Dan Monson may not know Mike Woodson on a personal level, but from across the country, the east coach of Washington can certainly sympathize what the Indiana coach can feel.
There are parallels between the imminent departure of Woodson from the release of Indiana and Monson of Long Beach State last spring. After spending 17 seasons with the program, Monson and Long Beach State agreed to separate each other over a week before the start of the 2024 NCAA tournament and a few days before the Big West Conference tournament.
Indiana announced earlier this month that Woodson would not return for the 2025-26 season in the middle of another slow start. His decision to leave her Alma Mater and to open one of the most coveted jobs in sport simultaneously after the sources have been indicated Matt Norlander of CBS Sports that Woodson planned to resign after a meticulous examination in the past month.
“Because I lived, I watched almost all the Indiana matches since it happened,” Monson at CBS Sports said on Wednesday, a few hours before Indiana’s victory over Penn State. “I see it with the (look) on the child’s faces. I think that doing it (in this way) in the middle of the season for college-athletes from the colleges, it takes off their experience and removes their achievements. It is really difficult to see the children go through that. … They signed up to play for Mike Woods.
Monson had the opportunity to resign, to separate each other with the school or to let go after having approached school administrators in the midst of a sequence of five consecutive defeats to end the regular season of his future.
“I was not going to) go out and say that I agree with the timing of it because it would tell my children exactly the opposite of what I have told them for a month,” said Monson. “We are not stopping from each other. We will fight through it. As a coach, your word with your players is a link that you cannot break. Fortunately, they always let me train, which I appreciated, but I did not have the impression that the timing was the best for everyone.”
But then something funny happened: Long Beach State won three consecutive games as seeded n ° 4 in the Big West tournament and beat UC Davis in the Conference title match to win the first appearance of the NCAA tournament from the program since 2012. LBSU lost against Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Monson was not long in finding a job after his release from LBSU, the east of Washington won.
Monson followed the Indiana program in part because of his friend Steve Alford – the current Nevada coach and a former American guard of Indiana under Bob Knight. Monson and Alford entered the Big Ten Ensemble in 1999 when Alford became coach of Iowa and Monson accepted the post in Minnesota. Monson and Alford knew their friendship while Alford resulted in the UCLA in the mid -2010s.
“We talk about every week if not more,” said Monson. “He being a former Indiana, I heard a lot of things that happen there. It’s sad. … I am (Mike Woodson) because of Steve. I know how passionate about his Alma Mater.”
With three big ten games to play and the conference tournament on the horizon next month, Indiana is still in the mixture to reach the NCAA tournament. In the latest projections of the CBS Sports fork by Jerry Palm, Indiana is listed as one of the last four teams.
Since the school announced that Woodson would not come back next season, Indiana has a 3-2 file with victories on Michigan State, Purdue and Penn State. The Indiana beat Penn State 83-78 at home Wednesday to keep its hopes for a vant-garde offer alive.
The Chemin des Hoosiers to reach the NCAA tournament will be different from last year in Long Beach State. With a strong regular season finish and a respectable performance in the Big Ten tournament, Indiana will dance for the third time in Woodson’s mandate.
“As I said (Long Beach State Administration), in a school in mid-May, your season is still ahead of you at this stage with a week to do,” said Monson. “All your season is to enter the tournament.”
However, Indiana can spend in the last days of Woodson as a coach, Monson will keep tabs.
