Archive for the 'Zack Novak' Category

Game 14: Illinois at Michigan Post Game

Published
by
Dylan
on January 4, 2009
in 2008-2009 Season, DeShawn sims, Kelvin Grady, Manny Harris, Zack Gibson and Zack Novak
. 42 Comments

Zack Novak Bloody

Now that’s how you win in the Big Ten.  Michigan didn’t look like they could handle Illinois on the defensive end early on but they tightened up the D in the second half and made the big plays down the stretch to pull off a W. It was a back and forth game and Michigan did just enough to pull off the win and avoid a damaging 0-2 start.

The story today for Michigan was balance. Michigan had 5 players in double figures and almost had a sixth in Kelvin Grady. In a game that featured 7 ties and 9 lead changes it was crucial for Michigan to have more than one option on the offensive end. Michigan isn’t going to be able to get by on the combo of Manny and DeShawn alone in the Big Ten and it’s encouraging to see complementary players stepping up.
Gibson Dunk
Even in a balanced effort, Zack Gibson was the star of this one. Gibson was forced to step up when Novak went to the locker room in a bloody mess after colliding with Alex Legion. Gibson poured in 8 second half points including a triple and two dunks that had the crowd at their feet. Gibson brought energy to the game when Michigan needed something to get them over the edge.

Michigan was stellar offensively and played one of their best offensive games against a very solid Illinois defense. Michigan’s offensive efficiency (121.3) was the highest allowed by an Illinois defense that ranks in the top10 in defensive efficiency (avg 85.2). Michigan shot the ball very well with an eFG% of 59.4% and got to the line when they had to. They also held onto the ball with a turnover rate of 13.1% against a team that usually forces turnovers on almost 25% of possessions.

In a battle of offense versus defense it was Michigan’s defense that came through down the stretch. The defense held Illinois to 25 points in the second half after giving up 39 points in the first. They managed to shut down Calvin Brock in the second after a first half where it seemed like no one was guarding him. Zack Novak was no match for Mike Davis in the post but he fought hard and the bottom line is that Mike Davis can’t guard Zack Novak either. Illinois went with only one of the big guys for large stretches of the game so that they could try to guard Michigan. I was convinced at half time that this Michigan team wasn’t going to be able to guard anyone all year but I think slowly but surely they are learning how to get after it on defense.

The Big Ten is a dog fight right now and Michigan needed this one. There are 6 teams at 1-1 and preseason favorite Purdue is sitting at 9th. Michigan has the out of conference wins to boost their resume come March but they aren’t there yet, this is how games will be in the Big Ten night in and night out. Next up Michigan attempts to win a game at Assembly Hall and knock off the dreadful Hoosiers for the first time since 1995 before coming home for a tilt with Iowa. Michigan will be favored in both games and really needs to be sitting at 3-1 a week from now.

Player Bullets:

  • Zack Gibson: Zack was feeling it on offense today and scored 10 points on 4-5 shooting and added a monster block in only 17 minutes. The best moment for me was when Gibson called for the ball and drove into the lane for a huge slam late in the game. The shock of the Crisler crowd was priceless. Michigan is a much better team when Gibson is playing at a high level offensively and hopefully this boosts his confidence.
  • Zack Novak: Novak is a warrior, Zack hit shot after shot in the first half and it seems like he doesn’t miss. When you consider this is only his 14th game in college his confidence is pretty remarkable. Novak had 11points on 4-5 (3-4 3pt) shooting and added 3 boards and one assist. Novak is going to be giving up size in every game but he also forces defenses to guard him on the perimeter.
  • Manny Harris: Manny isn’t going to be able to pick apart defenses like he could against the Florida Gulf Coasts of the world but he had a solid game in my opinion. Manny had 16 points, 6 boards, 5 assists, 5 turnovers, 1 block, and 3 huge steals. He made a lot of big plays on defense (but also fell asleep a couple times) including a huge block and a couple run out slams. Hopefully Manny can find his three point stroke (0-5) but he needs to start taking better threes rather than frustration threes.
  • DeShawn Sims: Solid but unspectacular night for Peedi with 13 points and 9 boards. DeShawn hit some huge threes but didn’t get that involved in the paint. In the end though I’ll take a near double double every night from DeShawn especially when other guys are stepping up.
  • Laval Lucas-Perry: 13 points on 4-1 (3-7 3pt) shooting and 5 assists with 1 turnover. Solid night for Laval in his first start. Laval is still adjusting but you can see that he is getting more and more comfortable. LLP also had a big block on defense and brings the size and toughness to the D that we really need in the backcourt.
  • Kelvin Grady: Kelvin had 9 points on 3-6 shooting including the huge layup late in the game. Both Kelvin and LLP are starting to get in the lane more and it adds a new dimension to Michigan’s game.
  • Stu Douglass: Stu’s minutes are decreasing quickly but he is a solid backup for Laval. Stu had 2 assists and no turnovers off the bench today and didn’t take a shot.
  • Anthony Wright and Jevohn Shepherd: DNP. There just aren’t any more minutes at the power forward when Novak and Gibson play this well. Shep is more athletic than Novak but he just can’t score it like Zack. I don’t think we will see much Ant Wright the rest of the year.

42 Comments

Game 9: Eastern Michigan at Michigan Preview

Published
by
Dylan
on December 12, 2008
in 2008-2009 Season and Zack Novak
. 36 Comments

Update: The BTN Ticker is reporting that John Beilein will not be on the bench due to inner ear vertigo. Jerry Dunn will be the acting head coach. (Thanks to Giddings for the heads up)

Basics:
Who: EMU (2-6) at Michigan (6-2)
Where: Crisler Arena
When: 4:00 PM ET
TV: BTN
Preview: Stat Sheet
Radio: MGoBlue, WWJ-AM (950), WTKA-AM (1050)

Zack Novak

The Eagles will make the short bus trip into Ann Arbor to face a Michigan team coming off of one of their biggest wins in recent history. Eastern Michigan hasn’t beaten a division 1 team this year and their only wins have come against Marygrove College and Wayne State. Eastern’s best performance is probably a 1 point loss against an underwhelming Georgia team.

The leading scorers for the Eagles are Brandon Bowdry (14.4 ppg) and Justin Dobbins (11.4 ppg). Bowdry is a do-it-all forward who also averages 7 rebounds per game while Dobbins seems to stick to the paint. Freshman point guard L.J. Frazier (9.3 ppg) anchors things in the backcourt and averages 4.1 assists per game. Frazier is also the Eagles main deep threat, he is a 47% three point shooter and 16 of his 21 made field goals this year have been from long range. The other three point threats for EMU include Soloman Farris (8.8ppg - 45% 3pfg) and Zane Gay (6.3 ppg - 36% 3pfg).

As a team Eastern shoots the ball at an eFG% of 48.8, turns the ball over on 25% of their possessions, rebounds 33.3% of their missed shots, and has a free throw rate of 28.2. So in general they shoot a little worse than Michigan (51.2), turn the ball over a little more (19.7), get to the line a little less (31.5) and rebound about the same (32.9). They also tend to play just a bit faster than Michigan, averaging 66 possessions per game compared to Michigan’s 64.

Overall this is one of those games where Michigan just needs to take care of business. They have more talent than Eastern Michigan and need to control the tempo and set the tone early on in the game. For fans’ sake hopefully this game plays out a lot more like Norfolk State than Savannah State. Let’s hear your thoughts and predictions in the comments.

Zack Novak was profiled in the Free Press today:

That didn’t sit well with Zack Novak, now a freshman guard at Michigan. He had been one of the best players in northwest Indiana since his freshman season. Yet when the preview sections hit the newsstands, he didn’t make the preseason list of the area’s top-five players.

Novak’s reaction: “Oh, yeah? This guy is on that list? Well, I’ve got a little something for him.”

Both Zack and Stu have gone through very good stretches over the first couple games. I’m sure they will both hit a few rough patches in their first year of college basketball but it’s clear that they have a role on this team. Novak is averaging 6.6 ppg but is averaging 11.25 ppg and shooting 52.2% (12-23) on triples over the last four games. Novak has stepped up when Michigan has really needed a third option these last several games and it has paid off. For more on Novak the recruit, check out our interview from this summer.

Let’s hear your thoughts and predictions about Saturday’s game in the comments.

36 Comments

Monday Links

Published
by
Dylan
on October 27, 2008
in 2008-2009 Season, Brandan Kearney, Recruits and Zack Novak
. 8 Comments

8 Comments

Friday Links

Published
by
Dylan
on September 5, 2008
in CJ Lee, Matt Vogrich, Nate Lubick and Zack Novak
. 2 Comments

2 Comments

Zack Novak Named Tim Bishop Memorial Times Male Athlete of the Year

Published
by
Dylan
on July 11, 2008
in Zack Novak
. 1 Comment

Congratulations to Zack Novak for being named the Tim Bishop Memorial Times Male Athlete of the Year. The Northwest Indiana Times has a lengthy feature on Zack who is the first Chesterton athlete to win the award.

“I’m thankful obviously for what I have,” Novak said. “The biggest thing is the hard work that’s gone into making it happen. You can have all the God-given ability in the world, but at some point you’ve got to work at it.”

The process of figuring out which direction to go wasn’t a simple one. Early on, Novak played soccer, but a broken ankle ended his days as a forward, at least on grass, in seventh grade. He had brief fling with cross country in eighth grade, using it as conditioning for basketball. He cracked the top five before back problems ended that.

That spring, in track, he was the Lake-Porter Conference champion in the high jump, long jump and the 400-meter relay. He was only beaten in three events all season, including a loss by 2 inches in the long jump to Taft’s Randy Hudi, who won a medal in the event at state this year for Crown Point.

“I got pretty upset when I lost in that,” Novak said. “Once I started playing, it was impossible for me to accept things going wrong.”

Read the whole article here, congrats again to Novak and can’t wait to see him in the Maize and Blue. Thanks to Sheryl for the link.
Continue reading ‘Zack Novak Named Tim Bishop Memorial Times Male Athlete of the Year’

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Add UMass to the Schedule, Recruiting, LLP

Published
by
Dylan
on July 11, 2008
in DeShawn sims, Jordan Morgan, Laval Lucas-Perry, Manny Harris, Nate Lubick and Zack Novak
. 2 Comments

UMass is apparently playing in Michigan’s bracket in the Coaches vs Cancer opening rounds according to this message board post (I can’t get the article link to work). This is another tough match up on what was supposed to be a watered down schedule this year. UMass is a game that is winable though and will be a good early test for this team. Check out the other notes I have assembled on next years schedule. One other note (sorry for adding this late) there is also a rumor circulating about a home and home series (possibly 4 years) with UConn but this hasn’t been confirmed anywhere and may be for this year or later on (Thanks Joe).

Some information is out there from national events this week about Carl Jones, Michigan’s #2 point guard target at this time. First from the RivalsHoops (free):

Despite a hamstring injury Rivals.com top 150 prospect Carl Jones was in the building supporting his Ohio Basketball Club teammates. Jones says he has offers from Iowa, Penn State, Texas Tech, St. Joe’s, and Marquette. He also mentioned that Michigan is still showing a lot of interest despite not offering.

ESPN had this scouting report on Carl Jones at the LeBron Skills Academy:

Jones has the ability to score in a variety of ways. He can connect with relative ease from beyond 3-point land, but he also has the quickness to penetrate to the basket. Though small, he uses an assortment of floaters and angles to get his shots off in the paint amongst the trees.

Rivals also mentions that Justin Jordan, another 2009 point guard also mentions Michigan as well as Texas Tech,  Purdue, Butler, LSU, and Virginia.

If you have premium on Rivals they have both posted tons of team/elite camp video over the past week: Novak, Lubick, Morgan, and Elite Camp. 2010 point guard Ray McCallum Jr. will attend Detroit Country Day next year. Vince at PrepSpotlight has a great report ($) on Manny and DeShawn at the LeBron Academy where they were counselors and also got to play with LeBron and Chris Paul. Not a lot of mention of Darius this week who was apparently slowed with a back injury for most of the week. One more note, Givon Crump is blowing up at RBK U and he is certainly a wing target to watch (again sorry for adding this late).

From the Jones Cup, Laval Lucas-Perry scored 14 points and notched 2 steals in Day 2 action during an easy win over Qatar. It also looks like Laval had 9 vs Jordan in an opening day loss (Taiwain Hoops).

Laval Lucas-Perry had a fastbreak dunk, a three and a three-point play in the second quarter as AIA led by as many as 14 points.

2 Comments

Post-Camp Notes: Morris, Lubick, Douglass and More

Published
by
Dylan
on July 1, 2008
in Darius Morris, Jordan Morgan, Nate Lubick, Recruits, Stuart Douglass, Womens Basketball and Zack Novak
. 16 Comments

Camp week has come and gone and Darius Morris did not commit. However Darius did enjoy himself and plans to stick to his end of summer decision date. Scout also has a diary feature with Darius (also here on GBOA?) that began today.  I still feel good about this one but the danger is if August passes and Darius doesn’t make a decision, then we are looking at a Tory Jackson 2.0 situation (Short version: Tory told the coaches repeatedly he was coming and “planned to commit” several times but it never happened as he strung Michigan on for far too long). But at this point he has taken a visit to Ann Arbor and loved it and it’s time to just wait it out. With CJ Harris off the board it appears that Carl Jones is the plan-B target for a point guard in a class where it’s hard to fathom Michigan not signing a point guard.

The other star of camp week was clearly Nate Lubick, the big fella really impressed all week in Ann Arbor and at this point has to be the top 2010 target on the board. Rivals already has Lubick listed as the #6 PF and #30 overall player in the class of 2010 and I can only see that ranking going upward. The competition for Lubick will be fierce with tons of high majors after him but Lubick is very familiar with the Michigan program and has been to campus multiple times.

Stephen Bell wrote a good piece listing ten intriguing in-state prospects at Michigan camp.  The most promising junior names for U-M fans to keep an eye on are: Alex Gauna (left camp early due to injury), Sultan Muhammad, Matt Kamieniecki, Michael Talley and Maurice Jones. LaDontae Henton is also a freak athlete in the class of 2011 who is already drawing a lot of attention. Michigan will only have 2 open scholarships in 2010 (if they use their two remaining 2009 scholarships) and I would assume they have to take at least one big guy.

There has been a lot of talk about the starting line up again now that people got a look at the freshman in action at team camp. Zack had become the flavor of the month recently with his gaudy numbers but after struggling a bit at team camp it appears Stu is the guy everyone is penciling in now. It has to be noted that Zack has been playing in tons of camps, all-star games and scrimmages over the past couple months as well as playing baseball and moving to Ann Arbor so it is safe to say that he is probably a little burned out.

Stu’s range has never been questioned but there were many people trying to knock him as the second coming of Reed Baker despite his shooting. First off, Stu is probably at least 3 inches taller than Reed but the thing that sets him apart is his passing ability and ability to use screens. I don’t think Stu can be a point guard but he can make the right passes at the right times from the two-guard. I can’t even begin to count the number of times Michigan missed open back door cuts that would have resulted in easy baskets. Stu being able to make (deep) open shots and stretch the defense and then hit open cutters is a valuable asset all by itself.

The issue with the starting lineup is where does Manny Harris play next year? If he plays the wing (which I think he will), then I think Stu starts at the two-guard to begin the year. If Manny plays the two like he did last year then you have the potential of Novak or Wright starting at the three. For depth reasons it makes more sense to have Manny backed up by Novak at the three with Wright backing up DeShawn in the thin front court. Where Laval Lucas-Perry plays when he is eligible is also going to be interesting because I could see him playing point guard or shooting guard.

Other notes.

  • Sounds like Manny Harris is NOT going to Taiwan for the Jones Cup, just Laval Lucas-Perry.
  • Ben Simmons didn’t show well at the camp despite lighting up the Grand Valley team camp earlier in the summer. It appears to me “the Perfect Beilein Recruit’s” chances of a U-M offer are slipping.
  • One other piece of positive news on Darius Morris. Washington State received a commitment from point guard Xavier Thames. This should presumably knock them down (and off?) Darius’ list.
  • Hollins a Wolverine
    Forgot to add this earlier, nice grab for Borseth.

16 Comments

Novak Does the Little Things in Indiana Win

Published
by
Dylan
on June 14, 2008
in Recruits and Zack Novak
. 6 Comments

Michigan recruit Zack Novak only scored 1 point in Friday nights Indiana/Kentucky battle but Indiana came away victorious. Tyler Zeller earned the MVP with 22 points and 7 rebounds but Zack provided the little things.

While Zack was known as a scorer in high school averaging around 28 points per game he got the little things done Friday night. Coach Boyd states that:

“Zack is a basketball player,” said West Side coach John Boyd, an assistant for Indiana. “And a basketball player first does whatever it takes to win the game. We all saw him score back home in the Region, and he can score for this team.

Novak on his defense:

“I’ve learned that I’m a lot better defensive player than I was in high school,” Novak said. “I was able to stay in front of him.”

This is almost a more encouraging report than Zack spotting up and nailing threes because it shows that he is ready to expand his game and we already know he can shoot the three and hopefully he can take it to the next level when he gets to Ann Arbor this summer. We will hopefully have a Novak interview coming soon.

6 Comments

Indiana All Stars Tuesday Links

Published
by
Dylan
on June 10, 2008
in Links, Recruits and Zack Novak
. 3 Comments

3 Comments

Hoosier All Star Game

Published
by
Dylan
on June 8, 2008
in Recruits and Zack Novak
. 7 Comments

Zack Novak and Stu Douglass both participated in the Hoosier’s All Star Game Friday night. I have only found information about Zack’s performance (thanks SH). Novak had 11 points on three triples and a dunk in the game and sounds to have had a good performance despite losing the game. Here are a couple quotes from Zack:

“You know it is a pretty big honor and you get excited about playing in a game like this,” he said. “It is another opportunity to see what you can do against the best.”

The game was a prelude to Novak’s involvement with the Indiana All-Stars team, which begins training for the annual series against Kentucky today.

“We got a good feel for each other on what we can do on the court,” Novak said. “It’s nice getting back into a groove of playing against competition which you don’t (play against) on an everyday basis. It is a great way to get ready for the games we play next week.”

The big games are coming this weekend when Indiana takes on Kentucky in the IN/KY All-Star Classic. The first game is Friday night at Conseco Field House. I am still looking for word on Stu’s performance in the Hoosiers game and will update with any more that I can find. Here are a couple more articles about the Hoosiers game from Indiana HS Hoops.

7 Comments