Posted on 03/17/2024 9:45:41 AM PDT by chrisinoc
Long Beach State’s journey to an NCAA Tournament bid truly puts the madness in March.
The 49ers won the Big West Conference championship game over UC Davis on Saturday, 74-70, to go dancing this March. However, it was an odd tournament berth considering head coach Dan Monson was fired just five days prior.
Long Beach State made the decision to move on from Monson, but opted for him to remain in place until the end of the season. The 49ers, at 18-14, went into the Big West Conference Tournament with a five-game losing streak, so the thought was they wouldn’t win it all to head into the NCAA Tournament.
That thought backfired, and now Monson will take his 49ers into the tournament hoping to play the Cinderella role every lower seed wants to be this time of year (teams will be seeded on Sunday). A statement was announced of Monson’s "mutual separation" with Long Beach State last week.
"I am proud of what we have accomplished on and off the court, but it is time for a new voice for the program," he said in the statement. "I wish nothing but the best for a special university and a tremendous group of student athletes. I am also personally excited for what lies ahead for the Monson family and myself."
Monson has been in his post for the last 17 seasons with the 49ers, winning the most games of any head coach in university history with 275 victories. This will be his second NCAA Tournament appearance with the win, the last of which came during the 2011-12 season.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The truth is the program has been in decline for the past eight years. The new AD decided it was time for a change and opted not to renew his contract.
Based on these results LBSU should threaten to fire the coach every year.
Bid-thieves should bump teams from their conference out of the tournament, not teams from other conferences.
It is becoming normal in conference tournaments for teams assured of qualifying to lose. This doesn’t cost them much, and actually benefits the conference the way that the profits of the tournament are divided-up. Remove the money incentive, and we’ll get more normal results (which will sometimes include lower-ranked teams winning their conference tournament).
“Based on these results LBSU should threaten to fire the coach every year.”
In 2007 LBSU did fire their coach even though the team made the NCAA tournament. He was fired because of recruiting violations.
Similar to Michigan in 1989 except that when Bill Frieder told Bo Schembechler right before the tournament that he was going to Arizona, Bo essentially said don’t let the door hit you in the tuchus and fired Frieder on the spot. Bo then elevated assistant coach Steve Fisher to interim head coach and Michigan ran off six straight victories on their way to winning the ‘89 championship by one over PJ Carlesimo’s Seton Hall squad 80-79.
As soon as LSU’s football Coach O (Orgeron) career went downhill, I figured the best pattern for LSU was to fire their coach after a national championship. Ever since Saban’s LSU won a national championship, each coach seems to be one and done.
I’m happy that the writer refers to the team as the 49ers (the school was founded in 1949). Recently, the student body voted to drop the name 49ers because it’s “racist” and voted to rename the team the Sharks, a name that doesn’t seem to have caught on.
The name change resulted in the school removing a huge statue of a nineteenth-century gold-seeker known as Prospector Pete, which must have cost tens of thousands of dollars. However, the campus newspaper remains the Daily 49er.
USC should have kept Coach O. He loved USC, was popular with the players and fans alike, and he knew how to win games. After Orgeron was let go, the I-Told-You-Sos had a field day as one failure after another succeeded him.
“I’m happy that the writer refers to the team as the 49ers (the school was founded in 1949). Recently, the student body voted to drop the name 49ers because it’s “racist” and voted to rename the team the Sharks, a name that doesn’t seem to have caught on.
The name change resulted in the school removing a huge statue of a nineteenth-century gold-seeker known as Prospector Pete, which must have cost tens of thousands of dollars. However, the campus newspaper remains the Daily 49er.”
I think it was the woke and idiot LBS president that pressured the athletic department to drop the 49er nickname and Pete the Prospector mascot.
She’s alienated a lot of alumni and athletic donors.
The nickname is now the Beach and mascot Elbee, a transgendered shark. Both stink.
Their program is in decline because they DO NOT have the MONEY it takes to manipulate players into committing to play for Long Beach State.
College is fast-moving to a DOLLARS business-model much like the NBA. The intervention of LEGALIZED GAMBLING has also removed the purity of sports at the NCAA level.
You can already began to regularly use the phrase.. "Why I remember when _____________ was how it was."
Ah....An NIL team before NIL. Given his experience, Juwan Howard should have translated perfectly into today’s game as a coach.
More and more, it seems as if the metric for keeping your coaching job is whether or not you’ve made it to the NCAA tournament recently.
(Or were expected to.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.