Yep, a Yooper predicted all this Linsanity

Everybody’s feeling the Linsanity now. The hoopla surrounding the New York Knicks’ new leading man, point guard Jeremy Lin, has reached a fever pitch in the last week. He’s the talk of the town in the Big Apple. He’s all anyone on ESPN seems capable of talking about. And he’s a tabloid sensation. He’s a ratings hit, a lightning rod and an inspiration.

And you know what? A 51-year-old FedEx delivery driver who grew up in the Upper Penninsula saw all this coming. Well, sort of. As the Wall Street Journal noted this week, Ed Weiland, who is from Norway, Mich., (near Iron Mountain) but now lives in Bend, Ore., actually wrote all about Lin and his NBA potential nearly two years ago after he’d finished his record-setting Ivy League career at Harvard. And unlike most NBA scouts and GMs, Weiland, thanks to his passion for statistical analysis, had the foresight to suggest big things were in store for Lin, writing back in May 2010 in a blog post for the website Hoops Analyst, “Jeremy Lin is a good enough player to start in the NBA and possibly star.” To be fair, he prefaced that with this caveat, “If he can get the passing thing down and handle the point …” But he also rattled off some advanced statistics from Lin’s Harvard career and compared them to other NBA stars coming out of college. And while others panned Lin’s NBA prospects (he went undrafted back in 2010), Weiland seemed convinced Lin was a solid sleeper pick — at the very least — and possibly the second-best point guard in the draft behind No. 1 overall pick John Wall

“Part of my thinking was that maybe he’d break out,” Weiland told the Journal.

I’m thinking he just might be on to something. What about you?