SAN JOSE, CA – Purdue basketball player Daniel Jacobsen is eating a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich when I find him Friday in the locker room at the SAP Center, where the second-seeded Boilermakers will play the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats in the Elite Eight of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The winner Saturday advances to the 2026 Final Four next week in Indianapolis. Biggest game of the year for either team. Jacobsen’s the biggest player for either team.
The two are related.
Jacobsen sees me coming and puts down his sandwich.
You don’t have to stop eating, I tell him.
“It’s all good,” he says.
You’re going to need your energy tomorrow, I tell Jacobsen, and he just smiles at me. Energy? Him? Not a requirement lately. He’s disappeared from the Purdue rotation since the calendar turned to March, his playing time cut by more than half – from 15.3 minutes through the first 28 games to 6.3 minutes in the past 10 games … and just 4.7 minutes in three NCAA Tournament games.
I tell Jacobsen my theory, but to understand the theory you’ve got to know some background, so pay attention to what I’m telling Jacobsen. Pretend I’m telling you.
First, I tell Jacobsen, Arizona doesn’t shoot a lot of 3-pointers.
“Mm-hmm,” Jacobsen says in agreement.
But Arizona’s great around the rim.
“Yep,” he says.
A rim protector would sure come in handy for Purdue, I’m telling Jacobsen. My theory is you’re going to play a lot more this game.
Silence from Jacobsen.
Well, I’m asking him – will you play more? Do you know?
“I’m just preparing for whatever I can do,” he says, giving away bupkis. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity I’m going to get – and I’m going to make the most of it.”
Something tells me I’m onto something here, and while I’m not going to say the Arizona locker room agrees with me, I’ll say this: One of them was making an NBA comparison for Jacobsen’s rim protection, and the name he used was interesting.
Wemby.
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Purdue basketball can’t beat Arizona without Daniel Jacobsen
Look, Daniel Jacobsen had better play more against Arizona than he has lately. Especially since lately, he’s played almost none: Two minutes against Miami in the Round of 32. Two minutes against Texas in the Sweet 16. Ten in the first round against Queens, most of it in garbage time.
Arizona is a unique offensive team, not just uniquely explosive but unique in the way it detonates. In an era dominated by the 3-point shot, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd has constructed a team – and an offense – that doesn’t worry about the math that says:
3 > 2
Not always, it doesn’t. Not when those 2s are coming in unstoppable bunches, as they do for Arizona. The Wildcats average just 16 attempts from 3-point range per game, 356th of 365 teams in Division I. Of their 2,243 field-goal attempts this season, barely one fourth – 26.4% – are from behind the arc. That puts Arizona 363rd of the 365.
But at the rim? The Wildcats are relentless, and they are huge. Their big men are enormous (7-2 Motiejus Krivas, 6-11 Sidi Gueye, 6-9 Tobe Awaka, 6-8 Koa Peat), their wings are large (6-8 Dwayne Aristode, 6-7 Ivan Kharchenkov, 6-6 Anthony Dell’Orso) and their guards aren’t exactly small (6-4 Brayden Burries, 6-3 Jaden Bradley).
Pounding away at the rim, from all five spots on the floor, Arizona shoots 50.4% from the floor – ninth in the country.
Rim protection isn’t the Boilers’ strength. Opponents are shooting 53.3% on 2-point field goals, which puts Purdue 279th in the country. And there on the bench, the program’s best rim protector since Zach Edey, is Daniel Jacobsen.
And look, it’s worked. The Boilers are 8-2 since giving most of Jacobsen’s minutes to 6-11 Oscar Cluff, and have won their last seven games – all four in the Big Ten Tournament, and their first three in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
It’s working, but.
There’s always a but, right?
This is a big one: Purdue hasn’t played anybody like Arizona. There isn’t anybody like Arizona. Did you see what the Wildcats did to fourth-seeded Arkansas in the Sweet 16? Destroyed the Razorbacks. Scored 109 points, shot 63.8% from the floor, scored 60 points in the paint and 30 more at the foul line.
Unique, I said? Arizona is the only NCAA Tournament team this century with 60 points in the paint and 30 from the foul line in the same game. They scored 109 points while attempting as many 3-pointers, as a team (eight), that Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer attempted by himself in the previous game on the same court.
The free throws are a thing. Arizona pounds the paint, attempting more free throws (998) than any college team since 2019, and making more (730) than any team in a decade. And it’s not by happenstance. After going 30 for 39 from the line in the Sweet 16 against Arkansas, the bruising (6-8, 235 pounds) Koa Peat was asked what worked.
“Just putting foul pressure on their bigs,” he said.
That could be a problem for the recent Purdue frontcourt rotation that has just two players taller than 6-6 – the 6-11 Cluff, and 6-9 Trey Kaufman-Renn – and Cluff averages 4½ fouls per 40 minutes. He fouled out Thursday against Texas in less than 29 minutes. Purdue’s third big man in its recent frontcourt rotation, freshman Jack Benter, is just 6-6 … and nearly as susceptible to fouling (4.1 per 40 minutes).
Brings me back to Daniel Jacobsen, who is far and away the Boilers’ most effective rim protector – averaging 3.7 blocks per 40 minutes. Cluff is second at 1.5. Third? Nobody’s third. Nobody else has blocked more than eight shots this season, and that dude’s name is Braden Smith.
Insider: More minutes for Oscar Cluff, more wins for Purdue
Did he compare Daniel Jacobsen to Victor Wembanyama?
Let’s run our Daniel Jacobsen theory – yeah, I said our; you’re on board and you know it – past the Arizona locker room. Italics are us. Quoted words are from the 6-8, 216-pound Aristode.
Have you played against any real height this season? Purdue has a 7-4 guy He hasn’t played a lot lately, but I think—
“I played with him in high school,” says Aristode.
Excuse me?
“Daniel. Yeah. I played with him in high school (at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire).”
He’s not been playing a lot lately, as I was saying, but I think he’ll get more minutes Saturday.
“We’ve not played anybody like that. Not 7-4.”
So you have no idea how your offense works against that kind of rim protection. If Jacobsen gets 20 minutes Saturday, could that be your kryptonite?
“If we think about it too much, it is going to be kryptonite. But if you’re confident, and you scout him, then it’s not going to be too much of a problem. Not to take anything away from him. I know him very well. I know how he plays.”
How does he play? We’ve not seen him much lately.
“Man, he could shoot,” Aristode says of his former high school teammate. “Daniel could shoot the 3-ball – people don’t know that. He could shoot pick-and-pop. He was dunking everything in practice, and he can also pass. He can find teammates.
“And he’s an elite rim protector. People try to back him down in practice, and he’d block them from weird positions – almost like Wemby would do.”
Victor Wembanyama? That Wemby?
“That Wemby.”
“I’m 100% ready”
Enough wimping around. Let’s go to the Purdue coaching staff and tell them what it’ll take to beat Arizona. In this case, bless his heart, our audience is assistant Paul Lusk, summoned from the coaches’ locker room just to hear our bright idea.
Here’s my theory, I’m telling Lusk: The only way you’re going to beat Arizona is if Daniel Jacobsen plays a lot more than he’s been playing. You need him protecting the rim.
“When you play one of the best teams in the county – and they’ve proven they are – it’s all hands on deck, right? It’s all hands on the deck,” Lusk says. “You need everyone’s who’s available. They draw so many fouls, and it’s not just their big guys. It’s their guards. They’re downhill guys. They live at the rim. They punish people in the paint.”
Daniel’s 7-4, I remind him.
“Yeah,” Lusk says, “you’ve gotta try holding serve on the glass. Everybody’s got to be ready to contribute if you’re going to have a chance with a team like that.”
Glad he brought up the glass. Arizona is second nationally in rebounds (42.8 per game), and fourth in rebounding margin (plus 11.3). Jacobsen’s third on the team at 9.6 rebounds per 40 minutes, behind Cluff (12.2) and Kaufman-Renn (12), and the way Arizona avoids shooting the 3, Purdue’s guards won’t be tracking down their normal allotment of long defensive rebounds. All the work will come near the rim, where Arizona is fourth in the country in points in the paint (42.4 ppg).
It’s hard work. Only big people need apply, and Purdue will have the biggest player, and the most effective rim protector, on either team.
Will Daniel Jacobsen have the best seat in the house? Or the most important role on the court? He has been visibly frustrated at his lack of playing time lately, including Thursday night when he was on the court for two minutes, had one pass thrown his way, saw the ball glance off his hands and out of bounds – a 50-50 turnover that was given to Braden Smith – and then was removed.
How, I’m asking Jacobsen at the end of our interview – as he grabs for his sandwich – are you handling the change in playing time?
“It’s tough, obviously, but I just try my best to stay positive and remember what’s the most important thing – and that’s winning,” he says. “I’m happy as long as we’re doing that.”
Last thing, I tell him. Are you ready tomorrow, if they call on you?
“Always,” he says. “I’m 100% ready, and I’m looking forward to playing.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Doyel: Will Purdue’s hidden 7-foot-4 weapon emerge? Why he’s ‘almost like Wemby,’ needed vs Arizona
Reporting by Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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