It might be too early to compare 7-foot-4 freshman Daniel Jacobsen to Zach Edey, the national Player of the Year in the past two seasons.
But Jacobsen did a passable imitation of Edey in No. 14 Purdue’s season-opening 90-73 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, recording 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
Jacobsen and the Boilermakers (1-0) will try to build on that effort against Northern Kentucky (0-1) on Friday night in West Lafayette, Ind.
“I know we’re just starting the season; it was probably the best minutes he’s had here,” coach Matt Painter said of Jacobsen. “I thought he did some good things for us. I thought he did some really good things. Something to build on for him.”
There will be bumpier parts of the season ahead for Jacobsen. At 230 pounds, he probably could stand to add at least another 20 to withstand the physical rigors of the Big Ten. But he came up with a pair of key buckets and a blocked shot that led to a transition basket in the last 6 1/2 minutes Monday night to help Purdue pull away from a pesky foe.
There were positives and negatives from a tougher-than-expected opener. The Boilermakers shot 56.4 percent from the floor, sank 11 3-pointers and drew 24 assists off 31 made field goals. But they also had 16 turnovers against a foe that’s unlikely to apply up the ball pressure they’ll see in a conference game.
“You’ve just got to keep working because the film doesn’t lie, the tape doesn’t lie,” Painter said. “You’ve got to be honest about things but now you have game experience where you can see what they’re doing. We missed free throws and when we get the ball to the rim, we’ve got to be able to score.”
Scoring was an issue for the Norse in their season opener at Florida State on Monday. They shot just 38.8 percent from the field in a 74-62 loss. They also ran into turnover trouble, committing 22 to help negate a 35-32 rebounding edge against the Atlantic Coast Conference foe.
Josh Dilling scored 18 points to lead Northern Kentucky in his first game with the team. Dilling is the latest Division II transfer to try to make an impact for coach Darrin Horn, who’s mined that level the past two years with great success.
Dilling averaged 18.7 points per game last season at Northern State, sinking better than 46 percent of his 3-pointers.
“Josh is a basketball player,” Horn said. “Obviously, his shooting stands out. But he’s a high IQ, high-character guy. He’s got great feel for the game. He’s a ball-ahead passer. We think he can really help. We spent all spring trying to get bigger and more athletic on the perimeter. Josh is one of the guys who does that for us.”
Northern Kentucky, which has been picked to finish third in the Horizon League, also received 12 points from Randall Pettus off the bench.