Jacob McFarland Breaking His Leg Is No Mere Depth Loss For No. 4 Houston — This Growing 7-Footer and Good Guy’s Absence Will Be Felt

Johnny Dukes got on the group chat he has with his assistant coaches as soon as he heard about Jacob McFarland suffering a  broken leg in a University of Houston practice from the player’s parents. Dukes knew the whole staff, and really anyone who knows McFarland well, would be “devastated.” Partly because McFarland, an ESPN Top 100 recruit in his high school class who’s grown to 7-feet tall since arriving at UH, is one of more uniquely talented players to ever come out of Rancho Verde High School in California’s Moreno Valley, sure.

“I may never get another Jacob McFarland in my coaching career,” Dukes tells PaperCity. “The way he can move at his size. I used to call him a unicorn. That’s a generational talent.”

But more than that, Dukes notes, it’s the kind of person that Jacob McFarland is that make those in the California basketball world who know him so bummed about what would have been his redshirt freshman season effectively ending before it even really started. (McFarland suffered a severe break in his right leg in Tuesday’s practice and is expected to eventually apply for an NCAA medical redshirt.)

“The thing that stood out to me most is the person that he was,” Dukes says. “Although he started to kind of blow up on the circuit and the scene, and started to have all these colleges calling about him, the thing that I remember most about him is the young man that he was.

“He’s just a great person. . . When he was here his senior year, he went back to read to kids at his elementary school on his own. It was not something I sat and made him do. He’s just that kind of kid.”

When Houston coach Kelvin Sampson took his players to Hope Lodge Houston so they could serve a meal and spend some time with the cancer patients staying there earlier this fall, McFarland seemed to be everywhere. Picking up plates, serving slices of Star Pizza, greeting everyone with a smile. McFarland and JoJo Tugler stood out as the tallest (and most dedicated) waiter duo you’ll ever encounter.

When more than one of the cancer patients asked McFarland how tall he was, something that might grow annoying to a more caught-up-in-himself giant, McFarland just grinned and happily responded “Seven Feet” each time.

This is Jacob McFarland, with the 7-footer a big hearted fun-loving guy who’s liable to break into a Donald Duck impression (like he did at the student pep rally on UH’s campus).

Most of the national college basketball voices won’t even mention the loss of McFarland for the No. 4 ranked team in the land. The redshirt freshman is considered a depth piece by most, largely dismissed as someone who wasn’t liable to play much anyway this season for one of Sampson’s deepest Houston teams. Regarded as a “non-factor.” The local newspaper’s online report on McFarland’s injury was 49 words. Total.

Jacob McFarland is more than that though. He is a much better player than many realize. And an even better guy. He’s also a human being who suffered a horrific break that required surgery the very next day. His pain and disappointment is real — and shouldn’t be ignored. Things that are dismissed as “non-stories” too often in sports today. Especially if they’re not liable to result in clicks. Jacob McFarland definitely has a story worth telling though — and listening to.

“Jacob moves like he’s 6-7, 6-8,” Dukes says. “He just happens to be 6-11, 7-foot. And I think Jacob’s greatest thing is his defensive capability. He blocks shots at a high alarming rate. Like at an NBA level. He rebounds at a high clip. And that’s the kind of style that Houston plays at. They hang their hat on the defensive end of the floor. They get after it. They switch. They guard.

“Jacob’s capable of doing all those things. And I think if Jacob’s going to get to the NBA, it’s not necessarily going to be how many points he scores. The scouts are going to see him defending the rim, rebounding the basketball.”

“I may never get another Jacob McFarland in my coaching career. The way he can move at his size. I used to call him a unicorn. That’s a generational talent.” — Rancho Verde coach Johnny Dukes 

Jacob McFarland Is No Small Growth Stock

Sampson’s Houston’s Top 10 program beat out some other elite national programs to land Jacob McFarland. Gonzaga, Georgia, Tennessee were all in the mix near the end of his recruitment with Colorado and Wyoming also making pushes. McFarland put himself on the map with how he played at the Section 7 tournament the summer after his junior year, particularly in the semifinal against a top Arizona team on the main court.

“We had all the scouts around,” Dukes says. “And I want to say he had about 16 points, 12 or so rebounds, 11 or 12 blocks. He just dominated. . . Then the floodgates just opened up. There’s not a lot of 7-footers walking around.”

Measuring in at 6-foot-9 as a junior, McFarland has grown three inches in the last two years. And he may not be done growing yet. Dukes knows how quickly a basketball career can change. This high school coach played at the University of San Francisco and then six years professionally overseas in Europe and Asia with a stint on the Lakers D-League team. Dukes stands 6-foot-8 and McFarland is the first (and still only time so far) he’s coached someone taller than himself.

Jacob McFarland’s broken leg is no insignificant footnote. Not on a basketball level. And certainly not on a human one.

Johnny Dukes knows you can’t teach height. But he figured Kelvin Sampson and his staff could teach Jacob McFarland almost everything else. Dukes accompanied McFarland and his parents — Ashley and Rick McFarland — on all his recruiting visits. Dukes already felt a connection to Kelvin Sampson because he loved watching Sampson’s 2002 Final Four Oklahoma team as a high schooler. In fact, current University of Houston assistant coach Hollis Price was Dukes’ favorite player.

“I told Hollis, ‘I used to watch you when I was in high school,’ ” Dukes says. ” ‘You were one of my favorite shooters.’ I love that entire coaching staff. I talk to (assistant coach) K.C. (Beard) all the time.”

McFarland’s parents have been with him in Houston since his surgery on Wednesday, helping him through this initial post surgery immobile period, sending updates to Dukes to share with the rest of the coaches who care about Jacob. UH associate athletic director for sports medicine John Houston and the rest of the basketball training staff have experience helping a player recover from a horrific leg injury. Starting guard Emanuel Sharp enrolled early to help recover from a broken leg suffered in high school that required a metal rod to be inserted in his leg.

Dukes feels that Jacob McFarland is in the best situation possible to recover completely. But that won’t make it any easier. And it doesn’t eliminate the human toll of his injury, the side we too often forget in sports.

“Jacob got knocked down,” Kelvin Sampson says. “But he will get back up. And he’ll get back on his journey.”

Fran Fraschilla, the former coach turned expert ESPN college basketball analyst, is one of the few national voices who took time to recognize McFarland’s loss. But the relentlessly researching Fraschilla is around Sampson’s program so often, he might as be a local. He knows the real deal.

https://twitter.com/franfraschilla/status/1852079876406202774

Jacob McFarland’s broken leg is no insignificant footnote. Not on a basketball level. And certainly not on a human one.