San Diego State held a private grand-opening Sunday for the Jeff Jacobs JAM Center, a 23,500-square foot basketball practice facility that broke ground in August 2014.
SDSU men’s basketball coach Steve Fisher, women’s basketball coach Stacie Terry and SDSU president Elliot Hirshman were all on hand for the event that has been in the making since Fisher transformed the basketball program when he was hired in 1999.
“I need to ask Coach (Fisher) why we didn’t have this when I was here,” said former SDSU forward Malcolm Thomas (apart of the 2010-11 Sweet Sixteen team) to GoAztecs.com. “The only thing I can compare it with are some of the places I’ve seen in the NBA.”
Jeff Jacobs, son of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and who the facility was named after, was on hand for the unveiling of the $15 million dollar building he donated too, along with Hal and Debby Jacobs, Steve and Lisa Altman and Jim Morris, who helped comprise the “JAM” nickname.
Fisher knows that if not for these people, along with hundreds of other donors, there would be no practice facility.
“I said before we cut the ribbon that dreams become reality for a lot of reasons and it’s about the people involved,” Fisher said to GoAztecs.com.
There were several reasons for a new practice facility, other than the team’s success during Fisher’s tenure.
For one, it gives players on the men’s and women’s teams somewhere to practice at all times, something that has not always been available.
“We have wonderful facilities here, but access is not always readily available because of other things that go on in those facilities,” Fisher said.
Also, it gives top-tier recruits another reason to choose SDSU over other top-flight programs that have similar complexes.
It already helped the men’s team land two four-star recruits in incoming freshman point guard Jeremy Hemsley and forward Nolan Narain, a hard commit that will join the team in 2016.
The new facility comes chalk-full of amenities.
It includes: Two full-length basketball courts, eight baskets, two scoreboards, Keiser strength equipment, locker rooms, team lounges, coaches locker rooms, film room equipped with 80-inch short throw projector with write-on capability and an athletic training room.
JCJ Architecture designed the project and it is being built by The Hunt Construction Group.