He graduated from Moscow High School in 1980 and played college football a few blocks away as a receiver for the Idaho Vandals, then under head coach Jerry Davitch.
Monson suffered a knee injury that ended his playing career, and focused on coaching; he graduated from Idaho with a degree in secondary education (mathematics) in 1985.
From the time Monson was named associate head coach in 1995,[2] Gonzaga averaged 22 wins per season and reached postseason play every year but one.
His first year as head coach at Gonzaga (1997–98) resulted in a 24–10 mark, as the Bulldogs won the West Coast Conference championship and advanced to the second round of the NIT.
In the West regional, the tenth-seeded Zags defeated 7th-seed Minnesota[3] and second-seed #7 Stanford in the Seattle sub-regional, then sixth-seed Florida in the Sweet Sixteen round in Phoenix.
[6][7] After Gonzaga's improbable run to the Elite Eight, he signed a new contract in mid-April,[8] then was offered the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota in late July, which he accepted.
[9][10] University president Mark Yudof was hoping that Monson would be able to help the program move past the scandals of previous head coach Clem Haskins.
[11][12] In the previous season, Gonzaga had defeated Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA tournament after several Gopher players were forced to sit out due to an academic fraud investigation.
Monson initially accepted the offer presented by Huskies AD Barbara Hedges to succeed Bob Bender.
The reductions took their full effect under Monson's watch, and it was several years before he was able to recruit on equal footing with other Big Ten coaches.