Friday morning, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Virginia Tech will interview Rhode Island men's basketball coach Jim Baron for the vacant VT job. No, not the Jim Baron that played on the defensive line for the Virginia Tech football team in the mid-90's, but a middle-aged basketball coach who knows a thing or three about rebuilding basketball programs.

And VT's got a basketball program that needs to be rebuilt.

First, Baron's vitals, in case you haven't read any other articles yet. Baron turned 49 about a week ago, and he has 25 years of coaching experience, including 16 years as a head coach, at St. Francis (Pa.) (1987-92), St. Bonaventure (1992-01), and Rhode Island (2001-present).

His career record is "only" 232-233, but behind that .499 winning percentage is another story. Baron took over a St. Francis program that had suffered through six straight losing seasons and four years later, in 1990-91, the Red Flash went 24-8 (setting a team record for wins), won the Northeast Conference title, and made the only NCAA Tournament appearance in school history.

Baron moved on to St. Bonaventure, his alma mater, in 1992 and revived a program that had gone 22-60 over the previous three years. He won the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year award in 1994-95 and led the Bonnies to a 39-21 mark over his last two seasons, including a trip to the Big Dance in 2000, their first NCAA bid in 22 years. In a great first-round game, St. Bonaventure pushed heavily favored Kentucky to their limits before losing 85-80 in double overtime.

Then he went to Rhode Island, a team that had had great success under NCAA bad boy Jim Harrick, going to the Elite 8 in 1998 and making another Tournament appearance in 1999. But the Rams slipped badly under Harrick's replacement, Jerry DeGregorio, going a combined 12-48 in 1999-2000 (5-25) and 2000-2001 (7-23).

Baron replaced Harrick and instilled a regimen of hard work, intense practices, and high academic standards. Rhode Island went 8-20 in Baron's first year and then blew up in his second year, going 19-12 and making the NIT in 2002-03.

If you're counting, Baron has resurrected three programs, and not by cheating or slight of hand.

"A lot of it starts off the court --- in the classroom, in the weight room," Baron says in his bio page on Rhode Island's web site. "We�re establishing an attitude of taking care of business on and off the court. We�re stressing what�s important about being a student-athlete at Rhode Island.

"Approach, attitude, work ethic, preparation. These are the types of things you can do to set yourself up to be successful. It�s important to work, to put the time in, to prepare. You can�t half-step it."

That's tough talk from coach Baron, centered around discipline. But he's not just a taskmaster. He gets the alumni fired up and gets the student body involved, qualities that have been missing from the last two Virginia Tech coaches, Bobby Hussey and Ricky Stokes. Hussey and Stokes were different personalities, but the result was the same: they never got the alumni and students fired up and involved.

In October of 2002, URI was preparing to play their first season in their brand-new, $54 million Ryan Center, a basketball and concert arena that seats 7,571 fans. Baron and his coaching staff promoted a free preseason scrimmage by visiting dorms and cafeterias on campus and passing out flyers.

The students who attended the scrimmage were treated to the Rhode Island cheerleaders, pep band, dance team, and free T-shirts launched into the stands. Baron took the microphone and talked to the students about the importance of having them at the games, and what a difference they could make. The Rams then went through a full scrimmage, followed by a student slam dunk contest and a player slam dunk contest.

The kicker? Free pizza was provided for everyone in attendance. This is a guy who knows how to connect with students.

Just two months prior to that, recognizing Baron's ability to interact with students, school officials selected him to speak to URI's 2,400-member incoming freshman class and welcome them to campus.

In a December 26th, 2002 article, Mike Rego of East Bay Newspapers wrote of Baron:

"Baron�s best attribute to date has been his ability to breathe a sense of renewed enthusiasm into the Rhody faithful. The coach bangs on dorm room doors, gyrates on the sideline, hugs his players, and gets on the microphone to thank fans after games."

The result? Rhode Island's attendance shot from a paltry 2,601 per game in 2001-02 to 5,658 this past season, an increase of 117%. Sure, having a brand-new arena and winning more ball games helped, but one has to think that Baron's efforts entered into it, as well.

When Baron left St. Bonaventure in March of 2001, one of his Bonnie players, forward Vidal Massiah, described Baron as a motivator and said, "He really got the team up to play every game. He's real passionate."

A master motivator. A disciplinarian. Well-liked by his players, his peers, and fans. Enthusiastic. Passionate. A creative recruiter. A "work-ethic guy." These are all descriptions of Baron given not by athletic directors who have just hired him and are looking to promote him, but by members of the press, opposing coaches, and a player on a team he had just left.

It's hard not to get jacked up about Baron, because he seems like a perfect fit for Virginia Tech, and in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch article, University of Richmond coach Jerry Wainwright very nearly said just that, calling Baron and Virginia Tech "a very good fit."

So what about the money? Baron just completed the second year of a five-year contract that only pays him a salary of $150,000, less than the outgoing Ricky Stokes was being paid. Given that salary, Baron's total package can't be worth more than $250,000 to $300,000 per year, so he's affordable.

Sources say that Jim Weaver is willing to spend $450k to $550k a year or more on a new coach, and one source told TSL that Chattanooga coach Jeff Lebo had a six-year, $4.2 million deal dangled in front of him before talks broke down and Tech and Lebo went their separate ways. If that's true and Weaver was willing to go as high as $700k per year for Lebo, money won't be an issue with Baron, who can come in for less than that and still get a healthy raise in the process.

One hangup, if VT decides they want Baron: Channel 10 out of Roanoke reports that Baron is also getting interest from Penn State, which might drive his asking price up. PSU has deeper pockets than the Hokies and may be willing to spend more than Tech.

One counter to PSU's interest is that Baron is very familiar with the Hokie program, having coached against Tech during the Hokies' A-10 years, from 1995-2000. Baron also brought his Rhode Island Rams to Cassell Coliseum in November of 2001, losing 86-63.

Not to mention that Baron is from New York, and coaching in the Big East keeps him close to those New York roots, even if Blacksburg and New York will never be confused with each other.

With Lebo out of consideration and Baron on the hopper, speculation also swirls around Dayton coach Oliver Purnell, who told the RT-D he's not interested in the VT job -- and why would he be? He makes about $500k at a school that turns out 12,000+ fans per game and was a 4-seed in this year's NCAA Tournament -- Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz, and Northeastern coach Ron Everhart, a former VT player.

Lutz and Everhart have reportedly not been contacted yet, and that leaves Baron as the man of the hour. He looks like he would be a good hire, a man who brings the right experience and tools to the job. But a Hokie fan base that has been beaten down by 12 losing seasons out of the last 17 will greet even a "very good fit" like Jim Baron with skepticism. He'll have to prove himself, of course, before Hokie fans will get completely behind him.

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