album that would be released in a few months and Jake can hear Kate's manager fighting with her because of that, the only thing they didn't talk about was when they were going to meet because the two were too busy in the coming months.

But Kate was making a surprise for Jake and would go to the NCAA tournament final game that she was sure Jake's team would be there for, so she had to plan her schedule since the end of the ACC tournament and was her manager who suffered from it.

The other day after they were more rested and relaxed, Coach Guthridge prepared the interview for the players, the hotel allowed them to use a special place in the hotel prepared for the press and the reporters went there.

The deal was with four sports media that accepted Coach Guthridge's conditions, which had many questions forbidden, reporters from ESPN, TNT, CBS and Sports Illustrated were allowed.

Many questions were forbidden such as talking about whether players would go to the NBA draft or continue playing at the university, Coach Guthridge thought that this could be misused by the media to disrupt the relationship between players and fans.

So the reporters would stay in the hotel's press room and the players would enter individually and so the reporters could ask several questions to the players individually, all the players would go and the reporters would ask the questions if they wanted to.

Coach Guthridge would naturally also answer the reporters' questions, for security reasons he would answer the questions first and then be the players on the starting team with Jake being the fifth player to speak.

So if reporters asked something that was not allowed he would be expelled and the interview would continue, so after everything was organized the reporters first interviewed Coach Guthridge who was also very important in this interview.

After all, it was Bill Guthridge's first year as head coach and Team Tar Heels have already had one of the best seasons in team history and won the ACC tournament and was close to winning the NCAA tournament.

In addition, along with trainer Dean Smith, he led the team to break that San Francisco team record and Team Tar Heels now had 61 straight wins, so naturally, he would have a lot of questions for Coach Guthridge.

The first question was how he felt when he learned that he would have to replace the legendary coach Dean Smith with whom he worked for over 30 years, and how he felt having one of the best debut seasons of any college basketball coach.

"Coach Dean Smith has been the head coach of the Tar Heels team for 36 years, he was the best coach the Tar Heels team has had in my opinion and has led many teams to make great seasons and is respected by everyone."

"A lot of what I know as a coach I learned from him and this team that managed to break that record was formed by him and started winning games with him, I only coached this team after Serge Zwikker left."

"I am very happy with my work so far as the head coach of the Tar Heels team, much of the credit for this excellent season is the incredible players who are on the team now, I see 7 players who can be starting players on any team."

"Jake, Antawn, Vince, Ademola, Makhtar, Shammond, and Ed are incredible players, Jake and Antawn are competing for the best player of the season award, it proves that we have an incredible team."

"If the Tar Heels team wins the NCAA tournament this season I believe it will be their merit, that of coach Dean Smith and the greatest glory of my career."

Coach Guthridge was experienced in talking to the media, he said what he really thought and was careful not to say anything that could be misinterpreted, the reporters asked a few more questions and the last question was the most interesting of the interview, as the coach Guthridge thought it would be the professional future of the Tar Heels team players.

"This is difficult to say, a player's professional career depends a lot on luck and opportunities beyond skills, many excellent players and NBA stars have never won an MVP award and never won an NBA title."

"I think a lot of players on the Tar Heels team today have the capacity to be professional players in the NBA or another basketball league, Shammond Williams who finishes college this season has a good chance of going to the NBA."

"With his ability if he can play on a team that is strong and with players from other positions very skilled he has a chance to win many awards and win the NBA title one day perhaps."

"Antawn Jamison also has the ability to play in the NBA in the future, he is a very skilled player who has a lot of ability to score a lot and get rebounds, so if he plays on a strong team with good players he can be very successful."

"It is the same with Jake Smith and Vince Carter, they are excellent players, but if they did not have a good team with good players in the other positions it is impossible for them to win prizes and win the NBA title."

"What I can say is that everyone has the ability to play on a strong team to win an NBA title, everyone has the ability and will depend on luck to achieve that."

Coach Guthridge said a standard answer to that question and in addition to praising the players, he did not highlight any players as the best of them, he really felt that everyone had the ability to play on a strong team to win the NBA title.

After that, the other players were interviewed and only Coach Guthridge was present at the other interviews to make sure that the reporters would not ask questions that could harm the players and the team.

One question everyone received besides Coach Guthridge was about what players thought of Jake Smith, everyone said as expected by reporters who thought Jake was the best team player and team leader on the court and one of the main responsible for the current great team season.

It was as if everyone said that Jake was the best player on the team just as everyone knew it without anyone saying, after all, Jake had broken several records in several different areas, he had the record for points, assists, and steals in a single season.

The next interview would be with Jake, all the reporters were waiting for this and had already prepared the questions they would ask Jake, after all, Jake gave few interviews which made his answers even more valuable.

Naturally, the reporters were smart and would not ask any questions that might compromise Jake to not risk being expelled from the press conference, the first question for Jake was what he felt about having the opportunity to win his second NCAA tournament in his second season.

"I am very happy with this, it is an honor and a dream for any basketball player to win an NCAA tournament, I was lucky to win in my freshman season and I was also lucky to be able to win two ACC tournaments."

"Winning a second NCAA tournament would definitely be a great honor and a great achievement that I will be proud of forever, I hope our team wins the next games to achieve this."

Jake answered that question carefully so as not to accidentally say that this was his last season at university, so if he won this second NCAA tournament it would be the last he would win.

The reporters couldn't guess that and soon prepared the next question, they asked if Jake felt that he was the most important player on the Tar Heels team in these two seasons and to break that record because of the data that in games that when he played for more 20 minutes the Tar Heels team always won.

"I believe so, just as the numbers said I scored more points and more assists so in my team I was the most important in these 61 victories, but as I said this is just seeing the numbers and this team."

"Without my teammates, I wouldn't be able to get those numbers, without the training of Coach Dean Smith last season and Coach Bill Guthridge this season the team wouldn't win and I couldn't do that well."

"So I believe the team was responsible for this and not just me, just as Coach Guthridge said without a good team with players in the right positions we couldn't win the games, let alone the NCAA tournament."

Jake and the players had talked several times and Jake was friends with everyone, just as everyone said he was the best player on the team he could also say that without causing any problems with the other players because the numbers say so.

But it was the first time that Jake said it clearly to the media because he gave few interviews, and Jake only said it because there were only 3 games left in the NCAA tournament, so it wouldn't cause any problems for the team.

After that, the reporters asked Jake some more questions about basketball and were careful not to ask any more compromising questions, and finally asked Jake if he thought he would miss another game because of some marathon he had to participate in.

"No, I don't think this will happen anymore, the Tokyo marathon is a very special marathon for me and I always wanted to participate in this marathon, when I became a marathon runner I always thought about participating in 6 marathons in the world."

"And these were the Boston, New York, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo marathon, these are for me the most important and main marathons in the world, the other marathons I had the opportunity to participate in."

"But to race in Tokyo I had to lose an important game for my team, I just did it because I believed in my team and because it was my dream to race once in Tokyo, so I think it will be difficult for that to happen again."

This could be a tricky question for Jake, but in fact, Jake always wanted to talk about it because he knew that it worried a lot of sponsors and fans that he might miss an important game to run a marathon.

So Jake was happy to answer that question, even though he had problems with the other big marathons in the future because he talked about the major marathons that were not yet called that, he had gained more support from those marathons.

Coach Guthridge didn't like some of the questions, but he was still happy with how those press conference interviews went, reporters didn't miss out on this opportunity and asked several questions to reserve players as well.

So the interviews ended and the players had not been tired or stressed because of that, now the reporters had an interview to do about the Tar Heels team record of the 61-game winning streak and also an interview to talk about the NCAA title later a few weeks.

Coach Guthridge decided to let the players rest for the next day's game and they would have no training, if the Tar Heels team won the next game they would have a week to rest before the next game and could train a lot.

So soon the day of the next NCAA tournament came, after a day of rest the players were almost recovered for the game, after breaking the record and thus relieving the pressure that the players felt they were much more confident in the victory.

The opponent in that game was the UConn Huskies team, the UConn Huskies team was having a great season and had a good team with great players, for not even qualifying for the NCAA tournament last season, many thought that the Tar Heels team would win with assurance.

But Jake knew that next season the UConn Huskies team would be the champion of the NCAA tournament, that was strange for Jake because the Michigan State team that they won in the last game would be the champion of the NCAA tournament after two seasons and the UConn Huskies team would win the NCAA tournament next season.

It showed how the Tar Heels team had faced tough opponents if they could win the NCAA tournament this season, so Jake would do his best in that game to guarantee victory.

"Welcome to everyone who is watching another NCAA tournament game this season, the Tar Heels team plays today trying to increase the winning record and continue in the NCAA tournament to try to win the second NCAA title in a row."

"After the last game where all the players on the Tar Heels team performed well, the opponent in that game is the UConn Huskies team that has been having a great season and can win this game and end the winning streak of the Tar Heels team."

"That's right, the UConn Huskies team has been playing very well this season and has great players, I think in the coming seasons they can get a better result."

"But in the last few games they won very hard and in that game, I think the Tar Heels team will win again, with Jake Smith and Antawn Jamison playing so well I find it difficult for the Tar Heels team to lose."

The game started with the Tar Heels team pressing in the attack as it did in the last few games, the players were confident and the Tar Heels team was better in the attack, moreover, the players didn't have to worry and get tired because the next game would just be a week later if they won.

But the UConn Huskies team was known for their good defense for letting their opponent score more than 79 points in just 2 games this season, so Jake knew it would be a tough game where he had to prepare to score fewer points and try more shots out.

The UConn Huskies team's attack was not very strong because of that and Coach Guthridge just told the players to focus on defending against Richard Hamilton and Khalid El-Amin.

Jake would defend against Hamilton who was better at three-point shots in that game and the other players had to defend against El-Amin, so with the good defense of the UConn Huskies team, the Tar Heels team was unable to open a good advantage against the UConn team. Huskies at the start of the game.

Jake would play a key role in this game and if he defended well he could help the Tar Heels team win because his steals would be important in a game with fewer points, so he was more focused than usual in defense.

In another play, the UConn Huskies team was attacking and after a good play Hamilton received the ball, Jake was further away from him and was waiting for a pass or for Hamilton's three-point attempt.

Hamilton attempted an outside shot and Jake quickly approached to block and prevent Hamilton's outside shot, the ball went to El-Amin after Jake's block and he attempted an outside shot and made 3 more points for the UConn Huskies team.

Williams who should have been defending against El-Amin was distracted after Jake got the block and did not continue defending against El-Amin who scored, Jake was upset because the team lost the chance to increase the lead, but said nothing for Williams.

In another move the Tar Heels team was on the attack and the UConn Huskies defense was pressing, Carter advanced the ball and passed the ball to Jamison on the left, Jamison received the ball and the UConn Huskies defense soon pressed against him.

Jamison tried a spin, but seeing that he was not going to make it he passed the ball to Williams further back on the right, Williams received the ball and passed it to Jake in the middle, Jake saw that he had no good passing options and tried the individual play.

He tried to feint, but he did not deceive the opposing player, so Jake tried to use speed and got rid of the opposing player, another UConn Huskies defense player came to defend against Jake and he stepped back and tried the shot from outside.

So he got it right and made 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, Jake still managed to hit some three-point shots, but the UConn Huskies defense was very strong, it was difficult for him to have to use more than three attempts to get rid of an opponent.

The game continued like this with the Tar Heels team pressing in the attack and the UConn Huskies team very well in defense, the Tar Heels team ended the 1st half winning with a small advantage because Jake got some three-point shots and helped in the defense.

In this 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 15 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 blocks, Jake was really playing well in this 1st half both in attack and defense, he managed to find spaces to make good assists and help his teammates score against UConn Huskies' good defense.

"What an exciting 1st half we had in that game, the two teams are trying to win and the players from both teams are playing very well, the Tar Heels team is currently winning, but in the 2nd half everything can change."

"It is true, the UConn Huskies team is playing very well and is using strong defense to try to prevent the Tar Heels team that has the best attack from College basketball from increasing the advantage on the scoreboard."

"But Jake is also playing very well in this game and has been the highlight of the Tar Heels team in this game also with 6 steals and 3 blocks, moreover, in the attack Jake is organizing the Tar Heels team well to find spaces and so they can do it the points against the UConn Huskies team's strong defense."

"We will monitor whether the Tar Heels team can continue to attack and defend in order to guarantee the advantage on the scoreboard and achieve victory at the end of the game."

The game was really difficult and the Tar Heels team players who were very confident before the game started were starting to get worried, Jake remembered that in the past the Tar Heels team won this game, but in this game, some key players from the UConn Huskies team they were a little sick in that game.

And Jake could clearly see that the players on the UConn Huskies team were healthy in this game, almost everything was happening as Jake remembered it, but some things still changed like that.

So this game was much more difficult than Jake thought it would be and even defending against Hamilton was difficult, Jake was having difficulty making the plays and so he only made assists or shots from three points, it was because he couldn't move forward to make a layup or a dunk in that game.

In the 2nd half, the game remained difficult to play and Jake was really trying his best to make the Tar Heels team continue with the lead on the scoreboard, in another move the Tar Heels team was on the attack and Jake passed the ball to Williams on the right.

Williams advanced with the ball and passed to Okulaja ahead before crossing the three-point line, Okulaja tried the play and failed and passed the ball back to Williams further back, Williams tried to pass the ball to Jamison later on left.

But Hamilton managed to intercept the pass and make the steal, he took the opportunity and started running for the attack, so Hamilton and El-Amin were running to try to make the points on the counterattack.

Williams took a while to react to the turnover he did and only Jake came back using his speed to defend, Jake was very fast and was ahead of Hamilton and El-Amin preventing them from moving forward.

The two realized this and decided to use the numerical advantage and Hamilton opened on the left and El-Amin opened on the right, Jake was not anxious and stayed in the middle so that he could try the block on whoever tried to make the points or the steal.

Near the painted area Hamilton who had the ball realized Jake's intentions and went to try the mid-range shot, Jake realized this and advanced close to Hamilton and jumped along with him to try the block.

But Hamilton was smarter and was not trying to shoot the mid-range but wanted to trick Jake and passed the ball to El-Amin who was free and can advance to make the layup and 2 more points for the UConn Huskies team.

Jake felt very irritated for being cheated, but in this situation, it was difficult for him to defend against the two alone, so the advantage of the Tar Heels team was only 7 points and had greatly diminished because of the attack errors of the other players in the team. Tar Heels team.

A few minutes had passed from the 2nd half of the game and the Tar Heels team could still win, but this play irritated Jake who used to be calm, in the same play he was tricked he received the ball from Carter and advanced for the attack.

This time Jake went forward for the attack alone and did not pass the ball as he always did, but sometimes he did it and no one found anything strange, still being a little far from the three-point line Jake didn't even think twice and tried a shot from outside by far.

So he got it right and made 3 more points for the Tar Heels team, the defensive players of the UConn Huskies team didn't expect Jake to attempt the shot from so far and didn't even think about defending and so the crowd that was rooting for the team Tar Heels at the Greensboro Coliseum started to cheer even more.

The game continued and Jake was defending more willingly and hindered the UConn Huskies team who missed the attack for Jamison to catch the rebound, so after a few minutes, the other players from the Tar Heels team and the UConn Huskies team began to notice that something strange was happening.

Jake tried 6 shots from three points in a row without passing to any player on the Tar Heels team once, he hit 4 shots from outside and had already scored 12 points in those few minutes, the advantage of the Tar Heels team greatly increased with that and the attacks were quick because Jake didn't use the ball possession time for the Tar Heels team.

So the coach of the UConn Huskies team had to ask for technical time to talk to the players, Coach Guthridge naturally realized that Jake was awkward in the last minutes, but as the Tar Heels team was increasing the lead on the scoreboard he said nothing.

But now that team coach UConn Huskies had asked for time, that move would no longer work and coach Guthridge had to call Jake to a more isolated place to talk to him about what was going on.

"What happened in the last few minutes, Jake, was it a strategy to further increase the lead? But if you were to do that, you could enjoy a little more possession time."

"I'm sorry, Coach Guthridge, I was a little irritated and didn't think about it properly."

"Riled up? Was it with the UConn Huskies team move that you were tricked? Don't worry about it, you can't always defend well against two players."

"It was not that, in several plays, in the 2nd half our team was often making mistakes in the attack and the advantage was decreasing, so for some plays, I didn't want to pass the ball to anyone."

So Coach Guthridge can understand why Jake was apologizing, it was good that he decided to talk to Jake separately from the rest of the team, Jake was very good at three-point shots and he almost never had a game where he didn't play very well.

In addition, Coach Guthridge had never seen Jake become very nervous or anxious in a game and he was always the player who helped others to control themselves, so Coach Guthridge didn't realize that Jake was acting strangely in those last few minutes.

"Look, Jake, I know you can often play alone because you have a high average three-point hit, but you do this only because opposing players are concerned with defending against their teammates who are great players too."

"So when you go forward, there are often not even two players defending against you, but if you still want to do all the moves yourself there will be two or three players defending against you in that game."

"If I see that you are getting in the way of the Tar Heels team from getting the win because of that I will have to replace you."

Coach Guthridge didn't want to be too hard to reproach Jake for this, but he couldn't allow it to affect the team in an important game like this, otherwise, the Tar Heels team would be eliminated.

Jake was smart and naturally understood that he was doing something wrong and in the other move he passed to Williams again and the opposing players returned to defend normally, the Tar Heels team had regained the advantage on the scoreboard, Jake was calm again.

But because of that, the Tar Heels team was lucky because when Jake received the ball the UConn Huskies defense had two players defending against him, with all his teammates playing well it meant more space for Jake to assist.

In another play Jake advanced the ball and passed it to Carter before passing through the middle of the court, Carter received the ball and continued to advance and passed the ball to Jamison further ahead before reaching the three-point line.

Jamison tried to move forward and the UConn Huskies defense was pressing against him, so Jamison passed the ball to Williams who was further back on the right, Williams received the ball and held it up a little before passing the ball to Jake again.

Jake received the ball and two players from the UConn Huskies team soon came to defend against him, so Jake passed the ball to Okulaja who was open from the right, Okulaja had come from behind the defense and was free, so Okulaja tried the shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.

The game continued with the Tar Heels team pressing in the attack until the end, the coach of the UConn Huskies team tried to change the defense again, but the Tar Heels team managed to win the game making 89 points against 60 points of the UConn Huskies team.

In that 2nd half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and made 21 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 3 blocks, after 10 minutes of the 2nd half when Jake talked to Coach Guthridge he started making more assists than points, so he got another quadruple-double at College basketball.

"So the game ends and the Tar Heels team got another victory and continues in the NCAA tournament to try to win the NCAA title again this season."

"This was a difficult game for the Tar Heels team and the UConn Huskies team that has a good defense gave the Tar Heels team a lot of difficulties, but at the end of the game the Tar Heels attack managed to find a way to break the defense of UConn Huskies team and the game ended with Tar Heels team winning with a good advantage."

"Okay, the players of the UConn Huskies team were playing very well in that game and so their team's defense made a very good 1st half, but the players of the Tar Heels team were also playing well and so the Tar Heels team managed the victory."

"Jake was the highlight of the game making in a few minutes of the 2nd half 6 shots from outside and hitting 4 of them making 12 points in a few minutes which increased the advantage for the Tar Heels team and also made the UConn Huskies defense have to defend better against him and thus give space to other players on the Tar Heels team."

"Jake got another quadruple-double in that game and also got 6 blocks, it was certainly one of his best games and he was very important for the victory of the Tar Heels team in that game, I'm sure Jake Smith deserves to be the best player in a year."

"So with this victory, the Tar Heels team increases the record of victories in a row and we will see if they win the next games and thus the Tar Heels team will be champion of the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year."

The Tar Heels team players celebrated a lot of being able to play again in the final four of the NCAA tournament, of course, everyone hoped they could win the next game and make it to the final of the NCAA tournament.

Jake was happy about it, but he was ashamed of what he had done in that game, even though it worked well to break the UConn Huskies team's strong defense, he knew well that he hadn't done what he did think about it.

Jake decided that at the next team training he would apologize for what happened and explain exactly what he did, he had to be honest with his teammates so that everyone could believe him.

Coach Guthridge gave 2 days for all players to rest and then they would train for 4 days before the game, after that game everyone was really exhausted and needed those days off.

The sports media kept talking about the Tar Heels team because just as they expected everyone who came to watch the games, they were curious to see the Tar Heels team break the San Francisco team's winning streak followed by watching to see if the Tar Heels team would win the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

The Tar Heels team would have time to rest before the next game, so Jake would continue training with Yuen Woo-ping, after all, he would have 6 days before the next game and would take the opportunity to train with Yuen Woo-ping because he had a responsibility with the film crew.

The next day the players were resting and Jake went to train with Yuen Woo-ping, in fact, Jake found this martial arts training very relaxing and very good, even if the wire-fu was more for acting there were many things about the martial arts that Jake wished he could hurt someone.

Yuen Woo-ping continued to train Jake to do the best he could in this film and even taught things that Jake wouldn't even need to use in the film, after all, he thought Jake was already ready for the film, but they could use the time to train even more.

Yuen Woo-ping wanted Jake to do very well in this film to be praised for his effort to learn the fight scenes, moreover, if he could teach Jake a lot of things he could invite him to a fight film in the future in Hollywood or even Hong Kong.

The truth was that for Jake's character in this film, his fighting skills would be more important than his acting skills, Jake had a lot of acting skills also because of the years he trained in his life before going back in time.

Jake naturally knew that and his goal was not to be recognized as the best actor in the film, in fact, he was very concerned that his character could disrupt the story he knew and thus the film would not be that good.

Jake just wanted to have an important character in a movie that would be a success, so he would be proud and could be called an actor even if he did not make any more films in the future, Jake knew that with NBA games it would be almost impossible for him to find time to participate in the films.

But his career as a professional basketball player would not last forever, after the age of 45 he would certainly not be playing anymore, so Jake could continue working as an actor while running the marathons and running his businesses.

Of course, no one knew that Jake thought about it and Yuen Woo-ping thought that Jake's goal was to be a famous actor and wanted to help him with that, the directors who worked with him also thought about it and were counting on Jake in the future.

After a few days Jake continued training with Yuen Woo-ping and the basketball team went back to training for the next game, the Tar Heels team players were confident and excited for the next game.

Everyone thought that the Tar Heels team would go to the final of the NCAA tournament this season and win again and that enthusiasm was affecting the players too, Jake was the most concerned about it and Coach Guthridge too.

Before the first day of training after the break, Jake decided to speak to Coach Guthridge about his concerns, after all in the past the Tar Heels team lost to the opposing team of that game when Jake did not play.

Jake told Coach Guthridge that he was very concerned and thought that the Tar Heels team might not win the next game, so he thought it was better for the players to train more before the next game.

Listening to this made Coach Guthridge even more concerned, he really thought the next game against the Utah Utes team would be very difficult, listening to Jake he was sure of it now after all the Utah Utes team had an even better defense than the UConn Huskies team which caused many problems for the Tar Heels team's attack.

The Utah Utes team had a very strong defense that had taken over 70 points against just two opponents in the entire season, the next opponent the Utah Utes team was having a great season losing few games and even winning against the Arizona Wildcats team that he lost to the Tar Heels team in the semifinal of the NCAA tournament last season, but he would have won the NCAA tournament had it not been for Jake on the team.

This showed the strength of the Utah Utes team that they lost last season to the team that played in the final against Team Tar Heels, because of that Coach Guthridge changed his mind and decided to do intense training with the team in the next few days.

Before that Jake told what really happened in the last game that he made 6 shots out of 6 strokes in a row without passing the ball to anyone because he was angry at the poor performance of his teammates in that game.

He apologized and his teammates were surprised by this and accepted the apology and liked Jake's honesty, they knew that Jake was not arrogant and normally didn't do that and that he should be suffering from the pressure like all of them.

But what nobody knew was that Coach Guthridge would agree with Jake that the team played poorly at the beginning of the 2nd half of the last game and said that the team had to train harder if they wanted to have the chance to win in the next game and also in the final game if they won against the Utah Utes team.

So over the next few days, the training was really intense with the coach taking care not to make the players tired too much, coach Guthridge told the team to be careful with Michael Doleac and Andre Miller from the Utah Utes team.

He also said that in the next game Jake would have to make more three-point moves to try to break the Utah Utes team's defense, and they too would have to defend very well if they wanted to have a chance to win.

To defend against the Utah Utes Doleac Center, Coach Guthridge decided to take Williams out of the starting team and put N'Diaye to strengthen the defense, N'Diaye had already been in many games as a reserve to help the defense of the Tar Heels team and that it had worked very well.

After many days of training came the day of the semifinal game that would be a very important game for the Tar Heels team, that game would be at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

It was a long way from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the team had to travel the day before and miss a day of training to be able to arrive rested for game day, yet the biggest crowd was for the Tar Heels team which gained a lot of popularity afterward to break the San Francisco team record.

"Welcome everyone who came to watch another game of the NCAA tournament, this is a game of the final four, a semifinal between two of the 4 best teams of College basketball this season, this is one of the most important games of this season."

"The Tar Heels team tries to win this game to further increase the incredible winning streak and also try to reach the final again and try to win for the second year in a row the NCAA tournament."

"The Utah Utes team has had an incredible season and has excellent players that make this team have one of the best defenses in college basketball, the Utah Utes team wants to win the NCAA tournament again after more than 50 years since the last victory."

"Okay, I think the Tar Heels team is definitely a favorite to win this game because of the players, Jake Smith, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, and the other players have done an excellent season and I think this NCAA tournament is going to be won by that team."

"But I wouldn't be too surprised if the Utah Utes team won that game and then won the NCAA tournament."

Many of the media thought as the commentators thought, everyone cheered and hoped that the Tar Heels team would win this game, but if they lost it would also be an interesting thing for them to put in the reports.

The game started with the Tar Heels team attacking normally, Jake decided not to increase the pace of the game early in the game and leave his teammates tired, Jake knew that the Utah Utes team defense was very good and was not using the speed that they could make the stitches.

Fortunately, the Utah Utes team's attack was also not very strong so if they managed to have a good game they would be able to win that game, the most difficult would be to defend against Doleac and it would be N'Diaye who would have to try harder in that game.

Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left, Carter advanced with the ball and passed to Jamison who was on the right, Coach Guthridge decided to leave Williams out of that game following Jake's recommendation and for the plays, he would leave Jamison and Carter more behind.

When Jake advanced to the attack the two would enter the area too and so only Jake would be out of the three-point line, this could help the Utah Utes team to defend more easily, but it was also part of the Tar Heels team strategy.

Jamison passed the ball to Okulaja further on and the Utah Utes team's defense soon pressed against Okulaja, so he had to pass the ball to Jake further back, Jake received the ball and Miller came to defend against him.

Jake managed to deceive Miller with a feint and tried the shot from the outside and thus the first 3 points against the Utah Utes team, that was the main strategy of the Tar Heels team at the beginning of the game, to count on Jake to make several shots from outside and to try to make the most points like that.

It seemed like a weak strategy, but with Jake's average of 78% on three-point shots it was actually the best strategy against a team that had such a strong defense within the three-point line.

And the strategy didn't end only with Jake making several shots from three points, the Utah Utes team would have to defend better against Jake and thus get some players out of the three-point line, so Jake would have more freedom to make assists and the team Tar Heels could attack better.

And luckily for the Tar Heels team, Jake was very good in the three-point shots at the beginning of the game of the six three-point shots he tried he hit 5 three-point shots making 15 points and missing only 1 of them.

It was different from the last game because the Tar Heels team spent the ball possession time and so 6 minutes had passed since the beginning of the game, the Utah Utes team also managed to score 11 points, but the Tar Heels team went through the most difficult time 1st half and it was the Utah Utes team that had to do something to stop Jake in that game.

Just as Jake and Coach Guthridge expected the Utah Utes team coach had to ask for technical time to organize his team's defense, Coach Guthridge didn't even need to explain to Jake what he had to do.

The other players on the Tar Heels team who thought it strange that they hadn't scored any points in 6 minutes of play and didn't even try to score any points, but they understood Coach Guthridge's strategy and could see that it was working.

Coach Guthridge just spoke to N'Diaye who seemed to be having a difficult time defending against Doleac from the Utah Utes team, the coach understood how difficult it was for N'Diaye to defend against such a good Center, but it was important that he try to hinder Doleac and not doing too many fouls to avoid being kicked out of the game.

Jake wanted to defend against Miller, but Coach Guthridge said that Jake could defend against Miller, but he had better try some steals and not just keep defending against Miller.

The Utah Utes team came back after this time-out from their coach pressing more in the attack, they had to finish this 1st half by winning the game because they knew that the Tar Heels team did not lose games that they finished the 1st half by winning.

In another attacking move by the Utah Utes team, the ball went through all the players and returned to Miller, Jake soon went to press on defense against him, Miller could not get rid of Jake and had to pass the ball to Doleac.

Doleac received the ball and managed to spin quickly even with N'Diaye defending against him, so Doleac managed to make the layup and 2 more points for the Utah Utes team and N'Diaye did not try the block to not make the foul which was the decision right in that move.

The players of the Utah Utes team were doing well in this game and were able to put a lot of pressure on the Tar Heels team that was in the attack, luckily Jake managed to get some steals and was getting in the way of the Utah Utes team's attack.

The Utah Utes team's defense began to defend more against Jake and sent two players to the three-point line to defend against him, so Jake and the Tar Heels team finally had more space to make plays within the three-point line.

In another move the Tar Heels team was attacking, Jake advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left before passing through the middle of the court, Carter advanced with the ball and passed the ball to Okulaja on the right before reaching the three-point line.

The Utah Utes team defense soon pressed against Okulaja who had to pass the ball to Jamison who was further behind, Jamison passed the ball to Jake who was further behind, the Utah Utes team defense came with two players to press against Jake.

At that point, Carter and Jamison had entered within the line of three points and Jake passed the ball to Carter ahead, Carter advanced with speed and managed to make the dunk to make 2 more points for the Tar Heels team.

This encouraged, even more, the fans who were rooting for the Tar Heels team, the Utah Utes team coach knew that the Tar Heels team would do that, but he couldn't let Jake continue making so many three-point shots and just rely on luck.

The Tar Heels team can attack with more freedom and thus ended the 1st half by winning with a small advantage on the scoreboard, the Utah Utes team was also playing well and was slightly behind the Tar Heels team in that game.

In that 1st half of the game Jake played for 20 minutes and had 23 points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals, even Jake was having a difficult time defending against the Utah Utes team and was only able to make 2 steals and catch some defensive rebounds.

"End of the 1st half of this exciting game, the Tar Heels team finishes the 1st half of the game by winning with a small advantage and achieved this with great difficulty and a strange attack strategy with Jake trying 6 shots from three points in the first 6 attacks of the team Tar Heels."

"It was the same thing that happened in some part of the last game and it helped to break the defense of the Utah Utes team that had to defend better against Jake who scored 15 points and that gave freedom to the other players on the Tar Heels team."

"The Utah Utes team also had an excellent 1st half defending very well and attacking very well too, if it weren't for Jake Smith they would certainly have won that 1st half with a good lead on the scoreboard."

"Michael Doleac is playing very well and scored several points even with Makhtar N'Diaye from the Tar Heels team defending against him, and other players from the Utah Utes team were also very good at the beginning of the game making several three-point shots and hitting not letting the Tar Heels team to get an even bigger advantage at the start of the game."

"Even though the Tar Heels team is the favorite to win this game because they have a small advantage, the Utah Utes team can win this game if they continue to play well."

The Utah Utes team continued to press in the attack in the 2nd half because they wanted to win that game and advance to the final of the NCAA tournament, but with Jake who forced the Utah Utes team's defense out of the three-point line to defend against him left the Utah Utes team's defense opened.

In another move Jake moved forward and passed to Jamison on the right before passing through the middle of the court, Jamison advanced with the ball and passed to Carter on the left before reaching the three-point line.

Carter tried to get rid of the opponent to advance, but the Utah Utes team's defense was very well within the three-point line, so Carter had to pass the ball to Jake again, Jake received the ball and this time only one player came to defend against he and the others stayed inside the area.

It seemed that at halftime the Utah Utes team coach asked the players to return to their normal defensive style, so Jake didn't hesitate and tried a shot from outside and hit to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.

In the next few minutes, Jake tried for three shots in a row from an outside shot and hit all three and scored 9 points, further increasing the Tar Heels team advantage on the scoreboard, so the Utah Utes players again tried to defend against Jake and the Tar team. Heels had room to attack within the three-point line again.

The Utah Utes team continued to attack well, but Jake, who spoke to coach Guthridge at half-time, started to defend better against Miller who could no longer play freely.

So the Utah Utes team had only Doleac to attack well, but it seemed that after making several difficult plays fighting against the defense of the Tar Heels team practically alone Doleac was getting tired.

Okulaja was also helping to defend against him which made the situation even more difficult for him, in another move he received the ball and N'Diaye soon arrived to defend against him, Doleac with difficulty managed to get rid of N'Diaye and Okulaja arrived to defend too.

So Doleac had to do a spin and when he thought about trying to layup Jake suddenly appeared and did the steal with speed, Doleac had not even realized that Jake was around and thus lost the attack to the Utah Utes team.

Jake advanced with the ball and waited for his teammates to go on the attack and passed the ball to Carter on the left, Carter advanced slowly and stopped at the three-point line and passed the ball to Okulaja further on the right.

The Utah Utes team defense soon pressed against Okulaja and he passed the ball further to Jamison, Jamison soon passed the ball to Jake in the middle and advanced into the three-point line, Jake received the ball and two players from the Utah Utes team approached him.

Jake received the ball and went further to the right and soon passed the ball to Carter who was free on the left outside the three-point line, no Utah Utes defense player followed Carter out of the three-point line and he received the ball alone and can make a shot from outside to make 3 more points for the Tar Heels team.

With Jake drawing more attention from the defense the other players on the Tar Heels team had more freedom to attack, Vince Carter was playing very well in that game and Jamison was also helping a lot in the attack.

Team Utah Utes still tried to win, but at the end of the game Team Tar Heels won again with 87 points against Team Utah Utes' 59 points, with Jake making more than 40 points and Coach Guthridge's strategy Team Tar Heels won this game more.

In this 2nd half of the game, Jake played for 20 minutes and made 20 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals, with this triple-double Jake helped the Tar Heels team to win the toughest game of the year and he was very important in the team's strategy for victory.

"And so this NCAA tournament game ends, in this exciting semifinal game in the final four, the Tar Heels team once again won the victory and thus increases the winning streak and is in the NCAA tournament final for the second year in a row."

"With an excellent performance by Jake Smith again in the attack and today is important to the Tar Heels team's strategy to break the Utah Utes team's strong defense, the Tar Heels team managed to win with a good advantage even though this was the most difficult game that they had in the season."

"The Utah Utes team played very well and the players performed well in that game, Michael Doleac and Andre Miller played an excellent game that helped to keep the Utah Utes team still with chances of victory."

"Okay, the Utah Utes team really played a great game and deserved a chance to be in the final of the NCAA tournament this season, but the Tar Heels team was better and goes to the final for the second year in a row with a chance of winning the NCAA tournament for the second time this season."

"We were able to see from this strategy by the Tar Heels team chosen by Coach Guthridge the confidence that the coach and the other players on the Tar Heels team have in Jake, which was rewarded by this victory where Jake scored 43 points."

"After two days we will have the championship game here at Alamodome, and the Tar Heels team is favorite to win again, we will follow up if the Tar Heels team closes this incredible season with yet another victory, increasing the sequence of victories and ending this season without losing no game."

The Tar Heels team players were very happy to win, it was a very difficult game in which Shammond Williams who was one of the main players on the team was not playing very well and so most of the game was left in reserve.

Fortunately, N'Diaye played very well and helped the defense of the Tar Heels team to withstand the Utah Utes team attack, but everyone was happy that the Tar Heels team would go for the second season in a row to the NCAA tournament final, that would put the name of all of them in history.

Of course, the only thought on everyone's mind was to win the final game and win the NCAA tournament again, the players were more confident because they came from a winning streak that now had 63 wins in a row.

And also because they knew they could always count on Jake who was instrumental in the Tar Heels team winning the last two games and it was important in all Tar Heels games if the Tar Heels team managed to win everyone knew it was because Jake was on the team in those two seasons.

The fans of the Tar Heels team had completely forgotten that Jake had not participated in a game to run the marathon, especially since after that game against the Utah Utes team the media that participated in the interview on the day that the Tar Heels team broke the record and was organized by coach Guthridge decided to publish the report with the responses of the players.

The fans saw Jake's answer as to why he hadn't participated in a game to run the Tokyo marathon and with the Tar Heels team going to the final with Jake's excellent performance everyone understood what he said.

The fame of the Tar Heels team now in the United States was even greater than that of some NBA teams with this doubt that everyone had a possible NBA lockout, everyone wanted to see if the Tar Heels team could win again and win for the second year in a row. NCAA tournament and increase the sequence of games without losing for a few more months until the next season.

Coach Guthridge gave the day after the game against the Utah Utes team to rest for the Tar Heels team players, it was a very intense game and the game of the final would be even more intense, Coach Guthridge thought it was no use training one day before the final game.

Because of that game, Jake again asked for a short break from training with Yuen Woo-ping, naturally, Yuen Woo-ping understood how important the NCAA tournament game was to Jake and let Jake rest.

The one who had no rest was David Falk, who had to talk to many companies again, Jake's performance convinced all companies that Jake was a future NBA star and could even be the new NBA No. 1 player in the coming seasons.

The attention that Jake and the Tar Heels team was getting was very great and these companies wanted to sponsor Jake, but the problem was that Jake had asked David to increase the amount that the companies had to pay for sponsorship to 2 million dollars a year, so a 4-year contract would be $ 8 million.

Naturally, companies thought it was too much to pay for sponsorship for a player who was debuting in the NBA even though he was a future genius, even Kobe Bryant didn't have such big contracts in his debut year.

But Jake was different because he had some contracts secured and he had also secured a $ 52 million contract with Adidas, in addition, Jake was also a marathon runner who had won an Olympic gold medal and also won many marathons and had the record current world.

So no matter how much the companies wanted to negotiate, David wouldn't accept anything less than Jake had already set as a minimum, naturally, these companies knew what David was like as a sports agent and so they gave up on having Jake endorse their company.

Jake knew these companies would regret it when he appeared in The Matrix and when he won some NBA championships with the Lakers' team in the coming years, Nike had also finally responded that it accepted the deal that Jake had asked for, but they had some conditions.

This further disappointed Jake and David who had good intentions and so David said that the Adidas team had already signed a contract with them a few weeks ago, which greatly surprised Nike representatives who thought that Adidas would not accept this agreement because they already had a contract with Kobe Bryant.

Even though Adidas wanted to lead the basketball market in the United States, they knew it would be difficult for them to beat Nike, which had several athletes and mainly Michael Jordan, so they didn't expect Adidas to bet that much on Jake.

This just showed how Nike representatives were not studying the market properly, Jake was very prominent in Europe for reasons that Adidas did not know well, and also had many fans in Asia, even more after winning the marathons in Europe and Asia.

Adidas also bet on the athletics market and with Jake, they would have the main athlete of the marathons in the world, in addition to Jake's full potential in basketball to be one of the biggest stars in the NBA.

Adidas representatives really thought that Jake would be as good as Kobe Bryant was when he went to the NBA, they had gained a lot of market after the contract with Kobe Bryant and hoped to win even more with Jake.

Only with the fame that Jake had in Europe and Asia did they know that they would gain a lot from this contract, maybe they could create a shoe representing Jake and so they could take advantage of his fame in the world.

Even if Jake didn't become a star for years to come, they knew that at least he would be one of the top players and that in a few years there would be other Olympic games, and for sure Jake could win another marathon and win another gold medal.

Thinking about all this, Adidas decided that it would be important for them to get this contract with Jake for the next few years, even with that decided David was still busy because many companies wanted to keep trying to get a contract paying less than Jake and David wanted.

On the day of the rest of the Tar Heels team players Jake talked to his mother and confirmed that Eva would come again to watch the final game, but this time Anna would not come with her because they did not want to have to close the restaurant again.

Jake was already thinking about it and asked for 3 tickets for Coach Guthridge, he imagined that the team that was in the final would be entitled to some tickets for the players' family, he didn't know if that was the case, but Coach Guthridge got some tickets for the game of the final and handed it to Jake.

So Jake told his mother that he already had a guaranteed ticket for her, Eva was happy with that because even though she was prepared to go to the final game she still had to buy the ticket for the final and because of the team record Tar Heels this season a lot of people wanted to watch the final game.

Jake also spoke to Kate because he suspected she would watch the game too, just as Jake hoped Kate would watch the game anyway, but she had to refuse the ticket that Jake separated for her because it was possible for the broadcaster to broadcast the game knew about the tickets Jake asked for and filmed to see where his family was in the stands.

Jake hadn't even thought about it, but he had to admit that it could happen because he had already seen several games where the broadcasting station filmed the family of the players on the teams that were playing.

But Kate, who was famous, had to think about it and had already secured a ticket for her before, in the future she wanted to be able to appear in the media watching Jake's games, but now they still didn't have a relationship and so it would be very complicated.

Even with Kate taking care, she knew that some gossip magazines said she had been dating Jake since they were photographed together, it was bad for Kate with her fans, but it could be good if she really started dating Jake in the future because the fans would not be so surprised by this.

When Jake thought he had to return tickets for Coach Guthridge to give to the other players he received several calls from friends saying they would come to watch his final game, Matthew and Oliver called first and so Jake gave the tickets to them.

But Tiffany and Clara also called saying they would watch the game, Eric would also watch the game, but he would see it in the press area, his university friends would also watch the game and Joseph called apologizing because he couldn't watch his game.

Jake was happy to know that many people important to him were going to watch his final game at the Alamodome, and they didn't even know it was an important game for Jake because it was his last game at the university.