Fairfield Basketball: Sydney Johnson fired after 8 years as head coach

A look at former Fairfield Head Coach Sydney Johnson’s coaching career and where the Stags will look next for his replacement.

Without much success in eight seasons, the Fairfield Stags have fired head coach Sydney Johnson. Having succeeded current Providence coach Ed Cooley, Johnson inherited a program in solid shape in the MAAC but failed to ever finish higher than third in the league standings. The former Princeton head coach was ranked 236th in our early season head coach rankings but has really struggled with the Stags.

Johnson played at Princeton for legendary coach Pete Carril, winning Ivy League Player of the Year in 1997 and was part of the Tigers’ upset of UCLA in 1996. He began his coaching career as an assistant under former Princeton head coach John Thompson III at Georgetown. He was given the keys to his alma mater in 2007, and after four years was hired by Fairfield.

Princeton’s win total increased in each of his four seasons with the Tigers, concluding with an NCAA Tournament bid in 2011. Unfortunately, the same success did not follow Johnson to Fairfield. He took the Stags to the CIT semifinals in his first season, but would never again match those 22 wins. There would be two more CIT bids for Fairfield, but there would also be three seasons with single-digit victories, including 9-22 this year.

The loss to Manhattan in the first round of the MAAC Tournament was the final straw for Johnson, and it was his 200th loss as a head coach. His record (182-200) isn’t bad, but does include his 66-53 run at Princeton. As Iona seems to always win the MAAC, much bigger things were expected of this Fairfield squad, and it cost Johnson in the end.

The next head coach will inherit a team that struggled mightily with turnovers and shooting free throws. Junior Landon Taliaferro (12.3 ppg) and freshman Neftali Alvarez (11.5 ppg) should be back, but the Stags will need an influx of talent, especially to replace senior big man Jonathan Kasibabu (10.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg). Among this team’s nine wins, they did win games against Bucknell and Iona, but this team was at 5-15 at one point and struggled all season long.

There will be a slew of interesting names mentioned for the Fairfield job and there are a number with connections to Fairfield. One name to watch for is Louisville assistant Luke Murray, who followed Chris Mack from Xavier. Murray is a Fairfield alum and might be poised to make the jump into head coaching. There are also some interesting non-D1 head coaches, and we’ll just have to wait and see which direction Fairfield goes. Johnson was a head coach while predecessor Cooley had no head coaching experience prior to his hire.

Johnson is still a relatively young coach and will likely bounce back in the next few years. I’m not sure when he’ll get another head coaching position, but his connections to the Princeton offense will likely offer him chances to work as an assistant coach again. In the end, his 116-147 run at Fairfield simply wasn’t enough and this Stags program will be looking for some new blood to revitalize this program. The MAAC is a winnable league, but the next head coach will need to work hard to get the Stags back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997.