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SALT LAKE CITY — Long Beach State‘s athletic director said the timing of his decision to fire coach Dan Monson was done with the hope it might trigger the exact run that led the team on its unexpected trip to the NCAA tournament.
“My belief and hope is that by doing what I did and the timing of it, they would play inspired, and that’s what they did,” Bobby Smitheran told The Associated Press on Thursday, a few hours before the Beach lost 85-65 to Arizona in the first round. “I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, but it worked.”
Monson’s job status has been one of the most intriguing stories leading into the first round of the NCAA tournament. He was fired last Monday, on the heels of a five-game losing streak, but is continuing to coach for the rest of the season, and the team responded last weekend by winning the Big West tournament to earn an unexpected trip to March Madness.
“If it helped, I’m really happy we did it because I wouldn’t trade it for the job or any other job. I’ve said that all along,” Monson said of Smitheran’s comments. “If that’s what spurred it [being dismissed], that’s great. But we’ll never know ’cause that’s how it played out. We’ll never know if it did or not. It’s not really worth talking about.”
Smitheran said too much has been made of the notion that Monson was fired.
“I don’t buy into that narrative,” Smitheran said. “I think this is really getting lost on people, that we agreed that a change in leadership was necessary. This was something Coach Monson brought to me.”
Monson has never suggested otherwise and has handled the situation with class. After Thursday’s loss, he reflected on the “range of emotions” that he’s had to deal with in the past week and the outpouring of support he’s received from his players, friends and family.
“My stance this week doesn’t change: I’m the luckiest guy in this tournament in the world to do what I got to do today with these guys,” Monson said. “I’m proud, happy, reflective … mostly proud. Proud of my tenure. I’m proud of doing it the right way. Proud of the student-athletes that came out of here, that came in as young men, left as men. Came in without a college degree and left with a college degree. Came in here with skill development, leaving here with skills enough to go play professionally.
“I think proud is the most. Proud of just who I am. Proud of my family, too, by the way. … It’s a tough couple weeks. I couldn’t imagine it without them.”
Several coaches in Salt Lake City this week — including Monson’s friend, Mark Few of Gonzaga — have been less charitable, suggesting an AD should let things play out before announcing a separation during the season.
Monson on Thursday said he wants to keep coaching, but he knows that’s out of his control.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
Smitheran, who is in his first year at Long Beach State after a successful stretch as an executive at San Diego State, said the big picture is that he wants the Beach to be in the hunt for tournament bids every year.
This is Long Beach State’s first NCAA appearance since 2012; Monson has been there since 2007.
“My job is to position our coaches and student athletes to be successful,” Smitheran said. “This was maybe an atypical way to do so. But I believed in the roster we had, I believed in our coaching staff and our ability to do something special. Maybe this was the catalyst they needed to be inspired to play for one another.”
ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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