Prospect Update: Evan Obia (2019)
After spending much of his junior season sidelined with an injury, West Des Moines Valley guard Evan Obia has been spending his senior season shining brightly.
The skilled 5-foot-11 guard has shown his potential before, most notably at our Top 250 Expo two years ago. So, to us, the success he’s having this season comes as little surprise.
It’s his ability to handle the ball, and especially shoot it, that’s been Obia’s keys to success.
“I definitely have improved on my ball-handling. Trayvon (Williams) is not going to be able to do everything every time, so my coaches have definitely encouraged me to get up on my ball-handling,” said Obia.
“And I’ve definitely improved on my shooting, my 3-point percentage didn’t use to be very good, but I’ve got that up. Same with my free-throws, I’ve definitely kept my percentage up and have not let that really fall yet.”
In fact, Obia has been one of the very best shooters in Iowa so far this season. Through eight games, he’s shooting 56 percent from the floor, 50 percent from deep and 90 percent from the free-throw line.
“People like to focus on Trayvon, so then that kind of leaves me open. Since he’s so good at getting into the lane and swinging out to me, I’m able to get better shots,” said Obia, who’s leading Valley in scoring this season with 14.1 per game.
“Last year I was more of just a role player and I didn’t really play most of the season. This year, I’ve become more of a leader, not so much a role player anymore. And this is our year to go out and do what we can.”
He added: “It’d be really nice to go out and do what we did last year again, so I guess that’s just our motivator this year.”
This past offseason, rather than play grassroots ball, Obia focused on high school ball, especially since he missed most of his junior season. Since then, he’s picked up some college interest from Central and Nebraska-Wesleyan.
With continued success this season, Obia could see the recruitment continue to trend upward.
“It’s just a thing where I’ll play out my senior year and see where it goes next spring, JuCo could definitely be a good way to go,” said Obia. “But I’m open to D3 and NAIA, or anything.”