After a rocky freshman season in Los Angeles, point guard Jaden Owens confirmed on Tuesday that she would be transferring from UCLA to Baylor. Owens, one of the top recruits in the 2019 class, played in 27 games for the Bruins but averaged a hair under 10 minutes per game for a UCLA side that went 26-5.
During her freshman season, Owens struggled to find time on the court behind Pac-12 All-Conference senior guard Japreece Dean anchoring the starting role. Owens played more than 10 minutes just once in the final eight games of the season while averaging 2.6 points and 1.2 assists.
Baylor pursued Owens, a native of Texas, during her recruitment process as did Louisville, Ohio State, Texas and Mississippi State. Coming out of high school, ESPN ranked Owens as the No. 13 recruit nationally in the 2019 class.
ESPN’s Graham Hays spoke with Owens, who explained her decision to choose Baylor.
“It’s a winning program, and when you go there you have no other expectations but to win. It’s just going somewhere with great tradition, that wants to win and that’s close to home.”
Owens is the long-time girlfriend of LiAngelo Ball. The two featured heavily in the most recent seasons of the family’s Facebook series “Ball in the Family.”
