When Ron Baker was a kid, he constructed his own putt-putt golf course in the front yard with his younger brother, Sloan. When his younger sister, Audrey, tried to play, her brothers were so competitive they would brandish their golf clubs at her to keep her from competing. “I guess it goes to show you how Ron plays to win and just gets it done,” Audrey said.
Ron Baker was a neat freak growing up. Everything had a purpose. Everything had to be in order. His father, Neil, recalled the Baker Family Christmas when Ron was 5 and he unwrapped a remote control car. Upon examination, Ron determined the antennae sticking out of the car was without a purpose. He hurried upstairs to find a pair of scissors to snip it off. "He was pretty upset when we told him he wasn't supposed to do that," Neil said, chuckling. "He wanted everything to be in place."
Long before he was reigning down dagger after dagger to knock off college basketball's No. 1 team in Sweet 16, Ron Baker just needed to make a free throw. 23 of them, in fact. He was 14-year-old and was competing in the Knights of Columbus International Free Throw Championship and missed the second of his 25 attempts. With a wave of pressure crashing down on him, Baker didn't let the next 23 shots hit the rim to earn champion status out of more than 247,00 competitors. "You look back on it now and you can see how he's turned that into real-life games," said Glenn O'Neil, Ron's high school coach.
As soon as him and his friends were let out of school in middle school, the gang would head to Ron Baker's house because his basketball goal and cement driveway were a rarity in Scott City. They would lower the goals and play games to 21, often leading to scrapes, scratches and whatever it took to score. "It got pretty competitive," Ron said. "But we all had a good time. I think that's what I remember more than anything."
When Ron Baker was in middle school, he went to a summer camp coached by Scott City High's Glenn O'Neil, who would later become his coach in high school. One time he lost control of the ball during a drill and started sulking. O'Neil had a stern talk with the 13-year-old. "I never pouted again after that," Ron said.
The summer before his senior year, Ron Baker helped a friend's family reshingle their roof. In triple-digit heat. For fun. "I didn't have anything better to do and I got a nice tan out of it," Ron said. That's just how Ron is, says his friends. "I don't know anyone who would volunteer to do that," said Kaleb Roemer, who played basketball with Baker in high school. "But he was that hard-working kid that adults would want to hire for work."
It's not hard to figure out why Ron Baker flew under the radar. He was from a small town in Western Kansas and didn't play in the AAU circuit until the summer before his senior season. When Kansas Select coach Bryan Miller saw him play, he called every BCS coach he knew to plead with them to take a look. Every last one passed.
“I still have big-time college coaches call me from time to time and tell me I should have listened to you on that one," Miller said.
For his senior year in high school, Ron Baker rocked a perm. "My dad and uncle both got perms their senior year," Ron explained. "I always saw photos at my grandparent's house and I just went with it." When he debuted the new do at the first football practice of the year, his teammates took a bit longer to grow used to it. "We looked like a human Q-Tip," former teammate Mason Turner said. Another former teammate Kaleb Roemer added, "He drove this Oldsmobile and from behind he looked like a grandma driving." After quarterbacking the football team to an undefeated regular season and leading the basketball team to a state championship, Baker got the last laugh.
When he wasn't excelling at football, basketball or baseball in high school, Ron Baker was somewhat of a movie aficionado. Except no one ever knew what movies he was talking about. "He would always watch these weird movies no one ever heard of," former teammate Kaleb Roemer said. "A bunch of horror ones. And he would want to tell us all about them, too. He's just a big goofball."
In the second game of his senior season, Ron Baker had his YouTube highlight. His teammate Brett O'Neil came up with a steal and noticed Baker was trailing him on the 2-on-1 fast break. Instead of trying for the lay-up, O'Neil tossed the ball off the backboard for Baker to throw down. It's safe to say Western Kansas doesn't see alley-oop dunks like that too often.
One of the teams Ron Baker defeated on the way to that state title was Wichita Collegiate. After watching Baker light up the nation, coach Mitch Fiegel thought it would be interesting to dig up a scouting report on Baker from high school. "I have yet to see a player with better court vision than Ron Baker," Fiegel repeated. "He pushes the ball extremely well. He shoots the ball extremely well. He's tenacious on the boards. Don't leave him...ever." Fiegel chuckles at that now. "He's certainly lived up to that, hasn't he?"
To understand what type of player Ron Baker is, all one needs to do is look back at that state championship game in his senior year. Baker had the ball in his hands down by 1 with the clock ticking down. Baker penetrated, drew a second defender and instead of forcing a guarded jump shot, made the correct basketball play and kicked out to his open teammate. The shot missed, but Baker was there for the game-winning tip-in.
the shot missed, Baker was there for the tip-in and the win. “That, to me, is the definition of a Ron Baker play,” his AAU coach, Bryan Miller, said.
When Ron Baker's younger sister, Audrey, followed him to Wichita State for her first semester of college, Ron was always there for her when she struggled to adjust. Even with the daily responsibilities of the basketball team, Ron helped ease the transition. "I find it really funny that people admire him so much and to some people he's this famous person," Audrey said. "To me, he's still the same, old Ron. He's an awesome, older brother."
After Wichita State advanced to the Sweet 16 and Ron Baker gave his shout-out to his hometown, Scott City was in such an uproar that it made March 28 "Ron Baker Day." So what if the Shockers win the national championship?
“Ron Baker Day might just turn into Ron Baker Week, Ron Baker Month,” WSU forward Cleanthony Early said.
Ron Baker could have said anything into the camera after his Sweet 16 interview on the court. But he looked and pointed right into the camera and said, "Scott City, I love you." In a moment of personal glory why was his mind on his hometown? "
Those were just the words that flashed across my mind," Ron said. "Scott City has made me who I am today. Without growing up there, I’m not sure I’m the Ron Baker kid I am today. I’m not sure I’d be here. Scott City is in my roots.” His former high school coach Glenn O’Neil added: “You don’t do that unless you’re thinking about the people that have supported you from the start. He knows the whole town is behind him.”
After his shoutout to Scott City on national television, Ron Baker nearly erupted the town of 3,800 in Western Kansas. Everyone with Scott City ties took to social media to exclaim the loving relationship was mutual. It didn't take long for Ron Baker to start trending on Twitter. Scott City wasn't far behind. "He's done more for Scott City in 10 days than I could ever think of doing," said Katie Eisenhour, who works as the city's publicist. "God bless him. He's an awesome, awesome kid."
Everyone else might be surprised about Ron Baker's meteoric rise. Not his opponents from Western Kansas. Dodge City coach Dennis Hamilton, who coached against Baker in high school, had a gleam in his eye watching Baker succeed on a national level. "It doesn't matter if you grow up in a town of 4,000 when you can play the game, and Ron Baker can play the game."
ESPN have discussed the value of Ron Baker's jump shot. Charles Barkley has showered him in praise. Reggie Miller wanted a picture with him. Jim Rome had him on his national radio show. But teammates and friends swear none of the fame has changed the humble kid from Western Kansas. "He's still the same guy," former teammate Kaleb Roemer said. "He obviously doesn't have a big head. He doesn't think he's better than anybody else. He's the exact same." The secret for Baker? "You've got to soak it in the right way," Ron said. "You've got to stay close to your roots, your family and your friends."
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