Purdue's fears have been realized. During media availability on Sunday evening, head coach Matt Painter revealed freshman center Daniel Jacobsen is expected to miss the rest of the season due to a broken tibia suffered against Northern Kentucky on Friday.
Jacobsen played just one minute against the Norse before hitting his shin on a Northern Kentucky defender and going down on the court. He had to be helped off my teammates and went straight to the locker room before emerging minutes later on crutches and with ice on his right leg.
Following the game, Painter told reporters that it was a lower leg injury, not knee or ankle, and that Jacobsen would undergo scans to determine the severity of the injury. Those scans now present question marks for the Boilermakers moving forward.
Jacobsen earned starts in each of Purdue's first two games, and began showing promise as the potential answer at center that Matt Painter had been searching for. In his collegiate debut, the 7-foot-4 big man had 13 points on 4-6 shooting, with seven rebounds and three blocks in Purdue's 90-73 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
The injury now puts the Boilermakers in a precarious situation, as Painter has been vocal about Purdue's big men not having much separation to start the season. Jacobsen appeared to be finding his footing and had grasped the starting role, at least to start the year, but now that spot is up for grabs once again.
In Jacobsen's absence on Friday, the trio of Will Berg, Caleb Furst and Raleigh Burgess all saw minutes. As a group, they combined for 19 points and 14 rebounds in 41 minutes of game action. Purdue will now depend upon those three, along with junior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, on the interior moving forward, but now more questions have presented themselves in the post for the Boilermakers.