Michigan State Basketball: 3 reasons Emoni Bates will play college ball

Emoni Bates committed to Michigan State basketball on Monday afternoon but many feel he’ll never suit up for the Spartans. Here’s why he will.

Sportscenter on ESPN likely had its highest ratings boost in weeks thanks to the state of Michigan, and East Lansing in particular, when Emoni Bates put in his Instagram story on Monday that he’d be appearing on the show at 1:40 p.m. ET for a big announcement.

In the hours leading up to his appearance, many were speculating what the announcement would be. Would it be him stating that he was reclassifying? Would he be speaking on his new prep school? Would he be committing? Everyone just assumed the latter was out of the question until the Sportscenter anchors were teasing a “college decision” before commercial breaks.

So when Emoni appeared in front of cameras with millions of people watching and the first words out of his mouth were “I don’t know what the future holds”, Spartan fans everywhere had to feel their hearts sink into their stomachs.

And then he followed that up with “but I’ll be committing to Michigan State.”

It was the most unexpected commitment since Caleb Swanigan and although we know what happened with that, this one felt much more real despite the fact that he may never suit up in the green and white.

Why not? The NBA may change the one-and-done rule by the 2022 NBA Draft which would be all Emoni needs to go straight from Ypsilanti Prep to the league.

Here’s why he’ll end up playing at least one year for Tom Izzo, though.