The Fairfield Stags men's basketball team represents Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut and competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference of NCAA Division I. The Stags play their home games in the 9,500-seat, state-of-the-art Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut and play two games per season in Alumni Hall back on the campus of Fairfield University. The team is currently coached by Sydney Johnson, the 2011 Ivy League Coach of the Year. The Stags have experienced post-season tournament action fourteen times having competed in the NAIA Tournament in 1951; the NCAA DII Tournament in 1960, 1961 and 1962; the National Invitational Tournament in 1973, 1974, 1978, 1996, 2003; and 2011 NIT; and the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in 1986, 1987 and 1997. In the 1973 National Invitation Tournament, the Stags advanced to the second round where the team lost by one point to eventual champion Virginia Tech. And in the 1997 NCAA Tournament, the Stags nearly achieved a historical upset of top-seeded North Carolina after leading the Tar Heels by seven points at halftime.