Penn basketball coach ... Ibby Jaaber?

According to The Daily Princetonian, former Princeton basketball player and Georgetown assistant Sydney Johnson has been offered the Tigers' men's basketball job.

So what does Johnson have in common with another Ivy coaches? Yes, he is African American, which would make Penn's Glen Miller and Cornell's Steve Donahue the only white head coaches in the league.

But Johnson is a former Ivy Player of the Year, in fact the second one from Princeton, the other being Brown head coach Craig Robinson. Penn assistant Perry Bromwell makes the third overall Ivy coach to have won the award. What's so shocking is how young Johnson is. While Robinson was the POY in 1983 and Bromwell in 1987, Johnson's award came in 1997.

Johnson spent the last three years as an assistant under John Thompson III (another Princeton man) after playing overseas following his graduation. This seems to be the route of anyone trying to become a coach: go play overseas, maybe coach there and come back to your Ivy alma mater as an assistant. But if he accepts, Johnson will have really accelerated this trip -- it would be like Penn hiring Matt Langel (first-team All-Ivy in 2000, and a three-year assistant at Penn and Temple) next year.

He may be young, but he was a great player. Johnson is Princeton's all-time steals leader, averaged 9.8 points per game and was the team captain for his final three seasons. Interestingly enough, Johnson averaged only 9.2 points per game during his 1997 senior season and didn't upset UCLA in the NCAA Tournament like the year before. But did lead his team to an undefeated Ivy record, and is one of three Princeton players in the 1,000-point, 400-assist and 200-steal club.

Well, after the the former head coach at Air Force's tenure produced a pair of the worst seasons in school history the past two years, a change is welcome.