The Asian NCAA Star: Jeremy Lin of Harvard University

[DarknessFalls2]

http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/mbkb/2009-10/releases/091210_BC_Aftermath

"Boston College had no answer."

"Lin hit only one 3-pointer -- a bomb of a 3-pointer to snap a 14-0 run for BC in the first half -- and did the rest of his damage either at the rim or at the free-throw line."

"This wasn't the same as last year (when Harvard also beat BC)"

"Jeremy Lin can really play"

"The 6-foot-3 guard took just four shots in the first half -- and he hit all four of them, including a bomb of a 3-pointer to snap a 14-0 BC run. It was in the second half, though, that Lin took charge, driving into the lane and either scoring or dishing to Keith Wright (21 points) in the lane. Lin finished with a game-high 25 points just three days after hanging 30 on UConn.

‘I sound like a broken record, but I like sounding like a broken record when it comes to talking about him," Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. "He's one of the better players in the country.'"

"Harvard can really play, too"

"Taking UConn to the brink is one thing. Coming back less than a week later and beating Boston College shows it wasn't a fluke. Cornell was a unanimous pick to repeat as Ivy League champs, but it appears Harvard -- a fourth-place pick in the preseason poll -- is poised to give the Big Red a run for their money for an NCAA tournament berth."

 

[sime0n2]

Check out #6, his crazy game-winner

Sino, what are Lin's chances of a professional career? You think he's gonna try to get his Taiwan ID and then play in the SBL/CBA? I'm not optimistic about his NBA chances so far.

 

[sinobball2]

Sino, what are Lin's chances of a professional career? You think he's gonna try to get his Taiwan ID and then play in the SBL/CBA? I'm not optimistic about his NBA chances so far.

Doubtful. In the SLAM article I posted above he said he would consider D-league which I think he's capable of playing in. I suspect he would choose Europe/Australia before Asia.

I am not exactly sure of his status in regards to the Taiwan ID, but it took James Mao and Doug Creighton (half-Taiwanese) a couple years of playing in the SBL to be issued Taiwanese ID and clearly these are not close to Lin's level. Someone above mentioned Juefan Geiger (half-Taiwanese half-German) who went to Taiwan but only achieved in impregnating a girl and getting sued for failing to pay child support (His team cut him for an African American import.) I think there was also an ABC called Austin Yuen who played in the SBL in 2007 but he moved to Japan's BJ-league.

 

[sinobball2]

I can't believe the commentators in that youtube above says his parents are Vietnamese. Why can't these people do some research...

A nice article on Jeremy Shu-How Lin's background from ESPN:

Lin has definitely become the face of Asian American baller (and he is 100% Asian), a true trailblazer even if he never makes the NBA.

Thursday, December 10, 2009
Immigrant dream plays out through son
By Dana O'Neil
ESPN.com

STORRS, Conn. -- The jump hook he used to score his first bucket of the game? That came from Kareem.

The perfect form on his jumper? Larry Bird deserves credit for that.

The power end-to-end drive with a dunk to finish? Vintage Dr. J.

The sweet dribble penetration and kickout? Score one for Magic.

As Jeremy Lin dissected and bisected Connecticut to the tune of 30 points Sunday afternoon, his father sat in front of a computer screen on the other side of the country, watching his videotape library of NBA greats come to life in the form of his son.

All those years Gie-Ming Lin spent rewinding his tapes so he could teach himself how to play a game he never even saw until he was an adult? All those hours spent in the local Y with his boys, schooling them in fundamentals over and over, building muscle memory without even knowing what the term meant? That silly dream, the one in which his children would fall in love with basketball as much as he had?

There it was, borne out in a gym in Storrs, Conn.

"Every time he did something good, they'd play it over and over again," Gie-Ming said from his home in Palo Alto, Calif. "I kept watching, and they kept showing him."

Soon the rest of the college basketball world might be turning its collective eye toward Jeremy Lin. Think about what the senior has done just this week for Harvard, which is off to its best start (7-2) in 25 years.

In keeping his team in the game right to the end, Lin scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed 9 boards in a 79-73 loss to No. 12 UConn. Then, in the Crimson's 74-67 upset at Boston College on Wednesday -- the second straight season Harvard has beaten BC -- Lin contributed 25 points.

So in two games against New England's annual NCAA tournament participants, Lin scored 55 points and shot 64 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line.

He boasts an all-around repertoire rarely on display. Last season Lin was the only player in the nation to rank among the top 10 players in his conference in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and 3-point percentage.

This year? He is merely second in the Ivy League in scoring (18.6 points), 10th in rebounding (5.3), fifth in field goal percentage (51.6 percent), third in assists (4.6), second in steals (2.4), sixth in blocked shots (1.2) and top of the pile in turning the heads of esteemed basketball minds, including Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun.

"I've seen a lot of teams come through here, and he could play for any of them," the longtime UConn coach said of Lin. "He's got great, great composure on the court. He knows how to play."

And he learned how to play thanks to his father's determination.

Jeremy is not the product of some Marv Marinovich in high-tops, desperate to cultivate the perfect basketball player, but rather a 5-foot-6 immigrant who long ago fell in love with a game and realized that in that game, his own children could gain entry into mainstream America.

Gie-Ming Lin was born in Taiwan, where academics were stressed and athletics ignored. He caught an occasional glimpse of basketball and, for reasons he can't explain, was immediately smitten with the game.

He dreamed of coming to the United States for two reasons: to complete his Ph.D. and "to watch the NBA."

That happened in 1977 when Gie-Ming enrolled at Purdue University for his doctorate in computer engineering. He flipped on the television, and there it was: the NBA in all its late-1970s glory. Kareem, Moses and Dr. J, with Jordan, Bird and Magic waiting in the wings.

"My dad," Jeremy said, "is a complete basketball junkie."

Gie-Ming's first job took him to Los Angeles, where the grueling demands and long hours had him searching for some sort of athletic release.

"I thought it would be great to play basketball," Gie-Ming said.

Only problem? He didn't have the slightest idea how. He had never picked up a ball in his life.

So he turned his attention back to those gripping NBA games. Armed with videotapes of his favorite players, Gie-Ming studied the game with the same fervor he studied for his Ph.D.

"I would just imitate them over and over; I got my hook shot from Kareem," Gie-Ming said, laughing.

It took him years to feel comfortable enough to play in a pickup game, and as he bided his time he decided then -- long before he even had children -- that his own kids would grow up knowing the game from an early age.

When first-born Joshua turned 5, Gie-Ming carted him to the local Y to begin teaching him those valuable skills stored on his videotapes.

Jeremy followed, and then youngest brother Joseph joined in what became a three-nights-a-week routine. The boys would finish their homework and around 8:30 head to the Y with their father for 90 minutes of drills or mini-games.

Forget that all of the players on those videos had long since retired, that the guy with Kareem's hook shot wouldn't hit Abdul-Jabbar's armpit. Gie-Ming recognized what so many other youth coaches have forgotten over time: The foundation for success is the basics.

"I realized if I brought them from a young age it would be like second nature for them," Gie-Ming said. "If they had the fundamentals, the rest would be easy."

His passion soon became their passion, and as the boys grew up, those 90-minute sessions would turn into wee-hour wars, with the boys scrounging for whatever gym they could find to play.

Joshua would star at Henry M. Gunn High School. Jeremy would enroll at rival Palo Alto High, where Joseph is now a senior.

Jeremy was special. He had his father's passion, his own inner motivation and a frame that would sprout to 6-foot-3. A good enough scorer to play 2-guard, Jeremy also was a savvy enough playmaker -- thanks to his dad and Magic -- to play the point. He's a solid outside shooter, but his dad, Julius and Kareem conspired to give him a reliable game around the rim.

In other words, he was otherworldly, a kid so talented that his freshman coach stood up at the team banquet and declared, "Jeremy has a better skill set than anyone I've ever seen at his age."

Named to the varsity as a freshman, Jeremy would earn honors as sophomore of the year and two-time most valuable player in his league.

Immersed in the game as he was, Jeremy never thought he was anything but a normal kid who liked basketball.

Until, that is, the insults came at him, the taunts to go back to China or open his eyes.

He was an Asian-American basketball player, an oddity and a curiosity in the cruel world of high school, where nothing is safer than being like everyone else.

"It was definitely a lot tougher for me growing up," he said. "There was just an overall lack of respect. People didn't think I could play."

His father offered sage advice.

"I told him people are going to say things to him, but he had to stay calm and not get excited by these words; they are only words," Gie-Ming said. "I told him to just win the game for your school and people will respect you."

Once more, Gie-Ming was right. In his senior season Jeremy averaged 15 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 steals, leading Palo Alto to a 32-1 record and a stunning 51-47 victory over nationally ranked Mater Dei in the CIF Division II state championship game.

Along the way, he converted some of the people who had mocked him. When Palo Alto played Mater Dei, students from both Jeremy's high school and rival Henry M. Gunn High crowded a local pizza joint to cheer for Jeremy and his team.

Converting people outside Northern California was more difficult. By his senior season, Lin was the runaway choice for player of the year by virtually every California publication. Yet he didn't receive a single Division I scholarship offer.

Lin doesn't know why, but believes his ethnicity played a part.

Asian-Americans make up just 0.4 percent of Division I basketball rosters, according to the latest NCAA numbers. That equates to 20 players out of 5,051.

Harvard offered an education with a hefty price tag. (The Ivy League offers no athletic scholarships.) But it also offered the chance to play Division I ball. So Lin went without hesitation.

Four extremely successful years into his college career, he now finds himself packaged into an uncomfortable box. Lin is at once proud and frustrated with his place as the flag-bearer for Asian-American basketball players.

The Harvard uniform, the Asian background, it all still makes Jeremy something of a novelty. What he longs for most of all is to be a basketball player.

Not an Asian-American basketball player, just a basketball player.

"Jeremy has been one of the better players in the country for a while now," said Harvard coach Tommy Amaker, who, as a Duke graduate and former head coach at both Seton Hall and Michigan, knows a thing or two about talent. "He's as consistent as anyone in the game. People who haven't seen him are wowed by what they see, but we aren't. What you see is who he is."

But stereotypes die hard and remain propagated by the ignorant. At UConn, as Jeremy stepped to the free throw line for the first time, one disgraceful student chanted, "Won-ton soup."

"I do get tired of it; I just want to play," Lin said. "But I've also come to accept it and embrace it. If I help other kids, than it's worth it."

In their 109-year history, the Crimson have never won an Ivy League title and have managed only three second-place finishes. They have had just one league player of the year -- Joe Carrabino in 1984.

The last Harvard man to suit up in the NBA? Ed Smith in 1953.

Lin could change all of that, a thought that boggles the mind of the man who fell in love with a sport so many years ago.

"All this time he was growing up, I never thought about Jeremy playing in college or professionally," Gie-Ming said. "I just enjoyed watching him play. I'm just so proud of him and so happy for him. I told him my dream already has come true."

Dana O'Neil covers college basketball for ESPN.com and can be reached at espnoneil@live.com.

 

[DarknessFalls2]

Sino, what are Lin's chances of a professional career? You think he's gonna try to get his Taiwan ID and then play in the SBL/CBA? I'm not optimistic about his NBA chances so far.

Why would he need a Taiwanese ID to play in the CBA? The CBA allows each team to have 2 Expatriate players, therefore Jeremy Lin can still keep his American (USA) citizenship and still play in the CBA if recruited. Unless you're talking about him playing for the Taiwan or Chinese national team.

 

[sime0n2]

Why would he need a Taiwanese ID to play in the CBA? The CBA allows each team to have 2 Expatriate players, therefore Jeremy Lin can still keep his American (USA) citizenship and still play in the CBA if recruited. Unless you're talking about him playing for the Taiwan or Chinese national team.

Only because you are much more valuable to a team if you can count as a local player. He'd have to be much more exceptional of a player for a team to use one of their 2 foreigner spots on him.

 

[stuart2]

I can't believe the commentators in that youtube above says his parents are Vietnamese. Why can't these people do some research...

A nice article on Jeremy Shu-How Lin's background from ESPN:

Lin has definitely become the face of Asian American baller (and he is 100% Asian), a true trailblazer even if he never makes the NBA.

Great find Sino.

Stuart

 

[DarknessFalls2]

http://www.draftexpress.com/article/NCAA-Weekly-Performers-121809-3359/

Jonathan Givony

It’s not often that a player from the Ivy League conference is able to break through and establish himself as a legitimate NBA draft prospect, but that’s exactly what Jeremy Lin has done this season. Strong performances against UConn (in a narrow loss) and Boston College (a road win) have propelled him directly into the national spotlight, culminating in a feature story on ESPN.com last week.

Lin’s physical tools are less than ideal when compared with most NBA guard prospects, as he’s a 6-3 combo guard with a narrow, but strong frame that he’s absolutely made the most of, and a wingspan that appears to be below average. He has good, but not great athleticism, showing very nice quickness in the open floor and some solid leaping ability, but clearly isn’t the most explosive player around.

Offensively, Lin is an exceptionally efficient player, shooting 60% from inside the arc and 37% from outside it, while getting to the free throw line at a terrific rate—almost 10 times per-40 minutes pace adjusted. He is not what you would call a stellar ball-handler, but is excellent on the pick and roll and is very aggressive looking to get to the basket.

Although he plays mostly off the ball for Harvard, he is pretty much their main facilitator and clearly the player his teammates look to early and often. He executes his team’s plays extremely well and is highly unselfish, showing very nice court vision whipping crisp passes around the court confidently, always looking to make the simple, fundamental play. It would be nice to see Lin get a little more time at the point guard spot for Harvard, but based on what we can tell he seems to have very good instincts as a playmaker.

The one chink in his armor would clearly be his propensity for turnovers, he tends to get called an awful lot for traveling violations, and seems to struggle finishing around the rim in traffic. Lin’s left-hand is noticeably weaker, both creating shots and finishing them, and he generally has trouble in the half-court if he can’t beat his man initially with his very quick (and very long) first step.

As a shooter, Lin sports somewhat unorthodox mechanics, kicking his legs out violently and often fading away excessively on his pull-up jumpers, but is able to make up for that and then some with his innate shot-making ability. He doesn’t take all that many shots from behind the arc—a little over 3.5 per game over the past three years—but he makes the ones he takes at a pretty solid rate, even if there is clearly room for improvement.

One thing that Lin does do exceptionally well is fill up the stat-sheet in every way possible. Besides being a terrific (and extremely efficient) scorer, he generates a large amount of rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, and beyond the numbers seems to have nice toughness and a very good feel for anticipating plays and being around the ball.

Defensively, Lin is a pretty serious guy (as he is in all aspects of the game), but there may be some question marks about his potential here at the NBA level, as he lacks great size or length, and isn’t the strongest or most athletic guy in the world. This is something he will have to really work to dispel in private NBA workouts as he’s matched up with other top guard prospects in one on one, two on two and three on three situations.

Lin has a number of things going for him, and is clearly a prospect teams should take note of. His gaudy stats, strong intangibles and excellent basketball IQ will all work in his favor, but he still has plenty of work ahead of him if he’s to be drafted and/or make an NBA team. Strong showings against the likes of Georgetown, Seattle University and George Washington would surely help his cause, as would making the NCAA tournament, and accepting his invite to play at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a place where he could really help his stock.

 

[DarknessFalls2]

 

[jxuusa2]

Harvard took down #22 Division III MIT recently 88-61 (I think I don't have the boxscore in front of me), and Lin had 18 points a handful of boards, assists, steals, and etc as well in like 28 minutes of play. They must have taken all the starters out midway into the 2nd half. They get to play George Washington next.

 

[stuart2]

Asian Americans coming to see Jeremy Lin

Asian Americans coming to see Jeremy Lin

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/1278/lins-asian-american-fans-have-arrived

Gie-Ming and Shirley Lin sat in the front row behind the Harvard bench, and to support their son, they proudly wore T-shirts that read on the back, "Welcome to the Jeremy Lin Show."

The print on the front of the shirts screamed a more powerful message:

WE BELIEVE

In the corner of the sold-out arena, 16-year-old Austin Ng was starting to do just that while leaning over the concourse-level railing alongside his parents. He was getting a glimpse of a stereotype being shattered.

An Asian-American basketball star?

Ng's family had snapped up discounted tickets for $8.88 apiece and made the hourlong drive from San Francisco -- not to see Santa Clara in nonconference action, but to be mesmerized by Lin's every movement.

"It gives me inspiration," said Ng, who recently got cut by his high school team but continues to play basketball for an Asian-American club team called the Dragons. "If he can do it, why not me?"

Lin was playing about 15 miles from his hometown of Palo Alto, Calif., and his presence resulted in a capacity crowd at the 4,700-seat Leavey Center that included a handful of his family members and droves of Asian-Americans wanting to witness his homecoming. The 6-foot-3 senior, averaging 17.4 points per game for the 11-3 Crimson, said he didn't pay attention to it until his teammates told him, "It was like Hong Kong."

[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/Nick Wass
Lin, seen here against Greg Monroe of Georgetown, scored 30 against UConn and 25 in a win at BC.
Jeremy Lin fanatic Brian Yang, wearing a shirt picturing Chinese-American actor Bruce Lee, beamed at the sight. The 36-year-old helps run an Asian-American basketball league and assisted in coordinating the effort by the Dream League to pack the stands with Asian-Americans.

The Dream League purchased about 500 tickets from Santa Clara and offered to resell them at lower prices in order to encourage members of the Asian-American community to watch Lin play. Why charge $8.88 for general-admission tickets? The No. 8 in Chinese culture is a lucky one.

Yang estimated his mass e-mails, as well his Facebook and Twitter posts advertising the event, reached about 1,500 people in his network, and ultimately around 400 of the 500 tickets were resold.

Like Lin, Yang grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area's Silicon Valley after his parents emigrated from Taiwan to attend graduate school. The self-described basketball junkie also started for his high school team as a 6-1 power forward.

"With Jeremy, it's like, 'Wow, he is me,'" Yang said. "This is exactly me, except I'm not as good in basketball."

In the Asian-American community, academics are king and immigrant parents are usually more concerned with a GPA than PPG. Even Lin, who won numerous player of the year honors as a senior at Palo Alto High and led his team to a state title, famously did not receive a single Division I scholarship offer.

Ng, who plays guard at 5-7, believes Asian-American players are often judged unfairly.

"People just look past you," he said. "It's like they don't even see you."

According to those in the community, the positive image of the Asian-American male is largely absent in mainstream media as well.

"The stereotypes are still there," said Yang, who works as a film and television producer. "We're often martial artists, we're sexless, we're geeky, we're dorky. Asian males are definitely sort of nonexistent, and if we are [existent], we're either a William Hung -- something you laugh at -- or an anomaly like Jeremy Lin.

"It's definitely frustrating, but it's changing a little because the more anomalies you see, the more it's a norm. Every time you see a Jeremy Lin or a Harold & Kumar, these things chip away the stereotype of being weak and not cool and hip."

Lin, meanwhile, is no longer college basketball's best-kept secret, judging from the hits on his YouTube clips and the national publication clippings he's been accumulating, including this one by our own Dana O'Neil.

For Monday's game, Santa Clara credentialed an Asian-American magazine, a Chinese-language television station and two Chinese-language newspapers.

One of the newspapers, the Sing Tao Daily, even asked a Harvard official if it could send a camera crew to San Jose International Airport to cover Lin's arrival with the team.

Asian media outlets usually reserve their paparazzi-style coverage for celebrities, and Lin appears to have little desire to become one. According to the team's spokesman, he didn't even want to be the cover boy for Harvard's basketball media guide.

When his family was able to whisk him away from the team hotel for about three hours before the game, Lin simply spent the time back home playing video games with his brothers and satisfying his cravings for In-N-Out Burger, which he's deprived of on the East Coast.

He's like every other bright, church-going, family-oriented, guy-next-door type, except he hung 30 points on UConn last month and is also known for hitting buzzer-beaters and unleashing ferocious dunks.

"His storyline is one we recognize," said Jeff Yang, who writes an Asian pop culture column for the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's one we live with or hope to live. He was born here and raised here. His dad was an engineer. He's faced the same kinds of unique challenges.

"The difference is on the playground. When we were being picked last and told to play zone and not to shoot, he was getting himself into shape that made him a legitimate talent."

Against a Santa Clara defense determined to make Lin's Crimson teammates do the scoring, he tied a season low with six points. But he put up 9 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks in Harvard's 74-66 win.

Lin finished the night by holding a news conference and then signing an autograph for a young Chinese-American girl waiting outside the door. She wanted it because like Lin, she also plays guard and wears a No. 4 basketball jersey.

"It's people I've never met before," Lin said of the support he's been getting. "I'm very flattered and overwhelmed."

 

[uda hend2]

jeremy lin

jeremy lin

no doubt..
talented player

 

[jxuusa2]

Great article of Lin in SI.

Also game against Cornell didn't go too well for Harvard. They lost pretty badly with the final score 86 - 50. Lin carried his team with 19 points in 30 minutes on 6-9 from the field and 7-8 from the line. However he was in foul trouble and had 4 the game.

The lack of anyone else on the Harvard team who is any bit competent at basketball is what caused them to lose. The closest other guy in scoring was 8 points off the bench by somebody.

 

[silnismo2]

No doubt, a couple of NBA teams will work him out for the lottery.

forget the cba. No offense.

 

[Phantim3dx2]

this kid is not bad he def gave uconn and some of their players a double take on him. searched him on youtube. he had a great game a against uconn. he kind of does that ginobilli flop though, whichever way u look at it, it does work though sells the foul more or gets u to the free throw line more. i hate it but i would do the same thing if it means me padding my stats or helping the team

anyways kids good. i dont think he'll be a mainstay for the nba, then again i would love it if he could prove me and everyone else wrong, rooting for the udnerdog is always a + on my book, unless its against america

anyways, i do hope he can make a career somewhere in the americas or europe. if not his harvard degree will get him somewhere else in life.

here is lin during his days in palto alto hs in cali



this one is against uconn.


he doesnt excel in one particular part but he is pretty damn consistent i think in padding up the stats sheet from points, assists, blocks, steal, amt to fre throw, etc

 

[DarknessFalls2]

Jeremy Lin is currently winning in the online votes for the Bob Cousy Award.

Vote for him here:

http://www.cousyaward.com/vote.php

 

[sinobball2]

Just FYI, according to a Chinese-language report, Lin's dad said they have been approached by the basketball associations for both China & Chinese Taipei.

1) Dad mentioned that Lin's a little concerned about the fact that Chinese Taipei never makes it to the world stage (WBC or Olympics). His dad said it's still a possibility but somehow it doesn't sound he's very interested. He said Lin will go back to Taiwan this summer, and the last time he was back was in 1998. His mandarin language skills are fairly limited based on what I heard.

2) Dad said Lin won't give up his USA passport to play for China, since Chinese laws don't allow dual citizenship. (But did Ray Chang, Alex Hua, Tung Ho-Pin etc. all give up their original citizenships? Most media reports don't specifically delve into this topic but methinks maybe the rules could be bent a little?)

 

[sinobball2]

http://www.slamonline.com/online/college-hs/college/2010/03/is-jeremy-lin-a-pro/

March 9, 2010 8:00 am |
Is Jeremy Lin a Pro?
Ivy Leaguer hopes to find his place in the League.

by Colin Powers

In the modern era of college hoops, it’s not often we visit the Ivy League with anything resembling intrigue or excitement. The backdoor cuts of Pete Carrill’s now aptly named Princeton Offense that brought down mighty UCLA in the early 90s are long gone. The brief reign of UPenn as a perennial contender to spring an upset during the years that followed Coach Carrill’s retirement have also acquiesced into history. As far as hoop goes, there has been very little to bring us to any of the hallowed halls of academic achievement that mark the Ivy League landscape in recent years (beyond of course my boy Chris Skrelja killin’ it for Brown). Until this year.

Cornell has built on the buzz of its recent past and matured into a very dangerous team. They play determined, principled defense and stretch the floor with a collection of dangerous 3-point shooters. Stocked with upperclassmen who have ‘been to a rodeo or two’, they are a squad bearing all the markings of a potential Cinderella. They should have beat Kansas…in Lawrence, and it was far from a fluke performance (as Kansas coaches and players acknowledged).

There is also an individual player generating some whispers of hype here and there and occasionally showing up on some NBA scouting radars. His name is Jeremy Lin, the 6’3 combo-guard for the Harvard Crimson. The senior out of Pala Alto, California jumped into national consciousness after dropping 30 on UConn, following it up three nights later with a 25 point performance against my alma mater, Boston College. And while BC and UConn have clearly seen better days, UConn at least still boasts two of the most explosive guards in the college game (Kemba Walker and Jerome Dyson), giving further credibility to Lin’s game. And while these kind of outbursts may have surprised some, I’m sure it didn’t surprise Lin, who has been filling up stat sheets for the past three seasons (12.6ppg, 4.8rpg, 3.6apg as a sophomore, 17.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 4.3 apg as a junior, 16.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.4 apg this season).

This past Saturday, I watched Lin in person for the first time, and was certainly not the only interested observer in attendance (a Magic scout was amongst those credentialed). Harvard was over in Jersey to take on the Princeton Tigers in the final game of both team’s regular seasons. In the spacious, airplane hangar-esque arena with nothing of any tangible significance on the line, the two teams went at it. Maybe they’re playing for the unofficial right to address the opposing institution as a “safety school” for the following year if victorious, I don’t know.

Lin played off the ball for most of the game, a curious decision by Coach Tommy Amaker given that he is clearly Harvard’s best option to break down the defense off the dribble. Brandyn Curry is no slouch, but playing Lin at the 2 within Amaker’s offensive philosophy did not get Jeremy all that many touches. Indeed, when Lin did get the ball in a position to do something with it, three times he calmly caught the ball of a screen before using his quick first step and immediately sweeping low and exploding past his man baseline. In the small sample size of this one game, he seemed to prefer attacking to his left, and did not usually have a difficult time shedding his one on one defender. He showed impressive strength and confidence around the basket, challenging bigger men to get a bucket or a trip to the free-throw line (for the season, he took 190 FTs in 28 games). Also, on those few occasions when Lin received an outlet off a Princeton miss and directly took the lead in Harvard’s transition game, he displayed his point-guard acumen and vision to find the best shot available off the break.

Lin was also fairly active on defense and did a quality job of denying his man the ball and staying in front when matched up. Additionally, his help-side positioning was fairly sound throughout the evening, and his hands were consistently active around the ball.

Now, there are also a number of holes in Lin’s game, at least on Saturday. Despite being the most talented player on the court, he seemed very passive at times and never fully imposed his will on the run of play. He drifted a lot on offense, catching and moving the ball to the next man without really looking to challenge the defense. Lin needed to be getting into the lane all night for Harvard to be dangerous, but for the most part, he seemed content to blend in. Perhaps his lack of assertiveness can be blamed on the foul-trouble he negotiated for the majority of the game, but nonetheless, Lin was far from dominant out there. Furthermore, when he did look to penetrate, twice Lin left his feet without knowing where he was going with the ball, turning the ball over and leading to Princeton run-outs (and was also lazy on a few post entry passes).

Another major worry for me is his jump-shot. Though he has compiled pretty solid percentages this season (35% 3FG, 52% FG), his mechanics are less than ideal. His release point is almost behind his head, requiring him to cock the ball back and slowing the whole process down a bit. In general, the more motion there is in a shot, the more room there is for something to go wrong, leading to inconsistency. That said, some shooters can get past these kinds of technical errors through lots of work and repetition, and Lin may very well be capable of that. It will make stretching his range out more difficult, however.

As a synopsis, it is complicated evaluating a player when he is not surrounded by the appropriate talent necessary to really give credence to such an evaluation. This is one of the reasons drafting high school players yielded such unpredictable results. It’s tough to determine prospective success at the NBA level when basing such a judgment on how a player is performing at a much lower level of competition. In the case of Jeremy Lin, playing in a game that doesn’t mean anything for a post-season future at the standard of the Ivy League, it is not overly surprising he did not shine as bright as he might have otherwise. Whatever the explanation though, I still have a hard time seeing him in the NBA. He’d be at most average sized for a PG at the next level, but does not quite have the cat-quickness of those similarly smallish players. Further, playing off the ball as he did for the large part of the game, I was not able to establish if his handle was quite up to the standard of the El. He did flash a quick, low crossover on one occasion, but that was just about it. Without that handle, or truly dead-eye shooting from the outside (and he may very well have a tough time with the NBA 3-point line because of his mechanical hiccups), I have a hard time seeing Lin making it through a training camp next autumn.

Only time will tell though…if a player can find the right situation at the right time, sometimes that’s all it takes to latch on and become a fixture in the League.

Harvard is not in the Big Dance this year (Who watches the CIT anyway?) so we'll probably hear from Lin again at Portsmouth, where he would match up with legitimate 2nd round prospects, to see where he stands. Remember Sun Yue was off the radar for most of 2007 but flashes of brilliance at the Orlando Predraft Camp landed him a 2nd round pick. Lin has more of an uphill battle than Sun Yue IMO but he got a shot.




This video below brought back some memories. The uploader of this video is "anthoang" who started this thread, we used to talk on MSN back in the days. He lived in the Bay Area and recorded this video back in 2005 and told me of Jeremy Lin, first time I heard of that name. I was a little intrigued because at 6'2'' he was kind of tall to play PG in high school, but didn't think much after watching the video (was there youtube back then?). I noted the name but never did I imagine this skinny Asian who couldn't land a D1 scholarship would be considered an NBA prospect.

 

[Phantim3dx2]

whatever happened to anthoang he used to post here years ago when this site jsut started. he like went really MIA from these threads. he's got my vote as missing poster of the years

 

[sinobball2]

whatever happened to anthoang he used to post here years ago when this site jsut started. he like went really MIA from these threads. he's got my vote as missing poster of the years

I don't believe he was a regular here (post count=12) or anywhere. But he still records videos of Asian athletes (like Yi) as usual. He used to get in trouble with the NBA for sharing Yao's videos.

Found an article about Lin:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2010/01/11/240197/p2/Jeremy-Lin.htm

After the season, Jeremy will sit down with his parents and discuss the future. There will be many options and opportunities for him: playing in the NBA, playing overseas or enrolling in Harvard's MBA program .

The younger Lin will not rule out playing ball in Taiwan or representing Taiwan in international competition, but he will take his time to review his options.

“Jeremy understands Mandarin very well and took Chinese at Harvard. He speaks a little Mandarin but I believe he will pick it up quickly if he puts his mind into it,” Lin's father said.

The article also mentioned that since Harvard is not in the Big Dance, he would probably go back to Taiwan soon with his family to visit his grandma, as I had previously reported.