The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/614487
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? ted laughing at Beilein when told he'd be starting at power forward against Wisconsin on New Year's Eve his first year — "Though I guess he knew what he was doing," Novak said. "That's why he's got all those commas in his paycheck." A f t e r a s t e p b a c k w a r d i n 2009-10, Novak helped continue the program's as- cent. U - M ' s 6 1 - 5 7 win at Michigan State in 2011 af- ter a 1-6 Big Ten s t a r t w a s t h e program's turn- ing point. The Wolverines made a run, swept the S p a r t a n s a n d nearly knocked off Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tour- nament. A year later, M i c h i g a n c a p - tured a share of the Big Ten title, its first since 1986. "It was surreal. I remember [assis- tant] Coach [LaVall] Jordan] sitting me down with seven games to play and putting the schedule in front of me. He said, 'We have a chance to win this thing,'" he recalled. "I'm thinking, 'This is kind of like coach- speak, right?' I think at that point we didn't look good, but then we started rattling off wins and, sure as hell, at the end of the year there we were." "It's pretty crazy, especially when you're outside of it like I am now. It's already as if I barely played at that level. When I'm watching these guys I say, 'They're really good.' You forget you were there and think, 'Man, I was actu- ally one of them.' It's pretty cool." Looking at what the program has a c c o m p l i s h e d since, a three-way tie for the title might not seem like much. How- ever, it was a huge a c c o m p l i s h m e n t for that squad. "We had good ball players, but we were certainly less talented than some of the teams t h a t f o l l o w e d , " Novak said. "But we played really smart and came to- gether — it was great." They might not have gotten there without Novak, Beilein added. "We have all kinds of people that everybody will remember as part of turning the program around — the team that won championships, went to the final two," Beilein said. "Zack is as important as any one of Novak works for Uptake, which provides industry solutions in several areas of busi- ness through the use of data and analytics. PHOTO COURTESY ZACK NOVAK