Gonzaga’s Few does it his way
Empire built, Bulldogs coach chases crown
Gonzaga’s Mark Few might not be the first college basketball coach to bring his dog to practice. (It happened again Wednesday in Spokane, Wash.)
He might not be the first coach to ask a dentist to shave down a front tooth so it can be used to cut fishing line. (Seriously.)
But Few, 54, is without a doubt the first coach in Final Four history whose behavior is labeled by the same word that is his nickname.
“It was so Fewy,” Greg Heister, the play-by-play announcer for Gonzaga basketball, told USA TODAY Sports this week. “I just laughed, because it was so Fewy.”
Heister was laughing about Few’s reaction to a question from a reporter after Gonzaga beat West Virginia in the Sweet 16 last week to move one victory away from the Final Four — something Few had failed to reach even though his teams had made the NCAA tournament in the previous 17 consecutive seasons.
The question — What would it mean to get that monkey off your back? — was not exactly original, but the answer was pure Fewy.
“I don’t think my wife thinks I have (a monkey) — or anybody in my family, close friends. Fishing buddies never talk about it,” Few said. “It’s not about me and my monkeys and my dogs and my cats; it’s about (Gonzaga’s players).” Monkeys and dogs and cats? “So Fewy,” Heister said. And so many other Fewy stories from throughout the years.
A (REAL) FISH STORY
Gonzaga’s basketball coach is also an accomplished fly fisherman. During one of Few’s trips to the dentist, according to Heister, the dentist noted a problem: There was a groove in the front tooth Few had been using to cut thick fishing line.
The problem, Few clarified, was the groove was hampering his ability to cut the fishing line with his teeth. Which was faster — but more damaging to his tooth — than using metal clippers known as nips.
“He’s not the most patient character,” Heister said.
So rather than agreeing to use the nips, he persuaded the dentist to shave down his tooth and has continued to cut fishing line in his preferred manner — a story verified by another one of Few’s fishing buddies, Joe Roope.
“It’s one of those things where your mother would scream at you when you’re 14 years old about doing, and here he is in his 50s and he’s still doing it,” Heister said. “Fewy’s not really worried about what that meant for his long-term health of his tooth.”
“He’s the most competitive guy I’ve ever fished with,” added Heister, who hosts a fly-fishing show for NBC. “He will just keep pounding and pounding and pounding the water. He’s just a non-stop, get-at-it guy.”
SPECIAL PRACTICE GUEST
Wednesday, during Gonzaga’s final practice on its campus in Spokane, Few brought a guest — Stella, his 4-year-old German shepherd.
“I think when Mark knows he’s going to be gone for a period of time, he likes to spend a little extra time with Stella,” Gonzaga athletics director Mike Roth said. “I view that as the balance we’re looking for with our coaches.”
Roth said Stella’s occasional presence at practice illustrates Few’s commitment to family, which includes wife Marcy and their four children.
“Stella’s very comfortable being at practice,” he said. “Very well behaved.”
Dan Monson worked as an as- sistant coach with Few at Gonzaga for nearly a decade before Monson was elevated to head coach — at least in title.
“I said all the time, ‘I’m the only one that was the head coach and also worked for Mark Few,’ because that’s how he was,” Monson said. “He would always say, ‘We don’t work for Dan; we work with Dan.’ ”
Monson, who remains close friends with Few, led Gonzaga to the NCAA tournament once in two seasons before taking the head coaching job at Minnesota in 1999. Few was immediately promoted to head coach, which meant there was no longer a need to buck authority.
When former Gonzaga coach Dan Fitzgerald told the staff not to bother wasting time and money recruiting players who were being courted by Pac-10 schools, Few insisted on recruiting those players, Monson said.
“We’d call a staff meeting, and I’d be like, ‘ OK, we gotta do this, this and this,’ ” Monson recalled. “And Mark would go, ‘No, I’ve already done this, this and this. I’ve already called these two kids, and we’ve got this kid coming in the next week,’ and, as an assistant, he just marched to the beat of his own drum.
“He’s one of those guys that didn’t want to be told what to do. He knew what he had to do to be successful and what the program needed. I think one of the things I did a good job of is not trying to micromanage him, because that’s not how he was at his best. I just kind of let him go because he got things done.”
‘SHOOTING FOR THE MOON’
Father Robert Spitzer, formerly president of Gonzaga, said in about 2002 he was preparing to visit with deep-pocketed boosters but first wanted to see what Few might need.
Perhaps a bigger recruiting budget or an athletic endowment, thought Spitzer, who was managing a university in financial trouble.
“We need a new arena,” Few told him.
The coach had never asked for a salary raise beyond what Few knew the university could afford, Spitzer said.
“There’s no greed in the man,” said Spitzer, who added that Few was nonetheless insistent that Gonzaga needed a new arena for the program to flourish.
The McCarthey Athletic Center, a 6,000-seat facility — 2,000 more seats than the old arena — built at a cost of $25 million, helped Gonzaga stay competitive for top-flight recruits who ultimately propelled the program to the Final Four.
“You can’t get there unless you have a maniac on a mission,” said Leon Rice, one of Few’s former assistants, “He shot for the moon, and he got it.”
GONZAGA’S SPECIAL SAUCE
Ronny Turiaf, who had just finished a four-year career at Gonzaga, was picked by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the NBA draft before having a customary physical exam. Doctors found an enlarged aortic root in Turiaf ’s heart that required surgery.
The night before the procedure, Few arrived with his staff and took Turiaf and Turiaf ’s mother to dinner. He said their relationship continued to develop after Turiaf ’s 10-year NBA career ended in 2015 and that they’ve stayed in regular contact as Gonzaga has made its run to the Final Four.
“I realized the depth of the love he had for me when they came to see me the day prior to my surgery,” said Turiaf, a 6-10 center and native of France. “That was a powerful moment when I saw all of the coaching staff.”
Suddenly, Turiaf said, he had an epiphany about Few and Gonzaga basketball. The coach had created a culture that embodied the one-for-all, all-for-one motto — one final Fewy good story.
“That’s the secret sauce of what Gonzaga is all about,” he said. “That’s what makes us a special place.”