![]() ![]() So he spent you know the past few years, not playing with comparable talent, not getting legitimate coaching.” They just built things to make Emoni the centerpiece of it. ‚ÄúThey built a grassroots team around him, instead of going and playing with other great players and getting great coaching. Then they built a prep school team around him,‚Äù Parrish says. At 15 years old Emoni Bates looked like the best 15-year old in the world and one of the best 15-year olds we‚Äôve seen in a long time. But I say that to say, that I think his father has probably done him a disservice, you know, in the development phase of his career. And so, you know, we don‚Äôt always make the best decisions, myself included. The whole thing was created as a vehicle to showcase Bates, a ridiculous premise that has become accepted as a common outgrowth of modern youth basketball.‚ÄùĬBS Sports college hoops analyst and Memphis sports talk host Gary Parrish told me on The D.A. His father Elgin had coached him on a pop-up prep school team called Ypsi Prep, affiliated with Aim High Academy. Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated¬† explained it like this: ‚Äú(Emoni) was a prodigy rushed ahead by reclassification, painfully thin and painfully young. Whichever school lands him will inevitably inherit the same… ahem, curious situation the Tigers did. The problem is the specter of Bates’ dad hasn’t been lifted off the situation. ![]() Instead, Michigan, Louisville, Seton Hall, Arkansas, DePaul and Eastern Michigan are his favorites. Unsurprisingly, Bates entered the transfer portal and none of the traditional blue bloods (UNC, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas) were on his finalists list. Hardly the stuff of a high school phenom and possible lottery pick. In two tournament games he played 15 total minutes and scored 8 points. Bates left for nearly two months before returning without much impact. No one likes to question the integrity of an injury, but the question loomed whether he was being removed from the team because it was going so poorly.īates scored in single digits in half of his first 16 games, with murmurs of unhappiness with his role in the offense lurking. The details have always been murky, but a “back injury” took him away from the team. This all took place after Bates had essentially left the team. In the Round of 32, Memphis pushed top-seed Gonzaga the entire game, ultimately falling just 4 points short of a monumental upset. The Tigers finished strong with a run to the American title game and a win in the NCAA Tournament. One of the most hyped prep stars in 20 years was a sore spot for Memphis, and would need another rehab assignment before entering the NBA Draft. His measurements at Memphis’ pro day also offered an explanation for why NBA Draft experts have cooled on Bates.Back in February we analyzed the bizarre downturn of Emoni Bates. Early in his high school career, Bates was considered a generational prospect, but his development stalled a bit. Still, the hype around Bates did follow a usual pattern for a young prospect. It might mean one season at Memphis, one in the G League or overseas - or hey, he might spend two years in college now that he can profit from it. Because Bates won’t be 19 until 2023, he’ll have to wait two seasons before he can play in the NBA. Bates, a 17-year-old from Michigan, had initially committed to Michigan State when the Spartans were the only team to recruit the basketball phenom.īut in a surprise move - and likely bolstered by the new NIL rules - Bates de-committed from Michigan State, reclassified into the 2021 class and opted to join Penny Hardaway at Memphis this season. For many who have followed Emoni Bates’ high school career, it was always going to be a surprise to see Bates step foot on a college campus. ![]()
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