This has not been the best year in Idaho basketball history: the Vandals are 0-19 with 4 chances left to avoid having a winless regular season. 4 decades ago it was quite a different story: Coach Dan Monson showed up in 1978 to take over a 4-22 team, and 3 years later he had a 25-win team that made the 1981 NCAA tourney. The following year he won 27 games, had a 2-PT OT upset of Iowa in the NCAA tourney, and was named national COY. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Monson about recruiting Magic Johnson and golfing with Tara VanDerveer. Today marks the 40th anniversary of Monson clinching Idaho’s 1st conference title in 58 years on February 26, 1981.
You won an Idaho state title at Coeur d’Alene High School and then played college basketball at Idaho: how good a player were you back in the day, and how did you 1st get into coaching? I guess I was a reasonably good player. We won the state tourney my sophomore year but I was not a big part of it. I lettered 3 years at Idaho and then went into the service for a couple of years before being hired as a coach.
You spent 2 years in the Navy: what impact did you service have on you either on or off the court? I was drafted so I did not have much choice in the matter. I wanted to get through it so I could become a coach.
As an assistant to Jud Heathcote at Michigan State you helped recruit Magic Johnson to the Spartans: how hard was it to get him to sign, and could you tell at the time that he would become a legend? It was very hard to sign him. I could recognize even back then how great Magic was. I had seen good high school players before but Jud told me that if we could recruit Magic then he would make us into a program. I told him that 1 guy would not make a program…but after seeing him play a few times I had to admit to Jud that he was right! We went to all of his high school games: he would play PG 1 night and center the next night and his team always won.
In the 1981 NCAA tourney as head coach of your alma mater, Dwayne Wallace scored 20 PTS including a 15-footer with 3 seconds left in a 1-PT OT win by Pitt: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? It was very devastating, although I had some tough losses in high school as well, including 1 year where we were undefeated and then lost in the state title game in OT. Pitt had a big football player who dominated us (Sam Clancy, who had 22 PTS/13 REB and later spent almost a decade as a DE in the NFL) but we played better the next year.
Take me through the magical 1982 season:
You entered the NCAA tourney with only a pair of 2-PT road losses (1 on a tip-in at the buzzer at Montana and 1 at Notre Dame in OT): how close did you come to going undefeated, and how was your team so successful despite not having a starter taller than 6’6”? The tip-in at Missoula ruined our perfect season: the reality is that it is almost impossible to go undefeated. The Notre Dame game still sticks in my craw: we were up by 2 with about 10 seconds left and we had a FT go halfway down before popping out and then John Paxson tied it up at the end of regulation. It was a game that we could have won but it did not work out. A sportswriter asked us if we had ever been in such a hostile environment and 1 of our players (Brian Kellerman) said, “Have you ever been to Missoula?!”
You finished the year by being named national COY: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? It was great but for a little school in Idaho it was just outstanding to be recognized nationally.
In the 2nd round Kellerman scored 14 PTS including a 15-foot jumper that bounced off the rim 3 times before falling through the net in a 2-PT OT win over Iowa: how much of a home court advantage did you have while playing just a few miles away in Pullman, WA, and how was your blood pressure doing during that final shot? Unless you live in that area it is hard to understand the rivalry between Idaho and Washington State. The thing that amazed me was going out during warmups and seeing how much gold and black was in the stands. I thought that the Iowa fans traveled very well…until I realized that it was out fans because our school had the same colors! Phil Hopson had his arms over the rim but thankfully he drew his arms back.
You won 43 straight home games over a 3-year span: did it just reach a point where the fans expected you to win every time that you stepped onto the court? Certainly! When you win a lot they expect you to keep winning. Those kids just put it together: 43 is a lot no matter where you are playing. It is something that I am very proud of.
1 of your golf partners was the women’s head coach at Idaho who accidentally rear-ended your car 1 day at a stop sign: what was Tara VanDerveer like back in the day, and what makes her such a great coach 4 decades later? It was her 1st job as a head coach and I had already been there a few years. She was very good at making sure she did not ruffle any feathers: she came to some of our practices and then would drop by the next day to discuss them. We were never combative about anything and she was very professional for a young kid. I could tell that she was going to be good and I was proud that she came to a couple of clinics that I spoke at. When she was coach of the US Olympic team she invited me to Colorado Springs to have me put in a match-up zone, but I do not know if she ever used it. To this day whenever she plays Gonzaga she calls me up and invites me to come watch the game: she is a great 1.
In 1993 you were awarded almost $300,000 by a jury in your breach-of-contract lawsuit against the university and state of Oregon after being removed as coach: what kind of verdict did you expect, and what did you do with the money? The state appealed the verdict and all I ended up with was a $30,000 lawyer bill. It is really a sore spot to this day.
Your son Dan is currently the coach at Long Beach State: how proud are you of all his success? I am very proud. He has done a great job at Gonzaga/Minnesota/Long Beach. He took Gonzaga to the Elite 8 in 1999 and left Minnesota a lot better than they were when he 1st got there. He started from rock bottom at Long Beach (6-25 in 2008) but has built them up by doing it the right way.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I have not even thought about it. I want to be thought of as a good coach who built some programs up and had teams who were almost always competitive. I was proud to coach in both high school/college.