It couldn’t be much worse for the Penn men’s basketball team.

After an underwhelming 2-12 non-conference record, the Quakers came into Ivy League play looking to silence the critics. The potential was there, with guard Miles Cartwright and forward Fran Dougherty combining as the league’s highest scoring duo. But Penn couldn’t get it done, falling to Cornell and Yale at home as the team played itself out of contention.

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In a new weekly series by The Back Page, Harvard beat writers will discuss topics about a Crimson athletics team. In this edition, basketball beat writers Hope Schwartz and David Freed discussed the men’s basketball team’s future in the Ivy League as well as their frontcourt rotation and ability to close out games.

David Freed: What worries me about this team is that they always seem to play down to the level of its competition and that they can't hang onto leads. It happened in the first game of the season against UMass and again this weekend against Brown. Luckily, the Bears aren't as good as Chaz Williams and co. but it did cost them against St. Mary's and they needed a huge comeback against Dartmouth just to win that game. I see Harvard having trouble when it can't push the ball or Siyani needs to take a rest just because the offense really revolves around his drives. Also, free throw shooting has not been up to par recently. Thoughts?

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A day after the anniversary of his emergence, Jeremy Lin ’10 had a banner night against the Golden State Warriors. Lin scored 28 points on just 16 shots and made a career-high five threes on the day, part of Houston’s 23 from beyond the arc. That mark tied an NBA record and was in large part due to Lin’s nine assists, which led the team.

On February 4, 2012, Lin—starting his first game for the New York Knicks—registered career highs in points, rebounds, and assists with a 25-5-7 line against the New Jersey Nets. Lin got the best of All-Star point guard Deron Williams and led the struggling Knicks to a 99-92 victory. His performance spurred of the beginning of Linsanity, a string of seven straight wins that culminated with Lin winning Eastern Conference Player of the Week after his first four starts and playing in the Rising Stars Challenge of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend before getting injured later in the season and missing the playoffs.

Lin, who was waived by both the Rockets and the Warriors before the 2011 season, famously lived on his cousin’s couch when he first got to New York—not expecting to stay in the city long enough to need an apartment. After star Carmelo Anthony urged coach Mike D’Antoni to play the Harvard graduate, he became an instant sensation in D’Antoni’s wide-open offense—which caters well to Lin’s specific skill set and allowed him to flourish.

After the season, restricted free agent Lin was encouraged by the Knicks to seek other offers but was expected to resign with the team. Nate Silver wrote in the New York Times that Lin had been worth nearly $600 million to the team since his emergence but after Houston Rockets general manager offered Lin a hefty contract that would have cost the Knicks a sizable amount in luxury tax payments, they chose to let Lin go and replaced him with a combination of Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd.

Lin has struggled in Houston to adapt to a new offense in which he is playing off the ball. The team’s trade for James Harden right before the season meant that Lin could not dominate the ball as he did in New York. Lin had adjusted as a spot-up shooter and is rebounding and assisting at roughly the same rate as last year and cut his turnovers at the same time. He leads a surprising Rockets team that currently holds a playoff spot in the ultra-competitive West. His three-point percentage is down overall but has increased by at least thirty points each month and this month he is shooting 5-10 from behind the arc.

At the age of 24, Lin has vanished from the limelight that pursued him in New York. The storylines are abundant—as a Harvard graduate and the first Asian-American star since Yao Ming, he has generated a lot of publicity (and controversy, with racially insensitive remarks after his emergence)—but he has a long way to grow. Lin was +37 in plus/minus on Tuesday, his best performance of the year in that category and a sign of future growth. His story is only a year old, but it is far from over.

First week of real classes got you down? Want to be Linspired? On Monday, Jeremy Lin ’10 posted a video to his YouTube account that would make even the most jaded Harvard student smile.

The video, which was produced by the Jubilee Project last summer to support the Jeremy Lin Foundation, features the Houston Rockets point guard in a very special game of pick-up ball.

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While most non-athletes are gradually easing back into the swing of classes and schoolwork, winter-sport athletes have been on the grind and back in Boston for a while now. It’s getting down to the wire as some winter sports face some tough tests towards the end of their schedule. How have they been faring recently? How's on the rise and who's stock is falling? The Back Page will take a look at who’s hot and who’s not as we head into the critical final weeks of the winter season.

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