Ex-Husky Tsohonis Transfers to Long Beach State After Brief Stop at VCU

The guard from Portland will play for former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson.

Marcus Tsohonis, former University of Washington basketball guard, is on the move again, choosing to play next season for Long Beach State.

In a little more than a year's time, the 6-foot-3 junior guard from Portland had gone coast to coast and back.

Fourteen months ago, Tsohonis left the UW following the team's horrendous 5-21 season and transferred to Virginia Commonwealth, where he averaged 5.1 points per game and shot 36.8 percent over 29 games.

He now heads to the Big West and a basketball program headed up for the past 15 seasons by coach Dan Monson, the man who got the Gonzaga empire started. 

Tsohonis and Monson have something in common — both decided not to further their basketball careers at Washington.

While Tsohonis transferred after two seasons, Monson seriously considered becoming the Husky coach in 2002, choosing to stay at Minnesota and enabling Lorenzo Romar to take over the program. 

Monson had been hired by the Big Ten team after taking Gonzaga to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 1999. The coach decided he couldn't abandon the Gophers just three years into a rebuilding project.

He should have come to the UW — Minnesota fired him in 2006.

Tsohonis largely came off the bench for a VCU team that finished 22-10 after splitting a pair of postseason games in the NIT.

Long Beach State likewise played in the NIT and lost its opener to BYU to finish 20-13. 

A year ago, Tsohonis was one of six players who left the UW for the transfer portal.

Fellow guard Erik Stevenson is at West Virginia, his fourth school, after playing last season at South Carolina. Before spend a year with the Huskies, he played for two seasons at Wichita State.

Guard RaeQuan Battle has a prominent role with Montana, which played in the NCAA tournament.

Forward J'Raan Brooks is at UC San Diego, attempting to come back from a knee injury that kept him from playing this past season.

Guard Nate Pryor is seeking a third school after leaving the UW for New Mexico State and putting himself in the transfer portal a second time.

Finally, former UW forward Hameir Wright used up his basketball eligibility after transferring to North Texas and is done with the college game. 

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