Despite an epic collapse that resulted in nine losses in his team's last 11 games and disappearance from the national rankings, Jim Baron has received a vote of confidence from his boss.

Not that the University of Rhode Island's basketball coach needed one. His 10-year, $4.3-million contract runs through 2013, and his team did finish with a record of 21-12.

"We have a heck of a basketball coach," Thorr Bjorn, URI's director of athletics, said recently in an interview. "We have a heck of a team returning and a heck of a class coming in. I'm really excited about next year."

First, this year. The Rams started fast, pounding their nonconference opponents, running to a 19-3 record and cracking the Top 25. Will Daniels established himself as a contender for Atlantic 10 player of the year, Jimmy Baron buried shots from the Ryan Center parking lot, Kahiem Seawright was a presence in the middle, Parfait Bitee ran the show from the point, and Lamonte Ulmer and Keith Cothran provided energy off the bench.

The hot start had giddy Rhody fans discussing what seed the team would earn in the NCAA Tournament.

Then the A-10 games started, and the Rams faded. A two-point loss at UMass snapped a four-game winning streak and launched the season-ending slide. An overtime loss at Temple was the first of five in a row. The last two losses of the season, 75-73 to Charlotte in the first round of the A-10 Tournament and 75-74 to Creighton in the first round of the NIT, really stung.

Losing hurt, but the way the Rams lost caused the most pain. They squandered leads. They didn't play strong defense. Jimmy Baron couldn't get open shots. Seawright had trouble handling the ball. Ulmer and Cothran were inconsistent. Joe Mbang all but disappeared.

Jim Baron invited criticism with his late-game substitution patterns, his failure to lead his team to more than two victories in February, his decision to keep Daniels -- his best player -- on the bench for 11 minutes in the second half of the Creighton game.

"I know for a fact that Jim Baron is not satisfied, and the team is not satisfied. Nobody is satisfied," Bjorn said. "With that said, we had a heck of a year. We won 21 games. That's difficult in this league."

True enough, but URI was only 7-9 in the league and finished in a three-way tie for ninth place. Still, Bjorn expressed confidence in Baron.

"I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the coach. I'm looking forward to working with him to grow the program," Bjorn said.

Grow the program?

"Looking at how we conduct business. Are we providing the resources our competitors are providing? Are we doing things in the manner our competitors are? If not, then we have to reevaluate," the boss said.

He will continue to reinvest resources in the basketball program because it's the flagship of the athletics department and even, in some respects, the university, Bjorn said, citing the publicity URI received when the team was winning and ranked.

Bjorn admires Baron for "doing things the right way ... for staying within his budget." He said a decision to take a bus rather than fly to Philadelphia for the Temple game this season had more to do with getting the players back to campus early than with saving money.

"We didn't make that decision for cost-cutting reasons. We wanted to get the kids back so they could go to class in the morning," he said, adding that Philly by bus with minimal traffic takes about the same amount of time door-to-door as Philly by air: 4 ½ hours.

Bjorn is aware of the Baron-bashing that occurs on message boards, but said he doesn't spend a lot of time perusing such forums.

"It can be tough to read those things. Is it sometimes painful? Yes, it is. Do your feelings sometimes get hurt? Yes," he said. "We have some really passionate fans. When people buy tickets and come out, they have a right to their opinion, and we have to listen."

Bjorn doesn't spend much time discussing the harsh criticisms with Baron.

"Jim has been coaching for 32 years. He knows you have to take the good with the bad. He knows it's part of it."

Critics will always find something to complain about. An administrator at the University of Massachusetts before coming to URI last summer, Bjorn recalled the 2006 football season, when the Minutemen reached the championship game of the I-AA playoffs,

"We lost to Appalachian State, the championship game, and we still got criticized."