6th Recruit!

In case you missed it, Tony Bennett added a 6th member to his 2010 recruiting class yesterday. The newest Hoo is point guard Billy Baron, a three-star recruit from Worcester, Massachusetts who chose the Cavaliers over Rhode Island, Rutgers, Stanford, Harvard, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt. Baron has been described as a scoring-first point guard and as a "power guard" by Cavs Corner's Chris Wallace.


Baron's commitment is especially interesting for quite a few reasons:

1) For the 2010-2011 season, Baron is slated to be our 14th player on scholarship. The NCAA maximum is 13. So this means that not only is Coach Bennett bracing for some attrition this offseason, he's expecting it and planning on it. The logical guesses for sources of Baron's scholarship are via Tristan Spurlock transferring or Sylven Landesberg going pro (either to the NBA or to Europe.) Assane Sene transferring and Mike Scott heading to Europe are also possibilities about which I've heard various rumblings.

2) Billy Baron's father, Jim Baron, is the head coach at Rhode Island. Billy committed early to his father and to URI, but never signed a letter on intent to play for the Rams. Because his father is a member of the URI faculty, Billy was not going to be a scholarship player at Rhode Island. Thus, he did not sign a national letter of intent as other recruits do... which left him open and able to explore his options, and to realize his dream of playing in a college basketball "power conference," like the ACC.

3) Billy's older brother Jimmy played for his dad at Rhode Island and was a star for the Rams. Jimmy scored 1,765 points during his college career, including an impressive 361 made three pointers on a 42% shooting clip. Billy is said to be on par with his older brother at this same stage of development.

4) He's a scorer, but Billy Baron is a point guard all the way. So he will join Jontel Evans and Sammy Zeglinski in the battle for minutes at the 1 next year. Given Evans' severe offensive limitations and Zeglinski's transition into more of a shooting guard / combo role, Baron could be in line for quite a lot of playing time as a true freshman.


All in all, I think this is a very interesting and exciting development. Coach Bennett continues to add Bennett-style players to the roster, and at this point has assembled an entire starting lineup with this 2010 recruiting class.

PG) Billy Baron
SG) K.T. Harrell
SF) Joe Harris
PF) Will Regan
C) James Johnson
6th Man) Akil Mitchell

I can't wait for the "Super Six" to hit Grounds this summer, and to see them suit up and play for the Hoos in November.