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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOURMarch 27, 2017Mark FewPhoenix, Arizona THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Gonzaga head coach Mark Few. Q. I'm doing something on Coach Williams. Obviously he's kind of the veteran of the group as far as you four coaches. Just as you've observed him kind of, I guess, from afar out there, the West Coast, what he's accomplished at two programs that are so iconic like Kansas and North Carolina, I kind of question if he gets the attention and what he deserves for what he's done at Kansas and North Carolina. I don't know what your thoughts are on that, but I'd like to hear? COACH FEW: That's funny, I was thinking of that the other day. Here he is in back-to-back Final Fours. And I think it's amazing what he's been able to do throughout his career, just sustained excellence is how I would describe it. He's been a mentor for me with just how he handles his program, how he runs his program. They run it with class and they do it the right way. And he's always so humble. And it's just incredibly impressive. I think you're right. At the end of the day when it all shakes out, he'll be one of the Mount Rushmore types in college coaching. I certainly believe that. Q. Do you think he does maybe get overlooked? It seems like, I mean, people know he's a good coach but maybe don't know that he's that good. COACH FEW: I mean, I don't know if he gets overlooked. I'm sure a lot of us feel like [indiscernible] too much stuff. We're always doing stuff like this. So, yeah, I mean, like I said, when you start adding up all his wins and all his Final Fours and conference championships at both places. And, again, I think lost in all that is just kind of the grace and humility with which he handles himself and his program is like that. There's a class to it, you know, that certainly as a young coach, when I was first starting out, I looked very much to them when he was at Kansas and at Carolina, with just how they handle their business. And, I mean, my own opinion is he's right there with any of them that have ever coached the college game. He's definitely a legend. And like I said he's Mount Rushmore quality in my mind. Q. Kind of following off that question, you said that Roy Williams was sort of a mentor to you. So what exactly did you remember from just him being a mentor? Have you ever had any conversations with Roy or just always watched him coaching? COACH FEW: No, had a lot of conversations with him. I consider him a friend. I'll always remember when I was just kind of a young head coach getting started and you get invited on these really cool, exclusive Nike head coaches basketball trips. And here are some of the iconic figures in the game. He and Wanda welcome Marcy and myself in and just treated us like we were just as important as anybody. And he's always been like that to me. And he's always been like that even with my assistant coaches. And I've got to know him really well over the years and had good times with him actually. So I enjoy our friendship and at the same time I still hold him in the highest regard as somebody a coach would want to emulate. Q. I'm in Richmond, Virginia where VCU has a very good program. And I was looking through some notes in 2006, their president said he's often asked if he wants the school to become Gonzaga of the East. He said they wanted actually to be even better. In that time, VC's had four coaches and you've been at Gonzaga 28 years, 18 as the head coach. Why did you stay and what do you feel you've accomplished by staying? COACH FEW: Well, I mean, first of all, VCU had one of my really good friends and Buddies that I just totally marvel at and that's Shaka Smart. And I think he was very much in tune with staying at VCU until the perfect, perfect situation came along, and it just happened to be the University of Texas. And that was a tough break for VCU. But each of these situations are different and you have schools that are different. You have, obviously when you have people involved, you have different values and different needs and even different situations as far as where everybody is from and where their families are from and what's comfortable for them. And this has worked really well for me. It fits for Mark Few and Marcy Few and our family. And Gonzaga's been amazing in how they've treated us. And most importantly, they've continued to grow. Because if we didn't feel that they shared the same vision of us of making it into a national program and continuing to build it, then I'm sure we probably would have left. So I think there's a lot of different pieces to it. And I always kind of cringe when anybody tries to say they're going to do it somewhere else. I'm rooting for them, but it's just unique. And the last piece of it is having it here in Spokane. Spokane's a great city. And we're the Lakers or the Yankees of this region, you know? And there's a lot of loyal, good, hard-working people here that just come out and support the program. And having a home fan base like that makes it special not only when you're building your program but also when your players are playing in a home game or coming home from a road trip or just walking around town. They see how much they're appreciated. Q. Coach, I quite often say (indiscernible) talk to Mark Few this is one thing that Gonzaga does that I would like to see if they could possibly do here. So I guess the incidental things, the planes that go to recruiting and charters that go to games make a big difference. Timing on that. COACH FEW: They do. Q. And the other question is during the Final Four, I'm sure you feel a sense of relief, would your career have been a success -- would you feel your career would have been a success without this Final Four appearance? Will it be a success if there's only one Final Four appearance? Because it's hard to get to here. COACH FEW: I don't view my life a success solely based on basketball. You know, there's bigger things -- my faith, my family, those things. Obviously the biggest thing for me to be successful professionally is, you know, how my players, once they're done here, do they feel like we delivered on everything we talked to them about when we were bringing them in here? And do they feel like they've grown and that they've been developed and appreciated and loved and coached? And I judge things more on those aspects than I do Final Fours and wins and things like that. Q. Just curious, if your parents are still in Creswell, if your dad is still preaching, and what was it like growing up there as the preacher's kid? COACH FEW: It's good to hear the Register-Guard come across the deal there. My dad is still, yeah, mom and dad are still living in Creswell in the same house. In fact, I was just organizing their travel to get down to Phoenix. They were with us in San Jose. So that was really, really cool and really special. And they're going to make the journey to Phoenix. It's not as easy traveling now. He's got kind of a busted-up ankle, but he still wants to do it. So we're going to make it happen. And dad retired a couple of years ago after setting, I think it's an unofficial record. He was 54 years at the same church down there in Creswell, Presbyterian. So a lot of awesome memories growing up watching the Ducks with Ronnie Lee and Greg Ballard, just idolizing those guys and reading the Register-Guard. And it's been fun seeing Oregon grow. And what a great job they've been doing building the product, both football and basketball. And Creswell is a good place to call home. A lot of fond memories down there. Q. Just curious what your thoughts are with how much of an advantage you think North Carolina has over you other three teams because, I guess, they've been there and done that? COACH FEW: Hey, I think there's an advantage with the whole process. Some of my guys, Karnowski now, this is his fifth NCAA Tournament. But he hasn't -- I think everything is going to get ratcheted up 300 percent now with the media, the demands, the time. The general distraction meter is going to go out the roof. And I think obviously the Carolina kids have certainly dealt with that and managed it great, if you look at how they performed last year at the Final Four. So I think it gives them some, but at the end of the day, you know, when we get out there and the buzzer goes off for warm-ups and the ball goes up, these guys, all four of these teams have shown they're ferocious competitors. And they have the ability to really, really focus in on a task at hand to get themselves through the regular season and in the tournament. And then, you know, just to survive and be successful for four games in the NCAA Tournament. So it certainly will help a little bit, but at the end of the day it's about who is going to play the best for those 40 minutes. Q. I was going to ask you about J3 and these guards Mike Daum and Bluiett, they can switch on the other guards. I wonder if there's any other player that comes to mind that's a combination of size, strength and versatility that you've had of these great defenders like Earl Knight or Hart or Bell, Zachary (phonetic). Is he kind of unique in that way? COACH FEW: That's a great comparison. You know them all. Certainly you named -- probably that's the cream of the crop as far as garden guys. Mike Hart would probably be the only thing comparable, but again he didn't quite have the versatility that J3 has. J3 was guarding 5s in the Xavier game and one other game because our centers got in so much foul trouble. So I mean, we literally -- I mean, that puts him in a position where in that particular game he guarded everybody from the point guard of Xavier all the way through the 5, the way we were switching things. So he's been unbelievable. And the other part of that is not just the athletic piece and how he moves and can do that physically, but mentally, man, he is concentration and he's been dialed into the scouting reports and game planning and all that as much as anybody. So it's been a real treat and advantage to have the luxury of having somebody like that. Q. When you look at a guy like Sindarius Thornwell who is obviously very talented but also playing with something of an edge, chip on his shoulder because people didn't pay attention to him nor his program, how dangerous did that make him? COACH FEW: I mean, very dangerous. I mean, his kind of whole package is very dangerous. Just kind of the intensity that he brings to the game. He can hurt you on the glass. He can hurt you shooting it. He can hurt you off the bounce. He gets to the free-throw line a lot. No, he's going to be a really, really, a hard guard. And again it's going to take probably a number of our guys, and we're going to have to obviously shadow his direction. But, yeah, he's definitely going to be a handful. Q. Mark, I think this is right. It's been the last 16 years only one team from the West Coast has been in the Final Four. It was UCLA, those three years under Holland. And I know there's some pride there. COACH FEW: Arizona made it in there at some point, didn't they? Q. Arizona, you're right. How big a deal is it pride-wise to have two teams from the West Coast in there? COACH FEW: I don't get too much into the whole regional thing, to be honest with you. I mean especially I got good friends and buddies that coach all over. So I don't know. I guess doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. Everybody seems to have been talking about it kind of going down the stretch of the season, which made me think about it more. There's certainly been some really, really good teams out here during that time, and ours included, several of ours included. We just didn't negotiate our way through the crap shoot that is the NCAA Tournament to get to a Final Four. But there's certainly been some real deserving ones that didn't catch a break. I think back to that Arizona team we played down in San Diego, that team Sean had with those guys. I mean, that was an amazing group. And they didn't catch a break. But I don't get into the whole regional thing that much. Q. Real quick, since it's news right now, what's been your guys' experience playing in Las Vegas since you're there every year? The Raiders just got approved for the NFL. COACH FEW: It's been great. It's probably one of the better moves or conferences has done over the years. We were the first -- I want to say one of the first ones that moved down there. Now, a lot of that success has been the Zag, our fan base has really traveled there and made the tournament successful. But, I mean, they probably wouldn't have traveled there if it wasn't in Vegas. So I think it's been great. And I think it will be exciting to have an NFL team down there. I'm sure Las Vegas has been waiting for that. Q. What about an NCAA Tournament site? COACH FEW: Yeah, I think it would be the new building there would be a great tournament site. This whole gambling thing is -- gambling is everywhere. So I think we need to quit punishing poor Vegas for it when it's in our own backyard, front yard and side yard, too. So I wouldn't worry about that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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