Long Beach State University Athletics
Monson Enjoying Long Beach
10/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
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Monson Enjoying Time in Long Beach Dan Monson, fired seven games into last season as Gophers men's basketball coach, is about to begin his first season as coach at Long Beach State after coaching seven years at Minnesota. "I'm doing awesome," Monson said from Long Beach, Calif. "It's funny. I've got a player sitting here in my office and we're talking about life because he's struggling right now. And I said, 'You know, I'm really lucky because I wake up every morning and I like what I'm doing.' "I said I've got many friends who are making millions of dollars as coaches and they woke up this morning and they didn't want to do it." Would that be football or basketball coaches? "Both," he said. At Long Beach State, Monson will be paid one-third of the $750,000 he was making at Minnesota. "We have a couple of commitments next year that we're happy about," he said. "But this year is going to be real tough. Our top scorer back from last year averaged something like 1.8 points a game, and our top eight scorers from last year are gone. So it's going to be trying that way." Off the court, Monson, 45, who is a good man, said he's doing fine. "The rest is good; my family's liking school and we live just four or five miles from Seal Beach," he said. "The nice thing is that it's three miles from campus to my house, so I don't have to get on the freeway at all. It's great access for my family." Monson said he has had no second thoughts about the Gophers. "My big thing is I never look back," he said. "When I left Gonzaga to go to Minnesota, I didn't look back, and I'm not looking back at Minnesota, either. I'm looking forward to this new challenge, and I'm excited for a fresh start." |
