Kentucky basketball’s Jacob Toppin following his brother’s footsteps
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Jacob Toppin has some big shoes to fill. His brother, Obi Toppin, played college basketball at Dayton University and was the 2020 Consensus National Player of the Year. Obi is now in his second season in the NBA, playing for his hometown New York Knicks after being drafted with the eighth pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Jacob played high school basketball, football and volleyball at Woodstock Academy in Woodstock, Connecticut. He did not start making a significant impact on his high school basketball team until his senior year. He averaged 15.6 points and 8.8 rebounds a game that year. He was an All-Selection honoree that year and his performance put him on the radar of some Division I basketball programs.
Jacob committed to play basketball at the University of Rhode Island. He became an immediate contributor at Rhode Island and appeared in all 30 games, starting three, before the COVID-19 pandemic cut his season short. Rhode Island went 21-9 that year, and Jacob played a significant role in their success.
Jacob’s best game that season came against Fordham University late in the year. He started the game and played a season-high 32 minutes. This particular game went down to the wire, and he was sent to the free-throw line with 6.6 seconds left and Rhode Island down by one. He hit the game-winning free throws and Rhode Island pulled out a 76-75 victory. As great as that game was, the highlight of his season (and basketball career) was facing his brother, Obi, in a regular season game.
Jacob finished his freshman season averaging 5.1 points and 2.5 rebounds a game. Then, he decided to enter the transfer portal and looked at attending Kentucky, Oregon or Iowa State.
Jacob chose to attend Kentucky and was initially slated to redshirt his first season but ended up being thrust into a prominent role off the bench. He played in 24 of 25 games and started two of them. He began to hit his offensive stride later in the season and scored a career-high 16 points in a victory against Vanderbilt. He finished the season averaging 5.2 points and 3.5 rebounds a game.
Jacob is again playing a significant role at Kentucky this year. He has played in three games off the bench after dealing with an injury. I do not know what his future holds, but I would not be surprised to see him facing off against his brother in the NBA in a few years.
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