Gonzaga’s Few can breathe easier
‘Burden’ of not making into Final Four lifted
For some reason, Marcy Few woke up Saturday morning with a sense of peace about what many would perceive to be the biggest basketball game of her husband’s career.
It is often the wives of coaches who feel that weight more than anyone, and those anxious moments are never easy when they lead up to the end of an NCAA tournament run, as Marcy Few had experienced 18 consecutive years.
But this time, as Gonzaga approached its second try in the Elite Eight under her husband, Mark, she was not nervous. Something about the way Gonzaga had beaten West Virginia on Thursday — the ugliness of the game, the tension of every possession down the stretch — somehow had calmed her. Although Mark Few had never led the Zags to a Final Four and had taken far more flak for that than he ever deserved, there was just a sense that the nonsense finally was about to go away forever.
“They handled everything West Virginia threw at them,” Marcy Few said. “For us to win that game like we did, we’re tough, we’re resilient, we can handle the pressure. I thought the way we won that one, there’s no way we’re going to lose today. I was at peace about it. They just had a look about them.”
Although Mark Few insisted he was carrying no burden, it is nonetheless important to note his new label — “Final Four coach” — is far more appealing than the one attached to him before 5:15 p.m. or so Pacific time Saturday, when Gonzaga’s lead against Xavier expanded to the point where the final minutes were a formality.
As Gonzaga wound down its 83- 59 win in the West Region final, Few signaled to an official that he wanted to stop the clock for substitutions. His starters exited the game with 44 seconds left, and he went down the line hugging each of them. Then, Few walked to the coach’s box and watched freshman Rui Hachimura make a threepointer that meant nothing, but for some reason he allowed all the emotions to escape. He raised his fists in the air and hugged longtime assistant Tommy Lloyd, beginning a Gonzaga celebration that promised to go deep into the night.
“There’s no more monkeys, dogs, cats or other animals on his back,” Gonzaga athletics director Mike Roth said.
“Since Mark and I have been together for a long time now, it’s what we’ve been pursuing. We don’t define ourselves by it; it just takes that criticism away. We won’t hear that noise anymore. It’s great. This is crazy, great stuff.”
College basketball coaches don’t like it, but most of them know the deal. This is, for the most part, a sport with a niche following that becomes an American obsession for three weeks a year, which in turn allows them to make millions of dollars. The downside is their reputations are by and large built on what they accomplish during those three weeks, and every loss in the tournament serves as confirmation bias for whatever the narrative was before, even though every team in the tournament but one exits with a loss.
With respect to Few, people stopped talking a long time ago about the miracle of Gonzaga basketball, that he had actually sustained a powerhouse program in a midmajor league, at a school whose only relevance before 1999 was being John Stockton’s alma mater. Instead, the focus was on NCAA tournament exits and the lack of Final Fours, though the reality of Few’s postseason record is that before this year he had twice as many tournament wins as the lower seed (10) than losses as the higher seed (five).
Moreover, aside from a secondround loss in 2004 as a No. 2 seed to Nevada and the 2013 loss to No. 9 seed Wichita State as a No. 1 seed, Gonzaga has more or less advanced as far as its seed suggested it should go every year.
But perhaps because Few is considered his profession’s consummate nice guy, combined with the conference his team plays in and the general stereotype of West Coast programs as more finesse than tournament tough, Gonzaga’s lack of Final Four appearances became a thing.
Now that’s done, mercifully over as an instrument to pick apart Gonzaga’s consistent excellence.
“We’ve had so many good teams, but so many things have to go right,” Marcy Few said. “You have to not have one of your main guys get injured, and you have to have a little luck. Mark honestly just goes on about his business. He wanted it for the players, for all the players before this team. But honestly, for him personally, he doesn’t get his fulfillment over that.”
But there was undoubtedly something fulfilling about placing the net around his neck Saturday evening before he walked off the court, hugging everyone from boosters to former players, soaking in every bit of well-earned adulation and appreciation for a coach and program whose time has come.
“Just an incredible feeling of elation and satisfaction,” Mark Few said. “It’s been a long, hard journey to get this program here. Absolute tears of joy.”