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On how Munson brought him to Gonzaga: “He recruited me a little bit when I played at Walla Wally Community College, but I wasn’t good enough. And he gave me the standard line—he was an assistant, and he said, if you ever want to get into coaching, give me a call. So when I got done playing I gave him a call. He gave me my first chance, but I went over to Europe, in Germany to play one more year. And while I was gone they had that first national run at Gonzaga to the Elite Eight, he took the Minnesota job and I kind of got passed on to Mark Few.”

On Gonzaga recruiting him but not offering him a scholarship: “Back in that time Gonzaga was still recruiting JUCO players, and I had a good year. They came and looked at me, but good for them they found somebody better, so they didn’t have to take me. That’s probably why they did so well, and that’s probably why I’m here right now, because they did so well and I was able to hitch my wagon to Gonzaga as a coach. Things work out.”

On if he credits Munson for getting his career starter: “Let’s not give Muns too much credit. I mean, he probably said that to a lot of people. It was an easy way to let a kid off the hook because he wasn’t going to offer him a scholarship. I’m just joking. He’s a great family friend, and he’s a really good man. And he’s one of the funnest people that I know. I’m proud to be part of that coaching tree and and he’s obviously at the very top of it.”

On Munson leading his team to the NCAA tourney despite having been fired: “Muns is a great leader,and so I think he has an ability to rally his troops, and I’m sure they’re playing spirited basketball right now. It’s not the first time his team has made noise in the postseason or a conference tournament. That’s what good coaches do. And we’re we’re gonna play against a very good coach who’s got a lot of experience and in a program that’s used to winning games.”


On his relationship with Munson: “I never worked with him, but I’ve been with him enough. And obviously there’s enough crossover there. Our families are friends, our wives are friends. Our kids are on group chats together. It’s probably about as close as you could be in this coaching business.”

On if Munson is responsible for Gonzaga’s rise in college basketball: “He’s a big part of it. I mean, I think you gotta go back to Dan Fitzgerald. He was the original, and Dan Fitzgerald ... when he was the head coach there, Dan, (Mark Few) and Billy Grier were his assistants. And then Fitzy retires, Muns takes over. I think his second year they have the run, and then Mark becomes the head coach. He’s at the center of everything, sure. He’s a central figure, if not the central figure in the whole thing.”

On how familiar he is with Munson’s coaching style: “We never coached together, and we’ve been on different paths in different programs for 25 years. I’m sure he’ll run his classic play, crackdown, an old Gonzaga staple from back in the day that I think he still runs. We don’t really run that much. I think there’ll be fun things like that I’ll find out this week. To be honest with you,I haven’t watched his team play that much. You’re pretty focused on your team and your upcoming opponent. So I’m going to actually probably enjoy sitting down and watching his team play the next few days.”

On the prospect of him ending Munson’s tenure at Long Beach: “I got a job, and my job is to lead the Arizona basketball program. And so that’s where 100% of my effort energy is. He has a job. He still has a job, even though he doesn’t maybe going forward there, but he’s gonna coach again somewhere. I’m sure they’re gonna use it as a rallying point for their program to see if they can play one more.”

On the difficulty of the Long Beach job: “He’s also had a lot of success there. Maybe it’s a hard place to win consistently every year, but he’s done an admirable job. 17 years at a place like Long Beach State, that says something about your staying power.”

On agreeing to play Long Beach this year only to have the game canceled: “The only complaint I have about Muns is, we shouldn’t be playing this game. Because he and I had agreed this year to play a guarantee game. We had agreed. I was down in Mexico, I remember exactly where I was at when we agreed. And then I get back, and a couple weeks later, I check in with TJ (Benson) and I’m like hey, did you get that deal done with Muns, that contract. In the meantime, (Long Beach) found someone else.We were supposed to play this year. And without Muns telling me, he cancelled it, took someone else. Had we played we wouldn’t have played, we wouldn’t have matched up against him. So this is Muns’ fault.”

On avoiding Gonzaga in the bottom half of the West Region: “I was literally worried that it was going to be, on the 7-10 line it was going to be them and Boise State, which is Mark Few and Leon Rice. Obviously, we were all together at Gonzaga at the same time. I was just hoping that wouldn’t happen, so thank goodness that didn’t happen.”

On why he doesn’t want to play Gonzaga or other teams coached by people he worked with there: “I don’t think you guys understand how close we are. I mean, we’re a family. And that doesn’t mean we’re not professionals or not on our own paths. But we’re literally a family. And it’s a very unique situation. I mean, our kids are more like cousins than friends. Our wives are best friends, us coaches have been in the battle together. We’re great friends. So, I mean, I think the relationships run that deep. You guys obviously don’t see it publicly, because we’re not doing it publicly It’s all privately.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketball/2024/3/17/24104435/arizona-wildcats-tommy-lloyd-long-beach-dan-monson-caleb-love-keshad-johnson-ncaa-tournament-2024