Michigan State Basketball: The Emoni Bates dream is officially over

The Emoni Bates dream is over.

For months, there has been speculation about whether or not Emoni Bates would ever suit up for the green and white and as of Friday afternoon, it looks like the answer to that is no.

According to multiple reports, the five-star 2022 prospect who had been committed to Michigan State since last summer decided to reopen his recruitment, decommitting from the Spartans.

He had yet to make a decision about reclassifying, but this makes it seem like he plans on doing so and wants to go through an actual recruiting process and make a decision between a different college and the professional route.

Decommitting was something I didn’t see happening, especially if he still had college as an option on the table, but it seems like he wants to actually go through the process like everyone else.

This one hurts all Michigan State fans hoping to see Emoni bring a national title to East Lansing.

The writing had been on the wall for Emoni Bates

We’d be lying to ourselves if we didn’t think this was at least a likely scenario. No, decommitting this soon didn’t seem likely, but it felt as if he was going to take the pro route some way or another. He hadn’t made a reclassification decision and he never spoke publicly about Michigan State.

Plus, there was the whole Jaden Akins situation in which he and the Spartan signee in the 2021 class parted ways from Bates’ prep team after a falling out. How would they mesh at the collegiate level? It just didn’t seem plausible.

Izzo probably didn’t expect Bates to suit up for Michigan State but when you get excited, you just set yourself up for a letdown. That’s exactly what happened here after a year-long commitment.