Jacobs knows about the stereotypes surrounding the term walk-on but doesn’t let that affect him when he puts on the cherry and silver uniform.
“In general, the term walk-on is looked down upon; walk-ons aren’t really going to see any time and if they do it’s the up 30 or down 30 kind of minutes,” Jacobs said. “When coach Neal says, ‘He’s not a walk-on, he just happens not to have a scholarship,’ it feels good just because I’m still looked at as a good player and that I’m just as much a part of the team as everybody else.”
Head coach Craig Neal said Jacobs was expected to compete when he came to UNM.
“Everybody can say what they want, that he’s a walk-on. He’s not a walk-on, he was recruited to play here,” head coach Craig Neal said. “He’s what New Mexico’s about.”
Jacobs attended the University of Texas-El Paso after his senior year when he won a state championship at The Pit for Oñate High School. He redshirted before transferring to Cochise Junior College — a decision that was made to start over.
“I went to UTEP out of high school — I enjoyed it there — then I decided that I wanted to try and start over and go somewhere new,” Jacobs said. “I wanted to try and get re-recruited to play at a Division I (school).”
Jacobs said he wouldn’t change the path of his basketball career for anything. He said that without his junior college experience, he doesn’t know if he would be where he is at today.
“Going to a junior college makes you understand and appreciate what you have more, because coming from somewhere so small to this (UNM), you see all the steps that you have taken in your life,” he said.
Coming into the season, Jacobs didn’t have many expectations and wasn’t planning on playing many minutes until sophomore guard Cullen Neal went down with a season-ending ankle injury that he sustained Nov. 20 against Boston College.
He said Craig Neal had talked to him about his playing time being 5-10 minutes per game but to always be ready whenever he may be called upon.
“I was definitely nervous at first. I just hadn’t played at this kind of level at this stage before, so I was nervous at first but after getting the minutes, starting with the USC game (19 min.), that’s when I started playing more minutes — just getting more comfortable in my role then playing games helped me become less nervous and just relax and just play my game the way coach Neal always tells me to play,” Jacobs said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Jacob said he was aware that he wouldn’t get many minutes during the season but had other reasons for joining the team.
“It was always a dream. After I had won state here I was like, ‘I want to play here again and play in here as much as I can,’ so that definitely played into (my decision),” he said. “I did have smaller Division I offers and D-2 offers. This was the place I wanted to be since high school.”
He is currently second on the team in assists with 55, behind only senior guard Hugh Greenwood, 71. He is averaging 2.89 assists per game while only averaging one turnover per game. He is also averaging 3.4 points per game and 2.2 rebounds per game.
Walk-ons aren’t typically looked to for a particular skill set, let alone any leadership, but Jacobs continues to smash all molds surrounding walk-ons.
“Take care of the ball, bring a lot of energy, help lead since I am one of the older guys, even though I don’t have a lot of Division I experience,” he said. “Make good plays, get everybody else involved, not really looked upon to score, just be a good point guard and do what the team needs me to do and don’t step out of what I am able to do.”
After graduation, Jacobs has a couple of different career paths that he hopes to fulfill at some point. Basketball, of course, would be his ideal post-graduation plan, he said, but he has other options if it doesn’t work out.
“I plan on enrolling into medical school and going that route to become an anesthesiologist,” he said.
Kyle Tomasi is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @KyTo22.
