Breaking: Texas lands IMG Academy's Tamar Bates

DiRenna Award winner Tamar Bates tells Stockrisers.com that he will shut down his recruitment and take his talents to the University of Texas to play for Shaka Smart. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard out of Kansas City chose the Longhorns over Kansas, Mizzou, Creighton, amongst his other finalists. 

“I have an opportunity to play right away during my freshman year. I have built a great relationship with the coaching staff and they did a really great job of recruiting me.”

The Kansas native was awarded as his state’s top basketball prospect. He left his mark during his junior campaign posting over 21 points per game along with five rebounds, four assists, and 2.1 steals per contest. A prospect that prides himself on both ends of the floor, Bates will head to IMG Academy for his senior season where he will look to develop under one of the top prep staff.

Shaka Smart extended an offer to Bates just over one month ago. Since he’s been able to be apart of several zoom calls with the staff and even said that he knew about making his decision in committing to Texas just two weeks ago.

Bates will join Emarion Ellis, Keeyan Itejere, and David Joplin in Shaka Smart’s 2021 class.

“We’re putting together a class that's going to compete for a national championship along with the older guys that’ll already be there.”

He also said that while recently making his choice he decided that if he didn’t opt to go the HBCU route he would like to play for a black head coach. Bates mentioned several times the relationship he has with head coach Shaka Smart and he’s beyond thrilled to play for him.

COVID-19 also sped things up, Bates said. Saying that tons of guys were committing and he just really wanted to keep his spot. In addition, due to COVID, he wasn’t able to visit any campuses this summer but the Longhorns staff has stayed consistent in sending him film and videos of the facilities and the school.

“They still are sending me stuff up to this day. It was good to see the campus [virtually].”

Bates ended it off by saying he was happy to be with his family for his commitment and he will arrive at IMG Academy tomorrow afternoon to begin his national championship chase with his new powerhouse program and talent-packed roster.