2021 shooting guard Tamar Bates is coming off a season where he helped lead Piper (KS) to their first ever state championship with a resounding 86-53 win.
Bates finished the game with 20 points, five rebounds, two assists and one block.
Kansas, Purdue, Creighton, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, and Saint Louis are all the schools currently recruiting him right now, with a lot of mid major schools contacting him as well.
At this point, it is still very early in his recruitment, but he did talk about the teams that have made it obvious to him that he’s a top priority.
“Wichita State, Loyola, Purdue, Creighton, Saint Louis, Abilene-Christian, Missouri State, and Oklahoma State,” he said.
So far, Bates doesn’t have any unofficial or official visits scheduled, but he did list a few schools that he is trying to visit, whether it’s official or unofficial.
“Wichita State, Missouri State, Oklahoma State, Saint Louis, and Kansas,” he explained.
With the latest trend in high school basketball it was only right to ask Bates about the possibility of reclassifying and this is what he had to say.
Reclassifying has been one of the hottest trends in college basketball and a lot of student-athletes have utilized the extra year. Bates was asked about the possibility of reclassifying but that doesn’t seem like an option for him currently.
” No,” he said. “With my recruitment starting to take off, I don’t think there will be a need for that.”
There have also been players that have decided to forgo college and instead play overseas. Most notably has been RJ Hampton, a 2019 five-star recruit, who decided to head overseas instead of college.
But Bates doesn’t plan on utilizing that option either and will instead be looking forward to attending college.
“Getting my degree and developing my body and game in college is important to me,” he said. “It only makes sense to graduate if you’re getting a free education.”
Bates is enjoying the process as his recruitment starts to heat up. He doesn’t plan on making any recruiting decisions anytime soon but does have a timetable.
“I talked to my program director and 17U coach LJ Goolsby, with my parents and [they] said we should get to that next year around this same time,” he said.
Bates looks to be very motivated for his next two years of high school. It seems that he has the right mindset to get better and be a great Division 1 college basketball player by the time his career at the collegiate level concludes.
Written by Jake Spence
Scoopman TV 