April Fools Day, 1999

[jcru]

I remember from talking to Rod off site many many times, how, we used to think that the hiring of Jerry D was the worst thing that ever happened to the URI basketball program.

Until, they hired Jim Baron. The reason being, they were so embarrassed by Jerry D, and we the fan base were basically going ape sht on that Projo site, that they had no choice but to buy him out. I never ever booed in Keaney Gym for the home team except one game in Jerry's second year when he was coach, and they were getting blown out of the place by the other team, and so many people turned around and stared right at me. They were furious. I felt so bad, I never did it again.

When Jim Baron was hired, he was a nice, decent man who was just competent enough to get his 20 win seasons and a cloud of dust every year, so he wasn't going anywhere. Took a long long time to get rid of him, and you could tell from day one that was going to be the case. Between him, and his sons, etc. I'm surprised they pulled the plug when the younger son still hadn't had the opportunity to put a Rhody jersey on yet. I was actually dumb founded by that, you could tell Jim Sr. was counting on Billy to allow him to milk out a few more seasons.

[bigappleram]

Pretty sure Billy played 1 year for his Dad at Rhody…the last year of his tenure.

[RF1]

Pretty sure Billy played 1 year for his Dad at Rhody…the last year of his tenure.

Half a season

[jcru]

Wow, I just had to look up Billy Baron's college stats. I don't remember him playing at URI, and I definitely didn't remember him playing at the University of Virginia the year before that.

In my mind, that makes it even worse. Because he wasn't able to recruit his own son to URI originally, but when he knew the knives were getting close, he has his son transfer over. And then right before he was let go, wasn't Billy basically saying he wouldn't leave if they kept his father on, something to that affect?

The manipulation, and it was there from day one, is why I could never warm up to that guy. It may have been subtle but it was there.

[jcru]

I distinctly recall on these message boards, people saying "Is Billy going to save his father's job?"

[Billyboy78]

Wow, I just had to look up Billy Baron's college stats. I don't remember him playing at URI, and I definitely didn't remember him playing at the University of Virginia the year before that.

In my mind, that makes it even worse. Because he wasn't able to recruit his own son to URI originally, but when he knew the knives were getting close, he has his son transfer over. And then right before he was let go, wasn't Billy basically saying he wouldn't leave if they kept his father on, something to that affect?

The manipulation, and it was there from day one, is why I could never warm up to that guy. It may have been subtle but it was there.

I think I remember Billy being at the event when Dan was being introduced as the new coach.

[jcru]

Yeah, I remember that. I remember thinking, that's cute.

Then he left for Canisius

[NYGFan_Section208]

Wow, I just had to look up Billy Baron's college stats. I don't remember him playing at URI, and I definitely didn't remember him playing at the University of Virginia the year before that.

In my mind, that makes it even worse. Because he wasn't able to recruit his own son to URI originally, but when he knew the knives were getting close, he has his son transfer over. And then right before he was let go, wasn't Billy basically saying he wouldn't leave if they kept his father on, something to that affect?

The manipulation, and it was there from day one, is why I could never warm up to that guy. It may have been subtle but it was there.

Wasn't around for that, but it doesn't sound very subtle....

[jcru]

That part wasn't at all. I'm referring to the early days. I think as people got to know him and started figuring him out, it went from subtle to much more "in your face".

[SGreenwell]

I kind of hesitate to assign any weird Machiavellian mindset to Jim Baron, who was a pretty hard worker but not especially creative mind when it came to basketball strategy. Like, the guy would start a center for basically five minutes, just because he thought it was important to have a tall guy out there at the start of the game. Both of his sons have had successful pro careers for about a decade each, and most players of that era only have good things to say about the family in like interviews that RV and Scott Brand do.

Billy Baron wasn't playing a ton at Virginia, and in those days if you were transferring down, it was pretty reasonable to go from the ACC to a mid-major like the Atlantic 10. He also played well here (17.6 PER), and played even better when he transferred further down to Canisius, and he's had a successful pro career that's still going on into his 30s. It strikes me as reasonable that after thinking on it for a few days, he decided he couldn't stay at the school that fired his father.

Jim Baron ultimately wasn't great at late game management and recruiting, and it eventually had a cascading effect that caused him to bottom out in his final years here. We don't need to project some weird malice on to his actions. He was just trying to do a job and failed at it, which happens to pretty much everyone at some point in their lives.

[jcru]

The whole Jim Baron, Billy Baron scenario is a great example of how different people perceive the same event, depending on if you are someone close to the program or a peripheral fan.

My older brother is a URI alum, big fan of Basketball and Football, but not a member of any of these forums and never has been. but yet follows the program through the local sports news mostly. Its actually amazing how much info he gets from those types of sources. I only really see him a couple of times a year on major holidays. When I go over his house, the first thing out of his mouth after shaking my hand and giving me a big bear hug is usually something about URI sports, either basketball or football, he always has his alma mater on the brain. That year, on Thanksgiving, as I walk through the door: "hey, so is Billy Baron here to save his father's job?"

Compare that to the typical KeaneyBlue die hard: No, no! Nothing unusual about any of this going on. Billy simply want to transfer from Virginia after one year, even though he was getting plenty of playing time for a freshman. Nothing un-Kosher or unusual about any of this. Why would you think that??

And that's always going to be the divide. Rod used to call it: "being too close to the forest to see the trees." sometimes things that seem blatantly obvious and interpreted by the peripheral fan, are completely oblivious on a site like this, as the "friends of Baron" circle the wagons for a coach on the brink of losing his job.

[jcru]

But having Billy Baron attend the Dan Hurley introductory press conference, Dan forced to awkwardly say something like, we're going to try to keep the players. Again, that's cute. URI can be really cute when they want to be. everyone else slapping their forehead like that cartoon picture you have for an avatar.

[Blue Man]

But having Billy Baron attend the Dan Hurley introductory press conference, Dan forced to awkwardly say something like, we're going to try to keep the players. Again, that's cute. URI can be really cute when they want to be. everyone else slapping their forehead like that cartoon picture you have for an avatar.

Dan Hurley was hired March 20th.
Baron hired at Canisus less than 2 weeks later on April 2nd.
NLI period for spring recruiting that year was 4/11-5-16.
Billy transferred 6/20

idk why we have to keep re-hashing this.

If it was going to be so hard to play here for Dan, he had nearly 2 months to transfer in good faith and give URI a chance to fill his spot.

[jcru]

That's essentially my gripe in a nutshell. There was no good faith by the Barons at the end there.

[OBRAM]

Happy Jim Harrick day

[NHRamFan]

25 Years ago. Might be time to retire the angst over this....

[steviep123]

I'm over it...what I'm not over is the URI administration dropping the ball each time they have a chance to make themselves into something more. A better hire than Jerry D as well as Baron would have led to something other than a nearly 20 year drought. Making the needed changes and better infrastructure and assistant coaches pay in 2015 or 2016 may have kept Hurley around for longer, or at least had a better class of replacements than David Cox (though I still maintain, based on what was said to be the list of finalists, Cox was probably the best choice, though the execution didn't pan out - hindsight being 20/20 though Micah Shrewsberry is who we should have hired, though really who knows). Hopefully we have and continue to keep and improve the necessary infrastructure to allow Miller to be successful.

[RF1]

It doesn't seem like 25 years ago. One of the strangest days in URI basketball history. All the emotional twists of highs and lows just in that single day kind of encapsulated what it has been like to be a Rhody hoops fan for the last five decades which have been a series of many program peaks and valleys.