Chris Holtmann 'thrilled' to sign Juni Mobley, Colin White for Ohio State's 2024 class
Chris Holtmann hopes that Ohio State’s 2024 recruiting class will make up for what it lacks in size by what impact it can have on the program.
On Wednesday, the Buckeyes added two players to the program as they received signatures from John “Juni” Mobley Jr. and Colin White. Mobley is a four-star guard who grew up in Reynoldsburg but is playing for Mount Pleasant (Utah) Wasatch Academy this season and White is a three-star wing from Ottawa (Ohio) Ottawa-Glandorf.
And after having signed nine freshman in the last two recruiting classes, it’s likely that Mobley and White will comprise the 2024 class.
“This was and is always going to be a smaller class,” Holtmann said Thursday. “At one point we thought it could just be a one-person class because we’re obviously really a young team currently. When you have the amount of youth we have right now, is it really wise to have another young class? We didn’t feel like that was smart. We were gonna stick with one or two guys, probably. We are just thrilled with both guys.”
The “probably” there was a veiled reference to the lone target still on the board: Jayden Quaintance, a five-star center from Northeast Ohio who has the Buckeyes among his four finalists. Should the 6-9, 230-pound center ranked No. 9 nationally by 247Sports.com choose Ohio State ahead of Florida, Kentucky and Missouri, the Buckeyes would take him. For now, though, it’s a two-man class.
Listed at 6-0, 150 pounds, Mobley averaged 20.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals as a junior at Las Vegas Bishop Gorman before transferring to Wasatch for his senior season. On the Nike EYBL circuit, he averaged 13.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and shot 47 percent from the floor, including 39 percent from 3, while playing for Vegas Elite. He also played in the Kingdom Summer League while he was home last summer.
His production offsets his size, Holtmann said.
“Juni’s as good a shooter as we have added since we’ve been here,” he said. “He is dynamic shooting the ball. He’s maybe the best kid at his age I’ve seen at shooting 3s off the bounce. He can really, really shoot the ball and score the ball. His size doesn’t limit him because he’s got great range. He’s just a fantastic offensive player and has grown in other areas of his game.”
Ohio State lists him at 6-0, but Wasatch lists him at 6-2.
He committed to the Buckeyes at the beginning of his junior season. At the same time, White was working on earning his Ohio State offer. A Northwest Ohio native, White remained in contact with the Ohio State staff as they encouraged him to work on a few areas of his game in order to land a scholarship.
White kept working on his game, earned the offer from his childhood favorite school and committed to Ohio State roughly two weeks later. A first-team all-state player as a junior, the 6-6, 180-pound White is entering his third season as a captain for the Titans and averaged 20.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists last season.
Holtmann said the Buckeyes were honest and thorough in their recruitment of White.
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“We told him one, it was gonna be a smaller class and two, we just wanted to continue to evaluate and I specifically wanted to continue to evaluate,” he said. “We said, for us, we want to make sure if we bring you in we know you’re going to be a guy that we feel like can really impact our team and our roster. And when we feel like that, we were all in. We might’ve felt like that a little sooner than when we actually offered him, but we were just trying to be really through in that process.”
Mobley is a four-star combo guard prospect ranked No. 43 nationally, No. 1 in his state and No. 6 at his position according to 247Sports. White is a three-star small forward prospect ranked No. 117 nationally, No. 23 at his position and No. 5 in Ohio.
“We just love what Colin’s gonna bring,” Holtmann said. “He’s tough and he’s a physical player. He’s got good length, good positional size. He shot it better this last couple years. He’s gonna really help our program. He loves Ohio State.
“We’re really thrilled with both guys, we really are. Really excited about both Juni and Colin.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State 'thrilled' to sign Juni Mobley, Colin White for 2024
