Ohio State guard John Mobley Jr. is returning to Ohio State for what will be his final year in college basketball in 2026.
Mobley Jr. returns to Ohio State after what was his best collegiate season. He averaged a crisp 15.7 points per game while shooting an astounding 41 percent from beyond the arc.
That ability to shoot at the college level is really a cheat code for the game. One of the biggest differences between college basketball and pro basketball is simply shot-making. The special collegiate players are the ones who can rip it, and Mobley is one of them.
It was a couple of weeks ago that Mobley Jr. tested the waters in the NBA pre-draft process and basically found out that it would be better for him to go back to school and get another year of eligibility.
Once he made that decision, head coach Jake Diebler took a major sigh of relief.
Diebler really pushed the young Mobley to give it his all when going through the draft process. Diebler joked that he was very nervous because Mobley has the ability to walk into any NBA workout and "shatter whatever record they might have."
Mobley returns to the Buckeyes in a very important season for the Ohio State basketball team. Had they not had a miracle end to the 2026 regular season, we would have been having some very different conversations about this program.
Diebler continued on about Mobley saying that he absolutely has some unfinished business in Columbus and that was something that those two talked about during this process.
The Buckeyes squeaked their way into the NCAA Tournament, but their stay was a short one. They were escorted out by the TCU Horned Frogs in the first round, and that was all she wrote for the Buckeyes.
Now, they lose their guard and leader Bruce Thornton, who is now in a position that is taken over by Mobley Jr.
Mobley will have a lot of weight on his shoulders to come back to Ohio State and push them to some more sustainable success. The Buckeyes' standard should be that of competing in the Big Ten and then making a run to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
That should just be the standard, and there is a lot of work to do to get there. The Buckeyes will go as far as Mobley Jr. will want to take them.
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