Column: Answering questions on Johnson's departure

The naive basketball fan in me asked, “Why would he leave? Why would he give up on us after such an amazing season? How could he do this?” Each of these questions has a simple answer, of course, which experienced sports fans pointed out quickly.

“Why would he leave?” The Ivy League is not a basketball conference. Yes, we have a rich history of basketball dating all the way back to the early 20th century, but the Ivy League has not garnered any respect for its basketball programs lately. Cornell represented us well in last year’s tournament, and our Tigers certainly gave Kentucky a run for its money, but by looking at recent history, Princeton is not the place for a coach who wants to regularly advance in the NCAA Tournament.

“Why would he give up on us after such an amazing season?” Because Princeton will be losing two of the top three scorers on the team this offseason. Seniors Kareem Maddox and Dan Mavraides both played integral roles in taking the Tigers to the Big Dance, and the remaining players have some large shoes to fill, quite literally in Maddox’s case. Fairfield’s top scorer, Derek Needham, is only a sophomore and their second-leading scorer is a seven-foot junior. Fairfield, having gone 25-8 last season, certainly has a strong foreseeable future.

“How could he do this?” Pretty easily, probably. We have to give him credit for coming back to Princeton in 2007 and taking a then-struggling team to the NCAA Tournament in 2011. He certainly put in hard work for our school. Now he’s looking ahead. If he wants to continue his successful coaching career, he needs to put himself in a position to succeed as well as a position that will make the next level of basketball programs notice him.

After watching Johnson cry following Princeton’s loss to Kentucky in the tournament, I’m sure no one will deny his love of Princeton basketball and the young men he coached here. In an age when CBSsports.com has a page dedicated to Division I college basketball coaching changes, can you really blame him for making a decision he thinks will bolster his coaching resume?

Can Johnson’s decision even be seen as disloyal since the 2006 NBA collective bargaining agreement? In this agreement, the NBA announced that all players must be at least 19 years old and that all American players must be one year removed from high school to be eligible for the NBA draft. Before this decision, superb talents including Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett went straight to the NBA after a stellar high school career, but the new collective bargaining agreement means that the latest high school talents such as Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley and Tyreke Evans are playing a single year at the college level before declaring for the NBA draft.

Coaches at programs prominent enough to get a big-name high school player are expected to win with only a year to fit the player into the system before he leaves to further his own career at the professional level. Granted, the stellar freshmen are only a small minority in the pool of college basketball players, but they have still changed the culture of the game. Coaches are expected to do more with their assets in a shorter amount of time, and when that coach has an opportunity to get ahead in the carousel of college coaching, how can you expect him to not take it?

Princeton’s epic win against Harvard at Yale this year will be ingrained in my memory as one of my favorite moments of my freshman year. True, I want to experience this feeling again next year, and I think Sydney Johnson would give us a better shot than a coach in his first year here, but that does not stop me from thanking Coach Johnson. Thanking him for his hard work here that culminated in a brilliant season that allowed me to witness as a freshman something that we as a school have not seen since 2004. Thanking him for his final win as a Princeton head coach at which I stormed the court with so many other students, riding the high of a close victory.

And my want for more certainly does not keep me from wishing Coach Johnson good luck next year at Fairfield and in his future coaching endeavors. Thanks and good luck, Coach. Your accomplishments will forever be remembered by this Tigers fan.