Mark Few

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Mark Few
Title	Head coach
College	Gonzaga
Sport	Basketball
Born	December 27, 1962 (age 44) [1]
Place of birth	Creswell, Oregon [1]
Career Highlights
Overall	211-52 (.802) [1]
Championships
WCC Tournament Championship (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) WCC Regular Season Championship (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Awards
WCC Coach of the Year (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) [1]
Coaching positions
1990-99 1999-present	Gonzaga (asst.) Gonzaga

Mark Few (born December 27, 1962 in Creswell, Oregon) is an American basketball coach, currently the head coach at Gonzaga University. Few, who has served on Gonzaga's coaching staff since 1990, has been a constant on the sidelines throughout a period that has seen the Bulldogs rise from mid-major obscurity to become one of the most remarkable success stories in recent college basketball history.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Assistant Coach 3 Head coach 4 Career coaching record 5 Notes and references 6 External links

[edit] Early years

The son of a pastor, Few graduated from Creswell High School in 1981 and attended the University of Oregon, graduating with a B.S. in physical education in 1987.

[edit] Assistant Coach

He entered the coaching profession even before receiving his degree, serving as an assistant at his alma mater of Creswell High School from 1986 to 1988. After a season as an assistant at another Oregon school, Sheldon High School, he moved to Spokane, Washington, joining the Gonzaga staff as a graduate assistant in 1990. 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 head coach Dan Monson. 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.

[edit] Head coach

After Gonzaga's 1999 success and Monson's departure, many observers thought that the Zags would be a one-year wonder and go back to their previous obscurity. Mark Few immediately proved them 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 program's success has continued as Gonzaga has made the NCAA tournament in every one of Few's eight seasons.

In the fall of 2004 the school opened a new arena, the McCarthey Athletic Center, to replace the venerable Charlotte Y. Martin Centre, better known as "The Kennel".

Few was named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year for six consecutive seasons (2001 through 2006). As of the end of the 2006-07 season, Few's record as Gonzaga's head coach is 211-52 (.802).

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.
• 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.^[2] It had generally been thought that Gonzaga would have to win the WCC tournament to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament.^[3] 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 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 two 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.

Mark Few is considered a major candidate for the recently vacated University of Kentucky head coaching position along with coaches Billy Donovan, Tom Izzo, and Rick Barnes among others. Although he has not been contacted as of yet for the position, it is a concensus feeling that he will be in major consideration for the job.

[edit] Career coaching record

career record

School	Season	Wins	Losses	Postseason
Gonzaga	1999-00	26	9	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
Gonzaga	2000-01	26	7	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
Gonzaga	2001-02	29	4	NCAA First Round
Gonzaga	2002-03	24	9	NCAA Second Round
Gonzaga	2003-04	28	3	NCAA Second Round
Gonzaga	2004-05	26	5	NCAA Second Round
Gonzaga	2005-06	29	4	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
Gonzaga	2006-07	23	11	NCAA First Round
Career	Totals	211	52

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Mark Few Bio
• Official Gonzaga site

Preceded by Dan Monson

Gonzaga head men's basketball coach 1999–present

Succeeded by Incumbent