Michigan State Basketball: What to make of Emoni Bates development

Emoni Bates’ dad said that his son has no plans to reclassify. What does this mean for Michigan State basketball’s chances?

The Emoni Bates bidding war is quiet these days.

When the dead period for contacting recruits ended, Tom Izzo was the first coach to reach out to Bates at midnight. And then he didn’t hear from anyone else.

Michigan State has built a decent lead in his recruitment as his dad admitted that Izzo and the Spartans made Bates’ college decision much easier if he did decide to go that route. The thing is, he might not choose the college route.

In fact, there’s an overwhelming feeling that Bates will skip the college ranks and go right from high school to the NBA — the league is considering eliminating the one-and-done rule before 2022.

Bates would miss that cut-off for the changing of the rule if he reclassified to the 2021 class and many thought that if he did switch classes, the Spartans would get lucky and get one year with him. On Thursday, however, his dad admitted that there are currently no plans for Emoni to reclassify. He had this to say to the Detroit News:

"“He will be a junior next year,” EJ stated Thursday when asked if Emoni was reclassifying, adding that he will remain at Lincoln. “There’s no rush.”"

Conclusions were jumped to immediately as headlines painted the picture that Emoni would not be considering a reclassification and he’s dead-set on graduating in four years instead of three. That’s not quite the case, based on that quote alone.

What this means for Michigan State basketball

This development doesn’t change much. Michigan State is still going to recruit Emoni in the case that he does attend college whether it’s in 2021 or 2022.

Emoni’s dad was just stating that there’s nothing in place right now to get his son graduated early and reclassified to 2021. It’s still possible, but he basically said what everyone knew: his son is going to be a junior in 2020-21. That can change.

Michigan State is still the team to beat if he does choose college and there’s still a chance for reclassification. All-in-all, this quote does nothing more than state what everyone already knows.

Either way, don’t count on Emoni playing a second of college ball. He’s been touted as the best prospect since LeBron James and we all know where he ended up after high school.