Improved Savage became Hun’s leader
By: Bob Nuse
Noah Savage knew that to have the kind of senior season he wanted to have this year, he was going to put in a lot of work.
He was certainly up to the challenge.
Savage spent the spring, summer and fall preparing for his final season at The Hun School, and was rewarded for his efforts by having the kind of season he had hoped he could have.
Savage finished the year averaging 15.2 points per game for the Raiders, but more importantly, improved in every other area of the game.
"He had a great year for us," said Hun coach Jonathan Stone, whose team finished the season with a 16-7 record. "He was consistent for us all year and I think he improved in every aspect of his game. He was a captain and he did everything we asked him to do. He improved in every statistical category. He shot 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from ‘3’. And his foul shooting went up to 79 percent from 52 percent last year.
"I think he’s improved a lot and you can see the changes in his game. He has become a more complete player. We asked him to do a lot of different things and he did them. He rebounded for us, he stepped out and hit the ‘3’. The only other player we’ve had since I’ve been here that could shoot the ‘3’ as well as Noah is Matt McKillop, and he’s a starter at Davidson now."
After playing his first two varsity seasons at Princeton High, Savage transferred to Hun, where he continued to develop into a well-rounded player. The 6-foot-6 Savage was a key player for the Raiders on the inside as well as the outside, and will take those skills with him next year to Princeton University.
"I was happy with the way I shot the ball most of the season and I rebounded pretty well," said Savage, who had averaged 9.1 points per game as a junior. "I think I could have rebounded the ball better, but I think I improved on that over the course of the year.
"I think overall, I was just a lot more comfortable at the school and that helped my play. I was a lot more focused. I didn’t have to figure out who my friends would be and how I would be getting used to the school. I was able to relax a little more and just go out and play."
In two years he helped the Raiders win 30 games and establish themselves as one of the top programs in the state. The Raiders battled the best of the Prep A and Mid-Atlantic Prep League, posting their share of big wins.
"I don’t know if we finished the season as well as we would have liked, but I was happy with the way that we played," Savage said. "We would have liked to have won the state Prep A title or the MAPL tournament, but we came up short."
Savage will now take his skills to Princeton, just down the road from his last two stops on the basketball court.
"That just sort of happened," Savage said. "I’ve always wanted to just keep getting better and working hard and then when the time came, play at the best level that I could. It just happened to be Princeton. It wasn’t that because I lived here I always wanted to go to Princeton. I used to go to Dillon Gym and play all the time, but while I was there it wasn’t like I was always thinking about coming to Princeton.
"I’m definitely looking forward to playing at the next level and seeing what I can do. It will be a new experience for me, one that will be totally different even though I’ll just be going down the road."
Stone, who played his college ball at Colgate, thinks Savage will be as much of an asset to the Tigers as he has been to the Raiders the last two years.
"I think he’s going to do very well," Stone said. "It is a good spot for him. He brings so much to a team. Not only is he a good player, but he’s a real leader. He was our only captain this year and I think that’s a credit to him. His leadership was a big reason why we were so successful this year."
For Savage, this past season was just the latest in a series of seasons where he has tried to be a better player than he was the year before.
"I think I’ve improved every single year and hopefully I’ll keep doing that," he said. "I spent more time in the gym this season than ever before. I felt like when the basketball season ended last year I really needed to work hard to keep improving.
"If I don’t get to the gym now for a few days, I really notice it and can feel like I need to go. One place I improved a lot was my foul shooting. I had been a good free throw shooter before last year, but then for some reason I started missing a lot and it got into my head. I think maybe I would get too pumped up and once I missed a couple I would get frustrated and that had a bad affect on me."
This year, there was very little that Savage couldn’t do on the basketball court. And the way he has improved from year to year, he should be quite an asset to the program at Princeton University over the next four years.