NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - NORFOLK ST. VS GONZAGA

March 20, 2021

Mark Few

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Gonzaga Bulldogs

Postgame Media Conference

Gonzaga 98, Norfolk State 55

MARK FEW: Hey, I think that's the longest we've ever waited to play an NCAA tournament game. So obviously from a coaching standpoint that causes anxiety. Sitting around watching all the higher seeds jumping up and grabbing us lower-seeded teams was a little bit unnerving through the last if you days.

Man, the guys came out with a great approach, played great defense all night, and did a good job. I was impressed with how hard Norfolk played. They run a lot of stuff. They switch defenses. There's a lot of adjusting going on out there by our guys.

But by and large, very pleased for getting step one here.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. These numbers that your program keeps putting up are pretty baffling. Do people have any idea how hard that is? How do you reflect on that?

MARK FEW: Hey, listen, accruing NCAA wins is the hardest thing you can do in our profession, in my opinion. To be honest with you, I didn't know we won 12 straight of those because it's tough.

I screwed up. I don't know if it's the higher or the lower seeds, which ones, how we use that terminology. They're getting better and better and better and better. The 16s are better than they were five years ago. Obviously you watch through this tournament, the 15s and the 14s and 13s are giving everybody quite a tussle. So there is no easy one. I was happy that we extended that thing before halftime and then kept our foot on the pedal in the second half.

Great accomplishment by our guys. But, you know, I mean, this tournament comes at you quickly. So obviously playing so late, we got a very, very quick turnaround to play a really good Oklahoma team that's had some big-time wins all year, and do some interesting things that we'll have to adjust to quickly.

Q. Corey moved up to third all time in the three-point list tonight. Speak to what his impact has been at Gonzaga over these last few years, seeing him climb up against some major names like Matt and Josh tonight.

MARK FEW: Listen, Corey is an all-timer at our place. I mean, clearly, he's a First Team All-American. That puts him in really, really rarefied air. But that just scratches the surface when you're describing the type of person he is. He's of the highest character there is. He's as good a role model as you could have for young players in your program, for young kids like I have. He's just a wonderful, wonderful representative of Gonzaga.

But I think and know just for college basketball. Like I've been saying all along, he's the poster child for college basketball, and he's also a poster child for listening to the information in regards to the draft, betting on himself, coming back. That turned out to just be a brilliant decision. Sometimes leaving isn't always the best thing.

Corey and his parents did a great job of communicating through that process and listening to the facts, and now he's reaping the rewards from that.

Q. I thought an interesting moment tonight, it's a 20-point game at halftime, Corey is the first one out on the court a few minutes before the other guys. He looks so ready to go. How has that attitude just rubbed off on all these guys? He's the only one here that's been here for four years.

MARK FEW: Well, I think it rubs off in that it's contagious, and that's kind of the mentality of our team coming down and working outside of practice. They're down there at night. Corey gets his extra workouts in in the morning. I think the young guys saw that, especially early in the fall, and realized, Okay, this is a different deal, there is a reason why he shoots the ball so well.

He's in such phenomenal shape. All of those things. I think they see his effort in the weight room. He doesn't just give a token effort in there. How he studies film and listens to game plans and all that.

I'm sure if you ask Jalen, he would tell you it's really helped him with just the general approach. It's no secret that's why he's so good. Corey doesn't leave anything to chance. I think that's one of his most impressive traits.

Q. I know you've been after Anton for a while to be more aggressive, more assertive. Has that message finally hit home with him?

MARK FEW: Well, it did tonight. I told him after he just walked out of this interview room, that's just one now. This team needs that desperately out of Anton. We've been asking and begging, yelling and doing whatever we got to to try to get him more aggressive and more assertive in every phase of the game, quite frankly: shooting, driving, making post moves, rebounding, defending the rim, all of those. Just kind of hustling.

Today was a good first step against an athletic front line. I mean, Norfolk had legit size and athleticism in and around the rim. I thought that was a really, really good sign for us and for Anton moving forward in this tournament.

Q. This is very early, just one game here in this long tournament, but I just wonder what the feeling is amongst the program and the importance of the significance of getting through this whole thing and becoming one of those rarefied teams that has won a national championship undefeated? Is that in the back of your minds at all?

MARK FEW: You know, I can honestly say it really isn't. We just want to win this tournament. I mean, that's all we want to do is just win this tournament. As the season progressed, I think we were able to stay No. 1 all year and not take a loss. But it's more been about really the next one coming down the pipe. As we got into this thing, I mean, we're all highly competitive. This group's extremely competitive. It's just about winning this tournament.

Obviously if we win the tournament, we end up undefeated. But I have never heard any of the guys talk about it, the staff doesn't talk about it. I don't talk about it. Gosh, man, we just want to win this thing.

I've been in enough of these games, every step of the way in this tournament, like, we got a really short turnaround. We got to be ready to roll against Oklahoma. We might have shot the ball extremely well tonight, but who knows if we will the next game. Maybe we'll have to win it with making plays on the defensive end.

You just never know. But, no, truly we're really not spending too much time on that.

Q. We lost a game in the tournament today when VCU got caught up in the COVID protocols. What is the anxiety level among coaches getting to the starting line in this tournament?

MARK FEW: Yeah, hey, listen, the NCAA, Dan Gavitt, JoAn Scott, they deserve a ton of credit. To put this endeavor on, the protocols in place, the practice courts are all phenomenal we get to work out on. The meeting rooms are big-time. It's really incredible when you're experiencing it firsthand.

I mean, obviously it's frustrating because you got to stay inside and all that. We take a step back and look at it, they deserve a lot of credit. I don't really know the situation, what happened with VCU. I mean, I'm very confident with our guys because we took so many steps even before the conference tournament. We put ourselves into the hotel just to kind of keep us safe from our own students, everybody running around Gonzaga, then just continued that after the conference tournament.

We've been testing clean forever now. I feel good about our situation, but I just feel horrible for VCU. Gosh, it breaks your heart. This is not what you want to have happen. It's just tough and I feel really bad for them, players and their staff.

Q. Earlier this week I asked you what you thought your players were going to be like during this tournament. You said they were probably going to play even harder than they did in the regular season. Today you broke another school record. How would you evaluate today's performance and how can you get even better for the rest of the games?

MARK FEW: I thought we were great on defense tonight. We were terrific. Especially Norfolk State runs a lot of nice stuff. Coach has a myriad of plays. I thought we had a lot of plays, but his are something. Different actions that require different coverages.

I really thought today was about our defense. Then obviously our defense got out and led to our offense. We got out in transition, which is always a good thing.

Hey, I mean, my hope is we continue to play that hard and that alert and great attention to the scouting report and the details of it, keep taking great care of the ball. That's usually the recipe that works really well for us.

THE MODERATOR: Mark, really appreciate your time. Congratulations again. Best of luck going up against Oklahoma.

MARK FEW: You got it. Okay, thank you.