Geno Ford enters his seventh season as head coach of the Stony Brook University men's basketball program in 2025-26.
Ford and the Seawolves are coming off an 8-24 season in 2024-25. Stony Brook entered the CAA tournament as the No. 13 seed and nearly advanced to the second round after erasing a 16-point deficit against No. 12 Delaware late, only to fall just short in the closing minutes. Under Ford’s guidance, this season saw junior transfer CJ Luster II earn All-CAA Third Team honors and make All-Met Third Team, while freshman Collin O’Connor picked up four CAA Rookie of the Week awards and a spot on the CAA All-Rookie Team.
The prior year, Ford guided the Seawolves to the CAA Championship Game in the school's second season as a member of the conference in 2023-24. The Seawolves won 20 games for the ninth time in the program's Division I history and the second time under Ford. Stony Brook entered the CAA Tournament as the No. 7 seed, defeating No. 10 Northeastern and producing upsets of No. 2 Drexel in double overtime and No. 3 Hofstra to advance to the CAA Final for the first time in program history. Stony Brook ultimately fell to top-seeded Charleston in overtime. This marked the sixth time in the Division I era that the Seawolves played in a conference final and was the first time since 2016.
The Seawolves went 13-3 at home in 2023-24, posting double-digit home victories for the 10th time in the last 15 seasons. Under the tutelage of Ford and his staff, graduate guard Tyler Stephenson-Moore earned All-CAA, All-MBWA, All-Met, and NABC All-District honors in 2023-24, while the team as a whole posted a cumulative grade point average above 3.0 during the academic year. This year also saw the team set a new record for made threes in a season with 277 to best the mark set back in 2019-20.
Ford's fourth season at the helm of the Stony Brook men's basketball program was the Seawolves' first as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, now the Coastal Athletic Association. Stony Brook finished the 2022-23 season at 11-22 overall and 6-12 in league play, earning the No. 10 seed in the 2023 CAA Championships.
The 2021-22 season, Stony Brook's first in the CAA, ultimately culminated with a loss to the eventual conference champion Charleston Cougars in the quarterfinals, but the Seawolves upset the North Carolina A&T Aggies in the first round, the program's first-ever postseason victory as a member of the CAA. Under Ford's tutelage, Tyler Stephenson-Moore was voted to the All-CAA Third Team after a breakout season on the Island.
During the 2021-22 campaign, Ford was instrumental in developing one of the most dangerous backcourts in the region, with a pair of all-conference guards in Tykei Greene and Anthony Roberts leading the way. Greene was inside the top 100 nationally in numerous rebounding categories, while Roberts scored the program's first 40-point game since 2015-16. Led by this duo, the Stony Brook offense posted its fourth-most efficient year in the Division I era, per KenPom, and ended up producing the second-lowest turnover rate in program history, ranking top 25 nationally in fewest fouls, fewest turnovers, and turnovers per game.
Ford guided one of the nation's most intimidating defenses in 2020-21, finishing 16th nationally in blocks per game and 36th in the country in field-goal percentage defense.
In his first season at the helm of Stony Brook in 2019-20, Ford led Stony Brook to its seventh 20-win season in nine years, finishing with a 20-13 record and a berth in the America East semifinals.
The team continued a decade of excellence in which it finished inside the top two in nine of the last 10 seasons, something that has not been done by any other America East team. Ford also helped lead three all-conference selections, including first-teamer Elijah Olaniyi and second-team selection Andrew Garcia to success during the season.
His offense also broke records from beyond the arc this season, making a total of 274 3-pointers this year for a new team record. Makale Foreman also set a new record individually, draining 104 shots from outside.
The Cambridge, Ohio native became the head man after three years as the Associate Head Coach under Boals, helping lead Stony Brook's offense to one of its most prolific outputs in Division I history in 2018-19 with 71.6 points per game. That number was only bettered by the 2023-24 squad and the 2015-16 conference championship team.
Under Ford's associate head coach tenure, Stony Brook finished inside the top two in the standings in two of his three seasons with two America East semifinal berths also during that time.
He also brings a wealth of head coaching experience with two stops coming before this. He took over at Kent State in 2008, helping lead the Golden Flashes to a 68-37 record in his three years just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. This included a 35-13 mark in the Mid-American Conference and a pair of MAC regular-season championships, becoming the first MAC coach in 48 years to win back to back regular-season crowns.
Ford parlayed that into a job in the Missouri Valley Conference with Bradley, guiding the program to the nation's seventh-best turnaround in his second season, leading the team from a 7-25 mark to 18-17 the following year. He also coached the second MVC player ever to record 500 points, 100 rebounds, 100 assists and 70 steals in a season in Walt Lemon, Jr.
The Ohio University graduate sits sixth in school history with 1,752 career points after averaging 18.9 and 18.7 per night in his junior and senior seasons, respectively. He was also First-Team All-MAC and Academic All-Conference selection as a senior in 1997. During the summer of 2023, Ford was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.
