Minnesota surprises Baker

Cleveland Heights, Ohio, wide receiver Dorian Baker has been solid with Kentucky since committing in October, but wanted to take a couple official visits before Signing Day.

This past weekend, the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Baker took an official visit to Minnesota, and what he saw from the Golden Gophers surpassed expectations.

"It was phenomenal, I had a great time," Baker said. "It opened my eyes to new opportunities."

The surprises for Baker started when he first arrived on the Gopher's Twin Cities-based campus.

"I live in the city so I wasn't really looking for the urban campus thing, but when I actually got there it was so beautiful," Baker said. "There are so many opportunities and things you can do there at the campus."

Throughout the weekend, Baker continued to be impressed with the people around Minnesota's program.

"My host was De'Niro [Laster], who I went to school with last year," Baker said. "I met a lot of players that I didn't know, like Ra'Shede [Hageman], who is a great guy. I got a chance to sit down and talk to him a little bit and he told me about the system.

"I actually talked one-on-one with Coach [Jerry] Kill, which was great. He seems more of kind of a chill coach. I like his coaching style. He enforces a lot of good into the kids and puts a lot of effort into what he does. He's shows all his players the same love no matter who you are, and that's what I like."

A four-star prospect who is ranked as the No. 42 wide receiver nationally, Baker liked what he heard about his potential impact for the Gophers.

"They told me with my combination of speed and size, that would be a great fit for them," he said. "They don't have that one big guy yet, but they said I could be that guy."

Baker has also scheduled an official visit to Indiana for the weekend of Jan. 17, but first he will join many of his fellow Kentucky commits in Lexington starting this Friday for an official visit weekend.

"I am ecstatic to go down there," Baker said. "I have been talking to Drew Barker a lot lately and he's been telling me how much fun we're going to have down there. I'm looking forward to that."

In spite of the visits to Minnesota and Indiana, Baker said his commitment to Kentucky has not changed.

"I wasn't really expecting the things I experienced with Minnesota so I was very surprised when I went down there," Baker said, "but right now I am solid with Kentucky."

Minnesota coaches followed up the official visit with an in-school visit on Monday. Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops is expected to make his in-home visit with Baker on Tuesday.