Since his sudden rise to stardom early last month, Jeremy Lin has captivated the nation.

The second-year Harvard point guard has emerged from obscurity to spark one of the NBA’s most storied franchises, the New York Knicks. He’s averaged 22.3 points and nine assists per game during a 10-3 run that has vaulted his team into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

In the process, he’s become perhaps the biggest story in basketball this season, immersing American audiences in a total state of “Linsanity.”

The Terrapins men’s lacrosse office inside Comcast Center is no exception.

Coach John Tillman led the Crimson during Lin’s final three seasons on the Cambridge, Mass., campus. And although he never got to know the former Ivy League Most Valuable Player personally, he saw plenty of him.

Tillman’s office was located next to Lavietes Pavilion, the home of Harvard’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. He would often make the short trek over to the Pavilion to visit with his good friend, Tommy Amaker, Lin’s coach at Harvard.

Every time he stepped into that building, Tillman said, Lin was there.

“He was always in there,” Tillman said last week. “He was always shooting. He would come early in the morning, he would stay late at night.”

It’s that same work ethic that has helped turn the quiet, devoutly religious Tawainese-American into a media darling this season. After not being selected in the 2010 NBA Draft, Lin endured four stints in the Developmental League and two NBA cuts before taking the final spot on a depleted Knicks roster.

Less than five weeks after arriving in New York, Lin came off the bench to score 25 points in a win over former Terp Jordan Williams and the New Jersey Nets. The rest, as they say, is history.

Tillman has followed Lin’s rise closely, and said he’s “not surprised at all” with the gym rat’s success. He believes Lin’s story is a testament to the power of never giving up on a dream.

And just to make sure the lessons of that story weren’t lost on his players, Tillman prepared a five-minute video segment on Lin’s path to the NBA and presented it at a team meeting last week.

“I just kind of wanted to reinforce to them, you don’t just end up somewhere,” Tillman said. “Sometimes you have a journey and you have a road and there are challenges along the way. There’s some adversity, some pitfalls. But you can’t lose sight of what is really important to you. You’ve got to keep chasing that dream.”

The presentation was a welcome sight for a team trying to overcome its own set of obstacles. After losing in the national title game last May, the No. 5 Terps (2-0) had to listen as pundits questioned their chances of making another deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

After all, the critics reasoned, the Terps had lost 17 seniors. They would surely need to rebuild after losing more than 40 percent of their offense and five of their top six defensemen to graduation.

“It’s hard to ignore it when it’s out there,” goalkeeper Niko Amato said before the season started. “You know, I definitely have seen stuff saying that we might not be as talented this year, that we might not go as far in the tournament. We definitely use that as motivation.”

Much like Lin, the Terps have exceeded expectations to put together an impressive start to the season. In their first two games, the team tallied convincing wins over two potential NCAA Tournament teams in Hartford and Georgetown. It’s scored 28 goals, and, outside of the six scored its bench surrendered in the final five minutes against the Hoyas, allowed just 11.

But the Terps are far from content. Starting 2-0 is one thing. Achieving their dream of hoisting the program’s first national championship trophy since 1975 is another.

“You’ve got to keep chasing that dream,” Tillman said. “And you’ve got to fight through those tough times, or you’re never going to get what you really want or what your dreams are.”

The Terps’ first major test of the year will likely arrive Saturday, when they host No. 8 Duke. But before he worries too much more about that today, Tillman has to take care of some business first: He has to check the box score of the Knicks’ 120-103 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last night. He has to see if Lin is keeping his team’s dream alive.

“I’m really happy for him,” Tillman said. “He was a great guy. He didn’t say a whole lot, but I’m not shocked.”

letourneau@umdbk.com