This is a regular feature breaking down, minute-by-minute, the content that appears on ESPN's 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter throughout the week. Graphic by Jim Cooke.
When last we met, you literally couldn't go a minute without hearing Jeremy Lin's name on SportsCenter. How much Lin would we see and hear this week? Let's crunch the numbers.
Total time: 503.25 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 380.5
TIME DEVOTED TO INDIVIDUAL SPORTS
NBA: 154.25 minutes (40.5%) (last week 39.3%)
College basketball: 66 (17.4%) (last week 18%)
SportsCenter staples (things like the "Top 10," "Encore," "What 2 Watch 4," etc.): 63.75 (16.8%) (last week 16%)
MLB: 35.25 (9.3%) (last week 3.4%)
Golf: 17.75 (4.7%) (last week 5.2 %)
NASCAR: 15.75 (4.1%) (last week N/A)
NFL: 11.5 (3%) (last week 10.8%)
NHL: 10.75 (2.8%) (last week 4.2%)
College football: 1.5 (0.4%) (last week 1.3%)
Other sports: 4 (1.1%) (last week 1.9%)
MOST-COVERED TEAMS BY SPORT
New York Knicks (NBA): 69 minutes (18.1%)
Milwaukee Brewers (MLB): 7.75 (2%)
Detroit Red Wings (NHL): 5.5 (1.4%)
Kentucky Wildcats (college basketball): 4 (1.1%)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (college football): 1.5 (0.9%)
Washington Redskins (NFL): 1.25 (0.3%)
MOST-MENTIONED ATHLETES
Rather than break down the amount of time a specific sports figure was covered, we counted how frequently names were mentioned in the transcripts from the week. The 15 most-mentioned sports people for Feb. 17-23:
Jeremy Lin: 181 mentions
Kevin Durant: 68
LeBron James: 61
Carmelo Anthony: 56
Tiger Woods: 51
Dwyane Wade: 39
Kobe Bryant: 34
Russell Westbrook: 30
Dirk Nowitzki: 27
Ryan Braun: 27
Blake Griffin: 25
Phil Mickelson: 22
Dwight Howard: 20
Amar'e Stoudemire: 18
Deron Williams: 18
CUMULATIVE STATISTICS: JAN 7-FEB 23
Total time: 3100.75 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 2332.75
NFL: 628.75 minutes (27%)
NBA: 620 (26.6%)
College basketball: 382 (16.4%)
SportsCenter staples: 315.75 (13.5%)
Other: 137.5 (5.9%)
College football: 102 (4.4%)
MLB: 81.75 (3.5%)
NHL: 65 (2.8%)
Notes
The Linsanity continues: The number of Jeremy Lin mentions this week dropped nearly by half. Even with that sizable decrease, Lin was still mentioned 181 times, an average rate of almost half a Lin per minute. And he still surpassed the pre-Lin record, Tim Tebow's 154 mentions from the inaugural Bristolmetrics. Lin's name was uttered more times than "go" (177), "so" (122), and "an" (122), though he was unable to beat "be" (193) and "are" (203) like he did last week.
The expanded coverage was Linfectious for athletes who played against the Knicks. Dirk Nowitzki was the ninth-most-mentioned athlete this week, thanks to the Mavericks' Sunday visit to Madison Square Garden. Of Nowitzki's 27 mentions this week, 13 came from the Knicks game.
And Lin also showed his ability to facilitate for his teammates. Even as his own mentions went down, the amount of time SportsCenter spent on the Knicks actually went up by an 10.5 minutes. Other highlights of the Knickstravagnaza:
• Nearly 45 percent of the NBA coverage this week was Knick-focused.
• The Knicks by themselves received more coverage (69 minutes) than all of college basketball (66 minutes)
• One-third of Thursday's SportsCenter was spent on solely on the Knicks-Heat game.
• For the second consecutive Bristolmetrics, the Knicks got more coverage in a week than the NHL has received for all of 2012.
• For the whole week, more than 18 percent of airtime was dedicated to the Knicks. The only other team to receive a higher share of coverage was the New York Giants from Feb. 3-9. You know, the week they won the Super Bowl.
NFL coverage this week was centered mostly on the draft: While there were a few segments focused on the destination of premier free agents like Peyton Manning and Mike Wallace, the bulk of the the NFL coverage this week (5.75 out of 11.5 total minutes) was about two people: Robert Griffin III and Trent Richardson. Both athletes let ESPN cameras film their workouts, exercises, and position drills in anticipation of the combine, to give viewers a rare look at players' draft preparations.
NASCAR arrives: NASCAR's season began last week, and ESPN spent 15.75 minutes previewing both the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Daytona event this weekend and the Daytona 500 (which was delayed until Monday because of weather). ESPN had its own studio show down in Daytona, and the network sent multiple reporters to cover various drivers including Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and newcomer Danica Patrick. More than five minutes was spent just on the Nationwide event, which aired on ESPN over the weekend.
Women's college basketball was the lead for Sunday's SportsCenter: The UConn Lady Huskies last Sunday saw their incredible 99-game home winning streak come to an end against St. John's. Not only did ESPN cover the game, it led off the show with highlights and the coaches' postgame reactions. The game received 3.75 minutes of airtime, more than both the North Carolina and Duke men's teams received all of last week. The women's tournament is a few weeks away, and ESPN is the exclusive carrier of all 63 tournament games. Get ready for extended SportsCenter coverage of women's basketball over the next month.