NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from the District of Columbia of last decade
By Joey Loose
5. Ian Baker – New Mexico State
Showing his talents as a point guard, Baker went from DC to Jacksonville for high school before winding up at New Mexico State for his collegiate career. That career spanned four seasons with the Aggies, beginning in 2013, and coincided with the beginning of New Mexico State’s major success as the premier team in the WAC.
A minor contributor as a freshman, he was a three-year starter in the backcourt after that, making a major impact on the Aggies. He saw his stats climb in each subsequent year, increasing from 9.3 points per game as a sophomore to an impressive 16.7 mark his senior year. As a senior, he was also averaging 4.2 assists per game, good for second in the WAC. His senior year saw a 36-point effort in a win over UTRGV and a 19-point performance in an NCAA Tournament loss to Baylor.
With those impressive figures his senior year, he was named the WAC Player of the Year in 2017, the proper culmination of his career. His final seasons all saw him rank top 10 in the conference in steals, assists, and defensive rebounds. The program won more than 70% of the games he played and he continued his career professionally overseas. He was one cog in the New Mexico State machine, but he was an important scorer and ball distributor for those few seasons.