Big men sort themselves after Jacobsen injury
Will Berg led Purdue’s centers in minutes and rebounds after an early injury to freshman Daniel Jacobsen. (Photo by Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images)
It only took 60 seconds for Purdue’s Friday tune-up against North Kentucky University to turn interesting, at least as close to interesting as it usually gets in early November.
A member of coach Matt Painter’s most crowded position group, center, fell to the floor and stayed there. Freshman center Daniel Jacobsen writhed in pain while holding an area just below his kneecap, victim to a fall from his seven-foot vantage point after an off-ball collision. He didn’t return.
No. 14 Purdue’s trainers told Painter that Jacobsen had suffered a lower leg injury, and that more specific information would be known after medical scans are completed Saturday.
Redshirt sophomore Will Berg stepped up in Jacobsen’s stead, both immediately after the injury and as the leader in minutes among the bigs, with 17. Freshman Raleigh Burgess and senior Caleb Furst had 12 each.
Playing time and lineups favored Berg, Furst and then Burgess, in that order, in what was an uneven, 2-of-5 night for the freshman that Painter attributed to poor conditioning (“When you’re on ‘E,’ it doesn’t stand for ‘Elephant,’” the coach cracked postgame).
All told, Berg spent 13 minutes with the starters to Furst’s one, though the senior played four second half minutes with every starter but Braden Smith.
“It was good to see (Berg) play well, and Caleb play well,” Painter said. “I thought (Berg) got some elite rebounds above the rim, where he went high and was able to get it.”
Painter gave a clear prescription for what he wants to see from his centers:
“You’ve got to be consistent in your posting, your ball screen defense and your rebounding, and you’ve got to play without turning it over.” It’s old school, he admitted, but so is basketball at a fundamental level.
Furst led the position with 8 points, while Berg grabbed the most rebounds on the team with seven, to go with 7 points.
Furst showed a confidence in his moves that hasn’t always travelled with him from the bench; his scoring total was his highest since February 2023. For his last bucket, he was the quickest to the ball on a high offensive rebound, and he pivoted once before spinning into a 4-foot floater.
His other scores were also the result of well-timed, successful moves: two drop steps into left-handed layups and an instant right-handed kiss off the glass after a post feed.
Furst’s stat line would have looked better if not for three bad minutes in the second half, when he committed Purdue’s 11th, 12th and 13th turnovers. On one, he allowed the ball to be poked out after receiving it at the top of the key, and on another he missed a point-blank pass out of bounds. The third was an illegal screen.
Painter said Northern Kentucky’s defense, a matchup zone scheme that combines elements of man-to-man with zone, was unusual to play against, which made decision-making a priority from every position on the court, including center.
“At times just be simple and move the basketball,” Painter said. “Then other times you got to beat people off the bounce.”
Purdue will have one more chance to iron out its weaknesses against Yale on Monday, before its schedule turns competitive with a visit from No. 2 Alabama four days later.
