Benet’s Jack Nolan estimates he’s added an inch since the high school basketball season last winter.
His game is growing as well.
Every opponent knows the 6-foot senior is one of the better shooters around. Nolan made a team-high 72 3-pointers last year while averaging 10.3 points for the Class 4A state runner-up.
Nolan knows, though, that a point guard needs more than a reliable jump shot. He’s spent his spring and summer adding to his repertoire.
“I have to be able to create my own shot,” Nolan said. “As well as shots for other people.”
Nolan seems to be on his way. He was a hot name among area recruiting analysts during June. He scored 27 points for Benet in a summer league game against West Chicago and Mercury Elite teammate Tai Bibbs. He scored more than 30 on more than one occasion.
The Redwings took second in both the Loyola Summer League and Loyola Shootout. They were second out of 38 teams at Ridgewood.
“Jack’s whole game has progressed,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “He has three attributes that make him a good scorer: He can shoot the ball, he’s really improved shooting off the dribble and he shoots off sets. He has a wide skill set.”
Benet (31-4) graduated three starters who averaged in double figures, led by Dan Sobolewski, the Naperville Sun Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
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The cupboard is hardly bare.
Benet will bring back four of its top seven players — Nolan, Liam Lyman, Justin Enochs and Matt Teglia. All four played in the state championship game. Enochs didn’t play with Benet this summer while recovering from shoulder surgery.
“I’m not sure if we have all the answers, but it’s a good nucleus to start with,” Heidkamp said.
This month, Nolan is getting a taste of elite AAU basketball.
He joined the Mercury Elite and is playing in Milwaukee for two weekends and later in Las Vegas during July evaluation — the three five-day periods when college coaches can watch athletes compete. Nolan is part of a talented guard trio with Bibbs and Neuqua Valley graduate Joe Sieger.
Jim Thomas, Nolan’s coach with the Mercury Elite, likes how his young guard comes off screens to shoot and puts it on the floor. Thomas calls Nolan “elusive” and a “willing passer.”
None of those is Nolan’s best attribute, in Thomas’ estimation.
“He is a competitor,” Thomas said. “He just hates losing. Some people don’t have that anymore because they’re playing 500 games a year it seems like. That is something that sets him apart. He’s so darn competitive.”
Nolan also excels off the court, which could impact his college decision. With a 4.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale and a score of 32 on his ACT, Nolan has visited the University of Chicago.
In August, he plans to travel to another Division III school, Washington in St. Louis, where his uncle Gene Nolan starred. Jack Nolan doesn’t anticipate making a college decision until the spring.
Right now, he’s looking forward to the coming season. A piece of a well-balanced puzzle bereft of stars last year, Nolan alternated between the spotlight and a complementary role.
It’s his turn to take center stage.
“Last year I could feed off everybody else — now I have to be a leader on the court,” Nolan said. “The most important thing was starting to facilitate more for other people, and increase my scoring.
“I feel a lot more confident. I feel my game has grown and expanded. I’m ready to take the initiative.”
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.