Projo College Hoops

The tents are gone and the tickets have been sold. All is ready for Senior Day for the
URI basketball team.

Welcome to the Ryan Center on a beautiful sunny day. URI (23-8, 11-4 in the Atlantic 10) hosts Massachusetts (11-17, 6-9) this afternoon in a building that has been sold out for the first time this season.

Rhody seniors Jason Francis, Kahiem Seawright and Jimmy Baron will be honored in pre-game ceremonies. Normally, the emotion of the day is good for the home team. However, URI has lost on four of its last five Senior Days.

The Rams cannot afford a setback today. They have begun appearing on more and more projections for the NCAA Tournament. Today, they need a win to keep themselves on the bubble. Then, they can settle the issue themselves by playing well in the A-10 tournament next week.

The interest in the team clearly is building, to the point where several hundred students camped out in tents overnight to be sure to get student tickets, which are made available on the day of the day.

Here is a story posted on the GORHODY.com website this morning:

Good Morning from Baronville

Hundreds of students camped out overnight by the Ryan Center in order to be first in line for tickets in the morning

March 7, 2009

Baronville 2009 photo gallery

BARONVILLE, R.I. -- 8:30 a.m.:Good morning from Baronville, the smallest town in the smallest state in the Union.

But around 2 p.m., small will be replaced with loud, as the town of Baronville will combine forces with the rest of Rhody Nation - making the population upwards of 7,657 people.

For the second straight year, University of Rhode Island students took up residence in front of the Thomas M. Ryan Center box office, in order to guarantee their spots in the crowd for Saturday afternoon's regular season finale versus Massachusetts.

Students began lining up outside the Rams' arena around midnight and by 8:30 a.m., Baronville's population reached close to 500.

"Our student body is tremendously important," said Jim Baron head coach and Mayor of Baronville. "To see the kids in tents, sleeping outside on air mattresses and in sleeping bags is a great thing to see pulling into the parking lot this morning."

"There is nothing like a packed house at the Ryan Center, when the student body and all of our fans get it rocking and rolling," Baron added. "To me, it is the best atmosphere in college basketball and we deeply appreciate it."

 Tags  Jason Francis Jim Baron Jimmy Baron Kahiem Seawright Massachusetts URI

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