When Evan Mobley arrived on USC’s campus as the highest-rated recruit in the school’s modest basketball history, the 7-footer carried with him the kind of towering expectations that hadn’t accompanied the program in decades, if ever.
Somehow, his freshman season still managed to outpace those lofty projections. No player in the Pac-12 was more dominant during this strange pandemic season than Mobley, who was selected the conference’s player of the year, freshman of the year and defensive player of the year on Tuesday.
Mobley is the fourthTrojan to be named the conference’s player of the year and the first since Sam Clancy in 2002.