Akron senior Brady Baer (24) has been a scoring machine for the Rams since his freshman year. He is averaging 31.1 points, which included a 55-point effort Jan. 18.
Courtesy photo
The numbers have surpassed ridiculous. Otherworldly is more like it.
Brady Baer's ultimate hopes are that his prodigious scoring totals equate to a deep tournament run for his
Akron Rams basketball team and a handful of solid college offers to sort through.
Both remain to be seen, but in the meantime, Colorado basketball fans can bask in a scoring display seldom witnessed – particularly on the eastern plains.
The 6-foot-2 guard has a 55-point game to his credit and has scored at least 34 points six times this season for the Rams (10-1), ranked No. 2 in the AP Media Poll. He is averaging a lofty 31.1 points, compiling his numbers from beyond the three-point arc, on pull-up jumpers and slashes to the hoop.
"We'll practice for about an hour and 40 minutes, and he'll go home, eat, and come back for another hour and a half and work on his other stuff," Akron coach Greg Clarkson said. "His work ethic is probably second to none. I've never seen a kid like this in my life. I've never coached a kid like this in my life."
It's not as if Baer fully came out of nowhere. He averaged 31.6 points last season, 27.6 as a sophomore and 19.2 as a freshman. He set Akron's school record with a 47-point game against Merino as a freshman. His record-breaking 55-point performance on Jan. 18 also was at Merino's expense.
"I work on my game a lot, which helps," Baer said. "I just try to get better every year."
Despite the increasingly efficient scoring bursts, Baer said recruiting interest hasn't ramped up in conjunction. Such is the life for a Class 2A player, where college programs sometimes are hesitant to trust such glitzy numbers.
"I get that a lot, but I just try to keep my head up," Baer said. "Anybody that wants me, I'm happy to talk to them. I just wish they'd realize that even if you're open, even if it's five feet away, you still have to make them."
Baer said a few junior colleges have attended his games, while Eastern Wyoming and Western Wyoming also have shown interest, in addition to Fort Hays State and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schools Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis.
Perhaps most impressive about Baer's numbers are that his shooting percentage is equally stout and that he is not a one-man show. With a concerted goal of doing more with less – scoring more points on less shots – Baer has shot a sizzling 123-for-223 (55.2 percent) and has shot better than 50 percent in seven of Akron's 11 games.
Teams with such a prominent scorer typically don't have much beyond that athlete, but Akron has
Jared Clarkson (15.2 scoring average) and
Garret Basler (10.7) also significantly contributing to the offense.
"What's unique is that Jared and Garret Basler, they've played with Brady since the second grade," Greg Clarkson said. "So when people see Brady jumping out at 30 or 32 points a game, they don't realize that he has a good supporting cast as well."
In Baer's 55-point performance, he shot 19-for-32 from the floor, including a gaudy 11-for-17 from beyond the three-point arc. He also drilled all six of his free throws and rounded out his line with six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
"I kind of had a rough first quarter, then I started just hitting them," said Baer, who said the pull-up jumper might be his best weapon. "The team was really cool about getting me the ball, and they didn't have to do that because we were up by a lot most the game. But they just kept feeding it to me and wanting me to score. I got hot and my teammates were there for me."
Now we'll see which colleges are there for Baer, who plays all over for the Rams but projects as a shooting guard at the next level.
What's certain is that he'll get unabashed endorsements from his coach, and most likely, most of his opponents.
"I've talked to anyone from junior colleges to major Division-I schools," Clarkson said. "I've talked to Portland State, San Francisco, Fort Hays has talked to me. I don't know which way Brady wants to go. At the 2A level he's phenomenal and he plays club ball with 5A kids.
"He's legit, and I think whoever gets him is going to be very happy."
