Emoni Bates may end up in college after all

Emoni Bates is the #1 player in the 2022 class and has been believed to be the best prospect in a decade.

For the last year, it looked as if Bates would be in the first class that wasn’t required to go to college before making the jump to the NBA due to the one-and-done no longer being a rule.

Fast forward one year later, and everything seems to have changed.

Corey Evans of Rivals.com talked in his most recent “Three point play” about the real possibilities of Bates ending up going to college for a year.

“The feeling is that if the one-and-done were to be erased, that it would not be until after 2022. This all means that college could be a legitimate avenue that Bates takes in three years. His recruitment, once practically non-existent, has now picked up.”

The Michigan star began to get a lot more attention this fall from two in-state powers, Michigan and Michigan State.

“This fall, the in-state powers, Michigan and Michigan State, began to kick things into higher gear where Bates visited each program. On Tuesday night, Juwan Howard, who was flanked by an assistant coach and former Fab Five teammate, Jalen Rose, were in attendance for Bates’ season-opener, as was Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and two of his assistant coaches.”

Now that it looks like Bates could end up in college, expect all the bluebloods to start recruiting Bates much more and making him a focus of their class.

It is not guaranteed by any means that Bates ends up in college. NBA commissioner Adam Silver could get the one-and-done rule removed quickly or Bates could decide to follow RJ Hampton and go play overseas for a year before entering the draft.

Regardless, his recruitment is going to pick up tremendously and it will be interesting to see what this all leads to.

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