Building a beast
Former coach Monson looks on with pride at what Gonzaga has become
Dan Monson won’t second-guess himself about leaving Gonzaga. He’s convinced he made the correct decision 18 years ago, taking the money and a Big Ten job at Minnesota.
But one of the Gonzaga program’s architects also can’t deny there are mixed emotions, as he prepared to make the trip to watch good friend Mark Few lead Gonzaga to its first ever Final Four on Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. “I never regretted leaving it, because it was the right decision. But anybody would have to say, ‘Dang, what the heck,’ ” the former Gonzaga coach said in a phone interview. “It’s too bad you don’t have that genie [who gives you] three wishes or three things you can change.”
Monson, after nine years as an assistant at Gonzaga and two as a head coach, went on to coach parts of eight years at Minnesota and just finished his 10th season at Long Beach State. He’s won 20 games in a season four times and reached two NCAA Tournaments, producing an all-time winning percentage of .532. But he’s never come close to recreating the magic of that Gonzaga run to the Elite Eight in 1999.
“To watch that uniform come out on the floor [in the Final Four], it will be pretty emotional,” the 55-year-old Monson said. “I’ll feel a tremendous amount of pride. It’s going to be a surreal moment.”
In a circuitous way, Monson thinks leaving helped Gonzaga reach these heights. After Few led Gonzaga to back-to-back Sweet 16’s the two years after Monson’s departure, Gonzaga didn’t want to lose another high level coach. The school began putting more money into the program, building new facilities, and significantly expanding the team’s budget.
In addition to the extra resources enticing Few to stay in Spokane, Wash., he also saw Monson’s struggles at Minnesota and realized leaving wouldn’t lead to happiness. While he flirted with a few West Coast job openings — at Oregon, Washington and UCLA — he never felt the need to make a change. The two coaches would talk about the differences in their programs, and Monson would tell Few he didn’t have anything Few lacked at Gonzaga.
“It made him pause, and say I’m got a pretty good situation here,” said Monson, who remains close to Few, speaking multiple times a week.
It wa s Mons o n who brought Few to Gonzaga in the first place. There was an opening on the coaching staff for a third assistant coach prior to the 1989-90 season, and then-head coach Dan Fitzgerald told Monson to find a young guy to fill in. He felt Few, an assistant high school basketball coach at the time, was perfect. They had gotten to know each other well working Oregon basketball camps.
There was one catch. The job was technically parttime. It paid $500 a month. Few declined. So Monson sweetened the pot. He could stay with him at his apartment, free of charge. A year later, the top assistant left, Monson was promoted, and so was Few. He’s still there.
The Zags reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1995, and Monson became the head coach in 1997. In his second season, Gonzaga became a national story after its Cinderella run to the Elite Eight, losing to eventual national champion Connecticut, and Monson left to take the head-coaching position at the Minnesota. The West Coast Conference powerhouse hasn’t missed the tournament since, reaching the dance 19 consecutive years, tied for the fourth longest streak in the country with Wisconsin, behind only Kansas (28), Duke (22) and Michigan State (20).
“I’m not sure any of us could’ve dreamt of it getting to the depths it has,” Monson said.
Few has organized a Gonzaga gathering Thursday night in Phoenix, open to all former players, coaches and friends of the program. Monson’s phone hasn’ t stopped buzzing since the Zags reached the Final Four, former players and coaching wanting to reminisce, one media request after another. Monson is happy to take each call.
“It makes me feel good. I’m 18 years removed and people still want to give me that little piece of it,” Monson said. “I don’t really deserve it. This is Mark’s run, Nigel Williams-Goss’ and [Przemek] Karnowski’s time.
“But that’s how it works at Gonzaga. It’s everybody’s time.”