Mark Few

Mark Few
Few in February 2008
Sport(s)	Basketball
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Gonzaga
Record	315–83 (.791)
Biographical details
Born	December 27, 1962 (1962-12-27) (age 48)
Place of birth	Creswell, Oregon, USA
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1989–1999 1999–present	Gonzaga (asst.) Gonzaga
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
WCC Tournament Championship (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011) WCC Regular Season Championship (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
Awards
WCC Coach of the Year (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006[1])

Mark Few (born December 27, 1962 in Creswell, Oregon^[1]) is an American college basketball coach, currently the head coach at Gonzaga University. He has served on Gonzaga's coaching staff since 1989, and has been a constant on the sidelines throughout a period that has seen the Bulldogs rise from mid-major obscurity to regular participants in the NCAA tournament.

Biography

Early life and education

The son of a Presbyterian pastor,^[2] Few was a star point guard^[3] at Creswell High School, graduating in 1981. He originally attended Linfield College, hoping to play basketball and baseball, but he was troubled by the aftereffects of a dislocated shoulder he suffered while playing football as a senior at Creswell.^[4] He then transferred to the University of Oregon, hoping to play baseball there, but the Ducks had dropped their varsity baseball program by the time he arrived in Eugene. He graduated from Oregon with a B.S. in physical education in 1987.

Coaching career

Assistant coach

Few entered the coaching profession even before receiving his degree, serving as an unpaid part-time assistant at his alma mater of Creswell High School starting in 1983, and advancing to a paid position from 1986 to 1988.^[5] During this time, he also worked at Oregon's summer basketball camps.^[5] After a season as an assistant at another Oregon school, Sheldon High School in Eugene, he moved to Spokane, Washington, joining the Gonzaga staff as a graduate assistant in 1989.^[6][7] He had some familiarity with the program, as he had befriended Dan Monson, then a Gonzaga assistant and later the head coach, during his time working the Oregon basketball camps.^[5] The following year, he was promoted to a full-time assistant.

In April 1999, Few was promoted to associate head coach, making him the designated successor to Monson, who had just finished his second year as Gonzaga head coach. This was immediately following the season in which Gonzaga became the nation's basketball darlings, making a run through the NCAA tournament, defeating Minnesota, Stanford, and Florida, to advance to the Elite Eight. In the West Regional finals Gonzaga lost to eventual national champions UConn by five points. When Monson left in July to take the open head coaching job at Minnesota, Mark Few was elevated to the Bulldogs' top job.

Head coach

After Gonzaga's 1999 success and Monson's departure, many observers^[who?] thought that the Zags would be a one-year wonder and go back to their previous obscurity. Mark Few immediately proved them^[who?] wrong, leading them into the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in his first two years heading the program. This made him one of only two coaches to lead his team to Sweet Sixteen berths in his first two years as a head coach since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The following year (2001–02), Few set an all-time record for NCAA Division I men's coaches by collecting 81 wins in his first three years as a head coach. The record stood until 2010 when Brad Stevens of Butler surpassed it. The program's success has continued as Gonzaga has made the NCAA tournament in every one of Few's twelve seasons.

Few was named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year for six consecutive seasons (2001 through 2006).

The 2006–07 season may well have been one of his better coaching jobs, as the team faced what could be called a "perfect storm":

• Adam Morrison, a first-team All-America in 2005-06, chose to leave Gonzaga for the NBA with a year of eligibility left.
• The Zags played an especially brutal nonconference schedule, with no fewer than nine opponents that would make the NCAA tournament.^[8]
• The team's second-leading scorer and leading rebounder in 2006–07, Josh Heytvelt, was suspended after being arrested on drug charges in February 2007, and did not play again during the season.

The Zags ended the regular season at 21–10, their first season with double digits in losses since 1997–98, which was also the last season to date in which they failed to make the NCAA tournament.^[9] It had generally been thought that Gonzaga would have to win the WCC tournament to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament.^[10] However, Gonzaga would go on to win the conference tournament, notably beating a Santa Clara team in the final that had earlier handed the Zags their first home-court loss in nearly four years. They would go out in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Indiana.

With Few as head coach, the Gonzaga program produced its first two first-team All-Americans in Dan Dickau and Morrison, plus future NBA players in Blake Stepp, Austin Daye and Ronny Turiaf. In 2005, Few signed a contract extension that intends to keep him at Gonzaga through 2015.

He and his wife Marcy, married by his father in 1994, have three sons and one daughter. They have organized a charity golf tournament under the Coaches vs. Cancer umbrella; since the tournament began in 2002, it has raised over $1 million for the American Cancer Society.

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Gonzaga (West Coast Conference) (1999–present)
1999–2000	Gonzaga	26–9	11–3	2nd	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2000–2001	Gonzaga	26–7	13–1	1st	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2001–2002	Gonzaga	29–4	13–1	T–1st	NCAA 1st Round
2002–2003	Gonzaga	24–9	11–3	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
2003–2004	Gonzaga	28–3	14–0	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
2004–2005	Gonzaga	26–5	12–2	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
2005–2006	Gonzaga	29–4	14–0	1st	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2006–2007	Gonzaga	23–11	11–3	1st	NCAA 1st Round
2007–2008	Gonzaga	25–8	13–1	1st	NCAA 1st Round
2008–2009	Gonzaga	28–6	14–0	1st	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2009–2010	Gonzaga	27–7	12–2	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
2010–2011	Gonzaga	25–10	11–3	T–1st	NCAA 2nd Round
Gonzaga:		315–83	149–19
Total:		315-83
National Champion         Conference Regular Season Champion         Conference Tournament Champion       Conference Regular Season & Conference Tournament Champion       Conference Division Champion

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Coach Bio: Mark Few - Men's Basketball". GoZags.com. http://gozags.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/few_mark01.html. Retrieved 2007-03-25. 
2. ^ Withers, Bud (2002). BraveHearts: The Against-All-Odds Rise of Gonzaga Basketball. Chicago: Triumph Books. p. xviii. ISBN 1527434996. 
3. ^ Withers, BraveHearts, p. 52.
4. ^ Withers, BraveHearts, pp. 52-53.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Withers, BraveHearts, p. 53.
6. ^ Withers, BraveHearts, p. 42.
7. ^ Gonzaga lists his first season as 1990, but both its official basketball website and basketball media guide consistently refer to seasons by the calendar year in which they end.
8. ^ "Gonzaga puts difficult season behind". Associated Press. March 20, 2007. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncb&id=2805279. 
9. ^ "Drug bust shakes Gonzaga and Spokane". Associated Press. February 15, 2007. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncb&id=2766293. 
10. ^ Glockner, Andy (March 2, 2007). "Drive to 65: Bubble fans unite to root on Winthrop's Eagles". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bubblewatch?id=51. 

External links

• Gonzaga profile

Persondata
Name	Few, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 27, 1962
Place of birth	Creswell, Oregon, USA
Date of death
Place of death