Amid the uncertainty that has surrounded the men’s basketball program in past years, one thing became a sure thing during the Stags’ 19-12 and NIT berth season last year: head coach Tim O’Toole would be offered a contract extension from Fairfield’s athletic administration.
O’Toole affirmed his future at Fairfield by signing a contract extension on June 4. The extension was initially offered to O’Toole during the season, but he said that he didn’t want the contract discussions to be a distraction during the season and chose to wait until after the recruiting process for next season was complete.
The five-year head coach said he’s happy to be back, but declined to comment on the specifics or the length of the extension because of the effect it may have on recruiting future players.
The Connecticut Post has speculated that the extension is a multi-year deal.
Director of Athletics Eugene Doris also said the contract was under closed terms, but said he was never worried that O’Toole wouldn’t return, despite his prior contract expiring the end of June.
“I know his heart is here,” Doris said. “I think you always have to have a back-up plan. But I always had a feeling that he wanted to be here. I never thought about it (the back-up plan) seriously. I never felt like I had to pull it out of the drawer.”
“When you build a foundation as solid as he has here … I know it has to be tempting to go elsewhere, but when it comes to a coach’s decision to go or stay, I think it comes down to what they’ve built the foundation in,” Doris added.
Doris also said that other potentially-interested candidates for the position knew O’Toole would eventually re-sign at Fairfield.
“The job was never open,” Doris said. “Most people know when someone is going to stay or go. It’s fairly tacky and not looked upon favorably in a business sense when someone calls up for a position like that.”
The 39-year-old O’Toole graduated from Fairfield in 1987 and was a two-year captain of the basketball team. Before taking the head coaching position at Fairfield in 1998, O’Toole served as an assistant coach at Fordham, Army, Iona, Syracuse and Duke.
The Stags have made steady improvements, record-wise, during O’Toole’s five years at the helm,climaxing last season by reaching the MAAC tournament championship game, a home NIT game against Boston College and finishing with the program’s first winning season since the 1995-96 season.
Doris said he expects the program to continue moving forward and noteworthy results becoming more common for the team.
“This year was sort of a coming out party in terms of the team’s record, but I think we’re going to see more standard victories than saying, ‘Oh my God we won a big game,'” Doris said. “We’re going to have the ability to be at the top of the MAAC and the ability to win out of conference games, something we’ve struggled to do before.”
Doris said the team has confirmed non-conference games against Fordham at home, away games at St. John’s, Yale and Harvard and a game against Michigan at Madison Square Garden.
At this time, Duke has not been confirmed and appears to be unlikely. Doris said games against Holy Cross and St. Joseph’s are more likely for the ’04-05 season. Fairfield is still looking for two more non-conference games for the ’03-04 schedule.
The Stags, however, will take part in the highly competitive Rainbow Classic in Hawaii next year.
O’Toole said that through the growing process of the program, it has been great to see all 18 seniors to successfully graduate from Fairfield in his five years.
“Fairfield is a great institution, both athletically and academically,” O’Toole said. “Students receive a great deal of academic support here … I can’t say enough about academics. Eighteen out of eighteen have graduated since I’ve been here. We know we can go out and recruit kids that are going to graduate.”
One of O’Toole’s most highly-touted recruits, Deng Gai, ’05, will be back for the Stags next year. According to Doris, Gai was never leaving Fairfield but a cultural misunderstanding prompted rumors that he would be transferring to a more prominent college basketball team or even playing abroad.
Gai, a native of the Sudan, led the conference in blocked shots for the second straight year to help him earn the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year award for the second time.
“We’ve never had what I would consider four solid years of recruiting,” Doris said. “This is the first time since I’ve been here that we’re retooling more than rebuilding. We haven’t seen the best Fairfield basketball yet.”
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