SEASON PREVIEW: Could This Finally Be the Year for Jim Baron’s Rhody Rams?

Monday, November 08, 2010

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

Jim Baron is rock solid. As both a basketball coach and a man, Baron is a hard working man of integrity. His teams over the last nine years at the University of Rhode Island have reflected that.

Now entering his tenth season down in Kingston, Baron hopes to do something he has been unable to do in his previous nine campaigns – lead the Rams to the NCAA tournament.

NOTE: URI's season kicks off against the Pitt Panthers tonight - ranked fifth in the Associated Press poll and fourth on the coaches poll - have compiled a 75-1 home record against non-conference opponents at the Petersen Events Center.

Baron’s teams have won 89 games over the last four seasons which is the most victories in program history over any four year span. However, despite averaging more than 22 wins per season, none of those teams were able to make it to the NCAA tournament.

Last year, URI won 26 games making it all the way to Madison Square Garden in New York to the NIT semifinals. But the feeling around the program is that this is no longer enough. Surely Baron and his players would like nothing more than to make it to the NCAA tournament. Rhody fans are starving for an NCAA tournament berth. Could this be the year?

Over the years, Baron’s Rams have come out of the gates real fast playing extremely well in non conference games only to struggle at times in the Atlantic 10. The result has been the same each time. The Joe Lunardi’s of the world have URI as a virtual lock for the NCAA tournament in early January only to watch them slip slowly on to the bubble and eventually off of it and into the NIT.

This year, however, the formula may reverse itself. Rhode Island may struggle a bit out of the gates due to injuries and academics.

Big men Will Martell and Levan Shengelia will miss the first few weeks of the season due to injuries forcing Rhody to play smaller than they would like to. Guard Jamal Wilson is also on the shelf for a while due to injury and may not be back until late December or early January.

But the biggest loss may be that of 6’-9” junior forward Orion Outerbridge who appears to fit the mold of that URI player ready to make that quantum leap from descent contributor to big-time player. Outerbridge will miss the first semester for academic reasons but will return in late December.

Without those four players, winning a game like tonight’s contest at Pitt seems like quite a tall order. The good news is that by the time they take on Boston College and Florida to close out the non-conference portion of their schedule, those players should be back and ready to go for A-10 play.

It would certainly be a good thing if that were the case because the Rams have a difficult start to the A-10 schedule opening up at home against Xavier before traveling to Richmond.

Baron’s Rams will, once again, feature that up-tempo run and gun style of play. The Rams like to pressure their opponents defensively and get out quickly in transition before their opponents can set up on the defensive end of the floor.

Delroy James (13.2 ppg, 5.3 reb) will clearly be the Rams number one option offensively. However, the Rams should be balanced with Martell (7.5 ppg, 4.8 reb), Outerbridge (5.9 ppg, 3.0 reb), Marquis Jones (5.7 ppg, 1.5 reb, 4.1 apg) and Ben Eaves (3.1 ppg, 1.9 reb) all expected to step up their production from a year ago.

The Rams were selected to finish fifth this season in the Atlantic 10’s preseason poll:

1. Temple
2. Xavier
3. Richmond
4. Dayton
5. Rhode Island
6. St. Louis
7. Charlotte
8. Duquesne
9. LaSalle
10. George Washington
11. UMass
12. St. Joe’s
13. St. Bonaventure
14. Fordham

If Rhody were to finish fifth, that would probably put them right back in that frustrating position of being on the outside of the NCAA tournament bubble looking in meaning they would have to win the conference tournament to get the automatic bid.

The hope is that this year will be different.