Evan Mobley named to Naismith Trophy Watch List

The USC Trojans are already receiving praise for a player who hasn’t set foot on a collegiate basketball court, but we knew this was likely coming.

Evan Mobley, brother of current USC Trojan Isaiah Mobley, enters the fold as the top-ranked recruit the Trojans have ever signed. He was the consensus No. 1 overall basketball player for his class and ranks as the best player from the state of California in some time.

Hailing from Rancho Christian School in Temecula, California, Mobley was the 2020 Morgan Wooten High School Player of the Year, a McDonald’s All-American and two-time California Gatorade Player of the Year.

In all likelihood, he would have entered the NBA after his high school career was over, had we been a few decades earlier, and his dad not been a member of the USC coaching staff.

Now, he’s a Naismith Trophy Watch List member, as one of the top 50 players ahead of the 2020-21 basketball season.

The Naismith Trophy is awarded annually to the top men’s and women’s collegiate basketball players. And is, of course, named after the great Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the game of basketball.

Dayton’s Obi Toppin is the most recent award winner on the men’s side while Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu won it on the women’s side last year.

During his final season at Rancho Christian School, Mobley averaged 20.5 points, 12.2 rebounds, 5.2 blocks and 4.6 assists per game. And this isn’t the first time on a Naismith Trophy award watch list as he was a finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year in 2020 at the high school level.

Congratulations, Evan (and the whole Mobley family!