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We’ll cut straight to it and get to the rumors surrounding rising redshirt junior center Manny Bates.
As of Friday mid-afternoon, Bates was not in the transfer portal and, as far as we know, on campus for the first session of summer school. As NC State SID Craig Hammel reported on Twitter earlier in the week, Bates participated in the first full team meeting, which also featured freshmen guard Breon Pass and Terquavion Smith.
Does this mean Bates is staying in Raleigh? As we noted at the time and confirmed when circling back around with sources today, that’s a premature notion. It was also pointed out to us by one astute observer that now that word has gotten out that Bates could, at a minimum, be contemplating his future, that “blood is in the water.”
If there were legitimate concerns about tampering that went on leading up to all this, odds are decent that the meddling will be amplified now. Hence why July 1 cannot get here soon enough if you are head coach Kevin Keatts and his staff.
The basic gist of where things stand from what we gather is that any transfer or move out of NC State is far from imminent or a done deal. We were careful to not go beyond saying that it “looks that way,” when asking if “this is it for Bates at NC State,” on Tuesday morning when the rumors started exploding.
A major reason for that was the shock among those closest to the basketball program of the rumor itself, some of whom heard about it for the first time from the Internet.
That said, we do believe, from talking with sources, that there were discussions this week about Bates's future between the player and coach. Sources have differed on Keatts’ approach to keeping Bates, with one camp suggesting he’s going all out to keep him in Raleigh and the other saying that, at least initially, Keatts was giving Bates space to work it out. Based on the past track record of sources, we’d lean towards the latter being more accurate.
July 1 is the deadline for Bates to put his name into the transfer portal. As we saw with Shakeel Moore, things can change. Moore went from being expected to enter the transfer portal to apparently working his way back towards returning to Raleigh, and then a few weeks later it became clear it was not going to work out and was best for both sides that Moore proceed. He, of course, picked Mississippi State this week.
Bates and Keatts have a well-established, lengthy relationship, so we do not foresee a similar scenario playing out.
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Elsewhere in basketball recruiting, news broke out this week that four-star guard Jayden Epps from Suffolk (Va.) Kings Fork High backed off his commitment to Providence, and with that his expected jump up into the 2021 class. Instead, Epps, who originally pledged to the Friars on March 29, will remain in the 2022 group.
Why?
One thing we have heard is that Epps decided he wanted to play one more summer with Team Loaded VA rather than enroll in the summer at Providence. If true, that goes to further show how college basketball is not anywhere near the destination it was in its heyday 30 years ago. On Friday alone, word got out a trio of prominent class of 2022 and 2023 prospects have already decided to bypass college for either the G-League or the new start-up organization Overtime.
At this point, we have not heard if NC State has jumped back in on Epps, but he has been impressive this spring and is expected to be a highly prioritized guard nationally.
Adam Goldman, Owner FranchiseCoach.net
Email: agoldman@franchisecoach.net
DM: @FranchiseCoach
•••
We’ll cut straight to it and get to the rumors surrounding rising redshirt junior center Manny Bates.
As of Friday mid-afternoon, Bates was not in the transfer portal and, as far as we know, on campus for the first session of summer school. As NC State SID Craig Hammel reported on Twitter earlier in the week, Bates participated in the first full team meeting, which also featured freshmen guard Breon Pass and Terquavion Smith.
Does this mean Bates is staying in Raleigh? As we noted at the time and confirmed when circling back around with sources today, that’s a premature notion. It was also pointed out to us by one astute observer that now that word has gotten out that Bates could, at a minimum, be contemplating his future, that “blood is in the water.”
If there were legitimate concerns about tampering that went on leading up to all this, odds are decent that the meddling will be amplified now. Hence why July 1 cannot get here soon enough if you are head coach Kevin Keatts and his staff.
The basic gist of where things stand from what we gather is that any transfer or move out of NC State is far from imminent or a done deal. We were careful to not go beyond saying that it “looks that way,” when asking if “this is it for Bates at NC State,” on Tuesday morning when the rumors started exploding.
A major reason for that was the shock among those closest to the basketball program of the rumor itself, some of whom heard about it for the first time from the Internet.
That said, we do believe, from talking with sources, that there were discussions this week about Bates's future between the player and coach. Sources have differed on Keatts’ approach to keeping Bates, with one camp suggesting he’s going all out to keep him in Raleigh and the other saying that, at least initially, Keatts was giving Bates space to work it out. Based on the past track record of sources, we’d lean towards the latter being more accurate.
July 1 is the deadline for Bates to put his name into the transfer portal. As we saw with Shakeel Moore, things can change. Moore went from being expected to enter the transfer portal to apparently working his way back towards returning to Raleigh, and then a few weeks later it became clear it was not going to work out and was best for both sides that Moore proceed. He, of course, picked Mississippi State this week.
Bates and Keatts have a well-established, lengthy relationship, so we do not foresee a similar scenario playing out.
•••
Elsewhere in basketball recruiting, news broke out this week that four-star guard Jayden Epps from Suffolk (Va.) Kings Fork High backed off his commitment to Providence, and with that his expected jump up into the 2021 class. Instead, Epps, who originally pledged to the Friars on March 29, will remain in the 2022 group.
Why?
One thing we have heard is that Epps decided he wanted to play one more summer with Team Loaded VA rather than enroll in the summer at Providence. If true, that goes to further show how college basketball is not anywhere near the destination it was in its heyday 30 years ago. On Friday alone, word got out a trio of prominent class of 2022 and 2023 prospects have already decided to bypass college for either the G-League or the new start-up organization Overtime.
At this point, we have not heard if NC State has jumped back in on Epps, but he has been impressive this spring and is expected to be a highly prioritized guard nationally.
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