Could Texas basketball be a top school for 5-Star SF Emoni Bates?

The work that new head coach Chris Beard and his staff are doing on the trail for the 2022 Texas basketball recruiting class could result in something truly special for this program. Texas could rebound from a volatile finish to the 2021 recruiting cycle with a very strong and deep 2022 class.

Although there isn’t a single commit in the Longhorns 2022 class as of yet, Beard is certainly knocking on the door with quite a few elite prospects for this cycle. Beard and the Longhorns could land multiple five-star commits in the 2022 class with the way they are trending now.

But there is no bigger name circulating around various media and fan circles in the college hoops recruiting landscape at this moment in time than the elite five-star Ypsi Prep Academy small forward Emoni Bates. The former commit of head coach Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans in the Big Ten got his first offer from Beard and the Longhorns once he re-opened his recruitment last month.

It was specifically back on April 30 that Bates announced his decommitment from Michigan State.

In fact, the only three schools to offer Bates since he re-opened his recruitment on April 30 were Texas, the Tennessee Volunteers, and Memphis Tigers.

Texas basketball hitting the ground running with 5-Star SF Emoni Bates

Texas, Tennessee, and Memphis are three of eight schools on Bates’ offer sheet as of the night of May 29. Some of the other schools include the Michigan Wolverines, Florida State Seminoles, and Kentucky Wildcats.

The California native Bates is ranked as the nation’s top 2022 high school prospect. This 6-foot-8 and 200 pound small forward is as good as it could get for the Longhorns to start off their 2022 class. But they’ll have to fight off the intention of Bates to take his talents the professional route instead of the traditional college path.

That’s not to mention schools like Tennessee and Memphis that appear to be putting a full-court press on the recruitment of Bates.

But according to a 247Sports piece released entering the weekend, Texas is a school tabbed essentially as one to watch moving forward if Bates does decide to take to the traditional college route. Among the college offers that Bates holds thus far, Texas does look to be one of the frontrunners at this point in time to land his commitment.

We’ll have to give it a few months for the recruitment of Baets to play out before we can really know where his intentions lie between the college and pro routes.

The former Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Beard is making Bates one of a number of his priorities heading into a critical month of official visits in June. It should only be a matter of time before Texas gets their first commit in the 2022 class.