Newest Flyer has ‘a chance to be really special’

The 6-foot-10, 210-pound Baker, who played last season with the Georgia Bulldogs, signed with Dayton on Monday, six days after his verbal commitment.

Baker is the eighth transfer signed by Dayton during Anthony Grant’s tenure as head coach. He follows: Rodney Chatman (Chattanooga); Ibi Watson (Michigan); Jordy Tshimanga (Nebraska); Chase Johnson (Florida); Toumani Camara (Georgia); Kobe Elvis (DePaul); and Richard Amaefule (East Tennessee).

“We’re excited to announce the addition of Tyrone Baker to our program and welcome him to the Flyer family,” Grant said in a press release. “Tyrone brings a tremendous combination of skill, length and athleticism that will complement our system and style of play very well. He will fit very well into our program and campus community.”

Stephen Woods, who coached Baker during his senior season at Hightower High School in Missouri City, Texas, thought Baker should have picked Dayton over Georgia then.

“He’s a great kid,” Woods said. “He wants to learn. He wants to get better. He wants to go to the next level. I told him when I saw that he had committed (to Dayton), I feel he should have went there right out of high school.”

Baker received his first scholarship offer before his junior season in the fall of 2019 from East Carolina. Dayton offered him a scholarship a year later in September 2020. Baker committed to Georgia and coach Tom Crean in January 2021, picking it over Dayton, Virginia Tech, Central Florida and Western Kentucky. He told the Athens Banner-Herald at the time of his commitment he wanted to be a Crean recruit like Dwayne Wade, an under-the-radar prospect at Marquette who made it big in the NBA. He also liked Georgia’s plan for him.

“He was telling me that I don’t have to be a back-to-the-basket player because they don’t have positions in their style of play,” Baker said then.

Baker didn’t get to visit Dayton in high school because of recruiting restrictions during the pandemic. This time, he did get to visit campus in April and made his decision not long after his visit, Wallace said.

Wallace had lunch with Baker the day before Georgia hired Mike White in March. White took over the program days after Georgia fired Tom Crean, whose team finished 6-26 in his fourth season. Baker entered the transfer portal April 5, three weeks after White was hired.

Wallace said many schools showed interest in Baker but mostly schools, like Dayton, that built a previous relationship with him when he was in high school. Baker appeared in only three games in his freshman season at Georgia.

“He didn’t have any film,” Wallace said. “He didn’t have any numbers. So I think Dayton kind of got a little bit lucky. I think that’s always a great reason to keep that relationship, even with kids you don’t get. They already had a good relationship with him. They were probably No. 2 behind Georgia when he went there.”

Wallace also coached Baker with Team Parsons CP 25, of the Southeast Elite Grassroots Academy, on the adidas 3SSB Circuit. That’s where Grant and Dayton assistant Darren Hertz first saw Baker play. Baker opened eyes in one game in the summer of 2020 when he was guarding Jabari Smith, who played last season at Auburn and could be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft this spring.

While coaches were limited by pandemic recruiting restrictions then, Wallace said there were virtual options for coaches recruiting players in Florida. The Virtual Player Evaluation Series provided live streams of players going through workouts every weekend for five weeks at five different sites in Florida. Coaches saw Baker and hundreds of Florida players go through those workouts.

In the last season before the pandemic, Baker averaged averaged 11.4 points and 10.7 rebounds as a sophomore at Riverdale. As a junior in the 2019-20 season at Riverdale, he averaged 20.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.3 blocks.

After his junior season, Baker elected to transfer to Hightower to play for a better team and against better competition in his senior season. One of his teammates was point guard Bryce Griggs, one of the top players in the class of 2022. Baker averaged 15.5 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.0 blocks and shot 62.6 percent (132-of-211) from the field. He picked Hightower, which is located near Houston, because his uncle lived in the school district.

“His uncle is a fitness guy as well,” Woods said. “He has his own business, and so he would train with him. He put on 10 to 15 pounds of muscle because he was training daily — running, conditioning, putting up shots, lifting weights. We lift weights three times a week here at the school. So I thought it really helped him develop strength wise. Skill wise, he had a good feel for the game, so he fit right in with the way we play. He came in and made a splash right away.”

Last season, Baker appeared in two of Georgia’s first three games but then didn’t play again until Dec. 29. His season ended Jan. 19 when he broke his hand in practice. Woods talked to Baker throughout the frustrating season.

“I told him to just keep his head up, keep working,” Woods said. “They didn’t have a great season. I told him when he left to go to college, as a freshman, if you can get on the floor, that’s great. But don’t expect to. You got to be ready to take your lumps and get better in practice. You’ve got to have that attitude.”

Baker fills the 12th scholarship for Dayton. One remains open. If Dayton doesn’t add another player, Baker will be one of two newcomers, along with top-100 recruit Mike Sharavjamts. Assuming Toumani Camara stays with Dayton and doesn’t keep his name in the NBA Draft, Baker will join a team that returns all five starters and seven of its top-eight scorers.

“I told him wherever you choose, make sure you go to a program that’s going to win,” Wallace said. “Dayton’s always won. He just experienced losing. It’s no fun. I said, ‘Don’t worry about playing time. Go somewhere where you’re going to win. You’re good enough player to earn your spot.’”

Wallace completed his description of Baker by calling him a great teammate and a coachable player.

“When he enters a room, he lights up the room,” Wallace said. “:He’s the most popular kid in school. He gets along with everyone. Even the coaches that recruited him love him because he was just so different on the phone when they talked to him. He’s just a lot of fun to be around.”