Baylor makes signing of basketball transfer Dale Bonner official
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WACO, Texas – Baylor men’s basketball has signed transfer guard Dale Bonner to a Financial Aid Contract, head coach Scott Drew announced Tuesday.
Bonner, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound guard, has played the last two seasons for Fairmont State in Fairmont, W.Va., which competes in the NCAA Division II Mountain East Conference. He will have three years of remaining eligibility when he joins the Bears this summer.
“Dale is someone who we targeted because he’s a high character young man with a tremendous work ethic,” Drew said. “He has seen the success we’ve had developing guards, and he wants to continue that tradition. We believe he’s a perfect fit for our program and we’re excited to welcome him into the Baylor Family.”
A Shaker Heights, Ohio, native, Bonner redshirted as a true freshman in 2018-19 before starting all 50 games over the Falcons’ last two seasons. He led Fairmont State in scoring in both seasons, averaging 17.8 points per game in 30 games as a freshman in 2019-20 and 21.2 points per game in 20 games as a sophomore in 2020-21.
Bonner led Fairmont State to a 38-12 record during his two years in uniform, including a 23-7 mark as a redshirt freshman in 2019-20 and a 15-5 record last season. The Falcons went a combined 28-10 in Mountain East Conference play during Bonner’s two years of competition.
In addition to leading Fairmont State in scoring each of the last two seasons, Bonner also led the Falcons in assists with 5.3 per game as a freshman and 4.5 per game as a sophomore and steals with 2.3 per game as a freshman and 2.0 per game as a sophomore. He shot a combined .404 from 3-point range (84-of-208), including a jump to nearly 44 percent as a sophomore (45-of-103). He also improved his free throw percentage from .681 as a freshman to .797 as a sophomore.
Bonner is the second player to transfer to Baylor from a lower NCAA Division in recent years. He follows Freddie Gillespie, who joined the Bears in 2017 after two years at Division III Carleton College, developed into the 2020 Big 12 Most Improved Player and an All-Big 12 Second Team selection, and is now playing on a two-year contract with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.
Bonner’s addition gives the Bears five signees enrolling for the 2021-22 season. He joins Arizona transfer James Akinjo, who was an All-Pac 12 First Team honoree last season, as well as three high school signees who combined to form the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history – Kendall Brown, Langston Love and Jeremy Sochan.
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