NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - GRAND CANYON VS GONZAGA

March 16, 2023

Mark Few

Rasir Bolton

Malachi Smith

Ball Arena

Gonzaga Bulldogs

Media Conference

Q. Guys, I don't have to tell you, you play for an elite basketball program. This program has been a No. 1 seed a couple years in a row. Now you're a 3 seed. Does that change expectations or pressure level or any of that for you?

RASIR BOLTON: I would just say from the pressure level aspect, I would say it takes something off of us not really being a No. 1 seed, and then anything else is really the same. It's all the same game of basketball. You see UVA just lost off a heartbreak shot. So anybody can lose any day. So I don't think anything changes. I think we have the same mindset.

MALACHI SMITH: For me, we came here with the same mission. No matter what the seed, is you have to roll the ball out and go and play. Everybody earned their way here, so the same confidence, the same mentality, same chip on our shoulder, no matter what the seed we are.

Q. When you watch film of Grand Canyon, what jumps out at you about those guys, because they had a wild run. They didn't look like they were going to get here but then they go off and win six straight and shoot a lot of threes?

MALACHI SMITH: What you just said, they make a lot of threes, their team has had to fight their way to get to this moment. So they're going to come in ready to play, so a team that they know what they're doing and they get a lot of threes up.

Q. Talking about the guards a little bit, Grand Canyon, a guard heavy team, does that put so much pressure on you guys in this matchup?

RASIR BOLTON: I think you could say that, just because those are the main guys that are getting the shots up and the majority of their offense runs through them. But I think it's the same defensive plan as every game. Kind of going through WCC playing tough guards and throughout the season non-conference schedule playing tough guards. I think it's something we've had to do before, and we've just got to lock in and get it done.

Q. What was the biggest challenge or what was the toughest moment for this team this season that you feel like shaped you now to who you are as a team?

MALACHI SMITH: I would say some of those early non-conference losses, everybody was kind of speaking about us kind of throw in the towel on us and saying our season was over or overrated and stuff. And we just knew if we stayed together and worried about the voices in the locker room that it would prepare us for match-ups like this.

And we've had some great wins against non-conference opponents, as well. But some of those losses you could feel like the tension of just everybody trying to talk about who we're going to be and what's it going to look like. But I think we just stayed locked in and stayed together, and you see where we are now.

RASIR BOLTON: For me I would say after the LMU loss, just kind of going through that tough time, nobody kind of expected us to lose that one and they came out and punched us in the mouth. And we had to come back and fight and have faith in the WCC championship and things like that.

So we just had to really come together and blindly just play, not really focusing on rankings or anything anymore, not being No. 1, or not worrying about any more records. Just really come together and having to win games, and I think that helped us a lot.

Q. (No microphone)?

RASIR BOLTON: I would say in past years, they think Gonzaga just kind of blows through WCC without even having to try to play hard, kind of go out there and just win games by 30 easily. But that's not the case since I've been here, especially that game -- losing that one was kind of unexpected. But I think it woke us up and really showed us we've got to play our best basketball at all times.

Q. With the loss that you guys did have, LMU, did that help you to not sleep on any teams here in the first round of March Madness?

RASIR BOLTON: Yeah. I don't think we were sleeping on them, I think they just kind of came out and kicked us in the butt. But I definitely think it helps with not sleeping on teams. We can't take games for granted. We can't come in just thinking we're the best team, we're just going to go out here and win easily. Because they had to fight to get here, you know they did some miraculous stuff to get to this point, and I'm sure they're not coming here just to lay down and lose. So we've definitely got to lock in.

Q. They're led by Ray Harrison, a 6'4" guard, kind of scores it inside the line pretty well. How do you deal with him? What have you seen on tape watching him?

MALACHI SMITH: He's a good scorer. He's kind of like the engine of their team. He can do a lot of great things. But like Rasir said, we've played a lot of great guards throughout the year so we don't have to try to do anything different or spectacular. We have to play our game, play solid team defense, and I have all the confidence in the world in our team.

MARK FEW: Hey, it's just another great time to be still playing and obviously involved in the greatest sporting event in the world, at least as far as I'm concerned. And we're excited. We've had a little bit of time off obviously with our tournament ending, so guys have had a couple good practices and are focused and we're just ready to get going.

Q. Grand Canyon, they modeled themselves after you, Colangelo, Muller, when they came into this 10 years ago, and lots of respect for you guys. When you look at these guys, what kind of jumps out? You were there in the beginning when you guys started to take off. Do you see any similarities?

MARK FEW: I see a lot of similarities. Jerry and I have been good friends through USA Basketball, and I just have the utmost respect for the type of person that he is and what he's been able to accomplish throughout his life.

They do remind me -- we get asked all the time from numerous schools, whether it's me or our assistants or our AD or anybody, our president, how do we do what you do. And I would say Grand Canyon is probably the closest thing. If you look at what they've built, the success that they're starting to have or have been having, and then the following, their fan base, their home environment, kind of all of those things would seem to be kind of on par with how we started getting it going 25 years ago.

Q. This is under the heading of how do you do what you do and how do you keep doing the amazing things you've done. With all the changes that you know better than I do, portal, NIL, why hasn't the Pac-12 or the Big 12 scooped you up, and why has the WCC been so good to you?

MARK FEW: Well, that's a question for them, not for me. But the WCC has been great for us because it hasn't gotten in our way. The best thing we've done I think over the years is -- even back to '99, we wanted to stay in growth mode. We did not want to just be a one-hit wonder. I was always pushing and pushing and pushing.

And we've had great leadership at the athletic director position. We've had two great presidents in Father Spitzer and Thayne McCulloh. We've had a great board. Then we've just been able to just keep -- to not stay still and to not stay satisfied.

It's been a challenge. To your point, within this last year, this might be some of the greatest challenges we're facing with the portal and NIL and just lack of direction and rules and regulations and stuff like that, especially from a program that likes to follow rules and regulations.

I think this team is almost indicative of that. Every year it's different. This team, I think, was under some pretty heavy scrutiny early in the year, and rightfully so. We weren't playing that great. But they lo and behold have held up to the expectations put upon the program, and here we are back in March and they're playing their best basketball.

Q. You can obviously compete on a national basis. Has there been any temptation to jump into a bigger conference?

MARK FEW: Again, we're always looking at what's best for Gonzaga. Like I said, how do we grow. We've got to measure out all these opportunities that are out there and figure out what's the best path moving forward to keep our program on the highest national level, which is where we're at.

Q. Has this been a year where you've had to push more buttons as a coach to get them to where you wanted them to be? And what are maybe one of the two top messages that you had to get across?

MARK FEW: To really get them to what?

Q. To be where you want them to be.

MARK FEW: I mean, sometimes I bristle at that because every year is different. And I think -- as awesome as that team was in '21 during all the COVID ridiculousness, that took a lot. We didn't have any fans, man. And to try to get your team up each and every night when you're ranked No. 1 and there's literally nobody in your home gym. You just walk out of the locker room into The Kennell -- you've been to the Kennell a million times, and that was hard.

That was really -- to sit in the same floor of a hotel for 31 days in Indy and not get tired of each other and continually keep making up things to stay excited and stay focused and not lethargic, that was hard.

But this team, probably not letting them bow to kind of the -- they were feeling the disappointment, I think, early and beating themselves up pretty good mentally, and so that was a big challenge for our staff.

Then I always say you've got to hit the Zags' standard, and they were not sitting the Zags' standard in a lot of areas. So I always feel that's my job to kind of be the heavy in that regard. Sometimes it's not all fun and games being the papa bear of the group.

But made for some long practices, some long weeks, some long months. But I would say this, it's been very rewarding to see individually how some of these guys have responded, but more so collectively how the entire group has responded. Kind of makes you believe in coaching again maybe, and maybe in this generation a little bit, too, that sometimes takes a lot of heat here and there.

Q. You always hear about NCAA Tournament experience, and this team certainly has a lot of that. Where does that show up on the court or just in the weekend?

MARK FEW: I mean, I think it shows up on a day like today. This is a very unique day for a player. Our normal day before the game does not include basically six hours of doing stuff and traveling. Oh, we're going to do a light shootaround here, but then have to find another gym to work out. I mean, our program gets tons and tons of media scrutiny but not at this formal a setting.

I think that's probably one of the biggest things to adapt to, the schedule and all that, and then just, hey, handling the pressure and expectations that come with those NCAA moments.

Q. Kind of a little bit of the same question. But especially at the beginning of the year and with the loss to Loyola, out here if you read the stuff, it sounded like Armageddon was hitting your program. You had said you expected it to be a slow start. Was it Armageddon out there?

MARK FEW: I mean, it depends if you listen to Jimmy and Johnny behind the keyboard in their mom's basement or if you listen to the staff. I mean, I don't know that it was Armageddon.

Early in the season, we were just turning the ball over too much, and that's not usually indicative of our program. That was a real challenge for us.

Then there's always the challenge of returning experienced players on a really, really good team, but maybe they weren't in those alpha roles. And that's not unlike adding a new guy to your program. Some guys can step it up and make those changes. I think if you look at a guy like Anton Watson, it took him a while to the point where now he's really stepped up his productivity and kind of hit the expectations we were all hoping for him.

But it's funny, we lost to Loyola Marymount and I think Houston is awesome. I think incredible.

The year that they've had, they lost to Temple at home and nobody said anything about it. And Loyola's NET in Ken Pom are higher than Temple's. It's like -- I think as a coach, like I said in an earlier interview, I'm the type of guy who is worried about our Division II exhibition opener, about getting beat by them, so I kind of go into all these games like these guys could beat us if we're not on.

I think honestly what it made me do is made me appreciate those 74 games that we had prior to that at home. And to be able to do that, win 74 straight, especially during a COVID year with nobody even around, I don't think that thing will be touched moving forward from here.

We didn't panic. We just stuck to the plan.

Q. Question about the Drew family and have you connected with Homer at all in the last couple days, and what's that relationship like with them?

MARK FEW: I love the Drew family. It's one of -- gosh, just one of the greatest, coolest families out there, just how strong their faith is, how close they are. I don't know of any father or son-son lineage that seems to be able to do what they have done. Maybe there is one. And they're fun, positive people to be around.

I was on a text chain with all three of them earlier in the week when we all got sent here, so had some barb going back and forth, and then I was able to chat with Scott on the court, too.

Q. And then about Roger Powell and his relationship to that group and how important has he been to your success in the last couple years?

MARK FEW: He's been incredibly important, incredibly important asset or person and entity on our staff. He's just, again, a man of great faith, which was great to share with everybody in the locker room. He just has garnered so much respect from everybody. He still plays with our guys once in a while and more than holds his own, quite frankly.

And I think our guys love that, and he's such a positive person. He's done a great job recruiting. He's done a great job game prepping. He's the real deal, and we're just so fortunate to have him.

I know this is one of those strange games. It's like, if I was to play or we were to play Boise State with Leon or back when we used to have to play Billy Grier at San Diego. You're playing like family. If Gonzaga and Arizona have to meet, you're talking about kids and families that have spent years and years together. Those can be kind of weird.

Q. Now that you've had some time since Selection Sunday, what are your thoughts on this Grand Canyon team and the matchup?

MARK FEW: I mean, just scary. Really scary. I watched them the other day, I watched them make 10 threes in a half. In a half. I mean, there's probably three quarters of the teams in college basketball don't make 10 in a game, I would guess, probably more than that. Probably 80 percent of the teams don't.

So just amazing. They're on an incredible run right now. They're seeing a huge basket. Bryce does a great job. He mixes up his defenses. He's very creative on the offensive end. They're experienced.

Again, they're hungry, right. I think they've been hearing about and watching and seeing Gonzaga over all these years, so I mean, obviously they are hungry to knock us off. That's a dangerous combination.

Q. Coach, this tournament is all about lower seeds beating the higher seeds on a consistent basis throughout year in and year out, and you come into this tournament normally as one of the higher seeds. How much do you reiterate to your players every single year just the dangers of some of these double-digit seeds?

MARK FEW: Yeah, I don't know if we necessarily talked about dangers. Again, I think they fully understand especially coming from the conference that we're in, there's just so many good teams out there, and seeding doesn't really matter.

I think once they've watched highlights now with Grand Canyon, they get it. They see it.

I think the seeding is more for everybody dinking around with the brackets and all that. The players and the staffs, it just becomes more of here's our task, these guys do this and this and this really good. And if we don't do something about it, then they can beat us.

I would just say as long as I've been in this thing now every year, everything seems to be shrinking more to the mean as opposed to -- we've been in enough of those 1-16 games and you're like, holy smokes. Last year I walked out for the tip and Georgia State, I think they were bigger than us at dang near every position. And I'm like, this is a 16 seed?

I think that's kind of where we are right now, especially with the transfer portal. I think everybody thought that was going to hurt some of maybe the lower-level schools. But what they've been able to do is gobble up fifth and sixth year guys, and I think that's made them tough outs. We've certainly noticed that in our league as we're still trying to groom some freshman or sophomore types, so it's really made for great competitive balance.

Q. I'm just curious, following up on that, do you think your 20-something players feel different pressure as a No. 1 seed or a No. 3? And is that something you would address as a coach?

MARK FEW: Yeah, we just talked about being the hunter. We talked about that during the year because this is the same stuff we deal with all year. I mean, Drew will tell you, I think we walked out in a scrimmage back in November or -- no, it was in October -- and he couldn't believe how fired up Tennessee was to try to knock our heads off in a scrimmage and celebrating afterwards. That was a scrimmage in October.

I mean, this is something that we deal with a lot. Obviously this is at the ultimate level for that. But yeah, we just kind of stick with our same, hey, we need to be the most aggressive team tonight, and we'll stick with that same mantra.