UTEP Women’s Basketball: Kevin Baker is UTEP’s new head coach

After piling up 50 wins the past two seasons at Angelo State University, Kevin Baker heads west to fill UTEP’s head coaching vacancy for the women’s basketball program.

Baker hit the turnaround jackpot in his first season at Angelo State in the 2015-16 season winning 24-games in his first season, and led the Belles to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly a decade.

Angelo State scored 2,424 points the most in a single season in school history along with the third highest scoring average (78.3) in school history in just his first season.

This past season Angelo State went 26-6 overall, and 15-4 in conference play and averaged 80.4 points per game under Baker.

Baker, who was previously the master behind UT Tyler’s three best seasons in program history, was named the 10th head women’s basketball coach at Angelo State University on April 23, 2015.

In three seasons at the helm of UT Tyler, Baker went 72-16 and guided the Patriots to their first NCAA Division III Sweet 16 in school history. UT-Tyler won two American Southwest Conference Championships and won 27 games in back-to-back seasons. He was named American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year three times and was selected as the D3Hoops.com South Region Coach of the Year in 2014.

Under the leadership of Baker, UT-Tyler set the school record for wins in 2012-13 with 18 in his first season and broke the record again in 2013-14 with 27 wins. A total of 11 players earned all-conference honors including four academic all-conference honorees. The Patriots averaged 74.9 points per game in Baker’s three season and held opponents to 59.3 points per game. UT-Tyler was sixth nationally in 2014-15 scoring 80.2 points per game.

A Lufkin, Texas native, Baker was one of the top high school coaches in the women’s game in Texas, and got his start in the college game as a recruiting coordinator at West Texas A&M.