Since the start of the season, he’s been the unquestioned leader of the U men’s basketball team. When he walked off the Huntsman Center hardwood for the last time in Monday’s dominating victory over New Mexico, he walked off a legitimate Utah superstar.
Monday night’s win belonged to senior guard Nick Jacobson, the Utes’ leading scorer in each of the last three seasons.
The Lobos had no answer for Jacobson, as he connected on six three-pointers and scored a game-high 28 points to lead the Utes to their biggest margin of victory in conference play. His 28 points tied a personal career-high.
It was fitting that Jacobson had arguably his best showing of the year on Senior Night in front of the home crowd that has watched him for the last four years.
“I was thinking about Trace Caton last year. He was averaging about five a game and came up with about 20 in his last game,” Jacobson said. “I figured if I wanted to top that, I’d have to come up with about 60, but I just did the best I could. It was fun to be able to knock some shots down in my last game at the Huntsman.”
Fellow senior Tim Frost-who played the last two years of his career at the U after two seasons at Portland-had a solid showing as well, putting up 14 points and six boards in his final home appearance.
“That’s what we really wanted to see tonight, to give Tim and Nick a good send-off,” head coach Kerry Rupp said.
“Everybody wanted to have a good send-off for the seniors and also get some momentum going for BYU.”
As he has been the team’s most consistent scorer all season long, Jacobson got plenty of touches Monday, as the Utes looked to get Saturday’s heartbreaking loss to Air Force out of their heads. Jacobson was the perfect antidote, making 11-of-17 shots from the field in 33 minutes.
“I thought we really did a great job of screening for Nick to get him off to a good start,” Rupp said. “It was a heck of a night for the whole team, but obviously it was especially nice for our two seniors.”
Throughout Monday’s contest, Jacobson came up with big shot after big shot after big shot, holding the Lobos at bay and leaving little chance for any sort of New Mexico rally.
“It gets easier the more you make,” Jacobson said. “I made my first two right away, and after that it just started feeling better and better, and I just tried to keep it going, and obviously I wasn’t turning anything down.”
His pinpoint shooting is one of the main reasons he’s on track to earn all-MWC first-team honors at the end of the season, and certainly one of the biggest reasons why Utah, despite no longer being in contention for the conference crown, is still a force to reckoned with come MWC tournament time.
“He’s an unbelievable shooter,” Rupp said. “I’ve seen him in [the Huntsman Center] at some practices and he doesn’t miss a single shot. Nothing surprises me. He was most disappointed that he missed his last shot before he came out. But every time that ball gets in Nick’s hands, we think the shot’s going in. That’s the case with all great shooters, and I think he has that mentality.”
Always the competitor, Jacobson left the floor to deafening cheers, but wanted to get back in the game to atone for his last miss.
“Everyone was giving me crap because I airballed my last shot,” Jacobson said, “so I wanted to get put back in the game to make something, and that’s the way it went. The fans were great here and they’ve always supported the team here and myself.”