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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption: |
Savage Playing with TCNJ Stars In Preparing for Tiger Hoops Debut
Bill Alden
Noah Savage will be making his debut for the Princeton University men's basketball team this winter but this summer he's honing his skills by playing with members of The College of New Jersey hoops squad.
The former Hun School star is playing for George's Roasters & Ribs in the Princeton Recreation Department summer men's basketball league along side such TCNJ stars as Derick Grant, Kyle Burke, Scott Findlay, Bobby Henning and Princeton High alum Bobby Davison
For Savage, who joined George's last summer at the urging of longtime friend Davison, playing with the Lions' players has been a good fit.
"We've played a couple of years together so we're in synch," said Savage, whose sharpshooting from the perimeter has helped George's get off to a 4-0 start this summer.
Savage, who is in his third year playing in the summer league, believes that the lessons learned on the Community Park courts has helped harden him.
"It's real rough out here," said Savage with a grin. "You get used to dribbling while people are holding and grabbing you. The older guys out here are big and real strong."
Looking forward to playing under new Princeton coach Joe Scott, Savage is making a strong effort to be well-prepared for playing at the next level.
"Coach Scott gave me the individual work-out," said the 6'6 Savage, who scored more than 1,000 points in his high school career which saw him play for PHS before transferring to Hun.
"I'm doing a lot of hook shots. I'm working on a couple of post moves and shooting a lot of 3's. I'm working hard on conditioning. I'm doing a lot of full court stuff where I'm really pushing myself. I'm doing lay-ups full court and then shooting 3's when I'm tired from that."
Scott, for his part, is confident that Savage will make a major contribution to the Princeton program. "I think Noah's going to be a terrific player," said Scott, a star point guard himself at Princeton during the 1980s.
"He's our kind of guy. He reminds me of Gabe Lewullis [who scored 1,277 points in his Princeton career in the late 1990s]. He can dribble the ball, he's a skilled kid. Noah is like a sponge, you tell him something and he gets it. He's a competitor, he wants to be good. Those are the kind of kids that end up being really good."
Savage said he already has a comfort level with his future Princeton teammates from having played a lot of pick-up ball at Princeton's Jadwin Gym.
"I was down there a lot last spring," said Savage. "It went well, I thought I was hanging with them pretty well. It's a good group of guys, I like the whole group. I had a good time with them on my campus visit, I'm real comfortable with that."
Known as a confirmed gym rat in his days at Hun, Savage is planning to utilize that same approach at the college level.
"I expect it to be real hard and to work real hard," said Savage. "I don't have any goals about minutes played or anything like that. I can't control everything. I can control how hard I work and I'm just trying to get myself ready for the hardness of it."
