<h4>Chapter 271 The Beginning of the Season at College Basketball 3</h4>


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


    Makhtar N’Diaye would y in PF position and so with Antawn Jamison ying as SF the team wasplete, Coach Smith also nned to let Jake y as SF and put Antawn Jamison as PF at some points in the game.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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