PORTLAND – When the Long Beach State and University of New Mexico men’s basketball teams take the floor Thursday afternoon, the players may act buddy-buddy with one another, but the real friendship will be on the sideline.
LBSU head coach Dan Monson and UNM head coach Steve Alford have a friendship that started long before either was leading their respective teams.
They met at the Top of the World tournament in Alaska when Monson was at the helm of Gonzaga, and Alford was the head coach at Southwest Missouri State.
“We sat next to each other at the banquet [of the tournament] and enjoyed each other and kept in contact that year,” Monson said. “And lo and behold, two years later we’re both going to the Big Ten at the same time.”
Alford said that there has been a lot of similarities in their careers.
“We both went to the Big Ten at the same time, and we both left the Big Ten at the same time,” Alford said. “We both went to the west at the same time, and it’s been fun watching the success of his program.”
When Monson left Gonzaga to take over Minnesota, Alford went to Iowa – both programs were struggling at the time.
“They say that misery loves company,” Monson said. “We would call each other to console each other about the pitfalls of taking these programs and trying to change the culture and instill what you’re doing.”
The Monson-Alford relationship does not end with the two coaches, though. Monson said that their families also share a great bond.
“It just evolved into not just [a coaches relationship], but our families are very close,” he said. “[Our wives] Darci and Tanya have a great relationship. They follow every game. My boys, they’ve got the New Mexico scores on their iTouch. As soon as you run in the house, they’ll tell you how New Mexico did.”
Alford said that he keeps track of how the 49ers are doing on a weekly basis too.
“Long Beach State is one of the scores I check every Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday,” he said. “I’m looking for how Long Beach is doing because of the relationship I have with Dan, and our families are also very close.”
Monson and Alford are both taking their current programs to the highest level, but their Big Ten departures couldn’t have been more different.
Monson resigned as the head coach of the Gophers in 2006 after his team got off to a 2-5 start. Alford left Iowa for New Mexico after leading the Hawkeyes to seven winning records in the eight seasons he was there.
Both coaches are now succeeding at their new programs, but Monson said that the progression of their friendship was an unlikely one.
“As Tom Izzo [head coach at Michigan State] said at one Big Ten meeting, opposites must really attract because of a lot of differences in our personalities,” he said. “We have just grown to really appreciate each other.”
Alford doesn’t disagree.
“It has been a tremendous relationship,” Alford said. “It’s unfortunate that we had to be paired [against each other] because only one of us has the opportunity to go to the end of the weekend.”
Thursday’s game will decide which friend will advance, and which friend must go home.