Long Beach State AD's explanation for firing coach makes little sense

15-seed Long Beach State makes its return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 when they face 2-seed Arizona on Thursday afternoon.

Instead of the Beach's drought-breaking season being the focus of their upcoming matchup, college basketball fans have been discussing the irony of head coach Dan Monson's situation.

Amid a five-game losing streak, Monson was fired last Monday. However, he is continuing to coach the rest of the season. Following athletic director Bobby Smitheran's decision, the team got red-hot and earned an automatic berth into March Madness by winning the Big West Tournament.

Smitheran discussed the move to fire Monson with the Associated Press on Thursday, and his explanation doesn't make much sense.

"My belief and hope is that by doing what I did and the timing of it, they would play inspired, and that's what they did," the AD said, per an Associated Press and ESPN report. "I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but it worked."

Though Smitheran says that he's not trying to take credit for the winning ways, his words say otherwise.

He added that he felt too much focus was being put on the firing.

"I don't buy into that narrative," Smitheran said. "I think this is really getting lost on people, that we agreed that a change in leadership was necessary. This was something Coach Monson brought to me."

If Monson did indeed approach his boss and the firing was really more of a mutual parting, then the former San Diego State executive shouldn't be blamed.

But if that's not the case, then letting go of the program's leader since 2007 with the potential of a late run still up in the air was a mistake. 

There are certainly other ways to "inspire" the team.

Even with the Beach's season expected to end against the heavily favored Wildcats on Thursday, Monson has a resume that should earn him another head-coaching job if he chooses.

Between his two seasons at Gonzaga, eight seasons at Minnesota and 17 seasons at Long Beach State, the 62-year-old has captured five conference Coach of the Year awards (three straight from 2010-13) and made four NCAA Tournament appearances. Monson's also collected six regular-season conference titles, three conference tournament championships and gone 445-395 overall (.530 winning percentage).

"My job is to position our coaches and student athletes to be successful," Smitheran said. "This was maybe an atypical way to do so. But I believed in the roster we had, I believed in our coaching staff and our ability to do something special. Maybe this was the catalyst they needed to be inspired to play for one another."