NCAA Basketball: 4 impact decisions affecting state of Michigan schools for 2022-23

The Emoni Bates story may be the most compelling and interesting tale of the four individuals who choose to play their college basketball in the state of Michigan this upcoming season.

When he was only 15 years old, Sports Illustrated anointed him the next once-in-a-generation talent and he was at an early age expected to become the next great NBA superstar. His high school playing career began at Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti, MI where he ironically played some of his high school games on Eastern Michigan’s home court. He won a division one state championship for Lincoln in 2019 before transferring to a newly created school called the Ypsi Prep Academy that was created by his father, E.J. Bates.

The summer before he began playing basketball at Ypsi Prep for the 2020-21 season, he announced that he was going to play his colligate ball at Michigan State for his freshman year of college. However, less than nine months later things appeared began to not go as originally planned.

It started on a nationally televised game when Emoni Bates went up against future No. 2 NBA pick Chet Holmgren. In the game, Holmgren had a better overall game than Bates with Holmgren’s team Team Sizzle, defeating Bates’ Ypsi Prep team on their home court. Then two teammates, one of them being fellow Michigan State commit Jaden Atkins was no longer with the team and were not listed on the school’s website. As the season went on he had his ups and downs to finish up his last season of high school competition. Then his post-high school plans changed.

On April 30th of 2021, Bates de-committed from Michigan State and reopened up his options to go to college or go pro. Then in late August, Bates commits to Memphis and is coached by Penny Hardaway. In Memphis, he did not have the season in many people had expected him to have. He only played in 18 games for Memphis and did not play in any games during the month of February which lasted into the month of March due to a back injury.

As a Tiger, he averaged under ten points a game and less than four rebounds a game as well. In the NCAA tournament, he only had three points in three minutes in Memphis’s first-round victory over Boise State and he followed that performance up with five points in only12 minutes of playing time in the Tigers’ defeat to Gonzaga. In mid-April, Bates announced that he was entering the transfer portal.

Going back to Bates’ sophomore season of high school and after leading Lincoln High school to the state of Michigan division one championship by making a game-winning shot, he has not lived up to the extremely and maybe unfair hype that the media and others had put on him. This summer, even though he was rumored to be possibly transferring to a power five conference school like Louisville or Michigan, he ended up going a different route. On June 29th, he made his decision on where he would be playing this upcoming season.

He decided to come back to his hometown and play for Eastern Michigan which was somewhat surprising to some in the national media. However, for those who covered him, it was not a surprising move as he has shown in the past how much he appreciates and admires his hometown.

He can thrive at Eastern Michigan and dominate on the basketball court and he can prove his doubters wrong and show the NBA scouts that he is still a future NBA lottery pick. Time will tell but with his talent and him playing back in his hometown, Bates can be a special player and lead Eastern Michigan to a conference title and an NCAA tournament appearance.

Read more about Bate’s Journey here: In-depth look

There are other players past and present who started in the state of Michigan besides the four mentioned here who went to school out of state but decided to come back home like Lourne Bowman Jr. who transferred to Oakland this offseason. He was a top 200 nationally ranked recruit from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s which is located in the suburbs of Detroit coming out of high school.

He decided to play at the University of Wisconsin after high school and was their sixth-leading scorer this past season for the Badgers. While at Wisconsin, he helped the Badgers win the Maui Jim Maui Invitational last season as well. He like Bates will have immediate eligibility to play for Golden Grizzlies alongside Watts.

The main point here is that the grass may not be greener on the other side and mid-major programs in the state of Michigan this offseason were able to convince high-level student-athletes to play at their school this season. They all have their own individual, unique stories, and all of them want to be able to help their teams win this upcoming season. We look forward to seeing them all grow and prosper on the hardwood floor this season and wish them all the best moving forward.