Rhode Talk Interview

[rhodyfan3]

Hey guys,

So a while back in November we did an interview with Jimmy Baron (Episode 97 if you haven't heard it already). Afterwards, he asked if Kyle and I would like to have some of his teammates on for a group interview. Just last week we made it happen and it was a ton of fun.

The group consisted of Jimmy Baron, Marquis Jones, Will Martell, Kahiem Seawright, and Delroy James. It was incredible to get all 5 of these guys on at the same time, especially with some of them spread out across Europe and the US. The sound quality is not perfect, but we were able to Skype chat with them for well over an hour. I believe the interview portion is just about an hour (maybe less), but we ask them everything from recruiting, specific games/season (Syracuse, Duke, the end of the 07-08 season, Marquis vs. Dayton, & more), and they share some stories as well.

It should be ready to go on SoundCloud and iTunes later this evening. I will post the link when its all set. Any questions in the mean time ask away!

Also, just a quick thanks to a lot of you guys for listening throughout the season. We really appreciate it.

[rhodyfan3]

Here it is! Interview starts around 23:55.

iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rho ... 93236?mt=2


SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/rhodetalk/rt-ep- ... -interview

[TruePoint]

This is great stuff.

[rhodylocal]

Awesome to hear what it was like to play for Baron. Some funny stuff in that interview for sure.

[rhodyfan3]

Kyle and I talk about the interview a little bit at the beginning of the show. The #1 takeaway I had from all this was how tight this group was during college and after. The chemistry between them was awesome.
You expect college athletes to be very close with everything they experience together, but when you witness it first hand it’s pretty cool. Even years later you could tell Kahiem and Jimmy have a lot of respect from the younger guys. It’s almost like they went back in time and were in the locker room together.

[TruePoint]

One of the all-time saddest things for me as a sports fan is that the 2007-08 and 2008-09 teams didn’t dance. That was a tournament-quality team. The 07-08 team was better and was a lock and collapsed; the 08-09 team almost did the exact opposite thing and came from nowhere to get a bid but fell just short with that senior day loss to UMass - one of my all-time worst sports losses. No use in being mad at the coach about it now, 10 years later. Just sad.

If you could somehow combine the seasons and took the pre-Feb. 10 record for the 2007-08 team and the post-Feb. 10 record for the 2008-09 team, they’d have been 26-5 and probably a 4 or 5 seed. Damnit now I’m sad all over again.

[rhodyfan3]

One of the all-time saddest things for me as a sports fan is that the 2007-08 and 2008-09 teams didn’t dance. That was a tournament-quality team. The 07-08 team was better and was a lock and collapsed; the 08-09 team almost did the exact opposite thing and came from nowhere to get a bid but fell just short with that senior day loss to UMass - one of my all-time worst sports losses. No use in being mad at the coach about it now, 10 years later. Just sad.

If you could somehow combine the seasons and took the pre-Feb. 10 record for the 2007-08 team and the post-Feb. 10 record for the 2008-09 team, they’d have been 26-5 and probably a 4 or 5 seed. Damnit now I’m sad all over again.

When we asked them about the end of the 07-08 season they all paused and you could tell it still bothers them. We asked Jimmy before the show if it would be okay to ask, and he said we can ask but he didn’t have much to say. You could tell in their faces they wished it was different.

[urirx]

the 07-08 team... that one... still just shake my head. they would of been a first 4 team now, since I truly believe they were the first or second team out. Bit like St. John's was this year

[PeterRamTime]

the 07-08 team... that one... still just shake my head. they would of been a first 4 team now, since I truly believe they were the first or second team out. Bit like St. John's was this year

If the NIT is any indication on who was the last teans out, we were far out in 2008. We were just a six seed in the NIT.
So I'm thinking we majorly played ourselves out.

The resilience of the 2009 team was unquestionably great.

I mean they played a really tough non conference schedule.

PC
Duke
Penn State
Villanova
Oklahoma St.

Their issue was they only won one of those games and had to win a bunch of games in a row and all they had to do according to most people is beat stupid fucking Umass on Jimmy baron and kaheim seawrights senior day and then Matt ASS happened.

2010 was just as bad as both.

Great start like 2008

Recovered like 2009

Just needed to beat temple in the A-10 semis and we were in. But played atrociously.

Tough times. Great players.

[Ramulous]

My impression is that Jimmy is and was a great teammate......

I hope someday he gets into coaching because I believe he would be excellent....

I hope someday he coaches at Rhody.....

[ramster]

the 07-08 team... that one... still just shake my head. they would of been a first 4 team now, since I truly believe they were the first or second team out. Bit like St. John's was this year

If the NIT is any indication on who was the last teans out, we were far out in 2008. We were just a six seed in the NIT.
So I'm thinking we majorly played ourselves out.

The resilience of the 2009 team was unquestionably great.

I mean they played a really tough non conference schedule.

PC
Duke
Penn State
Villanova
Oklahoma St.

Their issue was they only won one of those games and had to win a bunch of games in a row and all they had to do according to most people is beat stupid fucking Umass on Jimmy baron and kaheim seawrights senior day and then Matt ASS happened.

2010 was just as bad as both.

Great start like 2008

Recovered like 2009

Just needed to beat temple in the A-10 semis and we were in. But played atrociously.

Tough times. Great players.

Those were times when we often won the first game but then lost the second game of the A10 Series because the opponent tended to make adjustments and we did not do so well with adjustments. We tended to swoon in February every year. Also we tended to lose the games that were nationally televised and sometimes by wide margins. Not like today whereby most every game can be found on TV or WIFI

A shame we did not leverage the first 10+ years of such a beautiful, new Ryan Center like we should or could have.

[reef]

Unfortunately CFLs teams usually peaked too early then we had the February swoon that we could never recover from

If I recall one year weren’t we 19-3 at one point ??

[rambone 78]

We were 19-2...then went to St. Louis and lost, went to Fordham and barely won.....and then the wheels completely came off after that.

Seems kind of strange that even now the guys on that team won't talk much about what happened. 2007-8

[PeterRamTime]

19-3 in both 08 and 10.

[rambone 78]

19-3 in both 08 and 10.

Correct. Missed by one lol.

[ramster]

2007-08 Season hurt
We were 19-3 and Nationally Ranked. The 3 losses were all on the road to BC, Dayton and St Louis
Then we swooned

The Creighton Loss @ Creighton in the NIT was a killer. We were up 17 points in the 2nd half

Will Daniels only played 24 minutes and finished with 3 Fouls. He only had 3 rebounds. Nobody could ever explain why Jim Baron chose to limit his best player to only 24 minutes. Rod always questioned Baron's motiva.tion on this. Appeared that Daniels and Baron had some kind of issue at the time.

Terrible way to close out such a promising 19-3 season


2/13/08 7:00 pm * at Temple 89-92 L-OT 4042 (26)DANIELS, Will (15)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem
2/18/08 7 p.m. * XAVIER 77-81 L 7657 (25)BITEE, Parfait (10)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem
2/21/08 7 p.m. * MASSACHUSETTS 91-98 L 7657 (25)DANIELS, Will (8)JAMES, Delroy
2/24/08 4 p.m. * SAINT JOSEPH'S 83-90 L 6834 (24)DANIELS, Will (5)MBANG, Joe (5)JAMES, Delroy
2/27/08 7:30 pm * at George Washington 68-85 L 2598 (24)DANIELS, Will (12)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem
3/1/08 2:00 PM * at La Salle W 91-85 3201 (18)BARON, Jimmy (5)DANIELS, Wil (5)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem
3/8/08 7 p.m. * CHARLOTTE 64-74 L 6538 (17)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem (15)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem
3/12/08 9 p.m. $ vs Charlotte 73-75 L 3955 (25)BARON, Jimmy (6)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem
3/18/08 9:05 pm ^ at Creighton 73-74 L 7948 (16)DANIELS, Will (10)SEAWRIGHT, Kahiem

[steviep123]

Whelp!

[TruePoint]

One thing I didn’t and still don’t give a damn about is an NIT loss after you squander away a sure bid and end up in the NIT. Just wanted it over at that point and welcomed the end. If that game had any meaning at all, it was as a microcosm of the entire season.

[PeterRamTime]

One thing I didn’t and still don’t give a damn about is an NIT loss after you squander away a sure bid and end up in the NIT. Just wanted it over at that point and welcomed the end. If that game had any meaning at all, it was as a microcosm of the entire season.

The most nightmarish microcosm.

[scine20]

In my mind the worst loss throughout the entire era was the UMass home loss at the end of the 2008-2009 season. UMass wasn't very good that year and all they had to do was win and they'd have had a good shot at getting into the tournament. But of course they lost. And I remember listening to the postgame show and Baron was blaming whomever was supposed to guard the UMass PG that had the layup at the end. "I told him to guard him!"

[steviep123]

In my mind the worst loss throughout the entire era was the UMass home loss at the end of the 2008-2009 season. UMass wasn't very good that year and all they had to do was win and they'd have had a good shot at getting into the tournament. But of course they lost. And I remember listening to the postgame show and Baron was blaming whomever was supposed to guard the UMass PG that had the layup at the end. "I told him to guard him!"

Was that Baron's last year? I was at that game. I think Jones hit 2 free throws to take the lead, then UMass won. I was beside myself!

[scine20]

In my mind the worst loss throughout the entire era was the UMass home loss at the end of the 2008-2009 season. UMass wasn't very good that year and all they had to do was win and they'd have had a good shot at getting into the tournament. But of course they lost. And I remember listening to the postgame show and Baron was blaming whomever was supposed to guard the UMass PG that had the layup at the end. "I told him to guard him!"

Was that Baron's last year? I was at that game. I think Jones hit 2 free throws to take the lead, then UMass won. I was beside myself!

Yes. It was disgraceful. I used to defend Jim Baron but after that I was done.

And then the next year they did the same thing, granted it was on the road. But losing to mediocre UMass twice in two years with a potential NCAA berth on the line is indefensible.

If someone wanted to argue that the Baron teams were more talented than the Hurley teams I wouldn't fight it. I'm not sure they were as top heavy but they were deeper IMO. The 2007-2008 team and probably 2008-2009 team were deeper than any team Hurley ever had. And likely deeper than half the team in the tourney those years.

[rhodyfan3]

In my mind the worst loss throughout the entire era was the UMass home loss at the end of the 2008-2009 season. UMass wasn't very good that year and all they had to do was win and they'd have had a good shot at getting into the tournament. But of course they lost. And I remember listening to the postgame show and Baron was blaming whomever was supposed to guard the UMass PG that had the layup at the end. "I told him to guard him!"

Was that Baron's last year? I was at that game. I think Jones hit 2 free throws to take the lead, then UMass won. I was beside myself!

Yes. It was disgraceful. I used to defend Jim Baron but after that I was done.

And then the next year they did the same thing, granted it was on the road. But losing to mediocre UMass twice in two years with a potential NCAA berth on the line is indefensible.

If someone wanted to argue that the Baron teams were more talented than the Hurley teams I wouldn't fight it. I'm not sure they were as top heavy but they were deeper IMO. The 2007-2008 team and probably 2008-2009 team were deeper than any team Hurley ever had. And likely deeper than half the team in the tourney those years.

Baron coached here until 2011-2012.

[steviep123]

In my mind the worst loss throughout the entire era was the UMass home loss at the end of the 2008-2009 season. UMass wasn't very good that year and all they had to do was win and they'd have had a good shot at getting into the tournament. But of course they lost. And I remember listening to the postgame show and Baron was blaming whomever was supposed to guard the UMass PG that had the layup at the end. "I told him to guard him!"

Was that Baron's last year? I was at that game. I think Jones hit 2 free throws to take the lead, then UMass won. I was beside myself!

Yes. It was disgraceful. I used to defend Jim Baron but after that I was done.

And then the next year they did the same thing, granted it was on the road. But losing to mediocre UMass twice in two years with a potential NCAA berth on the line is indefensible.

If someone wanted to argue that the Baron teams were more talented than the Hurley teams I wouldn't fight it. I'm not sure they were as top heavy but they were deeper IMO. The 2007-2008 team and probably 2008-2009 team were deeper than any team Hurley ever had. And likely deeper than half the team in the tourney those years.

I can't disagree. Baron certainly had some talented and deep teams, but poorly coached. A few of those teams absolutely should have made the dance.

[scine20]

Was that Baron's last year? I was at that game. I think Jones hit 2 free throws to take the lead, then UMass won. I was beside myself!

Yes. It was disgraceful. I used to defend Jim Baron but after that I was done.

And then the next year they did the same thing, granted it was on the road. But losing to mediocre UMass twice in two years with a potential NCAA berth on the line is indefensible.

If someone wanted to argue that the Baron teams were more talented than the Hurley teams I wouldn't fight it. I'm not sure they were as top heavy but they were deeper IMO. The 2007-2008 team and probably 2008-2009 team were deeper than any team Hurley ever had. And likely deeper than half the team in the tourney those years.

Baron coached here until 2011-2012.

We were referring to Jimmy Baron.

[rhodyfan3]

Yes. It was disgraceful. I used to defend Jim Baron but after that I was done.

And then the next year they did the same thing, granted it was on the road. But losing to mediocre UMass twice in two years with a potential NCAA berth on the line is indefensible.

If someone wanted to argue that the Baron teams were more talented than the Hurley teams I wouldn't fight it. I'm not sure they were as top heavy but they were deeper IMO. The 2007-2008 team and probably 2008-2009 team were deeper than any team Hurley ever had. And likely deeper than half the team in the tourney those years.

Baron coached here until 2011-2012.

We were referring to Jimmy Baron.

Sorry. Got a little confused.

[UCH21377]

That UMass game , everyone in the building knew the lefty point guard was going to take the shot. Ulmer got pucked off, nobody really picked him up, game over . A lot of squandered talent on those teams