Head coach Tony Bennett and staff signed five high school seniors last November, but they weren’t finished. Today, the Virginia program scored a verbal commitment from Billy Baron , a 6-1, 185-pound guard who is in a postgraduate year at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. Baron originally committed last fall to the University of Rhode Island, where his father, Jim, is the head men’s basketball coach.

An all-state performer as a senior at Bishop Hendricken (Warwick, R.I.), Baron, looking to earn a major Division 1 scholarship offer, decided on a postgraduate year at Worcester. He performed well on the AAU circuit last summer, showing well enough to intrigue ACC and Big East programs before enrolling at Worcester.

“In September, he broke the thumb on his left hand pretty severely,” Worcester head coach Ed Reilly said. “He sat out the September and October evaluation periods and that set him back a bit. It hurt him in the eyes of the people that wanted to look at him.”

In October, Baron committed to Rhode Island but did not sign a letter of intent.

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