By Jon Lesnik
Four years after taking over a Princeton University basketball team that had finished last in the Ivy League and rebuilding it into an Ivy League champion and making the NCAA tournament, Sydney Johnson has left Princeton to take the head coaching job at Fairfield University.
Johnson, a 1997 Princeton graduate and former Ivy League Player of the year replaces Ed Cooley at Fairfield, who left to take the head basketball job at Providence.
Johnson, 37, will be introduced during a Wednesday morning press conference as the new head coach of Fairfield.
Johnson, formerly an assistant at Georgetown, took over as Princeton head coach following Joe Scott’s resignation when Scott left to take the head coaching job at the University of Denver following an 11-17 finish that included a 2-12 record in the Ivy League during the 2006-2007 season. In Johnson’s first season in 2007-2008 season, the Tigers went 6-23 and 3-11 in the conference- Princeton’s worst single season record in 50 years. However, each following year the Tigers showed improvement under Johnson going 13-14 the next season, 22-9 overall and 11-3 in the Ivy League in 2009-2010, then 25-7, 12-2 in the Ivy League this season, winning an Ivy League playoff bid. That earned Princeton’s first NCAA birth since 2004, where the Tigers almost upset eventual Final Four participant Kentucky, losing, 59-57, in the final seconds.
In four years as Princeton’s head coach, Johnson finished with a record of 66-53. As a player Johnson was part of the 1996 Princeton NCAA Tournament team that upset defending champion UCLA.
“We learned this afternoon that Sydney was going to take the job at Fairfield,” Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walter said in a statement on GoPrincetonTigers.Com, the school’s web site. “We want to thank Sydney for his significant contributions as the head coach of our basketball team. Obviously we’re disappointed that he is not staying to carry on the tradition of Princeton basketball, but as a Princeton Basketball alumnus, we wish him well as he takes another career step.”
In the past Princeton has looked to the team’s storied history in selecting a head coach. Johnson, Joe Scott, and John Thompson III all played for Princeton, and later coached the Tigers. Bill Carmody (now at Northwestern) was an assistant from 1982-1995 before being elevated to head coach replacing legendary Princeton Coach Peter Carril.
Former Princeton players now coaching who could emerge as candidates for the Princeton job include Mitch Henderson (1998), an assistant at Northwestern under Bill Carmody. Henderson was captain of the Tigers and a 1998 second team All-Ivy Selection. Another would be Mike Brennan, (1994) a former Princeton player and assistant coach, who just completed his second season as an assistant to Thompson in Georgetown. Another candidate with a Princeton pedigree could be Armond Hill who is in his 7th season as assistant coach of the Boston Celtics.
If Princeton looks in house, they could promote assistant Tony Newsom, or former Princeton player and now assistant coach Brian Earl.
Ivy League coaches who have had NCAA tournament success and moved on to bigger jobs include Steve Donohue who led Cornell to the NCAA Sweet 16 last season before taking the job at Boston College and Temple coach Fran Dunphy, who coached at Penn.
Princeton will be seeking its fifth head coach in the past 15 years.
“Princeton will immediately engage in conducting a national search for Sydney’s successor,” Walters said. “I am confident that we will be able to attract a coach who is worthy of this great university and of our great basketball program.
