2008 Woodie Awards
Rams get 92-72 win, but Baron takes the cake
Evan Crawley
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Sports
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"To get the 300th win was really tremendous, and to do it here, at the Ryan Center, in front of so many fans, the community, my family," coach Baron said.
After the game, the team gathered with Baron and his family at center court, presenting him with a cake congratulating him for the milestone in his coaching career.
"We've been able to do it the right way with developing student athletes, and it's great to do that here and have a place like the Ryan Center," coach Baron said.
Baron's big night was nearly spoiled by the Huskies' Matt Janning, who almost single-handedly willed Northeastern to victory on his way to a career high 34 points.
Senior Parfait Bitee was one of the few Rams who had the unenviable task of trying to slow Janning down.
"Every night is a different style, and you're going to play against different players," Bitee said. "I was just trying to let my teammates to help because I can't do it all by myself."
However, junior Jimmy Baron, along with the Cameroon connection of seniors Bitee and Joe Mbang, made sure coach Baron's achievement would not be delayed.
Baron and Bitee netted 17 points each for the Rams, while Mbang bounced back after a few rough games with his best performance of the year, finishing one rebound shy of a double-double with 16 points and nine boards.
"We never gave up on [Mbang], and I've challenged him in the last week to really step up, and he's that kind of player," coach Baron said.
The bench came up big for the Rams, with Mbang, sophomores Keith Cothran and Lamonte Ulmer and freshman Marquis Jones combining for 44 points in relief of the starters.
"Will [Daniels] got into foul trouble and that really held him back for this game, but I thought our bench did a great job coming on and sharing the basketball," coach Baron said.
Daniels struggled his way to eight points in just 18 minutes of play, which allowed the Huskies to hang with Rhody for most of the game.
Northeastern even tied the game at 59-59 with 11:57 to go in the game, the first time Rhody had not held the lead since they trailed 16-14. Bitee remained confident even without Daniels playing up to snuff, relying on his trust in his teammates.
"We tried to keep everybody together, because together we know we can achieve a lot," Bitee said.
After trading baskets, Cothran tipped the balance in the Rams' favor, converting on back-to-back lay-ups to give the Rams a 65-60 lead.
The second of the two woke up a sleeping giant in the Rhody crowd, as Cothran froze one Husky defender before slicing between two more and laying it up and in.
This spurned a 12-2 Rhody run, highlighted by a thunderous two-handed slam off the fast break from Mbang and an Ulmer throw down off a Jimmy Baron lob pass.
"The dunk is more exciting, I think when the fans come into the gym it's the one thing they want to see every night," Mbang said. "If you could dunk every time, they're going to come back and be there every single night."
Each dunk brought the 4,300 fans in attendance to their feet, and the extra support was all the Rams needed to finish off the Huskies.
"I really want to thank the student body you know, coming out tonight, because we really need them," Mbang said. "By them yelling, that makes us really happy on the floor because we know we have someone out there supporting us."
Coach Baron spent a portion of his day on campus trying to get as many fans as possible to fill the Ryan Center to help energize his team, passing out fliers encouraging fans to "come support your basketball team tonight," and to "rock the Ryan Center."
"I'm not afraid to do that, I've done that at Bonaventure and every place I've been, because they [the fans] are a really important part," coach Baron said. "I hope they can come out for Saturday's game because we're really going to need them."
Saturday the Rams will play the second game of a four-game home stand against the University of New Hampshire.
"We have New Hampshire on Saturday at one-o-clock, and they're going to be very aggressive," coach Baron said. "We just got to continue to take it one-by-one."