Butterfly Effect: What if Dan Monson Didn't Leave Gonzaga in 1999?

As Gonzaga heads to the Final Four and tries to cash in a perfect season, an ode to the coach who started their two-decade run.

First, a big h/t to Stephen Douglas of The Big Lead for planting the seed of this article.

Dateline, Mar. 11, 1999-Seattle, Washington

The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball team, with a roster depleted without a group of players rendered ineligible by an academic scandal that would erase the best season in program history, faced the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament West Regional. A 75-63 win for Gonzaga started a run to the Elite Eight under coach Dan Monson. It would be the last game Clem Haskins coached the Gophers, as the scandal enveloped the program.

In two seasons as Gonzaga’s head coach, Monson went 52-17. He was a highly sought after coach after that Elite Eight run, and he left for the open job….at Minnesota.

Mark Few, who had been an assistant coach with and then under Monson at Gonzaga, moved over to become the head coach. 22 seasons later, with five straight 30-plus win seasons, the Bulldogs are no longer a mid-major upstart. Few is 629-124 (an .835 winning percentage), and headed to his second Final Four in the last four tournaments.

Monson posted a 118-106 record at Minnesota, before resigning seven games into his eighth season (2006-07). He has been at Long Beach State since the following season, with the 49ers last NCAA Tournament bid in 2012. He has a 217-229 record in 14 seasons.

So here’s the “what if” chain-What if Monson didn’t leave Gonzaga when he did? When would he have left? For what job? Would he have ever left? What if he did leave in 1999, but for a job other than Minnesota? Would Few have eventually gone elsewhere to be a head coach? The possibilities, and Butterfly Effect scenarios, seem endless.