5-ON-5 WITH RHODE ISLAND'S JIM BARON                                                                                                                   >>> CollegeInsider.com

DAVE MAGARITY: During your first season, as an assistant at Rochester, what opened your eyes most about coaching?

JIM BARON: The first and most important thing I learned was the importance of building relationships with the players. This was very important to me as a player at St. Bonaventure. Rochester is an excellent institution and was a great way for me to start my coaching career.

MAGARITY: In your time spent at St. Francis (PA) did you have an opportunity to read about some of the great accomplishments of alumnus, David Magarity?

BARON: (laughing) Dave was a great player and is a terrific coach. He’s a better person than he is a coach. He’s doing an excellent job at Marist now.

MAGARITY: In addition to St. Francis, you resurrected basketball at St. Bonaventure, talk about your keys to laying a solid foundation.

BARON: A lot of what I learned came from the six years I spent as an assistant to Digger Phelps at Notre Dame. You have to build your success on the student-athletes. You have to recruit the right type of individual; one who wants to succeed on the court and in the classroom. It just so happened that St. Francis was a school built on Franciscan values. I spent time at my alma mater, St. Bonaventure, as an assistant to Jim Satalin, and those values were driven into me. When I came back as head coach it was an easy sell because AI believed in the program, the tradition and the values. The environment was conducive to learning and playing. There are very few distractions in Olean, N.Y.

MAGARITY: Every year, at the Final Four, you have helped run the basketball clinics for Special Olympians. Talk about your involvement with this terrific cause.

BARON: The Special Olympics is something I’ve always believed I need to do. It gives me the opportunity to extend myself to those less fortunate. My assistant coaches and even my son, Jimmy, have been involved in the work of Special Olympics. I do this every year because it helps keep everything else in proper perspective. To see a smile on a face of a Special Olympian is far better than any win.

MAGARITY: I understand your wife, Cindy, is a tremendous artist. Any chance that we will see a painting of Mr. Jim Baron and any chance she could do a painting of me?

BARON: Once Cindy painted a portrait of me and I think that forced her to get into specializing in painting landscapes. She tries not to paint many portraits. She’s very demanding and a perfectionist. And portraits are oftentimes in the eye of the beholder. Since then she has concentrated on landscapes and nautical scenes.

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