Eastern Washington-Idaho game ties generations of basketball within the Monson family

Maddox Monson remembers clearly the moment he was informed that his father, Dan Monson, was no longer going to be his basketball coach.

“When the whole news went down and the athletic director came into the locker room and told us, it was probably one of the worst days of my life,” Monson said. “I couldn’t keep it together.”

The decision by Long Beach State Athletic Director Bobby Smitheran to fire Dan Monson at the tail end of his 18th season with the California men’s basketball program led to a series of unexpected events for the Monson family – and for a time the Beach themselves, who won the Big West Conference Tournament despite LBSU’s 10-10 finish in regular-season conference play.

LBSU, a No. 15 seed, lost to UCLA by 20 points in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and that was the last game Monson coached there. He finished with an overall record of 275-273 at LBSU, taking the Beach to the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT four times.

Although that was a low point for Maddox, and for son MicGuire, and for Dan, it opened the possibility for a family reunion at Eastern Washington University, where all three Monsons are together again, happily surrounded by even more Monsons – many of whom will be at Reese Court on Saturday when the EWU men’s and women’s basketball teams play Idaho in a doubleheader in Cheney.

“I’ll tell anyone that asks,” MicGuire Monson said following EWU’s victory over Portland State on Saturday. “The best part about being here is that I get to go see my grandparents.”

After playing two years at LBSU, Maddox is redshirting this season for the Eagles. MicGuire was at LBSU the past two seasons as well, as a graduate assistant. But he got a promotion when he joined his dad’s staff at EWU, where he is an assistant coach. He is doing “a little bit of everything” for a team that is riding a three-game winning streak into its matchup with the rival Vandals.

“It’s given me a new lease on energy and coaching,” Dan Monson said on Tuesday. “I’ve done it a lot of a years. The profession is changing. It made me want to keep going, because I get to see Maddox every day at practice and MicGuire every day at the staff meeting.”

For most of his coaching career (which includes a stint as Gonzaga’s head coach from 1997 to 1999), Dan Monson’s rosters never included his children. Dan and Darci, his wife, have four children – Mollie and McKenna are their two daughters – and all through their childhood Dan abstained from coaching them in any sport.

His decision was rooted in the experience of watching parents go “overboard,” he said.

“I didn’t want to be accused of being that parent that forced my kids into basketball – or any sport – because I loved it,” he said. “I was the guy that sat in the top row with the USA Today and never said a word during a game. I would only advise the kids afterward if they asked.”

That was until Maddox, who decided that LBSU would be a good fit. He didn’t play a ton – during his freshman and sophomore years he appeared in 24 games and played 72 total minutes – but he is redshirting this season and has two years of eligibility remaining.

“Growing up, I knew I always wanted to play for my dad,” Maddox Monson said. “I didn’t know how realistic it was, so now that I am doing it, I don’t take it for granted.”

For MicGuire Monson, the experience of coaching with his dad has been rewarding personally and professionally. He’s heard a lot of stories about his dad, and he’s been in other programs, too – MicGuire’s career began as a student assistant for Leon Rice at Boise State – but to be there in the meetings and on the court with him as an assistant is something else.

“I had a couple other job offers, but I didn’t know how much longer my dad was going to do it, and I wanted to stick with him,” he said. “He only has so many more years. He never got to (coach) with his dad, so being able to do it with mine is really cool.”

MicGuire represents the third consecutive Monson generation to coach basketball: Don Monson, his grandfather, is a member of the Idaho Vandals Hall of Fame, having coached UI from 1978 to 1983 before leaving to coach Oregon, a program he led for the next decade.

Dan Monson said he expects his father to be in the stands Saturday as usual – and he is certain the 91-year-old will be cheering for the home team.

“As he says, ‘I owe a lot to Idaho and I will always be a Vandal, but I love my son more than I love the University of Idaho,’ ” Dan Monson said. “He will definitely be wearing red.”