5-star Center Will Baker commits to Texas

One of the worst-kept secrets in Texas Longhorns basketball recruiting finally became public knowledge, as today Will Baker committed to Texas over UCLA.

Baker had offers from Arizona, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Stanford, UCLA, and Virginia among many others and narrowed his list to Texas and UCLA in the summer. Baker brings an interesting skill-set to Austin next year as someone with the size to play the 5 but the shooting range to play a super-long stretch-4. It seems as though the plan right now is to play him mostly at the 5, but I would personally love to see a lineup of Coleman, Ramey, Hepa, Baker, and Hayes next year just to see how teams deal with that mix of size and shooting.

Texas’ recruiting this cycle is probably over depending on where Jaden McDaniels decides to land. Texas is fighting Kentucky and San Diego State for McDaniels, and my guess is McDaniels ends up at Kentucky. I don’t have any inside info, it just seems like McDaniels sees the sheer number of bigs on this roster (potentially Sims, Hayes, Baker, Kai Jones, and Hepa all fighting for the same spots) and heads to Kentucky. I could be wrong though, McDaniels likely starts day one wherever he goes so maybe this is less a decision for McDaniels than it is a business decision for some of the guys currently on the roster. Those are concerns for another day though, today is the day to celebrate a skilled big adding to the Longhorns’ considerable talent level.