When Evan Mobley committed to USC in the fall of 2019, becoming the highest-rated men’s basketball recruit ever to do so, he couldn’t possibly have imagined what awaited his only college season.
A pandemic. Ever-present safety protocols. Daily testing. Empty arenas. Mobley never spoke of any grand designs for his year at USC, but certainly, none of this was what he had in mind.
And yet, as the end of that single, special season arrived suddenly on Tuesday night, the star 7-footer beamed from his place at the still-virtual postgame podium in Indianapolis.