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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LOS ANGELES

March 22, 2018

Los Angeles, California

Florida State - 75, Gonzaga - 60

THE MODERATOR: We welcome the Gonzaga Bulldogs to the stage. Coach, an opening comment?

MARK FEW: It's a tough, tough loss. I think we're all disappointed up here, but we also understand. We knew after watching tape on Florida State just how tough they were going to be to try to generate baskets and generate any kind of offensive rhythm.

I thought there were a couple key stretches in the game right there at the tail end of the first half. We kind of got it back to even, and then we made a couple tough decisions. Then also there was a real important stretch from about the 14-minute mark down to about the 5-minute mark where we had it right there at 4 or 5 a couple times and just a couple empty possessions.

We just could never generate any real, consistent, offensive rhythm, and that's because of their length and their athleticism, and their aggressiveness and their switching. They do a really, really nice job with that.

If you make a mistake or make a turnover, they jump on it, and sting you in transition, and that inevitably kind of was our downfall.

Q. Josh, you guys shot under 40%, I think it was 36%. I don't have the sheet in front of me. But what were they doing to make it difficult for you guys to get the looks that you wanted?
JOSH PERKINS: As Coach said, they're long under pressure. Didn't let us get any rhythm offensively. But a lot of it was on us. We were missing easy shots we usually make. So we're not going to hang our head on that. It happened.

Q. I was going to ask you, after last year's coming so close, how much of a letdown right here are you feeling not having another opportunity getting that elusive title?
JOSH PERKINS: Yeah, I mean, I don't really know what to tell you.

Q. Can you think of a team that you played this year that matched their length defensively? Anyone that they were similar to?
SILAS MELSON: I mean, I couldn't say I could think of a team off the top of my head. They're really long, and like they've been saying, their pressure was really good, and they executed everything they wanted to today.

Q. Johnathan and Silas, it's final season for you guys. Can you just reflect on this season, and what it meant to you guys?
SILAS MELSON: I mean, overall I'm really proud of every single one of us this year. I mean, we lost last year and you looked at our roster, and probably not one of you guys thought we were going to go to the Sweet Sixteen. I mean, we didn't end how we wanted to, but that doesn't define anything about our season. We won 32 games, and a lot of teams in the country didn't even do that. Like I said, it didn't end how we wanted it to, but I'm still proud.

JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: Like Silas just said. I'm proud of the guys. We came a long way. We had a couple new guys join the team this year, and how we were able to gel together and become a family. It's been an awesome journey, Silas and me, and I love all my teammates and the coaching staff.

Q. Looking at the legacy that you guys have been able to contribute during your time here, and now it's this 20-year run. What do you think defines the program, not just on the court but the values and what you think signifies Gonzaga basketball?
SILAS MELSON: I mean, I always say every time somebody asks me that question, I'm always saying that I'm just blessed to even be a part of this program, because the way we carry ourselves is with the highest class. We took a loss today, and none of us are being bad sports about it. We're all heads high, and that's just one example of us being Zags. Like I've been saying, I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Q. Shorthanded to begin with with no Killian, talk about the inside battle and their rim protection and how that affected things in there, and maybe even fatigue?
JOHNATHAN WILLIAMS: Yeah, we missed a key person on our team, Tillie, tonight. Yeah, like everybody was saying, they were long and athletic, and I feel like we missed easy shots around the rim, so that's on us. And we'll learn from that and grow from it. Yeah, that's it.

Q. Can you tell us what happened with Tillie? Did he get hurt?
MARK FEW: Yeah, just a real fluke thing happened in Tuesday morning practice. He inadvertently kind of ran into another one of our players. It wasn't a violent collision at all, but they banged hips. So the best I can describe it is a really, really bad hip pointer. The moment it happened in practice he couldn't really move or function Tuesday. We did our best to try to get it going Wednesday. We worked on it all the way up to the game. Thought it was heading a pretty good direction. He warmed up and was feeling good. Then he went up for a dunk or something in warm-ups and came back in the locker room and said he couldn't go.

So he was just -- had incredible pain and just could not really jump or function. So, yeah. It's kind of your worst nightmare as a coach, especially in the practice leading up to coming down here.

Q. You already know this, but does this give a perspective? It's really, really difficult to get to a Final Four, and this proves how tough this tournament is?
MARK FEW: Yeah, I think we've experienced that and know that firsthand from all the years and all the great teams I've been able to coach. But it is tough. These NCAA games are the hardest thing. To get a win in the NCAA Tournament, I think it's the hardest thing we do in college hoops. It's harder than playing on the road against the No. 1 team in your league or anything like that. It is a tough -- every one of them is tough. We knew this was going to be very difficult just watching them on tape.

Then obviously when we got the news on Killian, we knew it was going to be even more difficult.

But we still had our chances, and we didn't quite take advantage of them. We missed a lot of bunnies around the rim, and missed a couple defensive assignments. You can't do that against these guys.

Q. The same thing I asked the players, can you think of a team that reminds you that has this type of athleticism and length? Did you think it would give you this many problems?
MARK FEW: I mean, again, watching them on tape, the more I watched them, I got a bad feeling in my stomach. But I still thought, again, there were some things we could exploit with some of our actions. But some of those we lost when Killian wasn't out to space the floor and make some threes.

But, no, I mean, not really. I can't think of anybody. I mean, obviously Texas with Bamba, a little bit. But they're not as long as these guys are across the board all the way into the guard position. They do a nice job. They denied Perk the ball a lot, so we had to initiate our offense a lot with Johnathan Williams. He did a nice job bringing it up. But it just took us out of rhythm a little bit. Again, we missed -- man, we missed a lot of shots, I think, around the rim that we'd like to have back.

Q. Coach, I know over the years your guys have learned a lot of lessons even through losses. You talk a lot about character. Can you talk a little bit about the character of these seniors and just this team throughout the year?
MARK FEW: Well, somebody told me, I think, Silas Melson's got 126 wins' career, which is the most in Division I of any Division I player out there right now. I think that stat's pretty amazing. The fact that he and Perk were the only two players out there that have been to four, at least, straight Sweet Sixteens. They went to an Elite Eight and obviously a championship game.

But better than that, these are the type of guys you let your kids hang out with. I could only hope that Marcy and I can do as good a job raising our four; that they'll end up like these guys, because they're terrific role models for my family and the staff's families and for the community of Spokane, and everybody that comes in touch with them. So they're kind of what college ball is supposed to be all about.

Q. You mentioned from that 14-minute to the 5-minute mark you guys were right there. Four or five points. How big would it have been for you guys to hit a clutch three or get a big dunk in that situation and send a jolt through the crowd?
MARK FEW: Yeah, it was more just matches, catching the ball on a fast break or finishing it, slowing down. We had a couple breaks with numbers that we made some poor decisions on. We had an open three. We ran one of our sets, came off a ball screen, and they doubled down on Rui throughout. Had a wide-open three, and we turned it down.

Just against really, really good teams and on a night like the one we were having offensively, you can't do that. You've got to make hay when the sun's shining, and we didn't. They eventually then were able to make a couple plays and get a couple offensive rebounds and some putbacks, and that was it.

Q. Depth has been one of your calling cards through the years, but have you ever had a team or seen one that goes 10 deep like these guys do?
MARK FEW: No. In fact, we have had -- we had great depth last year. It was an amazing luxury to have. But Leonard does a great job of getting 11 of them in sometimes and gets them in early. That's hard to do. That's hard to play that many guys. They seem to be able to keep the rhythm, and they'll come right in and first time down the floor bang a three on you.

But it's a nice luxury to have. When we had those four bigs last year, we didn't worry about fouls. We got in foul trouble tonight. That was part of that run at the end of the first half, we had J-3 and Rui on the bench because we didn't want him to get three in the first half. It was fine until about a minute and a half to go, and then they made that little run. So depth is nice, yeah.

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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LOS ANGELES

March 22, 2018

Mark Few

Josh Perkins

Johnathan Williams

Silas Melson