What if “Linsanity” had started with the Wildcats?
By nmueller
“Linsanity” is stretching everywhere throughout this nation. It has people believing in the underdog and wondering what could have been for their franchise if they had given this “nobody” a chance. I am one of those people that wonders what could have been for the Arizona Wildcats basketball team years ago if they had given Jeremy Lin an opportunity to play basketball in Tucson.
I’m sure you are wondering what exactly all of this Jeremy Lin talk has to do with the Arizona Wildcats. The answer is nothing, but that’s only on the surface. You have to dig a little deep but the connection is out there. After Jeremy Lin’s very good high school career he sent his resume in to many schools including California, Stanford and UCLA. The schools wanted him to walk-on and would not give him a scholarship so he decided to attend Harvard, wanting to play Division 1 basketball. Out of college he was unwanted again and went undrafted for the NBA. After finally making it onto NBA teams he seldom played his rookie season and was assigned to the NBA developmental league 3 different times. He was then waived by the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets before making it onto the New York Knicks. That is where he met the person that he was looking for his whole life. Mike D’Antoni. D’Antoni and Lin are a perfect mesh for each other and it is showing now with Lin’s personal stats and the way that he has lifted the Knicks to 9 wins in 11 games. But, his career could have been jump started a little earlier had he been given the shot in the dessert.
What Mike D’Antoni is to NBA point guards Lute Olson was to NCAA basketball point guards. Arizona is Pointguardu and would have been THE place to be for his college career. While the Linsanity has just begun it would have easily started back in his college playing days had he attended the University of Arizona. The 2006-07 season was Lin’s Freshman year in college and that same year Mustafa Shakur was in his Senior season as the Arizona starting point guard. Shakur was the downward turning point to me and a lot of other Wildcat fans for having dominating Point guards at Arizona. The Wildcats had a Freshman point guard named Nic Wise that was given a scholarship that season but what if Lute saw something in Lin and decided to give him a shot instead of Nic Wise? I am by no means saying that Nic Wise was a terrible point guard but he didn’t lead the team to any Final Fours or even an Elite 8 berth for that matter. If Lute had taken a flyer on Jeremy and still recruited Jarryd Bayless the next season the Wildcats roster would have looked like this:
PG: Jeremy Lin
SG: Jarryd Bayless
SF: Chase Budinger
PF: Jamelle Horn
C: Jordan Hill
Now I know that we had other big men on the roster and all of those guys wouldn’t have been playing at once but that is 4 NBA players on the same team. This team would have made a huge run and the “Linsanity” would have erupted in Arizona back in 2007. Who knows maybe we would have even seen a National Championship and another 10 year run for Lute.
The problem with that would be that eventually Lute’s run would have come to an end in Tucson and we would have to live through a few really tough years as fans. Thankfully those tough years are behind us now and we have a coach that is looking like he can lead us to the Promised Land in Sean Miller. So who knows what could have been if “Linsanity” reached the dessert. It could have been an amazing run but, right now we know that we have made it through our tough years and are primed for an amazing run under Coach Miller.