2008 Woodie Awards
Rams outlast Owls, win 90-63
Evan Crawley
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: Sports
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"We got into foul trouble early. Will [Daniels] got the foul trouble, Kahiem [Seawright] got the foul trouble and so did Jason [Francis], so the other guys stepped up," Rams head coach Jim Baron said. "We need to have that kind of depth, and I think that's going to be a big part of our basketball team to have eight, nine, 10 guys ready to go."
Senior Daniels and junior Seawright, both hampered by early foul trouble, struggled to stay on the floor as each only played 20 and 17 minutes respectively.
In their time on the floor, Daniels finished with seven points and eight rebounds and Seawright had just four points and one board, yet the Rams still managed to get the victory.
"It's tremendous to be honest, because we had other guys step up," Baron said. "We had really good balance, Parfait [Bitee] played a really solid game ... Jimmy [Baron] played aggressive."
If anything, the Rams proved that they could win without two of their top guns playing up to snuff, as junior Jimmy Baron and sophomore Keith Cothran stepped up to take control of the game.
Cothran, after sitting out the preseason due to what he called "a tough class," came on strong after a sluggish start to tie a career high in points with 17 to go with his four rebounds, four assists and three rebounds.
"I just gotta pick it up in the class and that's what's going to keep me on the floor and make me successful," Cothran said.
Balancing class with athletics is one of the most challenging things the players face. Teammate Jimmy Baron also touched on this, noting he was up until almost 4 a.m. studying for tests.
"I was up until 3:30 in the morning last night. There should be no tests on game day that's all I say," Jimmy Baron said.
However, it did not seem to affect him too much on the court, as Baron set a new career high en route to dropping 30 points on the Owls on 11-of-18 shooting from the field in 29 minutes of action.
"I got a lot of open looks, I definitely got to give a lot of credit to my teammates and the type of offense we run, how we space the floor out," Jimmy Baron said. "Anyone can go out there and have that kind of night, that's the kind of advantage we have with our guys."