I want you to meet the second leading scorer for the Boston Area Basketball Club (BABC) in the Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) this past season. I want you to meet one of the best spot up shooters in the country. I want you to meet one of the most underrated and unknown recruits in the class of 2016. I want you to meet Thomas Mobley.
Thomas, who goes by Tommy, is a senior guard that had a breakout spring in the EYBL circuit for BABC, a Boston-area team that attracts the best talent in the area. The team was founded by current head coach Leo Papile in 1977, and has been one of the most respected since. Papile is accomplished at every level of basketball, having working for the Celtics, being a coach at Cleveland State and Boston University (with Rick Pitino), to coaching high school kids. He even coached in the CBA with future legends George Karl and Phil Jackson.
Papile had a positive influence on Mobley as well. Mobley praised his coach, saying Papile, “makes us work as hard as we can at doing our specific job,” and even recalled how the coach would “make analogies to an army. He wants everyone to play their role.”
Papile, who was named the EYBL’s Coach of the Year by Krossover after leading BABC to a 13-4 record and record-setting sixth straight EYBL finals appearance, showed his faith in Mobley, averaging over 20 minutes per game. Mobley responded incredibly well, averaging 11 points per game and shooting a marvelous 48 percent from three. It was not some flukey, hot streak shooting performance either. He attempted 122 threes, or about seven per game. He made about 3.4 of those attempts every game, coming in damn near 50 percent, which is an insane number for a competitive league like the EYBL.
“The EYBL is the NBA for high school,” said Mobley of his thoughts on the circuit. “It is the best competition you will find, and it is exciting to play in. Every game is tough and there is no let up.”
Mobley’s 122 three-point attempts was seventh most in the EYBL. Everyone ahead of him in that category failed to shoot over 40 percent. Now, let’s remember that Mobley shot a whopping 48 percent from deep, and realize that he was second in the league in three pointers made, making 58.
So what are we are really saying here? It’s pretty obvious that Mobley was the most efficient and effective long-ball shooter in the EYBL this season. How is that for under the radar?
Mobley says that his father was the reason for his shooting stroke, telling the story that, “[My father] and my brother would play on a 10 foot hoop, but he didn’t want me to develop bad form, so he had me shoot on a 5 foot goal next to them. I developed good form, and then in high school, I began getting a lot of repetitions.”
It seems as though the adjustment from Mr. Mobley has paid off.
Mobley also expressed how important his brother was in his development, calling Greg his “most influential teacher of the game.” Greg is more of a forward than a natural guard like Tommy, but that certainly did not stop him from teaching Tommy the ways of the game.
Another man that has an indirect influence of Mobley’s game is Atlanta Hawks’ Kyle Korver, the player Mobley says he models his game after. The main similarities between the two players are obvious. Korver is a shooter by nature, and even holds the record for highest three point percentage in one NBA season (53 percent). Though Korver is a veteran in the NBA, this past year was his “breakout year” in which everyone started realizing the value of having a knockdown shooter on the floor. Korver earned his first All-Star appearance and shot 49 percent from three on the season.
The league is getting smarter in how they are running their offense, using three-point threats to stretch the floor and open up the lane for every one else. That said, it is obvious the college game is still trying to catch up.
How is it so easy to tell? One of the best shooters in the country still doesn’t have any major schools after him, and finally got a couple Division I offers from Loyola and Jacksonville after his EYBL Peach Jam performance last weekend. It was long overdue for Mobley, who says he is also “hearing a lot from Brown, Albany, and Holy Cross.”
It would be an advantage to any of these schools to try to persuade Mobley to join their respected program. The NBA itself can provide quality information to where the game is heading.
The league average for three-point percentage is set at 35 percent. Every team that was in the above average in this category last season made the playoffs with the exception of the Indiana Pacers. The top two teams were the number one seeds in their conference; the Golden State Warriors shot a league best 40 percent from three as a team, and the Atlanta Hawks — the team Korver plays for — shot 38 percent. The runner-up Cleveland Cavaliers were fifth in the league in three point percentage. It’s not a fluke: if you can shoot the three well, you have a good chance at winning some ballgames.
Even in the college game, shooting, specifically from the three, is very important. The top 19 teams based on amount of wins all shot 35 percent for better from three last year, which also includes 25 of the top 30 teams. Most Division 1 schools are missing out on a quality spot up shooter in Mobley, and not only that, but a high character leader that has a drive to get better. He is smart, too, saying, “Academics are what is most important to me.” There is no excuse for any coach to miss on this kid in today’s game of outside shooting and strong principles.
Of course, Mobley isn’t some perfect prospect by any means, and he knows that.
“I need to get better at handling the ball and attacking,” Mobley told me. “I need to finish better and I need to get quicker.”
The good news is that those are tangible skills that can be worked on, and Mobley will work like hell to improve them. There is always a couple of massively underrated recruits in every class; this may be 2016’s.
Mobley says he is also considering Amherst College, Williams, and Washington University. Bentley University, which is outside of Boston, is another school Mobley is strongly considering. Whoever ends up with the marksman will be glad they met Thomas Mobley.
All statistics via basketballreference.com unless noted
