KU, MU, K-State recruit Bates stunned by ending to 4A tourney: ‘You can’t be serious’
Tamar Bates, a junior combo guard from Piper High School who is being recruited by Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State and many other college basketball programs, felt positive about the Pirates’ chances of claiming the second state title in school history following a 71-52 Class 4A quarterfinal victory over Buhler Thursday night in Salina, Kansas.
The 6-foot-4, 175-pound Bates scored 17 points and shared the spotlight with teammates Christian Arndt (14 points, 19 rebounds), Ty Shelley (18 points) and Dilyn Taylor-Cantu (10 points). Fellow all-Frontier League players Jaron Briggs and Gabe Eskina also joined in on the fun with nine and three points, respectively.
Bates’ mood soured shortly after the conclusion of the lopsided quarterfinal victory. A Piper student manager told a Piper player, who told Bates, that Friday’s semifinals and Saturday’s finals had been canceled out of COVID-19 coronavirus concerns.
“I was, ‘No way.’ I was, ‘Are you kidding? You can’t be serious,’” said Bates, one of five finalists for the DiRenna Award, which goes to the top high school basketball player in the Kansas City area.
“We were all in shock. We had no clue that quarterfinal would be our last game playing together,” Bates added. “It was all surreal … wow, we can’t complete our goal or finish our season out. Our main goal was to repeat and win another state championship. That was taken away because of coronavirus.”
Bates said the Friday bus ride back to Kansas City was somber.
“We were pretty sad. There’s nothing we could do about it at that point,” he said. “We were sad because of what was taken away from us. What’s amazing is because we didn’t get to finish (the tourney),. everybody was saying, ‘We would have won. No we would have won.’ The four teams left were claiming, ‘We are state champions.’ We wanted to play. There are no co-champs.”
The four teams left standing in boys Class 4A were Piper, Bishop Miege, Augusta and Rose Hill.
“We had a great season in that we had the highest win percentage in Piper history,” said Bates, who helped the Pirates to a 21-1 record by averaging 22.1 points on 58% shooting. He hit 46% of his three-pointers and was 88% from the line.
“We had a really good season. I’m glad we were able to accomplish what we did,” added Bates, who also chipped in 5.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.0 steals a game a year after helping Piper win its first state title in school history (2018-19).
Bates stressed he and his teammates were not upset at anybody from the Kansas State High School Activities Association for halting the tournament early.
“We understand it all from a safety standpoint, trying to keep everybody safe,” Bates said. “This virus is bigger than basketball. I’m not too upset.”
He said he and other 17-year-olds know at least a little bit about this coronavirus.
“We are on social media a lot. All we see is corona started somewhere in China. That’s all I see,” Bates said. “Some say, ‘I’m not going to get it. I don’t care about it.’ You don’t care until you get it. Just from some of the stuff I’ve seen, the death rate is pretty low especially in people our age. I think my age group will be OK. I hope everybody is OK.”
Bates not only is a high school standout but a success on the AAU circuit with KC Run GMC. AAU basketball also will be affected by the coronavirus.
All Under Armour Association, Nike and Adidas circuit games in April have been called off.
“I feel for a lot of teammates I play with now. They were looking forward to this spring, getting more (college) offers,” Bates said.
Rivals.com’s No. 94-ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2021 has a long list of schools that includes KU, K-State, MU, North Carolina, Creighton, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Northwestern and others
“We’ll be locked in doing what we can do in July (when season wraps up with some major events). I’ve been looking forward to playing in the 17-and-under division for a while,” he said.
As far as his own recruitment, Bates said, “all the schools talk to me the same. I’ve not tried to narrow it down yet. I’m trying to keep everything even.”
He attended “four or five” KU home games this season. Asked if he liked the atmosphere in Allen Fieldhouse, Bates said: “Yes for sure. I’ve never met anybody that hasn’t (been impressed with Allen).”
Bates said he felt compassion for the KU players, who like his Piper teammates were denied a shot at postseason glory. The 2020 NCAA Tournament has been wiped out because of coronavirus concerns.
“I feel bad for them,” he said. “They had as good a chance to win this year as any other year with how dominant Doke (Azubuike) has been. It’s tough. They won the Big 12 championship, which is a great accomplishment.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "KU, MU, K-State recruit Bates stunned by ending to 4A tourney: ‘You can’t be serious’."
