Seen and heard in Salt Lake City: Tommy Lloyd gets emotional after win over Dan Monson

SALT LAKE CITY — Calling himself the little brother in their Gonzaga-bred relationship, Tommy Lloyd said he wanted to “kick (Dan) Monson’s ass.”

But when he did, when Arizona beat Monson’s Long Beach State team 85-65 on Thursday, Lloyd began the handshake line by grabbing Monson’s shoulders, holding an extended conversation and feeling a surge of emotion.

“I felt … like tears starting to well up when I hugged him at the end of the game,” Lloyd said.

Then, speaking of the moment at the interview podium afterward, he grew a bit edgy. The UA coach wasn’t happy to hear how Monson was cut loose by Long Beach State, with the school announcing last week he would not be back next season.

“That guy gives 17 years to Long Beach State, and they fired him without another year in his contract,” Lloyd said. “He’s walking out of this deal in 30 days with no benefits, no severance pay, no nothing. When you sit in my position, what we put our families through, I mean, I don’t think that’s right.

“That guy does not deserve that. He’s a great man. He deserves another job, another opportunity. That’s where my heart goes out to him and his family. That’s the other side. That’s the stuff we talk about. We don’t just talk about — joking about the game, the Princeton offense. We talk about the real stuff.”

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Long Beach State’s decision to announce Monson’s fate before the Big West Tournament even began last week made him one of the NCAA Tournament’s top storylines.

But was it all too much Monson this week?

Gonzaga coach Mark Few, appearing also in Salt Lake to lead the Zags in a different pod, was told during his pregame podium interview by a questioner that “we’re having a Dan Monson love-in this week.”

“As well we should,” Few replied.

The Gonzaga coach, who took over the Bulldogs when Monson left for Minnesota in 1999, later added, “I think it’s a story worthy of a Disney show or something, the way it’s playing out.”

Few, also, wasn’t happy to hear how LBSU’s role played out in the story.

“I’m hoping it’s a lesson for all those athletic directors out there to maybe take pause once in a while and realize these jobs are hard and sometimes,” Few said. “When you got a good guy there, hang with it.”

Beach pride

The father of UA signee Carter Bryant felt a firm tug in the other direction Thursday: D’Cean Bryant played four seasons for Long Beach State in the late 1990s.

“I’ve always just wanted to see a good game,” Bryant said via text message before Thursday’s game. “I believe Arizona will win. Also excited for Long Beach State to get this opportunity and let people know our program is a solid mid-major program.”

Beach bums

Kenneth Morley showed up at the Delta Center with all the gear required to get into the Long Beach State spirit: He wore a bathing suit, wide-brimmed sun hat, a yellow “Beach” shirt and had white sunblock stripped across his nose.

Except he really wasn’t a Long Beach State fan. Morley attended Utah, having once sat in the Huntsman Center’s MUSS student section that overlooks the visitor bench, and mostly just wanted the Wildcats to lose.

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“We have a little against Arizona from when Sean Miller was there,” Morley said.

The three friends that accompanied Morley all wore beachgear of some sort and none of them attended LBSU either. One of his University of Utah buddies, Josh Cruz, was decked out in a sun hat, swimsuit and a pastel-colored leisure shirt featuring cartoon snorkelers.

“We’re just rooting for an upset,” Cruz said.

Dry pregame

For Delta Center fans looking for a pregame drink or two, staying outside the building was probably a good idea.

Thanks to Utah liquor laws, early-arriving Delta Center fans couldn’t get a beer until a half-half before tipoff. A sign at all beer-dispensing venues at the Delta Center confirmed that alcohol and beer service begins at 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday and at 10:30 on Saturday.

Adaptable souls

As far as they or anyone in their native Ivory Coast knows, Long Beach State’s Aboubacar Traore and Lassina Traore aren’t related.

“It’s just a common name in my country, like Smith,” Lassina says.

But they became related anyway, sort of, having bonded since age 15 through basketball, both playing on their country’s FIBA youth teams.

“I had just started playing but he was playing since he was 10,” Lassina said. “So he started teaching me ana lot about our basketball, and we became really close.”

While the two essentially have traveled to another “coast,” off the Pacific, both took cold-weather detours; Lassina having attended prep school in St. Louis and attending Saint Louis as a freshman, while Aboubacar said he attended high schools in Monteal and Winnipeg.

Yes, Montreal and Winnipeg, from the Ivory Coast.

“It was crazy,” Aboubacar said. “But it was also like a learning experience for me because like as a basketball player, you never know where you’re gonna land. Being in Canada, where it’s even colder than in United States, just got me ready mentally.”

The big number

19: Years since Arizona had two players with double-doubles in an NCAA Tournament game (Hassan Adams and Channing Frye did so against Oklahoma State in the 2005 Sweet 16; Oumar Ballo and Caleb Love did in Thursday’s first-round game.)

Quotable

“We want to do things on the court that should be celebrated. That energy builds. I’m happy you (media) noticed our guys have fun. That means a lot to me. “ — UA’s Lloyd

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Photos: (2) Arizona Wildcats dispatch (15) Long Beach State 85-65, NCAA West Region