Ann Arbor, it seems you finally have your folk sports hero.

Watching Thursday’s game — a season-changing win for Michigan basketball on the road at the Breslin Center — it became strikingly clear that Zack Novak is different from any other student-athlete at the University of Michigan.

Novak has never been a superstar athlete. But last year, he spent most of the season guarding guys that were at least four or five inches taller than him.

Novak has also never been the Wolverines’ scorer. This season, he’s averaging just a tick under 10 points, trailing both Darius Morris and Tim Hardaway Jr. in total scoring. But chances are, when it really counts, the junior guard is the one making the baskets.

Since Big Ten season began, Novak has been on an absolute tear — far and away the team’s best overall player. Against conference opponents, the Chesterton, Indiana native has only come up short of double-digit scoring in one game — Michigan’s tough loss to Northwestern in mid-January.

But as Michigan State began charging back in the second half on Thursday and coach John Beilein called a timeout, Novak stormed into the huddle and emerged as the obvious leader of this team. He screamed with a passion I haven’t seen out of any Michigan player on the court in some time.

And it worked.

His team came out and held on to end the Wolverines' awful winless streak against Michigan State, thanks to a handful of 3-point beauties from Novak himself.

“We are a young team with a lot of guys that are kind of naïve because they’re young,” Novak said at Big Ten media day. “They don’t know that they’re not supposed to win some of these games. They don’t know that they should lose to teams like Kansas. So youth can help us.”

Through more than half of the season, I’d say youth has helped the Wolverines in plenty of games, one of them being last Thursday in East Lansing. Young players tend to rely on hot streaks in big games and the Wolverines just happened to be boiling against the Spartans. It was exactly how Novak had predicted.

Novak, like the team around him, didn’t have much hype surrounding his 2011 season. Despite being one of the team’s veterans, fellow junior guard Stu Douglass always seemed to be billed as the better shooter, better scorer, better ballhandler. Novak was often relegated to the grinder’s role.

He was left out of the starting lineup on more than one occasion for a younger, high-potential product of Beilein’s offense. But Novak continued to push for playing time. Now, he’s an absolutely indispensable part of the Michigan offense.

And that’s the best part about watching Novak play. He’s a player any Michigan fan could get behind.

He’s a ballhawk on the boards. You’d never know he’s just a 6-foot-4 guard, especially if you’re looking at the stat sheet, where Novak leads the team in rebounds per game.

He’s preparing to shatter the Michigan record books when it comes to 3-point shooting. With another year remaining, he’s already a staple in the top 10 in Wolverine history, and if he keeps shooting like he did against the Spartans, he’ll have a comfortable lead at the top when his career is done.

And Novak isn't not afraid to get his hands dirty. Any guard who’s willing to go up against the Big Ten’s fiercest post players, deserves a certain respect that most players will never find. I bet if you gave Novak a chance, he would’ve guarded Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger in a heartbeat.

Novak is becoming the kind of player you know you’ll talk about 20 years from now with your buddies, sitting around the garage and remembering that huge 3-pointer he hit against the Spartans in 2011. Or the buzzer beater he made in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament (wishful thinking?).

Regardless, Novak has stamped himself as the leader of this Michigan team — a squad that desperately needed a blue-collar, smooth-as-silk shooting, ballhawking, clutch type of basketball player.

And with no expectations, no star players and plenty of potential, Novak could carry the oddest Michigan basketball team in history to somewhere no one would’ve thought possible back in November.

— Kartje can be reached at rkartje@umich.edu