NCAA Tournament Must Be What Drugs Feel Like - Long Beach State Coach's Wife

"Hey, is this heaven?," Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson asks in the "Field of Dreams" movie as he leaves the baseball diamond.

"No," the farmer played by Kevin Costner says. "It's Iowa."

"Is this a drug?," Long Beach State men's basketball coach Dan Monson's wife Darci asked him Sunday night after he guided his team to an NCAA Tournament bracket for the first time since 2012.

No, it's the NCAA Tournament.

Long Beach State coach Dan Monson cuts down the net after beating UC Davis in the Big West Tournament championship game near Las Vegas on Saturday night to secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. (Getty Images)

"My wife said she's never had drugs in her life, but it's got to be a similar feeling," Monson said. "Because it's a high I'm really expecting these guys to enjoy and soak in."

And it won't register on any NCAA-mandated drug tests to get you suspended either.

Long Beach State Will Play No. 2 Seed Arizona

The No. 15 seed Beach (21-14) will play No. 2 seed Arizona (25-8) in Salt Lake City on Thursday (1 p.m. eastern, TBS). Long Beach State received an automatic bid after winning the Big West Conference Tournament Saturday night in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas.

Just a week ago Monday, Long Beach State fired Monson, 62, after his 17th regular season, which finished at 18-14 and 10-10 in the Big West following a five-game losing streak. That followed a 17-16 and 11-9 in the 2022-23 season. And from 2013-14 through 2020-21, there were seven losing seasons out of eight, including an 11-21 and 6-10 season in 2019-20 and 6-12 and 4-8 in the 2020-21 season.

Even Monson said this last Monday - "It is time for a new voice for the program. 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."

Little did he know, that would be the NCAA Tournament in the short term.

"I feel pretty blessed and lucky to ride with these guys," said Monson, who helped build the Gonzaga program as an assistant from 1988-97 under Dan Fitzgerald and as its head coach from 1997-99. It was Monson who took Gonzaga to its first Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament in the 1998-99 season when he finished 28-7 and won the West Coast at 12-2. He left for Minnesota and took the Gophers to four NITs and the NCAA Tournament in 2005 before getting fired early in the 2006-07 season. Then he landed in Long Beach.

Long Beach State coach Dan Monson's team lost its last five regular season games before winning the Big West Conference Tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament. (Getty Images)

"That was a glorious evening last night just watching that," said Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who replaced Monson before the 1999-2000 season. Few has taken Gonzaga to 24 straight NCAA Tournaments, three Elite Eights including last year, two Final Fours and two national championship games in 2017 and '21.

No. 5 seed Gonzaga (25-7) plays No. 12 seed McNeese State (30-3) of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Thursday (7:25 p.m. eastern, TBS).

"It was incredible. Really cool to see. Everybody was fired up for that," Few said.

Long Beach State's players rallied around their coach entering the Big West Conference Tournament.

"They fired our coach," junior forward Aboubacar Traore said. "When they tell you that you can't be here next year, and he decides to do his job to the end, that's the key."

Traore's brother Lassina, a junior forward, said the Beach found another gear.

"We knew they fired him," he said. "And it's not only his fault. It's everybody's fault. We said, ‘If they fire our coach, we have to have his back because we know he’s not going to let us down.'"