Consider the following coaching resume: 15 seasons, 15 trips to the NCAA tournament. Four appearances in the Sweet 16. A 15-years-plus record of 423-101. Thirteen regular season conference titles and 11 conference tournament championships. All this at a school outside a major conference that was known, until 1999, as “John Stockton’s school,” and not much else when it came to basketball.
Then consider the resume of that coach’s current team: A record of 20-1, the only loss coming at No. 6 Arizona in overtime in early December. A 16th straight NCAA bid is a lock and a No. 1 seed is a real possibility.
And yet …
“I hear a lot of people around here say, ‘well, let’s wait and see what happens in March,’” Gonzaga Coach Mark Few — the coach in question — said recently. “To me, that’s a little bit like looking at your 7-year-old and saying, ‘yeah, great kid, but nothing really matters until he goes to college and he better go to a great college or I’m going to be disappointed.’ You miss all the fun that way.
“This team is fun. We’re balanced, the guys look out for one another, we’re entertaining to watch and we’re pretty good. People who don’t want to pay attention until March are missing out.”
Actually a lot of people are missing out on this version of the ‘Zags, even though they are currently ranked No. 3 in the country — which is probably exactly where they’d be ranked even if they’d won that game against Arizona. Gonzaga always plays one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. It has wins this season over SMU, Georgia, St. John’s, UCLA and — in conference — Brigham Young and St. Mary’s. One reason there aren’t more glamour names on the list is that many of the big-name teams won’t play Gonzaga home-and-home and Few, justifiably, thinks his program has reached the stage where it no longer needs to play road games with no return.
Few isn’t sure if this is his best team — “I heard people say that in November,” he said, laughing. “I said, ‘can we play a few games before we start talking that way?’” — but it may be his most balanced. Four players, led by Kentucky transfer Kyle Wiltjer (15.8) and do-everything guard Kevin Pangos (12.8), average in double figures and a fifth, freshman Domantas Sabonis (son of Hall-of-Famer Arvydas Sabonis), averages 9.8. Only Pangos (31.8) plays 30 minutes a game and nine players are averaging at least 12 — with two others averaging eight. Going into Thursday’s game against Portland, the ‘Zags are averaging 81 points a game and giving up 60.
They’re good. But are they Final Four good? That’s the one hole in Few’s resume and he’s well aware of it.
“I don’t dwell on it, that’s for sure,” he said. “But of course it’s something we’d like to do. All you can do year in and year out is get to the tournament and give yourselves a chance. We’ve done that. We just haven’t had things break right for us yet when we’ve needed them to.
“The game people bring up to me most often is the one against Wichita State two years ago because we were a No. 1 seed going in. The game before we played them they made two threes. Against us, they made 14. Then they go from there to the Final Four and they had Louisville down 12 in the second half. Last year they were a No. 1 seed with essentially the same group of kids.”
Few is well aware that if you set a high bar, people are going to notice when you don’t get over it. The year before he took over, when he was Dan Monson’s No. 1 assistant, Gonzaga reached the Elite Eight before losing (by five) to eventual national champion Connecticut. That put the school on the map. Few has kept it there — and then some.
There are those — among them former Maryland coach Gary Williams, a long-time friend of Few’s — that believe Gonzaga gets hurt in March because the West Coast Conference isn’t as deep as the major conferences. St. Mary’s has been very good in recent years and adding BYU to the conference has been an upgrade, but Gonzaga tends to be on cruise control for a lot of January and February after playing its difficult pre-conference schedule each year.
“It’s a legitimate question,” Few said. “I honestly don’t know the answer. I think the conference is better than a lot of people in the East think. How good is the SEC this year? I honestly think if Pepperdine (currently 5-4 in the WCC) played Mississippi (currently 3-3 in the SEC) 10 times, Pepperdine would win 6. There are also some teams at the bottom of the so-called power conferences that are pretty bad.
“We do everything we can to keep ourselves sharp for March. We’ve got Memphis coming in here Saturday. They haven’t been great but they’re very athletic and they have size. We’ll face teams like them in March. That’s why we schedule them. Will that be enough? Will we get the breaks we need this year? I don’t know. All I know is this team isn’t dependent on one guy to carry it and it has been a lot of fun to coach. Only time will tell if we end up being looked at as Gonzaga’s best team.”
Few is 52 now and has had numerous opportunities to coach in the power conferences. He doesn’t appear likely to leave Gonzaga anytime soon. His strength, according to VCU coach Shaka Smart, is his ability to communicate with just about anyone.
“When we worked together on the 1/8Team USA3/8 18-and-under team a couple summers ago there were a few guys that were, let’s say, not that easy to work with,” Smart said. “Billy 1/8Donovan, who was the team’s head coach3/8 and I weren’t that eager to deal with them. Mark just said, ‘I got it,’ and did what was needed to bring them around. I suspect he does that every year.”
Few recruits nationally — and internationally. He has two Canadians on this team, a Lithuanian and a player from Poland. Sabonis (of Lithuania) may be the most talented player, Pangos (Canada) is the most experienced. “Hasn’t he been there about 10 years?” Smart asked.
Few would like to have him for another 10. In all likelihood, Few will be at Gonzaga at least that long.
“Look, this is the second time in three years we’re going to go into February with a legitimate shot to be a No. 1 seed. So, in a basketball sense, why do I need to leave? I don’t. I love the lifestyle here. I love jumping on my mountain bike and I love sneaking off to fish whenever I want to.”
He paused. “Oh and humidity. What’s that?”
No humidity versus being overlooked most of the season regardless of how good you are. Few will happily deal with the lack of attention.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
