SALT LAKE CITY — Long Beach State's athletic director said the timing of his decision to fire coach Dan Monson was made in hopes it could spark the exact run that led the team to its unexpected trip to the NCAA Tournament. .
“My belief and hope is that by doing what I did and at the right time, 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 against Arizona in the first round. “I'm not trying to congratulate myself, but it worked.”
Monson's employment situation has been one of the more intriguing storylines leading up to the first round of the NCAA tournament. He was fired last Monday after a five-game losing streak, but continues 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 so glad I 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 drove him [being dismissed], brilliant. But we'll never know because that's how it played out. We will never know if it was like that or not. “It's really not worth talking about.”
Smitheran said there has been too much talk about the idea that Monson was fired.
“I don't believe that narrative,” Smitheran said. “I think people don't really understand that we agreed that a change in leadership was necessary. This was something that 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 “variety of emotions” he had to deal with last week and the outpouring of support he received from his players, friends and family.
“My stance this week doesn't change: I'm the luckiest guy in the world in this tournament to do what I got to do today with these guys,” Monson said. “I am proud, happy, reflective… above all proud. Proud of my tenure. I am proud of doing it the right way. Proud of the student-athletes who left here, who arrived when they were young. They left as men. They came in without a college degree and left with a college degree. They came here with skill development and they left here with enough skills to play professionally.
“I think the most important thing is to be proud. Proud of who I am. Proud of my family, by the way… It was a tough couple of weeks. I couldn't imagine it without them.”
Several coaches in Salt Lake City this week, including Monson's friend, Gonzaga's Mark Few, have been less charitable, suggesting that an AD should let things take their course before announcing an in-season split.
Monson said Thursday that he wants to continue training, but knows that is 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 stint as an executive at San Diego State, said the big picture is that he wants 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 it. But I believed in the squad we had, I believed in our coaching staff and our ability to do something special. Maybe this was the catalyst they needed to inspire each other and play for each other. “
ESPN's Josh Weinfuss and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
