Novak Preps For Auditions

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">With his final exams behind him and a degree in communications studies on the way, Marquette senior Steve Novak has set his sights on joining former teammates Dwyane Wade and Travis Diener in the National Basketball Association.

The 6-foot-10 forward will begin his journey toward professional basketball in earnest on Tuesday, when he travels to Washington for a four-day boot camp of individual instruction and personal training arranged by his agent, Doug Neustadt.

Shortly thereafter, Novak will begin crisscrossing the United States for a series of workouts with individual teams, beginning with the Houston Rockets on May 24. From there, he'll also work out for the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves and hometown Milwaukee Bucks.

Novak is expecting another six or seven teams to bring him in for workouts as well.

In the meantime, he's doing what he has done since returning from the Portsmouth Invitational a little more than a month ago, working out with his former MU teammates at the Al McGuire Center in an attempt to keep his game sharp.

"I've just continued doing what I've been doing," said Novak, who averaged 17.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and hit a school-record 121 three-pointers in helping lead MU back to the NCAA tournament. "You don't want to change too much and go and drastically become a different player to impress anybody. That's probably been the biggest thing: Don't worry about changing a lot."

The word on Novak heading into Portsmouth was that he needed to rebound the ball and prove he could defend man-on-man for stretches, while at the same time displaying the shooting prowess that made him a unanimous first-team all-Big East selection last season.

And in three games he accomplished all that, averaging 16 points and six rebounds and hitting 10 three-pointers to be named to the all-tournament team. He scored 25 points and hit 7 of 11 threes in his final game, no doubt leaving a favorable impression on the scores of scouts in attendance.

Novak's next goal is to be invited to the NBA pre-draft camp, which is scheduled for June 6-10 at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla.

It was at that camp - which until this year had been staged at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago - that Diener made a name for himself a year ago en route to becoming a second-round pick of the Orlando Magic.

Novak already has received the preliminary paperwork; still, he'll have to wait until May 26 to find out for certain he'll be going, although it's hard to believe he hasn't already punched his ticket in the eyes of the camp's decision makers.

"Every year there's guys that are probably very deserving and get bumped so you don't want to jump ahead and say you're in," Novak said. "So I'll wait for the letter."

Assuming he will be heading there, some of the time in each of Novak's workouts at MU has been devoted toward replicating what he will see in Orlando and elsewhere.

"Some of the things I've been practicing are NBA-specific drills," he said. "Obviously I've been doing a ton of lifting to get in shape for the 185-pound bench, and I've been doing lane agility drills every other day.

"Just the kind of stuff you're going to see when you go different places and definitely in Orlando for testing."

Novak also has been using Diener - who's back in town and also a client of Neustadt's - as a sounding board and a source of advice. Diener worked out for 12 teams last year before being picked 38th overall.</div>

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