Barker is a good example of needing to find a team with a good fit for her and she just hasn't done that:
-originally committed to Georgia, an average SEC program that is very defensive focused. Never seemed like a good fit.
-Decommitted and followed Taylor to A&M where Joni had to build from nothing. First year was rough, 2nd year went better but A&M didn't look like a team poised to become a Sweet 16 caliber school in the next few years. Barker enters the portal for the first time.
-Janiah transferred after 2 years to UCLA rumored to be due to a relationship. UCLA was one of the only schools in the country that had zero use for her services with Dugalic and Gardiner already on the roster. Cori Close warned her that it might not be a good fit since UCLA had players in front of her and is a much more structured system, but Barker insisted she wanted to come anyway. She stayed 1 year, it wasn't a good fit, then she entered the portal.
-Barker joined Tennessee which looked like a decent fit on paper except they already had Zee Spearman on the roster who is incredibly similar to Barker. Tennessee also has a brand new team with only 2 of their 7 top scorers back and a roster fully of highly touted freshmen playing in an unorthodox platoon style system that has high highs and low lows. It worked pretty well a year ago, and it hasn't worked well this season.
I will say, I do think her draft stock is up from where it was the last couple of years but her collegiate career has been a disappointment relative to expectations coming in. She was the #3 recruit in a solid class and a major standout at the McDonald's All American game. In hindsight a lot of players from the 2022 class were improperly ranked but the general consensus is that Barker should've become a much better player than she has.
