Texas Basketball: 3 top Will Baker transfer landing spots

3) Landing spots for Texas basketball’s Will Baker

UCLA

A lot of times, a good place to start when figuring out where a talented player in the transfer portal can ultimately land is knowing which schools offered him coming out of high school. In Baker’s case, one of the top schools that was after him was the UCLA Bruins. Actually the last visit that Baker held prior to committing to Texas during the 2019 recruiting cycle was with UCLA.

Now the Bruins do have a different coaching staff than they did when they were recruiting Baker out of Westlake. Former Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin is running the show now, which could actually be a good thing for the direction of the program. UCLA finished up last season with a record of 19-12.

Cronin and the Bruins are only off to a 1-1 start this season, but you can’t put too much stock into that. A lot of teams got off to poor starts this season in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Most schools didn’t even get a real scrimmage in before the start of this college hoops season. But that lone loss for UCLA wasn’t great, coming at the hands of the San Diego State Aztecs in their season opener.

Moreover, Baker would be able to make an immediate impact in all likelihood for the UCLA program. That is if the NCAA grants him immediate eligibility come the start of next season. UCLA is still rather young and thin in the frontcourt rotation, with only junior forward Cody Riley producing much from a true four or five position so far this season.