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A conversation with Sydney Johnson.

July 5, 2011 at 10:48 am
Filed under Audio, Basketball, Fairfield, Interviews, Princeton

Sydney Johnson is a man of his word.

Back in April, when the Fairfield basketball coach left Princeton after four seasons, he privately promised me that a time would eventually come where he would be willing to field my queries about his departure.

Yesterday at a coffee shop in Mercer County, Johnson and I met up to talk.

Thinking of the many email exhanges, site comments and off-Internet conversations I had with subscribers since Johnson joined the Stags, I tried to get answers to the questions you have asked me.

The audio from our 20:00+ conversation can be found after the jump.

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John Poole said,

July 5, 2011 @ 12:48 pm

Nice try in your interview, Jon. I don't think that we're ever going to learn any more about Sidney's motivations for moving -- at least from Sidney. It appears to me that Sidney's basketball ambitions are incompatible with the Ivies' views on how college sports fit in the overall university context. I'm satisfied with both. I hope Sidney does well at Fairfield (my money says that he will not be there any longer that he was at Princeton) and that Princeton and the rest of the Ivies continue to play high level basketball while maintaining the high standards that some view as elitism. There are things much more important that national championships even though we shall always strive for the latter.

TigerHeel said,

July 5, 2011 @ 2:04 pm

Great stuff, Jon. Like Mr. Poole, I am not surprised that Coach Johnson kept his reasons for leaving close to his chest. That said, this interview helped provide closure to the shocking turn of events of less than three months ago. I am grateful for the eight years Coach Johnson gave to Princeton Basketball and the turnaround the program witnessed during his tenure as coach. I wish him the best and expect great things from him.

Jack said,

July 5, 2011 @ 5:21 pm

Disappointing. Hard to reconcile. Very optimistic about our new staff though.

Adam Fox said,

July 6, 2011 @ 3:37 pm

Sydney Johnson was a good Princeton coach, but I'd imagine that a point guard who played for Pete Carril can easily have as much success, if not more.

Mark Disler said,

July 6, 2011 @ 5:47 pm

Jon: That was a terriffic job as interviewer. And I think it was really gracious and good of Sydney to follow through on doing the interview. He could have legitimately begged off. I think his doing the interview and speaking to us through you is a further reflection of how close he feels to Princeton basketball even though he felt a need to move on. It was no surprise that he wasn't very specific about his rationale for the move. And, he has obviously honed the art of the parry in interviews. I wish him all the best at Fairfield. I think Mitch has done well in taking over the reins and wish him all the best in this new challenge for him and his soon to be new life as husband!

Steven Postrel said,

July 8, 2011 @ 1:05 am

That was a great job, Jon. Sydney is still excellent on defense. I hope he has as good an experience at Fairfield as he did at Princeton. All this "new cradle of coaches" stuff is going to multiply your workload unless some of these guys start getting fired--what do you have now, six programs to keep track of?

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