Former Piper hoops standout Bates slices list of schools to seven. Did KU, MU make cut?
Tamar Bates, a 6-foot-5, 180-pound senior shooting guard from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, who is ranked No. 83 in the recruiting Class of 2021 by Rivals.com, has narrowed his list of prospective colleges to seven.
Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State, Creighton, Texas, Oregon and Alabama are the contenders for the 2020 DiRenna Award winner, who averaged 22.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.0 steals a game last season at Piper High School. He hit 58% of his shots (46% from three) and 88% of his free throws during the 2019-20 campaign.
“Another step closer to the end goal. Beyond blessed,” Bates wrote Monday on Twitter.
He has cut Kansas State, Colorado, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech and others from his original list of schools.
In late July, he commented on KU and Missouri to Eric Bossi of Rivals.com.
Of KU, Bates said: “They have been turning things up lately. I talk to somebody every week. I mean coach (Norm) Roberts texts me all the time and is letting me know they are watching. They are definitely prioritizing me and want me to be another hometown guy that comes to their school. They’ve got a lot of those guys this year and they just want to make a push to get me to be another one that comes to Kansas.”
Of Mizzou he said: “They are actually prioritizing me a lot. They have put me in a group chat with all of the coaches and all of them are active. That’s a good program. They play in the SEC and Cuonzo Martin ... that’s a great dude. Me and him have a very good relationship. Mizzou, that will probably be one of the places that I do end up taking an official visit to because of the relationship that we’ve all built. My parents, my grandparents, we want to see how it works out with them.”
He recently told The Star he would head to IMG Academy on Aug. 31.
“I’ll definitely miss Piper,” Bates told The Star. “Though this decision was nowhere near as easy as people may try to make it out to be, Piper showed me love and they’ll always have a special place in my heart.”
As for his future after IMG, Bates said, “I have a lot of options.”
Cruz has KU on list of schools
Zion Cruz, a 6-3 junior combo guard from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, who is ranked No. 23 in the recruiting Class of 2022 by Rivals.com, has KU on his list of schools.
Cruz — he averaged 20.5 points a game last season at Hudson (New Jersey) Catholic High School — is considering KU, UCLA, Georgia, Georgetown, Auburn, Louisville, Kentucky, St. John’s, Connecticut, Oklahoma State and others..
“I want to become more of a point guard,” Cruz told SI.com. “I play both guard positions, but I want to play the point.
“I’ve been studying a lot of the NBA game to help with my reads,” Cruz added. “My jump shot is a lot better. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve started open runs and I can see the difference so much now. It makes me even more hungry for the season.”
Of attending Oak Hill Academy, he said: “I’ll be there with some of the best guards in the country working hard. That can only make me elevate my game. My goal was to get better by the time I got to school, and I’m ahead of schedule. I can only imagine where my game will be by the end of the year.”
Kok Yat reclassifies
Kok Yat, a 6-9, 170-pound junior forward from Norcross (Georgia) High School, who is ranked No. 96 in the recruiting Class of 2022 by Rivals.com, is now a member of the Class of 2021, he told Jayhawkslant.com.
Yat has received scholarship offers from KU, Arizona State, Auburn, Boston College, DePaul, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami, New Mexico, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, TCU and others.
“Kansas, New Mexico, South Carolina, and DePaul have been on me,” Yat told Jayhawkslant.com. “Those schools have been pushing hard for me. Kansas is one of the main schools I want to visit. I was on the phone with coach (Bill) Self a couple of weeks ago and that went really well. Coach Self was just telling me how he wants to coach me,” he added.
Johnathan Lawson down to five schools
Johnathan Lawson, the brother of former KU players Dedric Lawson and K.J. Lawson, has narrowed his list of schools to five, Tipton Edits reported on Twitter.
They are: Iowa State, Alabama, Vanderbilt, Oregon and Arkansas.
Lawson, a 6-6, 170-pound senior small forward from Wooddale High School in Memphis, is ranked No. 103 in the recruiting Class of 2021 by Rivals.com.
“Lawson is very long. He looks the part of a swooping kind of player who could be a game changer with his length and athleticism — a Corey Brewer or a Tayshaun Prince type. He is not that type of player though. He is a cerebral player; the youngest of four brothers who came up around the game and understands it. He has good skills, although he isn’t a strong outside shooter. He still has sort of a set shot,” wrote David Sisk of Rivals.com.
“Despite that, Lawson is talented and intriguing. He is a big wing. The two things Lawson is looking to (work on) is a better outside shot and weight. The lanky wing would like to put on another 10 to 15 pounds before heading off to college. He is also putting long hours in the gym to become more of an outside threat.”
Former KU forward Dedric Lawson averaged 13.6 points and 8.0 rebounds a game this past season for the Austin (Texas) Spurs of the NBA G League. Dedric was not selected in the 2019 NBA Draft. He recently signed a one-year deal with the Goyang Orions of the Korean Basketball League.
Former KU forward K.J. Lawson averaged 13.1 points and 5.5 rebounds a game last season for Tulane’s basketball team, while also earning a Master’s Degree in Education. He transferred from KU after the 2018-19 season and according to a family member is hoping to play pro basketball.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 9:38 AM.
