WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue junior center Daniel Jacobsen is 1-of-20 players selected to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list, announced today by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and given annually to the nation’s top center.
Pierce is one of six Big Ten players named on the list, joined by Illinois’ Tomislav Ivisic, Iowa’s Andrew McKeever, Maryland’s Pharrel Payne, Michigan’s Moustapha Thiam and Wisconsin’s Nolan Winter.
Purdue and Iowa are the only schools in the country to have won the award twice.
Jacobsen will be thrust into a major role this season after excelling in his role off the bench a year ago, averaging 5.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in all 39 games. He set a school record by making 21 straight field goal attempts from Nov. 16 to Dec. 6, 2025, spanning six games, and tallied a career-high 24 points with nine rebounds and six blocks in a win over Eastern Illinois. Was 8-of-8 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free throw line. He also had at least two blocked shots in 11 of the first 15 games of the season, and in 15 games overall.
Prior to the 2025-26 season, he helped USA Basketball to a gold medal in the FIBA U19 World Cup in Switzerland, averaging 6.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks while shooting 60.6 percent from the field (20-of-33) in seven games, and becoming the second Boilermaker in school history to win two gold medals with USA Basketball (Caleb Swanigan).
As a freshman in 2024-25, Jacobsen appeared in just two games, starting both of them, before a broken leg sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Broke his leg just one minute into the second game of the season. He scored 13 points with seven rebounds and three blocked shots in 25 minutes of the season-opening win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. His three blocked shots tied the school record by a freshman in his career debut.
Jacobsen and the Boilermakers will open the 2026-27 season on Monday against Gonzaga in Las Vegas.