Dick Vitale shouts out USC big man ahead of March Madness
By Evan Desai
Ahead of March Madness, Dive Vitale listed USC Basketball Forward Isaiah Mobley as one of seven big men who can be dominant in the NCAA Tournament.
Hard to blame Vitale here. Mobley was named to the All-Pac 12 First Team for a reason. He averaged 14.3 points per game, 8.5 rebounds per game, and 3.2 assists per game this season. He's a big that can do everything on a basketball court. He's dynamic.
At 6'10", 235 pounds, he's certainly not undersized, and has improved as a player this season when tasked with being "the guy" for the Trojans this year. He's shot an impressive 45% from the field this year, and a nice 35.3% from deep. He's played over 30 games in every year of his collegiate career--he's durable.
Isaiah Mobley has the full package as a player for USC basketball.
Isaiah Mobley has already proven that he can continue being that type of player for USC basketball in the NCAA Tournament. Just last year, he was named to the All-Region (West) team along with his brother Evan, who's no longer here after being a top 3 overall NBA Draft pick. Now, Isaiah will have an even greater opportunity to show how strong of a player he is with him being the No. 1 option.
Building on the type of player he was last year in the tournament would be remarkable. That's because even when Isaiah was a year younger, he still put up 16 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game in the tournament. He nailed 61% of his shots and 54.5% of his three-point attempts. He was even better than he has been this year as a First-Team All-Pac 12 player. So, get ready for Isaiah to elevate his game to even greater heights come tournament time this season.
The only area of Isaiah's game I can pick apart is his free throw shooting, as he's shooting just 69.1% from the line. However, that's a regular-season career high by a significant margin. Look at last year. He shot 54.5% from the line in the regular season, but raised that to 88.9% during March Madness. Isaiah hits both free throws when the pressure's on. He's already proven to have ice in his veins in the tournament, so expect free throw shooting improvement again.
It's nice to know that Vitale agrees with me. Nobody knows the college basketball and March Madness landscape better than the legend himself, and I can't wait to watch him be proven right this March.