Mobley brings in immediate minutes and lethal three-point shooting to Columbus as a impact freshman.
Even though it is September and fans are locked into college football, the fall also means that college basketball is right around the corner.
From now until the start of the hoops season in early November, we will be doing player previews and team previews for all the players on the men’s basketball team and the new-look Big Ten Conference.
The John Mobley Jr. File
Name: John (Juni) Mobley Jr.
Position: Guard
Class: Freshman
High School: Bishop Gorman / Wasatch Academy High School
Hometown: Reynoldsburg, Ohio
Weight: 175
Height: 6-foot-1
Breakdown
Mobley is one of the more interesting players on the 2024-25 team. He is entering the program along with fellow incoming freshman Colin White, and Mobley is the higher-ranked recruit of the two.
Mobley was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 43 in the class by the 247Sports Composite and was named “The Sniper” in the 2024 Class Superlatives by 247Sports. He transferred to Wasatch Academy prior to his senior season and averaged 21.5 points, 5.4 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game, leading the Tigers to a No. 8 national ranking.
He excelled against elite competition as the second-leading scorer in the Nike EYBL Scholastic league in 2024 after averaging 19.9 points per contest and was named Utah’s Max Preps High School Basketball Player of the Year. Following that trend, he played for Vegas Elite over the summer of 2024 and was one of the stars at the Peach Jam. In 15 games in the Nike EYBL, he averaged 13.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and shot 47 percent from the floor, including 39 percent from three-point range.
Prior to Wasatch Academy, he averaged 20.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game as a junior at Bishop Gorman. As a sophomore, he also led them to a 30-1 record and a 5-A state runner-up appearance after averaging 15.5 points, 2.0 assists, and 2.0 steals.
Expected Role
As mentioned above, the injury to Taison Chatman makes Mobley’s role more elevated immediately, as Mobley is likely the main backup guard heading into the season.
Bruce Thornton and Meechie Johnson are the two starting guards for Ohio State entering next season, and they will both play heavy minutes as veterans on the team. They will both likely play 30-34 minutes per game, but the Buckeyes will still need someone to step in and play the minutes that Thornton and Johnson are on the bench.
Ohio State also brought in Ques Glover to help the guard depth, but he is coming off a knee injury that saw him miss the entire 2023-24 season. He has not played competitive basketball in almost two years, so it is hard to tell what he will bring to the team.
Mobley is an incredible shooter and scorer, and will benefit from playing early in his career. The Buckeyes lost Jamison Battle, Scotty Middleton, and Bowen Hardman to the draft and transfer portal, and Juni Mobley will help pick up the slack.