The "silver lining" to Purdue freshman Daniel Jacobsen's season-ending injury
The basketball is replaced by a weighted medicine ball designed to build hand strength.
There will be plenty of footwork drills, focusing on pivots, as fundamentals take precedence over scouting reports. Stationary work will also be necessary since running isn’t a significant part of the plan right now.
There are limited shooting drills with a regular basketball, but it’s regulated around the rim. Executing concepts and schemes from Purdue’s playbook can wait.
Welcome to part of Daniel Jacobsen’s workout routine.
Veteran assistant coach Brandon Brantley supervises the freshman’s post-surgery sessions and prepares the 7-foot-4 native from Chicago for next season. His offseason is well underway.
“It’s kind of like basketball and weight training in one session,” Brantley said.
That’s the focus for Jacobsen, who needs to bulk up to handle the challenges of playing at a high level against the program’s non-conference schedule and the Big Ten.
“I have a lot of time to focus on getting stronger, getting bigger,” said Jacobsen, who has increased his bench press by about 20 pounds. “I’ve gained a bunch of weight. I’m getting stronger.”
“I HEARD A LITTLE POP”
In his second game, Jacobsen suffered a fractured tibia one minute into the Nov. 8 matchup against Northern Kentucky at Mackey Arena. During his debut against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Jacobsen totaled 13 points, seven rebounds, and three blocked shots. He even drew seven fouls in the season opener.
Another young big man in coach Matt Painter’s program posting solid numbers but his first season ended abruptly 26 minutes into his college career nearly three months ago.
“I could feel that something was wrong,” Jacobsen said. “I heard a little pop, but then once that X-ray came the next day … I was really disappointed. It was the beginning of the season. I worked so hard just to get to that point and was ready to go.”
Jacobsen underwent a two-hour surgery about a week after suffering the injury and was back on campus the next day. Doctors inserted a rod in his shin along with a couple of screws to help stabilize his leg.
He had to use crutches and wear a protective boot for about a month.
“I was ready to discard (the crutches) as soon as possible,” Jacobsen said. “I hated them.”
Jacobsen eased his way into his rehabilitation. Light lifting to begin the process of strengthening his leg along with plenty of stretching and mobility exercises.
“I picked up where I left off in terms of my skill level, but I was limited in terms of mobility,” he said. “ I had to do simpler stuff, and I’m slowly working it out until I reach full speed.”
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IMPROVING STRENGTH, ADDING WEIGHT
The season-ending injury allows Jacobsen to focus solely on improving his strength in the weight room and adding pounds through nutrition. If healthy, Jacobsen would do the same thing, but probably not at his current level.
He’ll apply for a medical redshirt after his senior season.
“The injury allows him to do more,” Brantley said. “I think it’s hard when you’re playing. One thing I found out about myself was after practice, I didn’t have an appetite because I was so spent.”
“He’s not practicing, and he can sit down and eat. He can put on real weight. It’s hard to do it in the middle of a season. He was up to about 233, 235 (pounds) when the season started. He lost some weight and muscle because of the surgery, but now he has a full semester in the weight room. There’s a little bit of a silver lining to this.”
There was a reason Jacobsen was in the starting lineup for the season opener. He’s a post player but not anchored inside. He’s agile, can block shots, run the floor, and shoot effectively from the perimeter.
His points, rebounds, shooting percentage, blocked shots, and defensive numbers will have to wait until the 2025-26 season. He watches the scoreboard sitting on the bench during games, but he keep score in the weight room.
“There’s other ways I can compete with myself, like in the weight room,” he said. “I can have a goal of gaining weight and kind of compete and track that progress.”
Jacobsen is eager to join his teammates in practice before the end of the season, but Brantley isn’t optimistic. It’s unlikely the coaching staff will put Jacobsen in contact drills until other steps are taken in his rehabilitation process.
“I don’t think he’ll practice this season,” Brantley said. “We’ll just keep him on task and maybe he’ll get to the point where, if he is able to do some running and some stuff, it’ll be an individual workout type of thing. We won’t throw him into contact or anything like that.”