CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Life can come at you fast as a freshman in the Big Ten.

On Thursday night, Ohio State coach Jake Diebler put his arm around first-year guard John Mobley Jr. and pulled him in for a joyous embrace as the Buckeyes salted away an 83-64 win inside Penn State’s Rec Hall. It was an outing without peer for Mobley this year: He’s the only freshman in the nation to finish with at least 19 points, eight assists and five rebounds against a Division I opponent.

Four days later inside a much more raucous State Farm Center, Diebler again pulled the freshman near and put his right arm around his shoulders and tried to break down what had just happened. With 12:29 to play and the Buckeyes clinging to a 54-51 lead, Diebler called timeout and went right to his freshman guard to go over the previous two possessions.

First, Mobley’s quick running floater in the paint missed everything, eliciting the requisite chants of “Airball!” from the full-throated Orange Krush student section. But after the Ohio State defense stiffened, forcing a late, contested 3-point miss from Ben Humrichous, it was Illinois guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn who knifed in from the right corner, nabbed the ball off the rim and laid it in for an uncontested layup.

It was Mobley who had been responsible for boxing out Gibbs-Lawhorn, one play in a prolific but inefficient and challenging night for the Ohio State freshman. He finished with 18 points and was 4 of 8 from 3-point range but overall was 6 for 21 from the floor in Ohio State’s 87-79 loss to No. 18 Illinois on Sunday afternoon.

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“At times, I told him, you can’t put your head down and let it affect the other side,” Diebler told The Dispatch after the Illinois game. “I thought it did maybe a couple possessions. He’s been really good defensively. Tonight, he wasn’t quite as good as he’s been and I’ve been proud of the growth he’s shown on that side of the ball.”

It wasn’t the only time Diebler talked with Mobley one-on-one, but it was a notable moment.

Leading into the game, Illinois coach Brad Underwood described Mobley as “an elite defender” while previewing the Buckeyes. After the win, Underwood said the Illini wanted to try and force Mobley and his backcourt mate, Bruce Thornton, to take uncomfortable two-point shots instead of 3s or layups.

That approach worked: Thornton (3 for 11) and Mobley (2 for 13) were a combined 5 for 23 (21.7%) from inside the 3-point line. The freshman is now shooting 40.3% from 3-point range but only 38.8% from two while making the midseason adjustment into a more significant role in the ongoing absence of Meechie Johnson Jr., a fifth-year transfer who started the first 10 games but has now missed the last 12 while on a leave from the team for undisclosed personal reasons.

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He’s had to learn on the fly, and that’s come with expected ups and downs.

“He’s taking a major role right now and he’s just learning,” Thornton said. “He’s going to get better from it and he’s not going to make the same mistake twice. I have the upmost confidence in what he does. He’ll learn from it, improve and show up big against Maryland (on Thursday).”

Likewise, Diebler expressed his belief that Mobley will continue to impact the Buckeyes with his all-around game while continuing to go through the typical freshman progression. While playing the fourth-most minutes on the roster, Mobley is third on the team in scoring (12.9 points per game), second in assists (51) and only has five more turnovers (28) than Johnson had (23) in 10 games while playing just more than half as many minutes as the freshman.

Although the shot selection wasn’t what Diebler wanted at times, and the efficiency was not there, the coach said Mobley handled Illinois’ physicality “really well” and cited it as a sign of “significant growth” for the freshman guard.

“They bump you, nudge you, and they often times have limited guys’ catches and he was able to get the ball in his hands,” he said. “Now, after that at times he was a little sped up. This will be a great learning experience for him. He missed some he certainly could have made, took some he probably should’ve fought for something better (on).”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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