Sydney Johnson

Sydney Johnson (born April 26, 1974) is an American college basketball coach and the former head coach at Fairfield University for the Fairfield Stags men's basketball team.

During the early signing period from November 13 through November 20, 1991, Johnson, who was considering several Ivy League schools as well as Northeastern University, verbally committed to Boston University.

On December 1, 1991, Boston University announced that Johnson signed a letter of intent.

During his senior season, Johnson lead Towson to the Baltimore Catholic Basketball League Championship.

Following the season, he earned Baltimore Catholic Basketball League All-league first-team recognition.

He was also selected to participate in the Rodney Beasley East vs. West All-Star Games, sponsored by the Baltimore Metro Coaches Association.

He was also a second team All-metro selection and following his 1992 graduation attended the Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia for a postgraduate year.

In April 1993, after playing a year a Fork Union, Johnson signed a letter of intent with Herb Sendek's Miami (OH) team, but upon being accepted by Princeton University in June of that year, he revoked his letter.

Johnson showed strong leadership skills early at Princeton and is the only three-time captain in university history.

During his freshman year, he was twice named Ivy League Men's Basketball Rookie of the Week for the 1993–94 team.

That season the 11–3 Tigers could not match the Penn Quakers who were led by Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney.

Johnson provided heroics for the 1994–95 Tigers on a couple of occasions.

On December 27, 1994, he hit what The New York Times described as "a falling-down 3-point basket with three seconds left in regulation".

The basket forced overtime.

At the end of the third overtime period Johnson converted two foul shots with three seconds left to cement a 71–66 victory over.

Later that season, he set a career-high with a 25-point performance against in a double-overtime victory.

As a player, he was a member of the 1995–96 Ivy League champions and undefeated (in conference) 1996–97 Princeton Tigers.

He recorded seven steals in a game against on February 3, 1995, which is one shy of the school record.

Again the Tigers could not get past Penn.

As a junior, he was named Ivy League Player of the week for the second weekend in February as he led the team on both ends of the court.

The following week, he posted 21 points against, which established his season-high.

Even after Allen and Maloney graduated, Princeton's only two losses were to.

After Princeton and Penn ended the 1995–96 season tied as Ivy League Co-Champions, Johnson made the decisive three point shot with one minute and four seconds remaining in overtime in the one-game playoff, corralled a defensive rebound, added a pair of free throws with 24 seconds left and then made a steal.

The win ended an eight-game losing streak to Penn. The win earned the team the conference automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA tournament and following the game head coach Pete Carril announced his retirement.

The thirteen seeded team was matched against the defending national champion UCLA Bruins in its first round pairing.

He was the team's leading scorer with 11 points in the 43–41 first round victory over UCLA in the 1996 NCAA Tournament.

The team fell behind 41–34 with over six minutes remaining.

A 1997 Princeton alumnus, Johnson played for the Tigers from 1993 to 1997.

He earned Ivy League Men's Basketball Player of the Year recognition for the undefeated 1997 team.

He continues to hold the Ivy League record for consecutive three point shots made and the league record for most single-game three point shots made without a miss as well as the Princeton Tigers record for career steals.

His college career was marked by many memorable overtime performances, game-winning shots and game-clinching free throws.

Nonetheless, his greatest recognition came for his defense.

During a seven-year professional career, he won three championships in Europe.

Previously as an assistant he was part of the 2006–07 Big East Conference champions.

Johnson spent much of his childhood in Baltimore.

He played his sophomore and junior season of high school basketball at Moorhead Senior High School in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Johnson transferred from Minnesota to Towson Catholic High School prior to his senior season.

Previously, Johnson was the head coach at Princeton University from 2007 to 2011 where he led the Princeton Tigers men's basketball team to the 2011 Ivy League Title and the 2011 NCAA tournament.

After being hired in 2007, he has been the youngest coach in the Ivy League for his entire four-year tenure there.

In his fourth season, he coached the 2010–11 Princeton Tigers men's basketball team to a league championship.