David vs Goliath II: Jeremy Lin vs Jerome Dyson

As it turns out, the revolution will be televised this one time (well, sort of). If you’re a DirecTV subscriber, you can order the SportsPack (for $11.01/month, then cancel it after 30 days which is what I plan to do) and you’ll get Channel SNY — in HD! Yes, I said you can watch Jeremy Lin in HD this one time! If you’re not a subscriber, you can still watch the game live on ESPN360.com.

Tipoff is at 10:00AM Pacific time, this Sunday morning, December 6th, 2009.

Grab a hold, here. This is gonna be another one of Poor Man’s Commish’s scenic routes through the forest (short cuts, be damned!). Scroll down to the part about the scouting report on Jerome Dyson if you care not to jump in.

DAVID VS GOLIATH

Do you have any idea how good a boxer Manny Pacquiao is? If you’re like me, you hadn’t even heard of him three years ago. Thankfully, I have family that is Filipino, so I got wind of him “early” in the process, although a quick read of his Wikipedia will reveal that his defining moments occurred long ago.

For example, did you know that he won one of his early titles as a last-minute stand-in? It’s amazing how great athletes and people in general, whether by design or happenstance, seize opportunities in their lives. As such, I highly recommend that you pickup a copy of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

By the way, this is how good Pacquiao is, according to his promoter Bob Arum…

Pacquiao is the greatest boxer I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen them all, including Ali, Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Not to go way off tangent, but I still remember when I was checking Facebook during Pacquiao’s fight against Cotto last month and saw that a couple of my old Asian Cal buddies (who shall remain nameless) were rushing the field at Berkeley as the Golden Bears had upset a someteenth-ranked Arizona — in the middle of the Pacquiao fight. I know, I know, maybe they already had tickets for football, but how can you not carve a Pacquiao fight into your calendar? This is the greatest boxer of our era (and he happens to be Asian). Do not plan anything on that day.

We’re talking about someone who progressively moved up in weight classes and dethroned the incumbent champion. David vs Goliath seven times. Going on eight — warning: do NOT plan anything on your calendar for March 13, 2010.

What does this all have to do with Jeremy Lin? Well, in a less than 48 hours, a great David vs Goliath battle will occur. According to my count, it will be David vs Goliath II. As for David vs Goliath I, in the canon of Jeremy Lin, that occurred last January 7th, 2009, a day that was announced to Dream Leaguers as “Jeremy Lin Day”, because that’s when he went toe-to-toe against projected 2nd round draft pick Tyrese Rice, a Boston College squad that has just knocked off #1 North Carolina, and scored 27 points, 8 rebounds, 6 steals.

Certainly a defining moment in Jeremy’s basketball career. Incidentally, Rice didn’t get drafted, had an anonymous appearance in the NBA Summer League, and is subsequently playing pro somewhere, but pretty much off the NBA radar. Could that day have also been the downfall of Tyrese Rice?

SCOUTING REPORT ON JEROME DYSON

This Sunday, Jeremy goes mano-y-mano against Jerome Dyson, projected 2nd-round NBA draft pick. They have very similar stats: Jeremy’s at 16.0 pts, 4.9 reb, 4.9 ast, 2.3 stl while Dyson’s at 19.5 pts, 4.2 reb, 4.5 ast, 1.3 stl. Of course, Dyson has stallions as teammates (and rebounders), but Jeremy’s teammates aren’t that bad, either, it’s just that they’re smaller, younger, and not as fast (and Jeremy is leading them in rebounds!).

Via DirecTV, I got a chance to catch the Boston U. vs UConn game from Wednesday night, tape delayed on SNY yesterday morning. Now, it was only just Monday that Harvard had beaten BU, during a stretch where Jeremy outscored BU 11-0, capped with a fastbreak dunk, to run away with the victory after an otherwise very tight battle.

Surprisingly, BU was in a tight battle with UConn until about 2 minutes remaining in the first half, when after several sequences of a UConn fullcourt 2-2-1 press, BU caved and UConn got at least two steals right near their basket on baseline BU inbounds. Then a foul on a three-point attempt at the buzzer stretched the lead to 18 at the break. That was the death knell for BU.

I don’t watch much college basketball, but I was not impressed with UConn, currently ranked #13 (read the Harvard pre-game report for more on RPI stuff). Maybe this is a down year in the NCAA as I’ve heard, but if UConn is #13, then I have a pretty good barometer as to the level of college basketball this season. Let’s just say I’m glad I have my NBA League Pass.

Dyson is certainly the senior leader of his team. He’s about the same height as Jeremy at 6′3″. He’s lankier, though. He’s got a very unique move. While right-handed, he has a hesitation move that starts off with his left hand! Dyson has an extremely long, explosive first step and he can go either left or right, and if he hesitates with that ball in his left hand, something’s coming. I wonder if that move can actually be exploited. It’s hard to react that quick as a defender, but maybe if you move in when you see that he’s about to do that move with his left, it’ll catch him off-guard and mess him up (?).

He’s also a decent step-back jumpshooter. He doesn’t shoot a lot of treys and, like most college players, I wouldn’t say that he’s really a shooter, but he can definitely score.

I think Jeremy’s faster, though. Dyson tends to cruise along and maybe one game isn’t a tell-all, but I didn’t notice a 6th gear like Jeremy has. This is perhaps a big reason, aside from his lateral meniscus tear from last season, why Dyson is “only” projected at #57 out of 60 by DraftExpress.com.

Lastly, it’s clear to me the UConn formula — and the TV announcers who were intimately familiar with Jim Calhoun’s program said as much: Calhoun recruits guys who can rebound and run. It’s the others a la Rip Hamilton or Ray Allen who can take the program to the next level, that are the icing on the cake. I’m not sure that they have players in that echelon this year. I don’t see Dyson having much of a ceiling higher than he already has, which is late 2nd-round material. Their shooter is a bit under-sized and run-of-the-mill. I’d still take Oliver McNally in a 3-Point Shootout contest.

Also, UConn must rely on its press to make something happen. Their big men are not that skilled, although they can certainly rebound and run, so UConn’s half-court offense is actually pretty boring, with the exception of Dyson. They also don’t have anybody with a natural stroke from outside, although the shooting is not that bad.

UConn plays pretty good man-to-man defense and obviously has interior help. Jeremy might have trouble with that after beating the first guy, who might even be Dyson (who is a solid defender with long arms), but then again maybe UConn’s young bigs will play with their heads cut off.

It will certainly be interesting to watch Jeremy Lin vs Jerome Dyson. And I think Harvard will make a game of it because Brandyn Curry and Lin have the ability to navigate UConn’s press. It may well come down to the heroics of either Lin or Dyson, perhaps both.

RETURN OF THE MEGATRON STAR

It seems that every once in awhile, Jeremy outputs some amazing stat. This week, he got his fifth dunk in seven games. I got to thinking, how does this compare to other star NCAA guards? Well, here you go…

• Cal fans, I present to you Patrick Christopher, who was once on the DraftExpress.com board but has since dropped off, probably due to the losses to Syracuse and Ohio State (the board is very big-name-college-program heavy, as you can see). Patrick has 5 dunks in 7 games played.

• How about the dynamic Evan Turner of Ohio State, he of the incredible 20.6 ppg, 12.9 rpg, 6.6 apg? Evan Turner has 5 dunks in 7 games played. Yeah, I’m surprised, too.

• Alright, alright, alright. Here’s the truth: John Wall. I’m sure I don’t even need to mention he goes to Kentucky. Well, okay. Wall has 9 dunks in 6 games played. But hey, we expected that of the projected #1 pick, did we not?

• Let’s try DraftExpress.com’s projected #5 pick, Willie Warren of Oklahoma, who is the highest-ranked guard outside of Wall and Turner (if you want to call Turner a guard, as he’s definitely not a point guard as Jeremy is). Warren has just 1 dunk in 6 games played.

• Let’s take the next highest guard on the board: Xavier Henry of Kansas. Henry has 7 dunks in 6 games played. Wow.

• Finally, how about Dyson himself? 5 dunks in 7 games, same as Jeremy!

I will gladly employ someone to keep track of this as the season progresses. Email me or hit me up on twitter @poormanscommish.

Incidentally, to tally dunks, you go to the game log at either ESPN.com or the player’s school athletics page and you look for the play-by-play listing. Then you do a browser “find” function on the word “dunk”, preferably using the Google Chrome browser because it counts how many instances there are on the page. Yep, dunks are recorded in the play-by-play. You learn something everyday from Poor Man’s Commish.

Here are some of my reverse-chronological tweets from @nbalivetweet (which I also use for NBA League Pass live-tweets) of Jeremy’s games since the last blogpost, which remarked his stats plunge from a blowout win over Division-2 Bryant and being victimized by a former Cornell coach now at Army…

Jeremy Lin stats Harvard 85-64: 25 mins, 14 pts, 5/10 fg, 0/3 treys, 4/6 ft, 8 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl, 1 blk, 2 to #jeremylin

Another steal by Jeremy Lin JL4! One guy chasing him, he dunks!!! 5th dunk in 7 games!!! He’s a guard, folks.

got up before defender set for chrg. Jeremy Lin got way up for that one!

Jeremy Lin tip steal! Fast break, rises way over defender trying to take charge. Good layup AND-ONE! FT good.

Jeremy Lin JL4 at the HALF with 8 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk, 1 to. Poor Man’s Jason Kidd!

Pre-gm interview Coach Tommy Amaker: Jeremy Lin JL4 inspiring others, being more vocal, bringing people along.

Amaker: “After BU win, Jeremy Lin immediately talking w teammates about practice the next day. Not letting up.”

Pre-game interview Coach Amaker about Jeremy Lin. He’s talking about JL4’s stamina “it’s in his DNA”.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if Earl Watson can play in the NBA, Jeremy Lin can/should/MUST play in the NBA. (Tweeted during the Warriors-Pacers game.)

Jeremy Lin JL4 statline: 19 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl, 2 blk, 2 turnovers. 16 of those 19 pts in the 2nd half.

willing to bet Jeremy Lin JL4 now leads mid-major guards in dunks. He has at least 4 this season, maybe 5.

“If Harvard wins this, that stretch there, Jeremy Lin would’ve won the game for them.” — BU announcers

Another steal by Harvard! Pass up to streaking Jeremy Lin! JL4 dunks it!!!! Harvard 71-64 over BU, 1:12 left.

Jeremy Lin JL4 final statline for tonite: 18 pts on 6-9 fg, 2-3 treys, 4-4 ft, 7 reb, 0 ast, 1 stl, 3 to.

passes to Jeremy Lin, right side deep. Dribble drive strong left, pull up elbow, swish! Trey @ 1st half buzzer!

Jeremy Lin steal! But steps out of bounds. Is that steal+turnover? Oh man, that woulda been a throwdown! He’s exasperated.

Whew! And I still haven’t talked about his uptick in the steals category, you may have glanced over his coach’s accolades about his stamina and leadership above, the blocked shots, and I think I’ve spotted a couple other nitpicky weaknesses of his game, which I may never reveal in case an NBA GM is reading this!

You might also like:

• David vs Goliath III: Jeremy Lin at Georgetown
• Meet Mr. Crunch-Time: Jeremy Lin
• Scout’s Honor: Jeremy Lin vs Georgetown
• Bow to the Jeremy Lin Movement (b-o-w = Based On What?)
• It’s all on Portsmouth for Jeremy Lin, but…
• I believe YOU can help Jeremy Lin make the NBA, and what it will mean to young Asian-Americans
• There and back again: Coast-to-coast to see Jeremy Lin (1/4)
• JL4 does it again. Jeremy Lin: “Lin Legend”. Now will you believe me?