Long Beach coach Dan Monson gave Mark Few and Tommy Lloyd their starts. In Salt Lake, the three friends can laugh about the end.

Dan Monson was running late to a downtown pizzeria Tuesday night.

Waiting for him at the Salt Lake City restaurant were Gonzaga coach Mark Few and Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd. Their wives and families were packed around the table too, ready to greet the newest darling of March Madness.

Monson’s last week has been something out of a bad comedy sketch. It started with him getting fired by Long Beach State after 17 years. Then, just days later, the 62-year-old rattled off three wins in Las Vegas to claim the Big West title. It earned Long Beach State a trip to Salt Lake City and a date with two-seed Arizona. Not to mention a crush of media requests — as people tried to figure out how a coach who currently doesn’t have health insurance could lead a team to the NCAA tournament.

When Monson finally slid into his seat alongside Few and Lloyd, the two coaches ribbed him for being too big time now to be on time.

Monson shot back a one-liner.

“Tommy, we’ve been putting in that Princeton offense for three days,” Monson said to the Arizona coach whose team lost to Princeton in the first round last year. “It’s complicated. It took a little extra time today.”

Laughter broke out among the three old friends.

Monson gave both Few and Lloyd their starts in the business. Now, Monson has gone out on top with those people rallying around him in Utah.

“I think it’s a story worthy of a Disney show or something, man, the way it’s playing out,” Few said.

Two and a half decades earlier, Monson was at Gonzaga when Few and Lloyd were young risers.

In 1989, Few moved to Spokane with a resume that could fit on a postage stamp. He had been an assistant coach at a few Oregon high schools. He didn’t play college basketball. He tried to play baseball at Oregon before the team was shut down.

He applied to be a graduate assistant at Gonzaga. Monson, then an assistant coach, helped him out.

“He’s the sole reason why I got into this profession,” Few said. “He got me into it, gave me the opportunity. So my career never would have even happened if it wasn’t for Dan Monson.”

Monson rose to be Gonzaga’s head coach by 1997. Few was an assistant on his staff as he took the Zags to the Elite Eight.

It was Gonzaga’s first sustained tournament run — the one that would start a streak of 25 straight appearances in March.

“The Zagfather, the Dogfather, I got to have a name for that,” Monson said. “That’s my claim to fame. I can’t be known as the only guy to get fired and worked an NCAA tournament for free. That’s got to be my legacy.”

Monson left for a job at Minnesota in 1999. On his way out, he lobbied for Few to take over as head coach. He also promised a graduate assistant spot for Lloyd at Gonzaga, hoping Few would honor it.

Monson had recruited Lloyd out of Walla Walla Community College, ultimately telling him he couldn’t offer him. Lloyd ended up playing at Whitman College in Washington.

Lloyd tried his hand at professional basketball overseas in Germany. When he was ready to come home, he phoned Monson for a job.

“He gave me the standard line of, ‘If you ever want to get into coaching, give me a call,’” Lloyd said this week. “So I gave him a call.”

A few weeks after Monson left, he got a call from Few. The newly minted head coach had forgotten which job Monson had promised Lloyd.

“I called him, ‘Mons, what the heck is the deal with this guy?’” Few remembered. “He said you told him he could be a grad aide here. It was unbeknownst to me, and he’s just kind of hanging out.”

It ended up working out for all three. Few would go on to win over 700 games at Gonzaga and turn the Bulldogs into a perennial power. They’ve been to two national title games since 2017. Their quest to reach a third will begin in Salt Lake on Thursday against McNeese State.

Lloyd spent 20 years on Few’s staff and then took over as Arizona’s head coach. He’s won 25 games in each of his first three seasons and has made it a Sweet 16.

As for Monson, he spent seven years at Minnesota before being fired. After that, he spent almost two decades in Long Beach before getting fired again. Then came a most unexpected conference championship.

Few and his family were watching the final 30 seconds of Long Beach’s title game against UC Davis. They agonized over every whistle, hoping Long Beach would punch their ticket.

“My wife actually filmed us the last seconds [watching the game],” and sent it to Monson’s wife, Few said.

With his fate already sealed, Monson’s fourth trip to the tournament could have been a tense one for his team, but the coach seems intent on keeping things light.

Monson said he pulled his players into a film session after he got axed and played them a clip filled with defensive errors.

“These are the kind of plays that get a coach fired,” he quipped.

Again, Monson’s one-liner filled a room with laughter.

Coming into the tournament, Monson said he would be fine no matter how things ended. He compared his current situation to a sitcom.

“Did you see the Seinfeld episode when George was trying to get fired and couldn’t lose his job, still going to work every day? That’s me. I’m a Seinfeld episode going on right now in real life,” he said laughing.

Monson wanted to keep doing his George Costanza impression a little longer, even if it came at the expense of his old friends.

“I’m still going to run the Princeton offense,” Monson told Lloyd at their dinner. “I know that works.”

He must’ve known even then the odds of beating the No. 2 Wildcats were long.

So as he left the pizzeria in Salt Lake on Tuesday, Monson had Lloyd pick up his tab. After all, the Arizona coach remains gainfully employed.

“Tommy owes me,” Monson joked. “That’s the bottom line, OK?”