Texas Basketball: 3 top Will Baker transfer landing spots

The highest rated recruit from the 2019 Texas basketball signing class, sophomore center Will Baker, is now in the transfer portal.

Some of the most important transfer news surrounding the Texas basketball program in recent memory emerged over the weekend, when head coach Shaka Smart got word that sophomore center Will Baker had his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal. The former five-star recruit and hometown product Baker didn’t really ever come close to living up to the billing during his one-year stint on the Forty Acres.

During his true freshman campaign at Texas, Baker played in just shy of two dozen games (starting in none of them). And he averaged 2.1 points per game, 1.9 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.2 steals, and 0.1 blocks. Baker shot 27.5 percent from the field, 15.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 33.3 percent from the free-throw line.

All of that amounted to a rather poor 1.4 player efficiency rating, -0.2 win shares, -7.1 box plus/minus rating, -.047 win shares per 40 minutes, and a 32.2 true shooting percentage. Baker did start to come on stronger toward the end of his freshman season, but it was too little too late to save the entirety of his stat line from last year.

Most of the hype surrounding Baker has to do with his versatile offensive skill set and gifted physical tools. He stands at 6-foot-11 and 245 pounds, and still has a good amount of bounce in his game.

Baker was an extremely highly touted five-star recruit at one time. Coming out of Westlake High School in Austin, TX, Baker ranked as the nation’s No. 35 2019 high school prospect, No. 9 center, and No. 5 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite).

Now that Baker’s name is in the transfer portal, what are three of the top landing spots for him?