what a great week it's turned out to be for the program!!

1) Dan's job is complete. It was complete in the BWCT post game conference, he put his hand on AT's shoulder, and they remarked he is now a man, a man with a bright future. Job well done

2) This group got to go dancing. It would surely have been empty to see them graduate/finish without that goal fulfilled for them/coaching staff/university. Sure, we'd love to this core, and with Hart & Lewis showing promise, be back next year, and with new recruits and the right xfer or two coming in. Regardless, they'll have options, in the case of AT & LT, a marketing/NIL dream that'll be recruited, probably more so with AT's force of physical ability and personality.

3) AT & Jones (& Yan!) have won a regular season title and won the BWCT, and made two BWCT finals over 3 years, and they did it the hard way at that. That puts them in elite company of Beach History with the fab four (2 titles, 1 NCAA, 3 BWCT finals), Caffey/Ennis/Pappageorge (2 titles, 1 NCAA) during the MOnson era. Booker & Bibbins stand out unfortunately never got to taste that extra glory. And they did those two titles with two very different groups. Says a lot.

4) there should be no 'urge' of desperation to one up Dan as some desperate measure to keep the core together. Even if Monson stayed, they've fulfilled and accomplished a long awaited dream last week, and they'll have options, as they should. It's not a foregone conclusion they'll go, just as it's reality there will be UTR offers for a couple of them. Some possible very close in SoCal, but even then the portal is turmoil central. They are also competing with 17 & 18 year old phenoms in the NIL world. It's the wild west. Morgan went to USC, and he sat the pine a lot. Imagine the type of extra exposure he might have got at Beach playing 30+ minutes a game and setting blocked shot records and dominating vs. his 'do your limited role' stint at USC. and maybe LT doesn't come if Morgan was here. Things don't happen orderly anymore.

Beach does have something to offer this core. Making a very good legacy into all time great legacies. Exposure of a different kind, a change to get great and alterante training and teaching and different perspective with a hungry new coach. A chance to further their careers as much as they could elsewhere. Look at how AT has gown in being a complete player. Let's face, Monson has pretty much taken this group about as far as he could anyway. No guarantees.

5) Massey ratings last 3 years.
2022 159 Big West Rating = 22
2023 191 Big West Rating = 17
2024 151 Big West Rating = 18

kind of odd our best rated team had the worst conference record. 2022 the Big West was down a lot, and Beach was able to take advantage that year
. Irvine this year was the first sub 100 rated team in quite some time for the Big West.

6) If they all stay as we hope they will, plus Hart showed continual progress, Lewis showed raw ability. It would not be some rebuild when you have AJ, AT, LT, & Jones. I suspect they would like to finish at Beach, all things being equal, but they aren't equal. Regardless, it's exciting to finally get a new jolt of energy for the program.

7) and yes, it's always possible it won't work out well. that's life. no risk, no reward. Just like one week ago SMitheran & Monson made a decision that had some risk. Well, Got the reward!!!

8) I hope Scholl applies, I'm guessing he will, unless he's been given smoke signals differently, but that doesn't seem like SMitheran's style to do that type of thing. Scholl would have his own risk. I think it's probably unlikely. I'm just rooting for him jsut cause he's paid his dues, and I believe a good role model, and I think I'd enjoy his messages he'd bring. And I think he can recruit. In any case, we'll see.

9)I really doubt Smitheran has osme hand-picked ready to go guy, that's one of those simplistic notions. Especially in California alone, there are now 6 similar or higher profile openings (Poly, Stanford, UOP, Pepperdine, Beach, Fresno State) and some of those applying to Long Beach will be applying to those. To me Fresno & Beach have the most upside of any of those gigs for any aspiring coach, while Stanford of course has the prestige factor. Beach has a unique situation to sell among mid-majors.

To me, the UOP & Pepperdine jobs have some real structural issues, beyond what Beach faces, in making those programs successful. Poly can at least sell academics that are 2nd only to Stanford, among that group. Pepperdine and UOP IMO are graveyards for most any new coach, even if they can probably pay a bit more than Beach, but then given what Magpayo is being able to accomplish at Riverside is somewhat remarkable, so you never know.

Going to be an exciting near future for MBB, with this jolt of greatness the last week. Probably some post NCAA tournament sadness, but that's life.