Baron Staying Home
Heading into the July live period Billy Baron made it a point to let college coaches know he wanted to be recruited.
The assumption was that Baron would simply follow in his older brother’s footsteps and head to Rhode Island to suit up for his father, URI head coach Jim Baron. But for Baron, his destination was far from determined, and the fiercely competitive guard was anxious to prove that he was capable of playing at the highest level.
When it was all said and done Baron had done that and more.
Despite earning scholarship offers from Rutgers and Seton Hall and additional interest from the likes of Marquette, Virginia, Stanford, and Georgia Tech, Baron decided to end his recruitment on Saturday when he told his dad he was coming to play for him at the University of Rhode Island.
And while there are many compelling storylines to this commitment perhaps the most gripping is this…this decision was made by Billy Baron, not for him.
After a tremendous summer that saw his recruitment propel to the high-major levels, Baron had two solid high major offers on the table with potentially more to come. But once he got the opportunities he had always longed for, he gained the perspective to realize what he really wanted was the opportunity he has had from the beginning.
“I just realized this is where my heart is,” Baron said. “I want to win for my dad.”
As for the elder Baron, this had to have been a difficult situation for him. As a coach, of course he would want to add a player like his son, someone with the talent and intangibles to make an immediate impact at Rhody. But as a father, he was always careful not to pressure his son and instead encouraged him to investigate all of his options and pursue his dreams.
“My father will support me no matter what,” Billy Baron told the New England Recruiting Report in July. “No one wants to see me succeed more than he does and he supports me investigating all of my options.”
So how did Coach Baron react when finally getting the news from his younger son on Saturday?
“He was really happy, really happy,” Billy Baron said. “I told him not to question me at all. I had been thinking about this a lot and knew this is where I belonged.”
In the end, father and son both got what they wanted. Billy Baron proved that he was a high major talent and earned the right to pick his own destiny while Jim Baron got the joy of watching his son live out his dream, only to be rewarded by getting a player who can help lead URI to sustain the high levels of success they have achieved in recent years.
And now the rest of the Atlantic 10 has to deal with a URI program led by not just one Baron, but two....again.
Billy Baron