Sad news at La Tech

[ADLER]

Sad signing day

Monroe News-Star story

National Signing Day is going to be bittersweet for the Louisiana Tech men's basketball team. Normally, it's a time of excitement for teams as they add signees.

The mood will be more tempered for the Bulldogs after learning Willie Baker Jr. - the nephew of Tech assistant coach Charles Baker - was killed in a one-car auto accident over the weekend in Little Rock, Ark.

Baker Jr. was supposed to sign with the Bulldogs on Wednesday.

"He was taking some friends home and he dropped the alst one off and aid he was tired and needed to get some sleep,'' Baker said. "He never made it.''

According to the Arkansas State Police report, Baker Jr. killed early Saturday when his sport utility vehicle ran off Interstate 430 in Little Rock.

Baker Jr., 17, was driving north on the interstate at 2:29 a. m. Saturday when his GMC Envoy left the road and traveled in the air about 150 feet, according to a state police report. The car landed on Colonel Glenn Road, where it struck the overpass and caught fire, the report states.

Baker Jr., was a combo guard from Mills University Studies High School in Little Rock and would have been part of Tech's signing day class.

Tech senior guard Marcus Elliott said the team was stunned because they all got to know Baker Jr., during the recruiting process.

"Everybody talked to him,'' Elliott said. "We've got to let (Coach Baker) grieve and mourn.''

posted by The News-Star at 11:22 PM

[gksmith]

Man does that sound familier.

Pray for the La Tech MBB team.