His Move Sparked a Transfer of Power : Basketball: Glendora’s loss was Crescenta Valley’s gain when Adam Jacobsen decided a move was in his best interest.

There was a time when Adam Jacobsen derived his basketball pleasure solely from nights spent alone on the back yard court at home. There were no coaches. No parents. No pressure. Only Jacobsen, a ball and a hoop--and a three-point line. His back yard court served as a refuge from the problems he faced when he was one of the standout guards of a powerhouse team at Glendora High. Those difficulties started when he was a sophomore, boiled over during the playoffs last season and eventually led to his transfer to Crescenta Valley. Jacobsen, a senior who was averaging 27 points for the Falcons and scored 29 in Tuesday night’s 61-51 semifinal loss to Dominguez in the Southern Section Division II, chronicles what he perceived to be a pattern of pressure placed on him by Bob Murray, the father of Glendora point guard Cameron Murray, and former Glendora Coach Mike LeDuc. The breaking point seems to have been a meeting--a meeting some insist never took place. Jacobsen said Bob Murray, Tracy Murray, Bob’s older son, and LeDuc took him into LeDuc’s office after a playoff game last season. Jacobsen says Bob Murray and Tracy cornered him, telling him he failed to pass the ball to Cameron at one point during the game. “They said if we wanted to win a championship, we were going to have to be a little more unselfish,” Jacobsen said. Bob Murray and LeDuc vehemently deny the meeting took place. Jacobsen and his father, Von, say it did. After the playoffs, the Jacobsens decided the best interests of everyone involved would be served if they moved out of Glendora. “We loved Glendora,” Von Jacobsen said. “We lived there our whole lives, but we have some real bitter feelings.” Adam Jacobsen was born in La Crescenta. The family moved to Colorado for a couple of years, then to Glendora, where Jacobsen lived from the time he was about 5 until last year. Von Jacobsen is a construction supervisor, so building a small basketball court at his home was no great feat. Enlarging it to include a three-point arc when that rule went into effect also took little imagination, although, “I had to take out 10 feet of my trees,” said Von, who also built a pitching mound in the back yard. Adam, however, developed an affinity for the basketball court. “He’d go out and shoot all the time,” Von said. “He’s got a real fire inside him. . . . He likes to go out there and think and dream and shoot.” Jacobsen said he would pretend he was playing for a college team and that he was making the winning shots. He doesn’t remember the names of the winning teams, only that Pacific, where he will play in the fall, wasn’t one of them. In fantasizing about his more immediate future, he might have pictured himself playing for Glendora. The Tartans were a basketball power in the San Gabriel Valley. Tracy Murray, who later starred at UCLA and now plays for the Portland Trail Blazers, scored 3,053 points from 1987 to 1989 at Glendora, a Southern Section record. He led the team to the section’s 4-AA Division championship game in his senior year. Jacobsen came aboard as a freshman in the 1989-90 season, and although the team was experienced--many of the players had returned from the section runner-up squad--he said he felt comfortable. He did not start but was a key substitute, LeDuc said. Jacobsen, who immediately built a reputation as a three-point shooter, averaged 9.8 points a game that season, which culminated with Glendora winning a section title. Jacobsen said the problems began in his sophomore year, when Cameron Murray joined the team as a freshman. “I didn’t have that much of a problem with Cameron,” Jacobsen said. “It was mostly with his parents.” Cameron, who said he considered himself and Jacobsen friends, said he was unaware of any problems between his father and the Jacobsen family. “(The Murrays) were bigger than the program over there in Glendora,” Von Jacobsen said. “The kids had to go by some rules, then the Murrays went by their own rules. There were lots of things that shouldn’t have gone on.” The Jacobsens don’t elaborate on the rift between the families. The Murrays continue to deny it exists. “As far as (us placing) pressure on Adam, that’s not true,” Bob Murray said. “As far as I’m concerned, the team got along real well.” Brandon Lee, a senior on the Glendora team last season, said he was unaware of any problems between the Jacobsens and Murrays. He also said he did not realize Jacobsen was unhappy on the team. Scott Jacobsen, Adam’s cousin, played for Glendora during Adam’s sophomore and junior years. He said Jacobsen told him he was having problems with the Murrays, but he “didn’t think it was to the point that he would leave.” What about the meeting? Jacobsen said it came after Glendora had won a playoff game. He said he was whisked into LeDuc’s office, with Bob, Tracy and LeDuc. “(Bob) and Tracy said one time during the game they thought Cameron was open and I didn’t pass it to him,” Jacobsen said. “I shot and made a layup, so it wasn’t like I didn’t have a shot.” Von Jacobsen said he and his wife were “incensed” that the Murrays would corner Adam that way and that LeDuc allowed it to happen. LeDuc said it didn’t. “I do know for a fact that did not happen,” he said. Adam said that confrontation was one of many instances that prompted him to transfer. His selection as most valuable player of the Baseline League as a sophomore was criticized by a local sports columnist, who wrote that Cameron Murray should have won the award. “It was hard to deal with at first,” Jacobsen said of the column. “I tried to get over it, to not let it bother me, but it did.” Jacobsen, 18, tried to keep all the frustration inside. And from the accounts of those around him, he did a good job disguising his problems. But they wouldn’t go away. “My sophomore year, it just wasn’t as fun and team-oriented as I thought it should have been,” Jacobsen said, “and last year, when it just started getting worse, the whole situation just wasn’t dealt with the way I thought it should have been.” The Jacobsens left the decision to relocate to Adam and his younger brother, Brock, now a sophomore on the Falcon basketball team. But there were other factors. The family had ties to La Crescenta. Jacobsen’s aunt is a former Crescenta Valley cheerleader. His uncle, Matt, played for Crescenta Valley Coach John Goffredo in the mid-’70s. Falcon players even served as baby-sitters for the young Jacobsen. Furthermore, the Jacobsens wanted to build a home in La Crescenta. They haven’t broken ground yet, so, in the meantime, the family (which also includes sons Casey, 11, and Derek, 5) has moved in with Jacobsen’s grandmother in Montrose, which lies within the Crescenta Valley attendance area. A basketball court has been installed there too. Can’t be without one. “She didn’t take care of her yard back there anyway,” Von Jacobsen said, “so I just took care of it for her.” The Jacobsen boys spend plenty of time on the court. Except for a few three-point shooting contests with his younger brothers, Adam does most of his shooting alone at night. It seems to have paid off. Jacobsen tied the Southern Section three-point record of 288 on his final three-pointer at Glendora. He broke the record with his first three-point basket at Crescenta Valley. He made seven consecutive three-point shots in a second-round playoff game Feb. 23 to give him 100 for the season and 388 in his career. He’s also accurate, making 45.2% of his three-point attempts this season. Although he considers himself an all-around player, it is the shooting for which he is most noted. Goffredo said Jacobsen has knocked down as many as 25 three-point baskets in a row in practice. Crescenta Valley fans have taken to waving signs with large black 3s on them when Jacobsen adds to his record. “I think three-pointers fire everybody up,” said Jacobsen, who has been known to wave his fist in the air after a shot at a particularly dramatic moment in a game. One other peculiar aspect of Jacobsen’s shooting: his tongue. He sort of sticks it out and rolls it whenever he shoots. “It’s just a concentration thing,” Jacobsen said. “I don’t even know I’m doing it.” But three-point shooting is only a part of his game. The 6-foot-2 Jacobsen is a good rebounder (5.5 a game) and a deft passer (3.8 assists a game). He is so unselfish that Goffredo said he had to encourage him in the summer to shoot more. “He’s awesome,” teammate Brendon Cowsill said. “He’s consistent with everything. He gets in there and rebounds and stuff. He plays good defense.” Jacobsen is a quiet player, seemingly a little embarrassed when asked to talk about himself or his success. Goffredo has called Jacobsen “a coach on the floor” because of his acumen. In fact, Goffredo said he wishes Jacobsen would speak more freely about strategy during games and practices. “He’s so coachable he doesn’t want to say those things,” Goffredo said. “I really have to pull it out of him.” Jacobsen has taken control in several of the Falcons’ biggest victories this season. He scored 40 points to help Crescenta Valley defeat previously unbeaten St. John Bosco in December. Playing with the flu, he scored 20 points and had six assists to lead Crescenta Valley to a victory over Muir in January, snapping the Mustangs’ 24-game league winning streak. On Feb. 23, he scored 36 points to lead the Falcons to a second-round victory against Damien. Jacobsen signed with Pacific during the NCAA early signing period, leading some to wonder what sort of offers he might have received from high-profile programs had he waited until after the season to commit. Jacobsen, who is interested in the pre-dental program at Pacific, said he hasn’t given his choice a second thought. “When I went to Pacific on my visit, I just had that feeling that was where I wanted to be,” he said. Cal State Fullerton Coach Brad Holland, a Crescenta Valley alumnus who is familiar with Jacobsen, said he thinks Jacobsen made the right decision to sign early. “That’s the tough call that athletes have today,” said Holland, who played for UCLA and the Lakers. “If you wait, maybe the school you were looking at in the fall signs a few other guys and now they’re not interested in you. It’s timing.” Jacobsen’s timing seems to have been impeccable. He left Glendora after a Southern Section championship season. This season, the Tartans struggled to a fifth-place finish in the Baseline League. They were knocked out of the playoffs Feb. 23. Crescenta Valley (22-5) fielded one of its best teams and was ranked in the state’s top 20. “(The move) worked out about as well as it could have,” Jacobsen said.