Long Beach State University Athletics
Monson signed to contract extension
9/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sept. 14, 2010
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Long Beach State director of athletics Vic Cegles announced today that head men's basketball coach Dan Monson has been signed to a contract extension running through the end of the 2015-16 season.
"Dan has done a terrific job of building a strong foundation for the basketball program, and uninterrupted leadership is critical for long term success," Cegles said. "He has become an integral part of the community and we are pleased to have a renewed commitment to the 49ers and our pursuit of championships and national recognition."
Monson took over the Long Beach State program on April 17, 2007 when he was named the 16th head men's basketball coach in school history. He inherited a team that won just six games his first season and has built the program, coming within one win of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament last year. He also picked up his 200th career win as a head coach during the 2009-10 season with a win at Cal State Northridge.
"What you find out in this business is that it comes down to relationships," Monson said. "Relationships are no good if the people you work for don't feel the same way you do. My family and myself are extremely comfortable here, feel very fortunate to work here and just love being a part of Long Beach State and the community. For an administration to feel the same as far as giving you an extension to stay here, that they believe in you gives you great confidence to do the job. My family and I are extremely excited and we can hopefully settle in and concentrate on getting this program where the whole university and community are extremely proud and hopefully bring some championships."
Monson's LBSU teams have improved their win totals each year with the 2009-10 team finishing with 17 wins despite playing the top-ranked non-conference schedule in the nation. The Beach squared off against five top 25 teams, including Duke (National Champion) and West Virginia (Final Four), while playing 10 games against teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season. The 49ers also claimed their first-ever win over national power UCLA under Monson.
During his three seasons with the 49ers, Monson has gained a reputation for his willingness to schedule some of the top teams in the country. The 49ers have made trips to national powers Duke, Kentucky and Syracuse, with North Carolina on the schedule this year. His reward has been success on the recruiting trail where his last two classes were ranked among the top 10 Mid-Major recruiting classes by ESPN.com.
Monson has been a Division I head coach for 12 years, during which he has compiled a career record of 208-179 (.537), with seven trips to postseason play, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 1999 with Gonzaga University.
Monson was the head coach at the University of Minnesota for just over seven years, compiling a 118-105 mark and reaching postseason play in five of his seven full seasons.
In 2004-05 he led the Gophers to a memorable year. He engineered the second-biggest Big Ten turnaround in the previous 20 seasons, finishing with a 10-6 conference mark after posting just three league wins in the previous campaign. Minnesota reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since 1992-93 and Monson led the Golden Gophers to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999.
In 2005-06 the Gophers advanced to their fifth postseason appearance in six years. Senior guard Vincent Grier was named All-Big Ten and All-District for the second straight year. In 2002-03 Minnesota went 19-14 and earned the program's first trip to the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden.
Monson reached two personal coaching milestones in 2004-05. With a victory over Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, he earned his 100th victory at Minnesota. When he defeated Purdue on February 26, 2005 he picked up his 150th career head-coaching victory.
Monson stepped into the Minnesota job on the heels of NCAA sanctions against the school. Those NCAA violations during the mid-1990's severely limited scholarships and put strict recruiting sanctions on the program since the summer of 1999, coinciding with Monson's arrival at Minnesota. The summer of 2005 was the first Monson and his staff could recruit on par with every other college basketball program and that season concluded with a trip to the NCAA Tournament, the programs first year off probation.
Prior to accepting the Minnesota job on July 24, 1999, Monson was the head coach at Gonzaga for two years. In 1998-99 he led the Bulldogs to within a breath of the Final Four.
Gonzaga, which went 28-7 on the year and won the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament championships, defeated such notable NCAA powers as Minnesota (75-63), Stanford (82-74) and Florida (73-72) before bowing out to eventual national-champion Connecticut (67-62) in the Elite Eight.
His first year as head coach at Gonzaga resulted in a 24-10 mark, as the Bulldogs advanced to the second round of the NIT. Monson had a sparkling 52-17 (.754) record in his two seasons as the head coach of the Bulldogs.
Monson spent 11 years helping build the Gonzaga program. He began at GU as an assistant coach in 1988 and spent six years laying the groundwork. In 1994-95 he was elevated to associate head coach under head coach Dan Fitzgerald.
Three years later he took over full control of the Gonzaga program. He led Gonzaga to a West Coast Conference title in 1998 and was named the WCC Coach of the Year. The squad set a school-record with its 24 wins and Monson was also named the National Rookie Coach of the Year by Basketball Times.
Monson was a key figure in the Bulldogs turnaround in the 1990's. Gonzaga had a record of 223-89 over 10 seasons and he was responsible for recruiting many of the key players in Gonzaga's NCAA Sweet 16 appearances from 1998-2001. From the time Monson was named associate head coach in 1995, Gonzaga averaged 22 wins per season and reached postseason play every year but one.
Prior to joining the Bulldogs' staff, Monson spent two seasons as a graduate assistant coach under Gene Bartow at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Monson played one year of football at Idaho, but turned his attention to coaching when a knee injury cut short his gridiron career. He coached the boys' basketball team at Oregon City (Ore.) High School for one year prior to taking the UAB graduate assistant post.
A 1985 graduate of the University of Idaho with a bachelor degree in mathematics, Monson earned his master's degree in education with a concentration on athletic administration from UAB in 1988.
In addition to his 20-plus seasons coaching Division I basketball, as either a head or assistant coach, Monson has served on two coaching staffs for USA Basketball representing the United States in international competition.
Monson gained valuable experience by coaching on the international level with USA Basketball. He was an assistant coach for Kelvin Sampson on the gold medal winning 20-and-Under World Championships for Young Men Qualifying Tournament squad in the summer of 2004 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He also assisted Oliver Purnell at the 1999 Men's World University Games in Mallorca, Spain where the U.S. won the gold medal. With Team USA, Monson had the opportunity to coach future NBA players Sean May, Brendan Haywood, Bracey Wright, Chris Paul, Michael Redd, Mark Madsen, Kenyon Martin and Charlie Villanueva.
