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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Former Hun School Star Savage Fitting In with Tiger Men's Hoops
By Bill Alden
Last year at this time, Noah Savage was honing his basketball skills in the Hun School gym as the Raiders got ready to open their season against Redemption Christian.
This past Monday evening, Savage was thousands of miles away from New Jersey as he scored 12 points for the Princeton University men's basketball team in its 64-59 loss to Wyoming in double overtime.
For Savage, the leap from high school hoops to the next level has gone as smoothly as one could expect. "Offensively, I'm doing well," said Savage, who is averaging 4.7 points a game for 1-2 Princeton which plays at Lafayette on November 27. "Defensively, I'm not doing so well but I'm getting better everyday."
The 6'5, 215-pound Savage said that Princeton's fiery new head coach, Joe Scott, has helped hasten his progress.
"I love Coach Scott, he's the most intense guy I've ever been around," said Savage, a Princeton native who decided years ago that his goal was to stay home for his college career.
"You always have to be alert and playing all the time. You slip on one play and you're going to be in a lot of trouble. You don't get any plays off."
So far, Savage is clearly on Scott's good side. "Noah is a little more physically advanced than the freshmen we normally get here," said Scott in assessing Savage's early progress.
"I think he's a little tougher. He can shoot, he can score inside. He's mentally advanced. His Achilles heel is defense, but welcome to college basketball, no freshman knows how to play defense."
The quick bond that Savage developed with fellow freshmen Matt Sargeant and Kyle Koncz as well as his older teammates has eased his transition to the Princeton program.
"I was working with Matt and Kyle all summer, they were here in town," said Savage, who played many a pick-up game at Jadwin Gym while he was putting together his 1,000-point high school career. "Those are my boys now. The whole team is really close. It's a real good group of guys. I like everybody personally."
Savage believes that his time at Hun helped prepare him well for what he is facing as he tries to make an impact for the Tigers.
"It has helped a lot basketball-wise," said Savage, referring to his time at Hun under the tutelage of head coach Jon Stone, a devotee of the Princeton-style of patient offense. "I felt like it really prepared me. A lot of things we did in high school are similar to what we do here."
Savage, though, acknowledges that his off-court transition to the academic load at Princeton has been challenging.
"It's pretty tough, they design the school for the person who is not an athlete and has time to live in the library," explained Savage.
"That part has been a bigger adjustment than basketball. You're not in class as much but you have so much work. You have to figure out when you're going to get the time to do everything."
When it comes to his on-court education, Savage is focused on doing everything asked of him by his coaches. "I'm going to try to work hard and do what the coaches say," said Savage, who has started all three of Princeton's games and played 24 minutes a game.
"If I do that, I'll be alright. That's all I'm thinking about. I don't have any individual goals. If the coaches are happy, that means I'm doing something right. If not, then I've got to work on something."
Based on the work ethic Savage has demonstrated so far, Princeton's coaches should end up being pretty happy with their hometown product.
