In Spokane, he can do that - he can take his kids skiing, or spend days out at the lake. He wants to have an off-season, to be more than a 24/7 Division I coach, Monson says. That, combined with the lifestyle in Spokane, is why Monson doubts Few would leave even if a program like Kentucky or Duke called him one day. "Why would he go anywhere else when he can do all those things here?" "We're doing stuff that others haven't done or don't do," Roth says. The Zags have made five straight Sweet Sixteen runs, which no other team can say right now, and Few has the highest winning percentage of any active coach. Gonzaga is a brand that can recruit internationally and consistently compete for a national championship. Plus, he can enjoy all the same benefits he would get at those programs. If he was chasing a bigger salary, Roth says, he already would have done that before settling in with his family in Spokane. 828: Career win-loss percentage (second all-time)ģ7: Most wins in a season (second all-time) Joining a historic program like UCLA, for example, would likely carry more pressure than he faces in Spokane: Could he shoulder the legacy of legendary coaches like John Wooden? Here in Spokane, he's already made the program great, and there are no signs of it slowing down. He may not have much to gain from joining them. Can he still get those jobs? Absolutely." "You talk about some of the most historic programs over the years, this school or this school or this school, and everybody knows he's turned those down more than once. "There are historic basketball programs out there that he's turned down," Roth says. They're starting to reach out to Few less, Roth says, because they know he's not leaving. Now, those other programs are getting the message.
In Roth's view, it was more likely that Few would have left five or 10 years ago. Brett, a former star athlete in high school in Southern California, notes there are other realities of coaching somewhere like UCLA, including a longer commute time to work and a state income tax. That can't be all that's keeping him here - there are fish to be caught in other places, too. Every March, it feels like countless stories are done about Few's affinity for Spokane and his love of fly fishing. Really, you don't have to actually know Mark Few to know those things about him. "If you know Mark Few, you know he's a family guy first. But given the success of the program and what we know about him, it's not hard to understand why, for Few, nothing else can compete with being the head coach of the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Other West Coast programs - UCLA, Arizona - have been rumored to covet Few as well. But Few has certainly had his chances to coach there, and he's declined. If you would have asked Few then what his dream job would have been, however, Monson thinks Few would have said Oregon, his alma mater. "We were just contemplating if we were going to stay in the profession," Monson says. In the early days as roommates, Monson says he and Few didn't have big dreams of leading major college programs to the Final Four. that maybe made him pause," Monson tells the Inlander. "To watch me leave, when things were going so good, and then going to Minnesota and seeing first hand that the grass isn't greener everywhere else.
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