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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: BOISEMarch 14, 2018Mark FewJohnathan WilliamsJosh PerkinsSilas MelsonBoise, Idaho THE MODERATOR: We welcome Gonzaga. Q. From what you've seen of UNCG so far, what are your plans on how to break their press and speed up the game from the slow tempo they like to play? JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: We watched them a little bit and they're pretty good. They have some great shooters. And they basically shoot the ball really well. As far as their press, just trying to break it, and start offensive right away. Don't hold the ball and let them set their defense. Once you break the press, just keep attacking. Q. As a guy who is a vet and been around the program, how have you seen it grow in the couple of years you've been there, and what do you think is next for Gonzaga? JOSH PERKINS: I wouldn't say I'm a vet, but thanks for giving me that title. I feel good being with the guys up here. We've got experience on our team. Even with Tille and Rui. As far as that, just knowing that the little things matter in March. Just preaching that to the guys, taking a charge, diving for the ball or coming down on the rebounds. Just the little things matter in March and getting that across to the guys is important. Q. What were you like in the first NCAA games at the start and how much different is it now to be at this stage? SILAS MELSON: Well, the first tournament games probably speak for all of us, a lot more nerves than right now. I think as freshmen, our first games we were a little nervous. But now we have NCAA tournaments under our belt. All of us here are more comfortable and more experienced with it. JOSH PERKINS: As a freshman I was real nervous, when I looked at the guys that were so composed. So just hopefully the young guys seeing how composed we are, and just knowing we have their backs. And just knowing it's another game at the end of the day, don't stress too much about it. Just kind of play how we play and the rest will take care of itself. JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: All the freshmen -- last year was my first time having tournament experience and I feel like it helped a lot going into this year. I'm not going to be as nervous, just go out to have fun. Things matter in this month. Q. You guys are playing at Boise State, a Mountain West school, and you guys possibly looking to join them out the Mountain West. I'm curious, you're the only one that might be back next year, what are your thoughts on possibly joining the Mountain West when you heard about that? JOSH PERKINS: I read about, but I haven't heard too much about it. We play who we play, no matter who is in front of us. If we move, we do. But if we don't, we don't. We've just got to play our game at the end of the day. Q. Being so close last year, is that something that's stuck with you through this year or is it something that you had to erase and just start over? SILAS MELSON: It definitely stuck with us. We all headed into this tournament with a chip on our shoulder because of last year. And now we haven't been down, it was more motivating than anything. Coming into this March I think that's going to be our motivation is to try to get back to the Final Four and the championship. JOSH PERKINS: Si nailed it on the head. We just took how close we were last year, knowing the small things we didn't do in that championship game that we can just apply to the tournament this year, just doing that. Like he said, our chip just got bigger coming up short last year. Just hope we can come up a little bit closer this year. JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: Basically it gives motivation. Basically that's what it is, just motivating us to get back to the Final Four. And little things matter like taking charges and getting the loose balls. We as a team just want to get back there. Q. You play in an event like this, there's a ring of neutral fans, and what would your pitch be for those neutral fans to root for your team? What would be your pitch? JOSH PERKINS: Spokane is a lot closer than UNC, so please cheer for us (laughter). Q. This is like the 20th straight year that Gonzaga has made the tournament. How much of history are you guys aware of, of the Gonzaga history going way back, and how big a part of the history is the program today? SILAS MELSON: I mean I think as far as history goes, I think we're all pretty close to the history, just because of the culture, we're all close. Players from the past are always there around us. We all feel what happened on the team, we feel what they were going through when they were on the team. The 20th-year milestone is important to us, as it is to the people from the past. JOSH PERKINS: We're really aware of the history. Guys come back, we build relationships with the old guys. So for us to just keep fulfilling their destiny, their history, it feels good to me and to these guys as well. But we're writing our own piece of it. So it feels good to adding on to that Gonzaga legacy. Q. Have you guys seen something similar in this defense and how do you attack it? SILAS MELSON: I don't know if it's at a high level, but Villanova put the three-quarter press in, and they're obviously the top five in the country so they're really good at it. That's probably the closest team I can think of. JOSH PERKINS: I'd say Villanova this year, and we had experience playing them before. It's our job to take care of the ball. And we need to break their press. We've just got to play, so I think we're in good hands. THE MODERATOR: We have Gonzaga coach, Coach Few. Q. The big picture question: How much of a challenge for you has it been to keep last year as a little bit of motivation versus erasing the slate, realizing you have a new team and going on a new journey? MARK FEW: I don't know that we erased anything. I think it was important to be able to draw off of last year, but it was a journey. We had an almost undefeated regular season, and the way we handled things. But this team is just different. And I think at times I needed to take a step back and be fair to them. And I was holding them to a standard of last year's team. And again, it was probably very unfair for a couple of months there. I think I reached a point in January or February to back off a little bit and let them be who they are. And they've definitely thrived with that. Q. You have a few connections to Boise. What are your thoughts on being able to play here in the first round? MARK FEW: It's great. The obvious one, just it's in the Northwest so it's easy for our fans. A lot of travel. We have a lot of fans here in Boise. I have a ton of family down here and Marcy is from here. And obviously Leon Rice is my former assistant and he's basically family. So we spend a lot of time down here in Boise in the off season. And we've got some great former players, Kore Violett [ph] was one of the guys who started the whole run from Gonzaga is from here. Kyle Vangenus [ph] obviously, people remember him, is from here. Then some great ex-players before the run even started with Jeff Goss and Jarrod Davis, Jamie Dudley all call this home. So, that's been great. And there's a small downside of it, I wish my father-in-law was still alive because he would have gotten the biggest kick out of hosting the Zags down here, he was kind of a legendary guy down here. That's the only downside. But pretty cool. Q. Just wondering how often you stay in touch with Kyle Bankhead and what do you remember of him as a player? MARK FEW: Kyle's obviously close with several of my staff members. They were in the program together. But he stopped in a lot over the years. And hung out, watched practice. Kyle was one of the all-time great Zags. He embodied everything our program is about. He's an incredibly hard worker, incredibly driven, selfless, did whatever it takes to win. He was one of those guys. If it meant a charge or getting eight rebounds at 6-1 could barely touch the net. He'd do that. And then he also wasn't afraid to step up and make a big three. He did that numerous times for us. Crazy how it comes full circle, but happy for him that he's in the business again, and it looks like it's going well. Q. You mentioned the connections to Boise. There's been some reports about Mountain West and Gonzaga. Just curious, talking to Leon, he said he thinks you would be a good fit for the league. Where do the discussions come from or the possibility you guys would be a fit in that league? MARK FEW: I don't want to come in the league, I don't think we could beat Boise. Leon's got it rolling down here. They had an unbelievable year this year. I marveled at the job that he did, and the players he did. And the year Chandler Hutchison had. And they've done a great job developing him. And some of the crowds you had here were phenomenal. Look, we've been talking to a lot of people. And this was the one that I guess leaked out. Somebody leaked it out. I've said all along we're going to do what's best for Gonzaga and the program moving forward. So whatever that means, it's not something we're going to spend a lot of thought on this week or hopefully for a while. But after the dust settles down Mike and I and President McCulloh will figure out what's best for Gonzaga and go from there. Q. You mentioned the fans. The word on the street is that there are a lot of Gonzaga fans making it into Boise. For those of us not familiar with your fan base, how would you characterize Gonzaga fans and how important have they been to the success to the program? MARK FEW: What's that exactly mean, "word on the street"? Okay. I got you. Very loyal. Extremely loyal. I'd like to think unconditional with their love and support for the Zags, that's what's made the job so special. But, yeah, it's a very strong fan base. I don't know if you were in Phoenix last year, but I think we had probably the biggest collection of fans down there out of four teams. And even how it ended up with us in Carolina at the end. We have a lot of fans here in Boise. I spend a lot of time in the off season, and run into people that are huge fans of Gonzaga. And so I expect nothing less. Q. Your team has made it to a national championship game, it's consistently done that. What do you personally see as your vision for that your next step your program can take? What is your idea where this program goes from here? MARK FEW: I've always just been just to stay in growth mode. We've got to keep growing and keep not staying still or being content or being content or happy with where we're at. And I think this year is a product of that. The fact that we won 30 games, to win 30 is really, really hard in college basketball. And to do that with the schedule we played, playing in the PK80 and some of the other non-conference games we had. So we'll continue to schedule at a really high level. We'll continue to hopefully recruit at a really high level. The school's done an unbelievable job facility-wise. We just moved into a brand-new practice facility and finishing up the Hall of Fame which will be really cool for the people to be able to roll in and see the history of all the great teams, great players, great people that were involved building this thing. And to be honest with you, I mean the greatest thing I think we've done in this program is the Final Four. It's the 20th straight NCAA tournament appearances. That shows sustained excellence, in my opinion. Because it's not easy to do. It's not easy to do. And I'm really proud of this group for negotiating their way, navigating their way through all the potholes and everything that happened in college basketball. And there are times you're kind of wondering, man, I don't know, I don't know, we might not. This might be the year. But they found a way and we're playing our best basketball right now. Q. Another team here in Boise is Davidson. This year marks 10 years since their run to the Elite 8. When you saw them make that run, did you see similarities with that team and the early teams for you guys? MARK FEW: Some ways. There are some interesting underlying stories there. I think we were the 7 and they were the 10 and we got shipped out to play 30 minutes from their campus or something. So that was a little rough to handle. Yeah, we got Steph started, and he was amazing. I mean the performance he put on down there was simply amazing. We had a freshman that I don't think anybody remembers that played great named Steven Gray, I think he had seven or eight 3s. If we would have held on to that last one, he would be the story and not Steph. But they ended up getting the offensive rebound with a minute to go and threw it out to Steph and he got a big 3 to put him in the lead. Probably the biggest similarity I see is Coach McKillop has been there this entire time. So they've been able to build their culture, and have continuity like that, much like we have. Q. Leon should be back tonight or tomorrow. Are you going to pick his brain tonight? MARK FEW: We talk constantly. I was with his kids and Robin last night. So, yeah, I don't know if he'll get back tonight. Hopefully if they win they'll move on to St. Mary's. Constant contact with him. I can't tell you with how impressed I am with what he's built down here. He's moved them from the WAC to the Mountain West, and made them right up at the top of the heap. I was disappointed it didn't turn out the way they hoped. But now I see things from a bigger picture, how consistently good they've become, filling the stands here, which isn't easy. And things like that, how they recruit, stuff like that. Q. What have you seen so far from watching UNC Greensboro practice, and if their style of play might mimic a team you played earlier this season? MARK FEW: I haven't watched them practice. Hopefully they haven't watched us practice. We'll have to check and see if Kyle has got some camera up in the McCarthy Center. Really impressed. And again, impressed, anytime you see, I think people see these seeds and then, yeah, just put those aside. 27 wins is 27 wins. And I think you can tell a lot about a team when they win the regular season and they win the conference tournament. That's a team that has a lot of winning qualities about them. Obviously the guard Alonso is really dangerous. He's got his hands on the ball a lot. And he makes a lot of plays. Scores it. Facilitates. He's really crafty. But then they've got good size and rim protection in the back. Their defensive numbers jump out at you. They play a three-quarter court press that slows you down, keeps possessions down. So they play a little slower-paced game. But we've faced a lot of different stuff. You get 34 games in you see a lot in the course of a year. So we just have to draw on all those experiences. Q. Your team has done yoga for a few years? MARK FEW: Heck, yeah, so do I. Q. Which coach did it and which coach is the best at it? MARK FEW: Some of our coaches don't participate, like Donny Daniels isn't a full participant, which is probably a good thing. And Tommy Lloyd is a nonparticipant, too. I don't know if you could have the best when you're the worst, you know what I'm saying? I can say this, there are some stretches that I can do slightly better than J-3. J-3 is not the most flexible guy you came across. Sometimes J-3 and I do some solo stuff with Travis. I always feel good when I'm in there with Travis and J-3. It's good to not be last in the class. Q. Wes Miller said when he was looking for his first coaching job, you allowed him to come watch in practice. Do you remember that? And what were your impressions of him? MARK FEW: I do remember it. And just that we knew he was going to be successful at whatever he was doing, just talking to him. He was a bright guy that had a lot of energy, had a plan, was focused enough to go out and take the time to go and watch other practices and seemed very driven. And had a great pedigree and good mentors around him. So that's usually a recipe for success. And lo and behold, here we are. He's done a great job there. Q. As you've built this program over the years what are the things you've tried to instill as the things you want to be known for, and you want your team and your players to be really good at? MARK FEW: Just what they are. I mean if you ask anybody from Spokane, they know our guys aren't just basketball players. I think they're great mentors in the community for young kids. And I think people respect the fact that our guys are of high character and value being a student-athlete. I think it's that term or ideal is under assault right now on the national level. But I can tell you in our program it rings true and is legit. I hope people after they watch us and see how we interact on the floor, off the floor, that they'll say it's a first-class program, because that's what we want people to think. Q. On that note that it's under assault a little bit, have you thought at all about what you would like to see changed? MARK FEW: Look, the biggest thing is that I think the idea that this is a systemic problem across the board is a misnomer. There are obviously some problems within college basketball, but there's problems within everything that's that big, whether it's our federal government or professional sports or anything. So I think we need to take some proactive steps to help right those and make them better and adapt probably the model to more reflect what's going on in society and then also kind of reflect that maybe not all 350 of us are the same. I mean there are certainly a lot more things and needs and options and whatever for my guys than there is some of these schools that haven't had the run Gonzaga has had or Carolina has had or some of us. So I think we need to probably not treat everybody the same that way. But at the same time this tournament is going to show like it does every year. College basketball and this tournament are the greatest sporting event our country has. And it will prevail like it always does. There's already been a ton of great games this year. So we need to make some tweaks, we need to open our mind to them. But I don't think we need to overreact, and I think we've got a lot of people -- I've said this about some of the more high-profile people that are commenting on it, that they're extremely well intentioned but misinformed with some of the things they're throwing out there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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