The Zags faced numerous tight games but repeatedly delivered. “One thing I said after last year, coach Few and coach (Tommy) Lloyd were not going to put a bad product on the floor,” Williams-Goss said. The offense motored along as turnovers dropped and Hachimura filled a prominent role. The Zags’ defense began locking in after the first Gaels game. “We knew as a staff the margin for error wasn’t the same as last year, when you knew we were going to wear down the opponent at some point.” “The challenges we faced were different than last year,” said assistant coach Brian Michaelson, citing the players’ changing roles and replacing leadership from 2017. Villanova handled the Zags, but concern levels soared after a road loss at San Diego State and a home loss to Saint Mary’s. The Zags played well early, taking two of three at the prestigious PK80 Invitational in Portland before blasting Washington and Creighton. Saint Mary’s was essentially a unanimous pick to win the WCC in the coaches’ preseason poll. GU’s personnel picture worried some in the fan base and didn’t overly impress media or fellow coaches. Kispert and eventually Norvell stepped in at starting wing. Hachimura became crucial in the rotation. Williams moved from power forward to center. Melson and Tillie graduated to the starting lineup. None of the returners would be in the same role as in 2017. and Jacob Larsen and true freshman Corey Kispert. It became clear early that the Zags were going forward with five returning players: Williams, Tillie, Josh Perkins, Silas Melson and seldom-used Rui Hachimura redshirts Zach Norvell Jr. There were several swings and misses in the off-season on graduate transfers. Only three John Calipari-coached 38-win teams, two at Kentucky and one at Memphis, have won more games in a single season. The pieces came together quickly, and the best team in program history was rarely tested in a 37-2 season. Zach Collins and Killian Tillie were true freshmen with great promise. Przemek Karnowski was returning from back surgery, Nigel Williams-Goss and Johnathan Williams were coming off a one-year layoff under NCAA transfer rules, Jordan Mathews arrived on campus in late August. The guards made huge strides, and the Zags dug out the WCC Tournament title when there was no NCAA at-large safety net.įew’s awards haul last season was well deserved, but the job wasn’t without challenges. The 2016 Zags had no depth, and the guard line struggled for the first few months of the season. Last year’s march to the national championship game stocked several trophies, including the Naismith Coach of the Year, on Few’s office shelf. The stiffest competition to Few’s efforts this season comes from the previous two years, squads in 2007 (Josh Heytvelt suspension) and 2011 (tied for fourth midway through WCC season) that had to win the conference tournament to keep the program’s NCAA Tournament streak alive, and the 26-win 2001 crew breaking in a backcourt of Blake Stepp and Dan Dickau, who missed nine games with a broken finger. “He has a lot of really high-end, talented players, and trying to mold them into the team he has now might be the best job I’ve seen since I’ve been here.” “He’s just done a tremendous job of defining their roles and having guys play within themselves,” BYU coach Dave Rose said after the WCC Tournament. Others, from his staff to former players to opposing coaches, were more than willing to describe Few’s coaching this season as one of, if not the best, of his 19-year tenure at Gonzaga. So his input will be absent from this article, and it’s pretty much a given he won’t read it either. A few of Mark Few’s pet peeves: Inquiries about the starting lineup, sweeping generalizations, and awards, all-conference, coach of the year, etc.
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