Dan Monson was fired as Long Beach State men's basketball coach last Monday. Less than a week later, his team made an improbable run through the Big West Conference tournament — and earned an automatic bid to the Big Dance.
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Already, March Madness has begun.
Monson has been coach at Long Beach State for 17 seasons. The school announced his departure last week but decided to allow him to stay on the sideline for the rest of the season.
That is when the magic began, and hey, maybe the school should have fired him sooner.
After all, Long Beach had lost five straight entering its conference tourney. It entered as the No. 4 seed. Then it beat No. 5 UC Riverside, followed by top-seeded UC Irvine. It capped it off with a 74-70 stunner over UC Davis on Saturday night.
Monson is perhaps best known as putting Gonzaga on the map, leading the little school to an Elite Eight appearance in 1999. Now, its considered a national power.
He then moved on the Minnesota, leading the Golden Gophers to the NCAA tourney in 2005, before resigning a year later and taking over at LBSU in 2007.
It's been an up-and-down tenure, though the Beach has put together five 20-win seasons. They're 21-14 this year, earning the No. 15 seed in the NCAA West bracket. They open the NCAA tourney vs. Arizona on Thursday at 1 p.m. EST.
Monson said he intends to keep coaching, somewhere, after this season. But clearly, there is still work to be done at Long Beach.
Just imagine if Monson can win the next one.
Per the New York Post:
"On Monday, the school announced it had agreed to a "mutual separation" following a regular season in which LBSU went 10-10 in conference play and closed it out with that five-game losing streak.
"Monson, though — LBSU's all-time winningest coach — has once again proven to be able to find a way to win in March."
