Long Beach State University Athletics
Monson Back in Comfort Zone
10/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
|
Monson Back to Comfort Zone LONG BEACH, Calif. -- During the press conference last November when his resignation from Minnesota was announced, Dan Monson stood there in the background, worn out, beat down, deep circles under his eyes, stunned look on his face. Around the country, college basketball fixtures nodded and winked on cue, pointed at the television and entered him into evidence as Exhibit Q of why mid-major coaches should be careful when jumping at bigger opportunities. Monson had left a good thing at Gonzaga. For a bad -- and tough -- thing at Minnesota. In hindsight by many, it was deemed a mistake. But that's an oversimplified way of looking at it. Truth is, Monson -- now back in the less-stressful world of mid-major basketball here at Long Beach State -- did what many reasonable people would do in similar circumstances. He weighed the possibility of sustaining success at Gonzaga with a $125,000-per-year salary against the possibility of achieving success at Minnesota with a contract that was essentially guaranteed for a total of $7 million. Not surprisingly, he decided that if he was going to err it would be on the side of security, given how he had just gotten married and planned to start a family. "From a financial standpoint, you have to look at the opportunity," Monson said as he navigated the streets of Long Beach the other day, on his way to dinner before heading home to help his wife, Darci, put their four children to bed in their new home. "You have to look at the money, but you do kind of make a deal with the devil." In this case, the devil won. But the savings account did too. And so as the timeless debate continues, the question remains mostly unanswered. Is it better to be content as the big fish in the little conference? Or should you jump and see if you're capable of being a shark? And how much of a role should money play in the decision? Anybody who thinks they know the answer has probably never had to make such a decision. It's hard. And for proof, look no further than Monson, who struggled with Minnesota's lingering probation from the scandal-ridden years that preceded him, got pushed out as the Gophers' coach seven games into his eighth season and then found it more difficult than he expected to land another job. All while his former assistant, Mark Few, took the baby he conceived known as Gonzaga basketball and raised it into a legitimate and consistent national power. In normal-people terms, it's kinda like watching the high school girlfriend you dumped become a supermodel as you age (not so well) and endure a subsequent divorce (that isn't so pretty). During down times, it seems like the worst mistake of your life, and you wonder how you ever left that girl. That's what your friends wonder too. But though it might not ease your mind completely, it's important to remember three things: 1. You never knew she'd be a supermodel. To the first point: "At the time that I left, there was a question of whether you could sustain the success at a place like Gonzaga, or if you were really just the next Loyola-Marymount or Pepperdine," said Monson, who left Gonzaga after leading the school to the Elite Eight of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. "Was it just our time in the cycle in the league or were we going to go back to the pack? At the time, nobody really knew. Having a one-hit wonder is one thing, but being able to sustain it like Mark has done is something else, and it's something Valpo wasn't able to do, Loyola wasn't able to do, Creighton, George Mason, all of them. "Gonzaga is the only mid-major to ever be able to sustain that level of success, but nobody knew whether this was possible back then. So it's easy to say I should've stayed at Gonzaga, but nobody had a crystal ball back then." To the second point: "I knew Minnesota would be a challenge," Monson said. "But you can't be a good coach and think you can't get the job done." And to the third point: "The Minnesota job put me in a position where I don't have to worry about this job, what my salary is, whether we're going to be able to live, whether we're going to have to take a little money out of savings and stuff like that," Monson said. "Minnesota treated me very well financially. We have savings now. I didn't have any savings when I took the Minnesota job. And that's what I told my wife, that we're really lucky. We have money. I don't know how people can live out here without a bankroll like that." At this, Monson laughed. Property on the Pacific isn't cheap, you know? But mostly, Monson wasn't laughing because he's wealthy, but because he's wealthy and comfortable, the latter being a prerequisite to good days and chuckles. Though he has nothing bad to say about his time at Minnesota, the reality is it was a hard job with hard demands, stressful times from start to finish. Trying to be a consistent winner when it's reasonable to think you have the seventh-best job in the league -- Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin are probably better jobs -- can wear on a man's mind, raise his blood pressure and lower his self esteem. "At Minnesota, I enjoyed the challenge but I did not enjoy the day," Monson acknowledged. "And what I've learned is that life is too short to not enjoy the day." An hour before speaking those words, Monson was in his new office at Long Beach State, playing on a computer, telling stories, laughing hard and smiling big. To his right was one of his assistants, Eric Brown, and three administrative people were hanging out with them, including athletic director Vic Cegles, feet propped up near a coffee table full of pecans, peanuts and M&Ms. It was a relaxing, carefree afternoon of work, the kind that isn't usually possible at a BCS school with BCS cultures, atmospheres and booster commitments that erode free time. While a playoff baseball game occupied the television behind him, the same man who had looked so tired, worn out and beat down during the press conference to announce his resignation 11 months earlier, suddenly seemed recharged and at ease, like he was back in a comfort zone, not unlike the one he once left behind for the big pond that is the Big Ten. "I'm really comfortable again now because I'm in more of a Gonzaga
atmosphere again," Monson said. "I don't want to sound bitter
about what happened at Minnesota because I'm not bitter. But right now
I'm waking up at 5 or 5:30 every morning without an alarm clock looking
forward to getting back to work, and it's just really good to be like
that again, really good to be happy again and enjoying the day." |
