Mark Few

Mark Norman Few (born December 27, 1962) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Gonzaga University since 1999.

It was also the first time a WCC school had ascended to the top spot since San Francisco in 1977.

Gonzaga went on to receive its first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in school history, as well as a then school-record 32 wins.

Few was born in Creswell, Oregon, and was a star point guard at Creswell High School, graduating in 1981.

He originally attended Linfield College, hoping to play basketball and baseball, but he was troubled by the after effects of a dislocated shoulder he suffered while playing football as a senior at Creswell.

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.

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.

During this time, he also worked at Oregon's summer basketball camps.

He led them to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the first two years and was only the second head coach in the nation to achieve this feat since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

He graduated from Oregon with a BS in physical education in 1987.

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 consistent NCAA tournament contenders.

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 under Dan Fitzgerald.

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.

In 1990, he was promoted to a full-time assistant.

As an assistant, Few helped lead Gonzaga to its first four postseason appearances—the 1994, 1996, and 1998 National Invitation Tournaments and the 1995 NCAA tournament.

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.

It had generally been thought that Gonzaga would have to win the WCC tournament to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament.

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.

A year later, despite losing to San Diego in the conference title game, the Bulldogs garnered an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.

The Zags have won their way to every WCC Tournament championship game since 1998, and all but one since 1995.

With Few as head coach, the Gonzaga program produced its first seven first-team All-Americans in Dan Dickau, Adam Morrison, Kelly Olynyk, Nigel Williams-Goss, Rui Hachimura, Corey Kispert, and Drew Timme.

All seven have played in the NBA, along with Richie Frahm, Blake Stepp, Ronny Turiaf, Austin Daye, Jeremy Pargo, Robert Sacre, Elias Harris, Kevin Pangos, David Stockton, Domantas Sabonis, Kyle Wiltjer, Zach Collins, Johnathan Williams, Brandon Clarke, Zach Norvell, Killian Tillie, Joel Ayayi, Andrew Nembhard, Jalen Suggs, Chet Holmgren, and Julian Strawther.

In April 1999, Monson, who had just finished his second year as Gonzaga head coach, promoted Few to associate 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 late July to take the open head coaching job at Minnesota, Few, who had been designated as Monson's successor, was promoted to head coach.

Taking over after Monson's abrupt departure, Few was able to maintain the Gonzaga program's success from his very first season and prevent the Bulldogs from being a one-year wonder and sinking back into obscurity.

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.

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

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

On March 21, 2009, Few notched his 254th win as Gonzaga's head coach with a second-round victory in the NCAA Tournament, passing his former boss Fitzgerald as the winningest coach in school history.

The record stood until 2010 when Brad Stevens of Butler surpassed it.

During the 2012–13 season, Few led the Bulldogs to the No. 2 ranking in both major polls, the highest national ranking at the time in school history.

Few broke that record a week later when the Bulldogs surged to No. 1 in both polls for the first time.

In his 25 seasons as head coach, his teams have won at least a share of 22 WCC regular season titles, 19 WCC tournament titles and have participated in the National Championship game twice (2017 and 2021).

In 2017, Mark Few became the third fastest coach to reach 500 wins in NCAA Division I history.

The program's success has continued as Gonzaga has made the NCAA tournament in every one of Few's 21 completed seasons; indeed, he has been on hand for every postseason appearance in school history.

The Bulldogs have also advanced to the WCC tournament title game in every season during Few's tenure.

During his tenure as head coach, Few has led the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament every season (except 2019–20, when the team had secured an automatic bid but the tournament was canceled), a stretch that has garnered the Bulldogs recognition as a major basketball power despite playing in a mid-major conference.