Monson’s Energy Gives Zags A Jolt Fitzgerald’s Right-Hand-Man Gets Big Kick Out Of Competing

The temptation, when writing about Dan Monson, is to focus on the influence of his father, Don.

A major coaching figure in the region for decades, Don Monson certainly helped shape his son professionally - although they never worked together. And the two are as close as most brothers; a bond strengthened during countless early morning fishing expeditions on Priest Lake.

Or, one could examine the way in which head coach Dan Fitzgerald and Monson, the associate head coach, have dove-tailed their complementary skills and personalities to lead the Gonzaga University men’s basketball team to unprecedented success.

Another alternative would be to examine the breadth of influence Monson has on the Bulldogs players - how he is able to relate and still earn respect, to coach and still befriend.

Those are all important elements. But they are tangents, looks at Monson only in relation to others, not specifically what is at the core of the 33-year-old coach.

Deeper than any of that, he is driven and controlled, simply, by “the thrill of competition,” he said.

“Anybody who was ever in athletics misses that; it’s something that is hard to replace,” Monson said. “I was talking with (former Idaho star) Brian Kellerman, and he said the one thing he misses the most is that competition.

“But when you’re a coach, you can experience that competition, and continue to experience it at an age when you can’t normally do it athletically yourself.”

The biggest quality he brings to the sidelines, to the recruiting trail, to the scouting reports, Fitzgerald said, is “energy.”

“He’s relentless,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s a tough guy who can go hard in every sense and takes a lot of personal pride in doing a day’s work. The atmosphere in this industry these days is that there’s not a lot of guys who work hard to do it right. And that’s what is very important to him.”

The Son

Don Monson wanted more for his son than a career of sideline agony.

“I don’t think I ever said specifically that I didn’t want him to be a coach, but I never did anything directly to influence him,” said the elder Monson, who took Idaho to a pair of NCAA Tournaments before spending nine seasons at Oregon. “The ups and downs, emotionally, are hard to deal with on a daily basis. You don’t want you’re kid to suffer through that. There’s so many more professions that are stable that you don’t have people evaluating you every night out.”

So Dan majored in business at Idaho, until the success his father was enjoying with the Vandals stirred something in him.

“He was adamant, that this is a tough profession and you don’t want to get mixed up in it,” Dan Monson said. “But I remember coming home for Sunday dinner and telling him I wanted to go into coaching. I thought he’d be mad, but he was really excited about it. He knew I was doing it because it was something I really wanted to do.”

It seems a natural choice, after all, Dan Monson recalls learning addition and subtraction by watching scoreboards so much as a kid. “I’d always figure it out and would say stuff like, ‘they need three baskets to catch up to us, Mom,”’ he said.

The times both Monsons revere the most, though, had nothing to do with basketball, but rather fishing for kokanee salmon on Priest Lake.

“You get a kid in a boat for a couple hours and you start talking about a lot of things and there’s nothing they can do; he can’t jump out of the boat, he’s got to talk and listen to you,” Don Monson said.

The lessons learned?

“The things where I’ve seen the influence of his father are not so much basketball things, but work ethic,” Fitzgerald said. “His mother and father taught him the value of picking up the towels. And that’s not something every young guy has.”

The Partner

Fitzgerald, secure in his position, his success, and his role in Gonzaga athletics, touts the efforts of his associate head coach without reservation.

“The thing I see with him is a partnership rather than an assistantship,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s not a big difference here between who is the head coach and who isn’t.

“He’s got enough toughness to disagree with me; he speaks up and if he doesn’t get his way, he doesn’t pout,” Fitzgerald said. “He gets yelled at more than anybody around here, but he yells back more, too.”

Along with assistants Mark Few and Bill Grier, Monson generally prepares the game plans. He did so with such dramatic effect two years ago against Baylor that the Bears’ coaching staff after the game pulled him aside and wanted to know how he devised his scheme, or they were going to have to scrap their attack.

“I don’t think there’s an assistant in the country that gets as much responsibility as Fitz is willing to give me,” Monson said. “That’s why I don’t think I could work for anybody else now - because he lets me coach so much. He’s awesome to work for.”

By elevating Monson from assistant to associate head coach, Fitzgerald made it clear he sees Monson as his heir upon retirement.

“He’s positioned me to get the job, and with him being the (athletic director), I’m really confident that’s going to happen,” Monson said. “The thing I want clear is that I don’t want Dan Fitzgerald’s job; I want to be the Gonzaga basketball coach when he’s done with it.”

The Coach

GU goes through its final preparation for the West Coast Conference title game against Portland, with Monson lecturing his lanky class.

He walks them through the entire Pilots offense, teaching the players both the visual and verbal commands made by Portland coaches for every play.

That night, the Bulldogs hold Portland to just 27 second-half points and pull away to their first NCAA Tournament berth in school history.

“Oh, yeah, he’s thorough,” said GU guard John Rillie. “And if you lose or mess up in a game that he prepared for, you can guarantee there’s going to be some down time after it.”

Maybe even more than his ability to prepare the players, Monson serves the Bulldogs in his capacity as a buffer between Fitzgerald and the players.

“I think I’ve been around a long time for my age,” Monson said. “I’m young, but I have some of the qualities of the quote-unquote Old School. I try to incorporate some of their ways in, maybe, a more positive way. Because, for a young person now, that style can be a little difficult in the ‘90s, and the only people who can get away with it are the guys, like Fitz, who have been doing it forever and have been successful.”

At a recent practice, for instance, Monson made a few points in a joking manner. “Get the ball to Rillie’s man, he’s always open,” he said. Player and coach smiled at each other, but Monson made his point.

“He’s definitely a buffer,” Rillie said. “He knows what the players are going through, but he also knows what the head guy is thinking of, so he helps out both sides the best he can.

“It’s natural during the course of the year that some guys have their problems, think they should be playing more; Mons lets you know where you fit in and tries to encourage you and help you understand your role,” Rillie said.

And he’s learning to deal with those wildly fluctuating emotions that his father warned him about so many years ago.

“After last year’s last loss, there was the most hollow feeling you could have,” Monson said. “And you wonder why in the world you’re doing this, and how you can possibly take any more of it.

“But then, you have wins like we had over Portland, and it all comes back to you. And you remember why it is you’re doing this.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: Game time Gonzaga-Maryland tipoff approximately 7:30 p.m. Thursday