Colorado junior guard Sabatino Chen has a new basketball hero.
If it takes more than one guess, welcome back from vacation. Or perhaps you do live in a cave.
“Jeremy Lin — the guy can play,” Chen said, beaming.
Obviously, their last names suggest something in common. Like the New York Knicks’ overnight sensation, Chen is an American (born in Boulder) with Chinese ancestry.
“It’s good to see that Jeremy is the first Chinese-American in the NBA,” Chen said. “He’s 6-3, 6-4, so we’re the same height. I like to watch his game. He’s doing really well.”
That’s an understatement. Lin scored 136 points in his first five NBA starts — the most since 139 by John Drew for Atlanta in 1974-75. A native of Los Angeles, Lin grew up in Palo Alto, Calif., and played college ball at Harvard when coaches of the then-Pac-10 took a pass on Lin, whose father was born in Taiwan.
Chen’s father was born in New York, but his paternal grandparents were from Shanghai and emigrated to the U.S. during the communist takeover of China. Chen’s mother is of Italian descent and also is the first generation of her family to be born in America.
Stories are surfacing about Lin having to overcome episodes of racial prejudice as a youngster, including the time he arrived at a basketball camp and was immediately told that volleyball was in another gym.
Chen, a second-team all-state selection at Louisville’s Monarch High School as a senior, said he feels fortunate to have never faced racial barriers or be subjected to taunts or slurs.
“At games I never heard anything super derogatory, just stuff from (opposing) fans that they’d also say to any of my teammates,” Chen said. “But looking back, maybe the competition never saw me as a threat or as a player. It was an initial stereotype, but nothing that I couldn’t overcome or he couldn’t overcome.”
Chen played two years for Joe Scott at the University of Denver before transfering to CU in 2010 soon after Tad Boyle became the Buffs coach. Chen sat out last season as a transfer but practiced with CU.
Boyle recruited Chen when he coached at Northern Colorado.
“His system fits me better than DU’s,” Chen said. “I like to get up and down the court.”
Entering the weekend, Chen was averaging 11.3 minutes as a reserve player, producing 2.4 points and 1.2 rebounds per game.
“He’s giving us great energy off the bench,” Boyle said. “The thing I love about Sabatino is he understands his role. He’s not interested in individual numbers. He just wants to help the team. I really appreciate that.”
Sign of the times. Colorado State coach Tim Miles was surprised but not shocked by the inseason firing of Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds.
“I’m not in favor of the midseason thing, (but) it’s a reality; it’s not going away,” Miles said. “It’s happened in the Ivy League, it’s happened in the Patriot League, and now at a military academy. It’s not just happening where the pressure’s on. It’s happening everywhere. It’s part of our business. It’s an unfortunate part of our business. The realization that it’s not going away is upon all of us.”
This and that.DU has shot 59 percent or better from the field four times and won only once (vs. Western Kentucky). Even with the torrid shooting, DU lost to Iona, Louisiana-Lafayette and Florida Atlantic. … Absent from CU’s 2012-13 Pac-12 schedule will be a road swing to USC and UCLA. That disappoints Boyle, who wants the Buffs to play as often as possible in Southern California for recruiting purposes. This year, CU missed the Washington-Washington State trip.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
