Meet Mr. Crunch-Time: Jeremy Lin

Sat Nov 14, 2009 (12:23PM ET) by poormanscommish in asianballers, jeremylin, nba

UPDATE: Someone who saw Jeremy’s game-changing dunk in person…

@CoachNags: Up fake, Jab fake left, two dribbles middle, two hand flush in traffic, unreal.. the whole crowd just went WHAT!?

Jeremy Lin talks about his dunk (click for interview).

Talking about his dunk (click for interview).

Jaw-dropping. I think I just had a mini-experience of an astronomer discovering a new planet or something.

First of all, Jeremy Lin had 24 points and 7 assists last night, but the turning point was a dunk down the lane in the 2nd half as Harvard pulled away from Patriot League favorite Holy Cross, to eventually win 87-77.

The thing about is, he had just 5 points at halftime. I wasn’t all that worried because I’d seen the same thing before. Early last season as the 2008-09 campaign was just getting started, I noticed that Jeremy had a seven-game streak where he tallied the following 2nd-half point totals: 19, 14, 11, 17, 14, 10, 15 (Nov. 25 thru Dec. 17). REPEAT: these are points scored only in the 2nd half!

I even asked him about it at the time and he kinda chuckled it off as if he didn’t realize it. But I think by now, it’s become commonplace. It’s his MO. And following each and every one of his games till the end of last season, I always had a feeling, but now it’s just downright scary, now that I’ve looked at the numbers. The man is Mr. Crunch-Time.

So, with the help of the Harvard play-by-play archives, which I kind of had to poke around to find, this morning I went through the trouble of tallying the remainder of Jeremy’s 2nd-half points from last season.

Pretty astonishing: 11.2 points per 2nd half, including 19 of the 27 he scored versus Boston College on 1/7/09 and 22 of 27 against Brown, exactly one month later on 2/7/09.

For the sake of argument, let’s look at a sampling of last year’s NCAA top scorers: Stephen Curry 28.6, Jodie Meeks (who had a great NBA Summer League) 24.2, Eric Maynor (debuted for the Utah Jazz last night in Deron Williams’s absence and played great) 22.4, Blake Griffin 21.9, Tyler Hansbrough 21.4, Toney Douglas (currently getting raked over the coals for not wanting to give up his #23 uni in honoring Michael Jordan like LeBron James will) 21.3, James Harden 20.8.

If you double Jeremy’s 2nd half output of last season, 22.4 puts him in pretty awesome company.

I will pay $100 to the first person to make me a verifiable list of the NCAA’s Top Ten 2nd-half scorers from 2008-09.

Btw, did you click on that NCAA top scorers link, which shows the Top 100? Can someone tell me why Jeremy isn’t listed at all even though he scored 17.8, which would put him tied for 71st in the nation? Grrrr.

Anyways, here are the highlights from last night’s win…

From my live-tweet quoting the Holy Cross radio announcer:

“A one hand tomahawk slam” by Jeremy Lin

“oh what a move by Jeremy Lin”, “boy did that 6′3″ body of Lin sky that time”

Jeremy Lin “fakes left, goes right, over to Geiger, triple, good!” 67-52 Harvard. That’s JL’s 6th ast by my count!

Holy Cross radio: “Here’s Lin a three, got it. Wow!” Jeremy Lin 18 pts 7 ast. Harvard up 10. approaching 4 mins left.

Holy Cross radio: “Here’s Lin on the dribble. This kid is good.”

The game was pretty much deadlocked until Jeremy had that slam. According to the post-game interview, it ignited the Harvard bench. That kind of play, with Jeremy a senior, that’s the kind of play that makes him a leader by example. In the first game! Perfect.

Five Harvard players scored in double-figures, and ten players got on the board by the end of the first half. This is very, very good news for both Jeremy as an NBA prospect, as well as the team, of course. Kyle Casey had a great first half. Comes right off the bench as a sixth man and instantly contributes. Dee Giger was hot from beyond the arc. But, this is just one game. We’ll see if these freshman can keep it up. Also, it sounds like 2-guard Oliver McNally played pretty okay. I couldn’t really tell if the frontcourt had a good game, but certainly nothing disappointing to report on Keith Wright as was the case with his many missed inside shots last season.

This was a big win for Harvard. Here’s Coach Tommy Amaker as quoted in the Boston Herald:

“We know their personnel as far as a lot of returning guys from a year ago,” Amaker said earlier this week.“They’re picked to win the Patriot League. They’ve always been a tough, physical team. That’s the way that they’ve played in the past. Obviously, we were fortunate to win here against them (last season), but being at their place is always a tough place. (There’s) great basketball history and tradition there, opening night (and the) first game, so we’re anticipating it to be a huge challenge.”

Jeremy was also featured in SLAM Magazine, released today. I’ll have more to write about the SLAM interview, later.

The full text of last night’s live-tweet is below, re-listed in chronological order. I’ll be live-tweeting tomorrow’s online video broadcast against William & Mary, which beat Harvard last year and was Jeremy’s worst performance of 2008-09. He scored a season-low 9 points in that game.

live-tweet of Jeremy Lin’s first game as a senior at Harvard starts in 10 minutes! #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin, Oliver McNally, Max Kenyi, Doug Miller, Keith Wright is Harvard’s starting5 tonite. That means #jeremylin is starting at pg!

They said Keith Wright reshaped his body for this season. Can’t wait to see for myself next video broadcast.

Lin throws down low, Wright scores, assist #jeremylin? 2-2.

Ditto next sequence? 2 assists for JL already? #jeremylin 4-4 early on Harvard vs Holy Cross.

and-one for Casey, frosh phenom, who i didn’t realize checked in, Lin possibly with the assist. #jeremylin

timeout, 16:36 left first half, 10-8, Jeremy Lin has 2 assists thus far. #jeremylin

Kyle Casey another and-one. This is good, Jeremy Lin might finally have a robin to his batman! #jeremylin

Harvard with another trey. Sounds like they have better shooters this year! Harvard up 17-12.

Holy Cross has a Keister and a Meister on their squad!

Dang, first Holy Cross website live stats won’t update, now it’s updating faster than the radio broadcast! Jeremy Lin still 2 ast #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin missed field goal. Timeout, 7:41 left. Harvard 21, Holy Cross 17. #jeremylin

that was a missed trey by Jeremy Lin, btw. Meanwhile freshman Kyle Casey already has 5 pts, 2 ast, and 1 blk. #jeremylin

broadcaster didn’t say that Jeremy Lin got his 3rd assist on a layup by Doug Miller. later, personal foul JL. Harvard 23-21.

4:08 left, 25-25. Jeremy Lin 0-1 fg, 3 ast, 0 reb, but it’s nice to hear that he has some teammates this season. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin scores his first bucket of the season with 2:44 remaining. Harvard down 27-30. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin 3-point basket with 1:22 left puts Harvard up 32-30. 5 pts, 3 asts, 1 reb so far, 1st half. Via stats feed, radio behind!

Jeremy Lin missed prayer at buzzer, Harvard 34-30 at half. Get this: Harvard has TEN players who have scored! #jeremylin

Another somewhat “slow” start by Jeremy Lin in first half. He played 15 of the 20 minutes. 2-4 fg, 5 pts, 1 reb, but 3 assists is above par.

Jeremy Lin fouled on a drive, two FTs: good, good. 7 pts. Harvard 36-33. 18:41 left. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin steal. #jeremylin, missed layup, ensuing sequence, he fouls and Holy Cross’ Devin Brown and-one. That’s JL’s 3rd pf. #jeremylin

Guess Jeremy Lin stayed in with 3 pf’s cuz he just missed a trey. 40-40 ballgame, 16:41 left 2nd half. #jeremylin

@saucetek: sorry forgot to check replies, but I’m listening to Holy Cross audio stream. Harvard’s costs $

Jeremy Lin fouled, made 2 FTs, 9 pts, 47-47 with 12:56 left. #jeremylin

Keith Wright made layup, assist Jeremy Lin, his 4th ast. 49-48, 12:08 left. #jeremylin

fyi, Holy Cross no pushover: #2 in Patriot League 2008-9, lost to American by 16 in conf tourn

11:26 stats stream says Jeremy Lin made dunk!!! radio is lagging. #jeremylin

“oh what a move by Jeremy Lin”, “boy did that 6′3″ body of Lin sky that time” …ATTA BOY!!!!!

“oh what a move by Jeremy Lin”, “boy did that 6′3″ body of Lin sky that time” …ATTA BOY!!!!! #jeremylin

Harvard 54-49, 10:29 left, btw before Jeremy Lin’s dunk he missed the front-end of a 1-and-1. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin assist to Dee Geiger trey! 57-49 Harvard, timeout! 5 assists. #jeremylin

“Here comes Lin all by himself, slam and he’s fouled!” #jeremylin

“A one hand tomahawk slam” by Jeremy Lin #jeremylin

actually it was an off-ball foul on Geiger as Jeremy Lin went down and dunked. #jeremylin

so anyways, that’s 2 dunks by Jeremy Lin so far, if you’re keeping score! #jeremylin …under 6 minutes left, Harvard pulling away.

Live stats feed from Holy Cross is stuck. I need an update dangit!

Harvard 62-51. My mistake, 8:40 left.

Jeremy Lin with the ball, dribble drive, and a foul. 8:14 left, double-bonus two FTs for JL. First FT good. 14 pts now. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin 2nd FT good, 15 pts. 6-7 from FTs, i think. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin “fakes left, goes right, over to Geiger, triple, good!” 67-52 Harvard. That’s JL’s 6th ast by my count! #jeremylin

Timeout on the floor. Harvard 67, Holy Cross 55. 6:39 left, stats feed back up on Holy Cross website!

So anyways Jeremy Lin has 15 pts, 6 ast, 3 reb. 4-for-9 field, 6-for-7 free throws. Again, 6:39 left, Harvard up 67-55. #jeremylin

6:14 on the stats feed and Jeremy Lin has his 7th assist! Feed is ahead of radio stream. #jeremylin

Holy Cross radio: “Here’s Lin a three, got it. Wow!” Jeremy Lin 18 pts 7 ast. Harvard up 10. approaching 4 mins left. #jeremylin

Holy Cross radio: “Here’s Lin on the dribble. This kid is good.” [Jeremy Lin #jeremylin]

Timeout Harvard, 74-64 over Holy Cross, 3:08 left.

Media timeout 2:57 left, Holy Cross fouled, I think Jeremy Lin will be shooting two free throws (double-bonus) again. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin missed both FTs. Now 6-for-9 from stripe. I’ve said he needs to adjust that stroke! #jeremylin

“Knocked around, loose ball, picked up by Lin”. Jeremy Lin then fouled. 2 more FTs. Made both. 8-for-11 FTs, 20 pts. #jeremylin

Jeremy Lin finally made a turnover. Up by 8, less than 2:00 left. #jeremylin

“Down low, thrown away.” That was Jeremy Lin’s turnover just now. #jeremylin

That previous loose ball play, Dee Giger got credit for the steal.

Wow, I just checked ESPN and Holy Cross got one vote for the AP Top 25.

Jeremy Lin another two FTs: both good. 22 pts, 7 ast, 3 reb. #jeremylin

Oliver McNally just made a FT, giving him 10 pts, that means five Harvard players are in double-digits.

80-72, Harvard up over Holy Cross, 0:55 left.

“here’s Lin all the way, fingertip roll is good”. 24 pts. [Jeremy Lin #jeremylin]

23.4 seconds left. Harvard up 10, Giger at the line for Harvard.

Giger 6′6″ freshman “poured in his first 4 triples of the game.” This is really good news for Jeremy Lin fans. #jeremylin

Harvard wins 87-77 over Holy Cross.

Jeremy Lin 24 pts, 7 ast, 3 reb, 1 stl, 1 to. 6-for-11 field, 10-for-13 free throws, 2-for-5 three-pointers. #jeremylin

Nothing much else to report on the post-game broadcast. That’s a wrap!