Rams Win Family Affair
KINGSTON, R.I. – Tuesday night might have seemed an odd time for a family affair at the Ryan Center. A rather small crowd gathered to see the last in-state battle of the season in Rhode Island, but those who came got their money’s worth.
The Rams gave the home crowd a 72-68 victory over Brown in a game that featured, but wasn’t limited to, the spectacular shooting of two wing guards. Brown junior Damon Huffman, playing in just his third game of the season, scored a career-high 30 points on 9-12 shooting, including 8-11 on three-pointers. His opposite number, sophomore Jimmy Baron, scored a career-high 28 on 8-10 shooting, going 8-9 from three-point range. Several of their shots weren’t from right behind the line.
They weren’t trying to compete with one another by themselves, but at times it almost looked like it was a game to see who could top the other. It’s not often you see two shooters combine to go 16-20 from long range in a game. Brown head coach Craig Robinson remembers games like this only from his professional days; Baron, who has long been known for his shooting, remembers going at it for a few years in high school with Jeff Xavier, who is sitting out this year at Providence after transferring from Manhattan. (That means they will have at it two more times the next two seasons.)
“I don’t remember a college game like this,” said Robinson, who is in his first season as head coach of the Bears.
Baron is the son of Rams head coach Jim Baron, and it’s not hard to tell. The younger Baron, known for his shooting (Robinson called him a “spectacular shooter”), plays like the son of a coach with his knowledge of the game, although he is certainly not beyond needing more instruction.
“After the PC game, I told him, ‘there’s no way you can do what you did’ against Providence,” said the elder Baron after Jimmy took just three shots in a blowout loss to the Friars two days earlier. “You have to be aggressive attacking the bucket. You have to continue to take it off the dribble once in a while. You’re too good of a player.”
Jimmy made his first start of the season a good one, scoring 14 points in the first half and staking the Rams to a 35-29 halftime lead. There were stretches in the second half where he didn’t get the ball much, but when the Rams went back to him, he was up to the task. His last shot, a three from the right corner with 4:15 left, put the Rams up 64-59 and stopped a 9-0 run by the Bears, who still had a chance to tie in the final seconds.
After the game, there were some good father-son moments. They don’t happen often, at least not for public consumption, and it’s not because they aren’t close. Jimmy is a good young man and good student; indeed, for those who know his father, one can see that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. But the elder Baron isn’t one to talk about his son much, and it all goes to the difficulty for any honest person like him of coaching a son. Part of that challenge is not playing favorites or even giving the appearance of it, something that on the surface would not seem difficult for him to do since he will suspend or not start a player for things that others may let slide.
“It’s very challenging, but I know how hard he works at it, his teammates know how hard he works at it, my assistants know how hard he works at it,” the elder Baron said of his son. “He puts in the time. That makes it a lot easier.”
Indeed, for all we know Baron may even try too hard to avoid the appearance of playing favorites with his son. In a light moment during the post-game press conference, Jimmy said, with a smile, “For the first time in my career, he made a positive comment in the locker room in front of the teammates, so that was a step in the right direction, I think.”
That and a few other comments from them made for a light atmosphere, especially since Baron understandably tends to keep the family aspect close to home. So when Jimmy was still around and the last question asked was if he would get another start, there were a few laughs as Jimmy said he stayed in the room to hear the answer to that question.
“He’s going to have to be consistent,” was all his father would offer.
