When Long Beach State men’s basketball head coach was named the 2010-11 Coach of the Year in NABC District 9 earlier this week, it put a final stamp on what was unquestionably the best season for the program since their NCAA Tournament appearance in 1994-95.

The 49ers swept awards season with Monson also winning Big West Coach of the Year, while point guard Casper Ware won conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. All four other starters were also named to All-Conference teams, and Long Beach took home the regular season Big West title, as well. The only thing missing was a Big West Tournament Championship and berth into the NCAA Tournament, as the 49ers fell to arch-rival Santa Barbara in the title game by a 64-56 score. But even with that glaring omission, no season in the last 16 years has given Long Beach fans more to celebrate.

Yes, that counts the 2006-07 season, in which the 49ers won the regular season and conference tournament championships and played Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was fun while it lasted – great, even – but that experience will forever be marred by the violations incurred by that coaching staff’s recruitment of junior college players. The program lost scholarships and had to vacate victories because of it. Many were surprised when the department allowed head coach Larry Reynolds’ contract to expire without offering a new deal, but to anyone following the team, Reynolds’ departure was a long time coming. He handled Big West basketball the old way: infuse a team with junior college players for a one-year run at success, and worry about the (often non-existent) future later. That wasn’t going to fly anymore, especially with the shame of sanctions on the way.

The 2010-11 season was better than that ’07 Tournament run simply because the 49ers actually have hope for next year.

The Monson way of running a program includes sustainability, a foreign concept in the go-for-broke Big West. Other than the prolific Pacific teams of the early-to-mid 2000’s, how often does a program consistently vie for the conference hardware year after year? The Big West may be turning a corner now, due in no small part to Monson, because Long Beach will enter next season as the fourth consecutive in which they’ll be favored to contend for a conference title. Santa Barbara will be right there, too. The Big West has not had a multi-season rivalry like this in some time.

“It’s taken a couple of years to do it, but we’re close,” said Long Beach State athletic director Vic Cegles, moments after the 49ers fell to the Gauchos in the conference tournament ten days ago.

Cegles said that the loss stung, but that he was very encouraged by the team’s progress and excited for the future, in part because Long Beach has created a solid program foundation since Monson began his tenure.

“Part of our philosophy of building a program is not doing it with junior college kids. We’ll take them, but that’s not our entire program.”

It feels odd to be so encouraged by such a seemingly simple outlook, but this is truly a new frontier for Long Beach and many of their mid-major opponents. It’s not just talk, either. The 49ers are very excited about their incoming recruitment class, the one that they believe will take over when their current stars move on. It’s about being able to replace good players with more good players, elevating the program with a consistent cycle of talent.

At the front of it all is Monson, and he plans on remaining at the helm through at least 2015-16. After admitting he received interest from other schools last summer, Monson and Cegles sat down to keep him coaching at the Beach. It’s fair to say that there was no post-signing hangover. So with one high-octane season and a couple of awards in the books, there’s plenty of reasons to look forward to another good year, and many more to come from the District 9 Coach of the Year.