Daniel Jacobsen seemingly can’t miss a shot, with his 19 consecutive makes the most in Purdue’s esteemed history.
The 7-foot-4 center will look to continue his streak when the No. 1 Boilermakers visit Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., in the Big Ten opener for both teams on Tuesday night.
Jacobsen last missed a shot on Nov. 16 against Akron when his first attempt of the game was off the mark.
He made his last four against the Zips, all three versus Memphis and all four against then-No. 15. Texas Tech before excelling with an 8-for-8 effort while scoring a career-high 24 points in Friday’s 109-62 rout of visiting Eastern Illinois.
During the contest, Jacobsen passed the mark of 15 straight shots knocked down by George Faerber in March 1971.
“Things get easy for him when he can catch lobs and move freely,” Boilermakers coach Matt Painter said. “But when guys are being really physical with him, he still has to be able to make those plays.”
Jacobsen missed most of his freshman campaign as he sustained a fractured tibia just one minute into the second game of the season against Northern Kentucky.
Now he’s healthy and playing a key role off the bench for Purdue (7-0) by averaging 10.3 points and 5.0 rebounds in 15.7 minutes of action.
“I just want to play as hard as I can and take advantage of every opportunity,” Jacobsen said after his breakout performance against Eastern Illinois.
Jacobsen leads Purdue with 17 blocked shots and his stellar 73.7% accuracy rate from the field is second on the team behind starting big man Oscar Cluff (73.8%). Cluff is averaging 11.7 points and 10.1 rebounds.
All-American point guard Braden Smith had 10 assists against Eastern Illinois to move into second place in Big Ten history with 821 in his career. He passed former Michigan State star Mateen Cleaves (816 from 1996-2000).
Michigan State’s Cassius Winston is the record holder with 890 from 2016-20. Smith is averaging 13.0 points and 9.0 assists this season.
Fletcher Loyer is averaging a team-best 16.1 points and Trey Kaufman-Renn is contributing 14.8 points and a team-leading 10.6 boards per game.
Purdue is rolling into the conference opener with two wins by a combined 77 points, including an 86-56 whipping of then-No. 15 Texas Tech in the Baha Mar Championship game in the Bahamas on Nov. 21. The Boilermakers also won 87-80 at then-No. 8 Alabama on Nov. 13.
Rutgers (5-3) might not be overly intimidated by Purdue’s spot atop the polls since it beat No. 1 Boilermakers’ squads in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. The latter win was at Purdue.
The Scarlet Knights beat UNLV 80-65 in the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving to snap a three-game losing streak. Rutgers dropped a 67-54 home game to Central Connecticut on Nov. 21 before losing 85-60 to then-No. 17 Tennessee and 68-63 to Notre Dame in Las Vegas.
Rutgers received a stellar effort from big man Emmanuel Ogbole against UNLV. He established career highs of 21 points and 13 rebounds and is averaging 7.0 points and leads the team in rebounding (7.5 average) and with 14 blocked shots.
“He was fantastic from the start,” Scarlet Knights coach Steve Pikiell said of Ogbole. “He worked his tail off. I got after him big-time after last game and he never flinched. He was absolutely outstanding.”
Dylan Grant leads Rutgers in scoring at 15.6 points per game and has scored 15 or more points on five occasions. Tariq Francis (13.0) is the only other player scoring in double digits.
–Field Level Media
