Tamar Bates spoke to Zack Schumaker on the SchuZ Show podcast last week. And the former Mizzou star ran through everything about his career from recruiting to his future in the NBA. Zack has given me permission to use the quotes Bates gave for a couple of stories.
So let’s take a look back at the career of a Mizzou fan favorite.
Not Following The Plan
From committing to Texas, to going to Indiana before transferring to Missouri. Or becoming a father midway through his college career.
Life hasn’t quite gone the way a high school Bates tried to lay out for himself.
“It definitely, it hasn’t been as planned,” Bates said. “But my journey has allowed me to be ready for the opportunity that’s in front of me right now.”
Bates originally committed to play for Shaka Smart at Texas. But when Smart’s tenure ended, Bates decided not to follow him to Marquette.
Instead, Bates went to Indiana with a lot of hype as a four-star recruit and a top-35 player in the country.
Time To Move On
But Bates’ time with the Hoosiers never really came together the way he was hoping. He never became a starter. Then Indiana recruited over him after his sophomore season. And that led him to make a decision that it was time to move on.
“It was kind of just a mutual thing between myself and the coaches,” Bates said. “Just felt like it was time for us to go our separate ways. And they told me in my meeting that they knew that my best basketball was ahead of me. They just wanted me to have an opportunity to go and play. Because obviously they had recruits coming in that year and they wanted to see me continue to grow and excel. So it made sense for the both of us.”
Bates said the ups and downs of his time in Indiana wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own and only encouraged him to make himself better. In fact, he only looks back with gratitude on his first two seasons of college ball.
“I didn’t point any fingers at anything,” Bates said. “I didn’t blame coaches, I didn’t blame my teammates. I didn’t think that it was anybody’s fault but mine. … I would have like to play a lot better for the fans and for my teammates. For the whole institution. But I was playing college basketball out of high school in the big 10. … I look at it from a gratitude standpoint and just being grateful for your opportunity to be there.”
Perspective
Being able to look back a few years removed from his time with Indiana, Bates said that time only made him realize what he needed to do to be better.
“I was able to have my success that I did over the past two years because I didn’t blame anybody,” Bates added. “I just looked at myself like, ‘You got to get better. You got to make it undeniable for coach to put you on the floor. And it could have been a mixture of me being younger, having to mature at Indiana and I wasn’t ready for everything that it took to be a heavy-minute guy in the Big 10. But just learning what it took to be an everyday guy. Showing up to practice every day with the right intensity, the right attitude, paying attention to scout and walk through. … That attention to detail is the way that I grew in a lot of areas.”
But sometimes it isn’t possible to have perspective when you’re in a situation. It takes time and separation. Though Bates never pointed fingers at anyone by himself, he didn’t come to realize how helpful his first two years were until he was gone.
“When I left was when I kind of came to the realization that my experience at Indiana did nothing but help me,” Bates said. “When you’re in it, it’s kind of hard to see it because it’s literally like when you’re in the middle of a strom. You can’t see anything. But when you get out of them rain clouds and you can turn the windshield wipers off, it’s clear again. You can kind of think and your mind’s not overstimulated.”
Coming Home
Bates hit the transfer portal. And after going through two separate recruitment processes in high school, he knew what he was looking for.
“I really didn’t talk to too many schools because that was my third time going through the recruitment process and I knew what I was looking for,” Bates said. “And during my whole sophomore year, being a Kansas City guy, always keeping up with Kansas, K-State and Missouri, it was coach (Dennis) Gates‘ first year and they were succeeding in the SEC and just making it work … I knew there was something good going on in Columbia.”
So the Kansas City native came home to join Gates and try to keep that momentum going. And he was able to do it with some special visitors appearing at just about every home game.
“It was extremely special just because I was around so many people who’ve known me my entire life,” Bates said. “Whether they were from the Missouri side, from the Kansas side, they were driving up. It was just amazing to be a lot closer to home, to my family and just, you know, as we were playing, continue, not only inspiring my family and close loved ones, but all the kids back in Kansas City.”
The 2023-24 Season
Though Bates came back to be part of something special building in Columbia, his first year with the Tigers was a big step back teamwise.
Bates had a lot of individual success, becoming the team leader with 13.4 points per game while shooting almost 50 percent from the field.
But no matter how well Bates played, the team just couldn’t seen to win an important game, including going winless in SEC play.
“That year, I just tried to give every bit of effort and leadership that I could,” Bates said. “Seing that the team morale was starting to turn. We just didn’t believe that we were good enough to win a game, to win one game. And it’s crazy because we didn’t really get blown out much the entire year. Every conference game, we was in the game. But for me, that entire season made me look at myself. No matter how many people tried to tell me I played good and averaged however many points, I didn’t think I did enough for the group from a leadership standpoint.”
Bates wanted to help the team be better. But looking back, that season and the struggles that came from it showed him what he needed to do better as a senior.
“In the moment, I felt like I did what I could,” Bates said. “But I just always look back at that situation as I could have gave it more and coming into my senior year, that was what allowed me to be the leader that I was in that season. It really made me realize what leadership is, what it looks like, what it sounds like, what it feels like, just holistically. It just made me a better basketball player. Just made me enjoy the process a lot more.”
What Could Have Gone Better?
Bates has a couple of ideas of what could have made that 2023-24 team better. But the biggest one is just getting everyone to believe in each other more.
“I would try to really just get the guys to spend more time together as a team, away from the practice facility,” Bates said. “… Just be a lot more like, just, a lot more tougher on the entire group in practices. … I felt like we were losing games … before we even stepped on the court. Our preparation wasn’t good enough and it had nothing to do with the coaches. It was all just our buy-in as players.”
But that season did teach Bates something about coach Dennis Gates.
“Coach Gates and the staff, the way that coach Gates handled that year, I don’t, I still don’t know how he was able to be as mentally tough as he was and continue to show up every day. But that, the way that he carried himself inspired me and made me show up the way that I did every day. If I could go back, I would have just, you know, made sure the guys and myself were preparing a lot better and spending time together.”
In the next story, which will publish in about two hours, we’ll get into Bates’ senior year and his career moving forward.
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