HENDERSON, Nev. — Darci Monson, wife of Long Beach State basketball coach Dan Monson, offered perspective on a week of emotional lows and an ultimate high by serving up sage words — and fried rice.
The fried rice was for Aboubacar Traore, the Most Outstanding Player of the 2024 Big West Conference Tournament, following his 12-point, 13-assist, 11-rebound performance in the Beach’s 86-67 quarterfinal defeat of UC Riverside that opened a remarkable run on March 14.
“She knows I love that,” Traore said of the dish, which Darci Monson set aside for the forward.
Traore fasts from sunrise to sunset in observation of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that lasts this year from March 10 through April 9. This nightly fast-breaking meal was especially celebratory, and not just for including a favorite food of Traore’s.
His triple-double marked the first in Big West Tournament history and began a three-day run in Henderson, Nevada, culminating with a 74-70 championship-game win over UC Davis.
Long Beach State forward Aboubacar Traore (25) goes up for a shot near UC Davis forward Niko Rocak during the second half of the championship game of the Big West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament on March 16 in Henderson, Nevada.
The postgame scene at The Dollar Loan Center — during which LBSU players and staff posed with the league championship trophy, the oversized NCAA Tournament “ticket” awarded to all conference-tournament winners and cut down the nets — came with perhaps more tears and longer embraces than a typical celebration.
Just a week earlier, the LBSU athletic department and Dan Monson released a joint statement of a “mutual” agreement to split. Monson became the Beach’s head coach in 2007 after eight seasons at Minnesota and two at Gonzaga.
The latter launched Monson into the March Madness spotlight 25 years ago, when the then-obscure West Coast Conference program went on a run to the Elite Eight.
Monson’s tenure in Spokane, Washington, launched Gonzaga on its way to powerhouse status, with the Bulldogs reaching two national-championship games and every NCAA Tournament in every season since 1999.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, against whom Monson’s No. 15-seeded LBSU team is paired in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, became a key figure in Gonzaga’s rise.
He was initially hired as a graduate assistant by Monson before the latter accepted the Minnesota position.
While the separation between Monson and LBSU was presented as mutual, the 62-year-old Monson spoke following the Big West championship like someone not ready to hang up his whistle.
Extending Monson’s tenure sparked the Beach in its wins over UC Riverside, top-seeded UC Irvine and the finale vs. UC Davis.
“Being here for 17 years, for us it would really bad for him to just leave without anything,” said Lassina Traore (no relation to Aboubacar Traore), LBSU’s 6-10 interior banger whose 25 points and nine rebounds highlighted the Big West title game. “No matter what happened, we would just give everything to make sure that they don’t just say, ‘Coach Monson left,’ but that he left with a championship.”
Finality defines postseason college basketball, wherein any game can be a team’s last.
Each game potentially being the one that closes the book for Monson at LBSU, where he is the longest-tenured coach in program history, could weigh heavily. But Darci Monson had other ideas for her husband.
“The first day (of the Big West Tournament) when I didn’t know if it was going to be my last, I was stressing a little bit,” Dan Monson said. “She said, ‘Don’t forget, we always say when you have a bad day, who would you really trade your life with? Who’s out there that you’d rather have their life?’
“And I’m going to tell your right now, I’m lucky,” he added. “There’s nobody — nobody — I would rather be.”
Citing relationships, Monson listed the positives of his coaching career. But he’s done well on the court, too.
His teams won four Big West regular-season championships, and the 2024 tournament marks LBSU’s second appearance under Monson. He joins Jerry Tarkanian and Seth Greenberg as the only Beach head coaches to guide teams to multiple NCAA Tournaments.
With the Las Vegas-area backdrop, Monson compared the Beach’s championship-game win over UC Davis to “a heavyweight fight.” Salt Lake City is quite a ways from Philadelphia, but LBSU plays the part of the underdog Rocky Balboa against second-seeded UA in its next bout.
A talented lineup led by the versatile Aboubacar and Lassina Traore, coupled with explosive-scoring combo guard Marcus Tsohonis, gets to play for the Beach’s first NCAA Tournament win since 1973.
That postseason preceded the hire of UA Hall of Famer Lute Olson, who spent only one season at LBSU — but it was among the best in program history.
A roster that featured four players who reached the NBA went 24-2 and finished ranked No. 10 in the final Associated Press Top 25 Poll in 1973-74.
LBSU did not play in the NCAA Tournament, however, snapping a four-year streak established under Tarkanian. The Tarkanian era also left behind NCAA sanctions due to recruiting violations, which Olson inherited — unbeknownst to the coach when he left Long Beach City College for the job.
While his tenure at LBSU was brief, Olson’s impact resonates in ways reflected in the approach Monson said he hopes his time with the Beach will be remembered.
When Olson died in August 2020, Monson shared with the Southern California News Group a story of recruiting highly coveted Rick Rickert to Minnesota opposite Olson. Monson fondly recalled Olson’s response, chalking it up to the legacy of “class” with which the UA Hall of Famer led.
“(Olson) showed a lot of people that you don’t have to yell and scream and cuss at kids to be successful,” Monson said in the 2020 interview. “You can do it in a very class way. That’s the best way to sum him up.”
Likewise, heading into the NCAA Tournament, Monson wants his lasting impact at LBSU to be reflected in players like Aboubacar Traore.
“To be the MVP of this tournament, and have a triple-double … being true to his religion, being true to his family, being true to his morals and ethics and still be able to play like that?” Monson said. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
