Long Beach State athletic director defends firing of Dan Monson as motivation tactic

Everyone can be motivated by different things in different ways. It’s just that, if Bobby Smitheran is being genuine about his apparent motivation of Dan Monson, Long Beach State has one of the more odd tactics working for them at the moment.

Ahead of Long Beach State’s matchup with Arizona in the NCAA Tournament, Smitheran spoke with the Associated Press about his decision to move on from Monson. That has since led to them winning their conference tournament’s automatic bid which, according to Smitheran, is something he inspried because of his choice.

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“My belief and hope is that, by doing what I did and the timing of it, they would play inspired and that’s what they did,” Smitheran said on Thursday. “I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, but it worked.”

“My job is to position our coaches and student athletes to be successful. This was maybe an atypical way to do so. But I believed in the roster we had. I believed in our coaching staff and our ability to do something special,” said Smitheran. “Maybe this was the catalyst they needed to be inspired to play for one another.”

However, Smitheran, oddly enough, gave Monson credit for his part in that choice. He reminded them that it was an agreed-upon decision between the two of them that led to Monson’s removal.

“I don’t buy into that narrative,” Smitheran said. “I think this is really getting lost on people that we agreed that a change in leadership was necessary. This was something Coach Monson brought to me.”

Long Beach State was 18-14 (9-10) this season on March 11th when leadership made this decision on Monson. It was going to make this, his 17th season leading the program, his last one. All he’d have left were the final games of the year in the Big West Tournament.

Instead, Monson helped take Long Beach State, the No. 4 seed in the field, to the tournament title. It was the first they’d won the Big West Tournament title since 2012. That was also the last time that the team went to the NCAA Tournament under him. That ended in their opening game after losing 75-68 as a No. 12 seed to No. 5 New Mexico.

Now, no matter how it happened, Monson’s career at Long Beach State will continue today as a No. 15 seed against No. 2 Arizona in Salt Lake City. That’s a credit to him, his players, and, apparently, his current, or soon to be former, boss in Smitheran.