SALT LAKE CITY - Two weeks after he had settled into his new head coaching job at Minnesota, Dan Monson received a phone call from his former assistant and his successor as head coach of Gonzaga men's basketball, Mark Few.
Monson was a few months removed from doing the unthinkable, as he guided a rag-tag Bulldogs squad on a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, which coincidentally started with a first-round upset over the 7-seed Golden Gophers in Seattle. But before he left his hometown of Spokane for the Twin Cities later that summer, Monson had made a few personnel changes to the Zags' coaching staff, which included a vouch for Few to take his place in the head coach's chair. Mike Roth, Gonzaga's athletic director at the time, didn't know much about Few but trusted Monson's word.
As the two caught up over the phone that summer of 1999, Few couldn't help but question Monson as to why he had left him with an unknown graduate assistant from Walla Walla Community College
"What the hell's the deal with this guy?" Few asked.
That well-mannered, quiet, grad assistant from Kelso, Washington, was Tommy Lloyd. Monson had promised Walla Walla head coach Jeff Reinland that Lloyd, who played at Walla Walla CC, could have a job at Gonzaga when he was done playing. Eventually it was a deal that Few would end up inheriting as his own.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, that promise made out of a small family connection set up Gonzaga for unparalleled success over the next two decades.
In 20 seasons as Few's righthand man, Lloyd's deep connections along the international recruiting trail helped bring in talent from all over the world. It was a niche Few inspired, and it paid dividends in the end. Ronny Turiaf (France), Robert Sacre (Canada), Kelly Olynyk (Canada), Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania) and Rui Hachimura (Japan) would all go onto the NBA after being discovered by Lloyd, who also recruited program staples Elias Harris (Germany), Kevin Pangos (Canada), Przemek Karnowski (Poland) and Killian Tille (France) among others.
With an abundance of international flavor on the roster, Gonzaga reached new heights — 19 West Coast Conference regular season titles, 15 conference tournament titles, two Final Four appearances and four Elite Eight appearances during Lloyd's tenure as an assistant, along with a handful of All-Americans.
"I think one of the greatest gifts coach Few ever gave me was he made me feel like an owner," Lloyd said. "I didn't feel like just an assistant coach there. I felt like I was in ownership with him of the program. I felt the importance of it, the agony of defeats and all that stuff."
Since taking over the Arizona men's basketball program in 2021, Lloyd has become one of the winningest head coaches in the country. No Division-I coach in history reached the 50-win milestone faster than Lloyd, nor has anyone won as many games in their first two seasons (61). Though his Wildcats didn't win the Pac-12 tournament for the first time in his tenure earlier this month, they'll enter the NCAA Tournament as a top-2 seed for the third consecutive season.
Whether by sheer luck or some conspiracy from the NCAA Selection Committee, Lloyd will look across the sidelines and see the man who helped start his career all those years ago, as Arizona faces 15-seed Long Beach State coached by Monson — who was fired over a week ago.
Monson has been coaching "for free" ever since the school parted ways with him last Monday after 17 seasons at the helm. Monson led Beach to the NCAA Tournament once before in 2012, compiled over 275 wins and was named the Big West coach of the year four times.
Still, one of the hardest things Monson has had to go through didn't stop him from guiding Beach to the 2024 Big West Tournament championship, securing the program's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2012.
"Going to the locker room and tell the players, it was super, super hard obviously," Monson said. "Those guys showed me they loved me that day. I'll never forget it. That's all you need. I've reflected this week that I don't have a job, but I don't need one. I've got everything I need with my family, with my players, with my friends. It's been a life-changing week in a good way."
Going from fired to leading a program to the NCAA Tournament in a week's time isn't how Monson wanted his career to be remembered, though. As the mastermind behind Gonzaga's quarter-century run in the postseason, he had a few monikers in mind to reflect his accomplishments.
"The Zagfather, the Dogfather, I got to have a name for that," Monson said. "That's my claim to fame. I can't be known as the only guy to get fired and work in an NCAA tournament for free. That's got to be my legacy is starting that."
Before he embarks on his last ride, Monson had a rare opportunity to share the experience with Lloyd and Few over dinner before all three put in one final day of preparation for their first-round games. Lloyd gave Monson a bit of grief for arriving late to the party, to which the Long Beach State coach retorted that he was just preparing to put in the Princeton offense for Thursday's game (Princeton pulled off an upset over Arizona in the NCAA Tournament last season). Monson also made sure to let Lloyd know he still owed him for the promise he made more than 20 years ago.
In between jokes and stories, the three men took a chance to reflect on the moment. For Lloyd, he was sitting with two of mentors who had shaped so much of his life and career. Monson had a chance to look back on what he had accomplished and what became of his work over two decades ago. And for Few, he was reminded why he got into the coaching business in the first place.
"He's a great coach," Few said of Monson. "He's led three different teams to the NCAA tournament, multiple occasions. He's an unbelievable guy. He's the sole reason why I got into this profession. He got me into it, gave me the opportunity. So my career never would have even happened if it wasn't for Dan Monson."
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