Stony Brook Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron announced that Stony Brook men’s basketball head coach Geno Ford has signed a contract extension through the 2025-26 season.
“As we continue to make strides in our second year in the CAA, I believe that our program is best served with Geno leading our young men,” Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron said. “Under his leadership, we are moving in the right direction toward our shared goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament while providing a first-class experience for our student-athletes.”
In the midst of his fifth full season at the helm of the program, Ford and the Seawolves have eclipsed their win total from a year ago, which was also Stony Brook’s first as a member of the CAA. Under Ford’s direction, Stony Brook has posted a stellar 44-23 (.657) record at Island Federal Arena. The Seawolves are one win shy of posting double-digit home wins for the third time during the Ford era and the 11th time since the 2009-10 season.
“I am very appreciative of President McInnis and Shawn Heilbron’s support of our basketball program,” Ford said. We are on a good trajectory in year two of the CAA and I look forward to continuing the work with a great group of people in our department, a tremendous coaching staff and the unselfish and hard working players in our locker room who have represented a world-class university in a first-class manner.”
Ford took over head coaching duties for the 2019-20 season following Jeff Boals’ departure. Stony Brook registered its seventh 20-win season in the past nine seasons in year one of Ford’s tenure. After the COVID-shortened season in 2020-21, Ford’s Seawolves won 18 games in 2021-22, but were ineligible for the America East postseason because of the move to the CAA.
Off the court, the Seawolves boasted a program-record 3.22 team grade-point average this past semester and 13 of the program’s 15 student-athletes had a 3.0 GPA or higher. Last season, Stony Brook captured an NABC Team Academic Excellence award after posting a cumulative GPA above 3.0 for the 2022-23 academic year. Additionally, Keenan Fitzmorris and Dean Noll earned a spot on the NABC Honors Court with cumulative GPA’s of 3.2 or higher.
Stony Brook’s offense set a program record with 274 three-pointers made in 2019-20 under Ford and in 2020-21, Ford’s defense finished 16th nationally in blocks per game and 36th in the country in field-goal percentage defense. In Ford’s third season, the Seawolves boasted the second-lowest turnover rate in program history since 2000, as well as the fourth-most efficient offense since the turn of the millennium. The 2019-20 squad finished inside the top-25 nationally in fewest fouls and fewest turnovers, as well as the top-50 nationally in turnovers per game.
Year one in the CAA saw the Seawolves earn the No. 10 seed in the CAA Championship, knocking off No. 7 North Carolina A&T before falling to the eventual conference champion Charleston Cougars in the CAA Quarterfinals. Tyler Stephenson-Moore was tabbed All-CAA Third Team at season’s end, becoming the first student-athlete in program history to earn an All-CAA honor and the seventh overall under Ford’s tutelage to earn all-conference distinction.
