Some coaches meet their families only after they've retired. He's aware power coaches' lucrative salaries come with clauses their contracts never mention. The hobby helps him keep it all together. But brief fly-fishing excursions provide relief and reflection. He's usually alone or with a close friend. So he turns to the fishing rod, even midseason when necessary. And popularity often complicates that pursuit. He's sculpted his career on the principles that all coaches preach but few achieve. You turn into kind of a stumbling, bumbling idiot when you're chasing a big fish like that. I'm not gonna lie to you: I tripped and went down a couple times, kept the rod up. "You're running on the side of the river. It's a method of fishing that entails the use of a heavier line and a lightweight, artificial "fly" that resembles a bug or insect and sits just below the surface to lure salmon, trout, bass and other fish.Īs Few tells the story of this memorable catch, he's back in Alaska wrestling with the monster in the photo during one of his annual fly-fishing trips to The Last Frontier. He fell in love with fly-fishing years ago. He'll gush about that photo on his office wall that shows him holding a salmon the length of a Louisville Slugger. But catching a fish like this, that's pretty good, too. A trip to the Final Four would be a nice. But why put him there if he doesn't want to be there, if we don't have to be there. "Most places in the top 20, they're doing their radio show downtown someplace, get the crowd to come in. "We do his radio show in his office," said Mike Roth, the school's athletic director. And that's ideal for Few, who guides one of two top-10 teams that hail from non-Power 5 leagues. It's easier to avoid that spotlight in this nugget of a city stuffed into the mountains of eastern Washington than it is in Los Angeles or Seattle. He puts on a fake mustache, sunglasses and a trench coat, and then he skips town until it passes. The exploits of a man with the highest winning percentage (81 percent) among active Division I coaches? Nothing to see here.įew doesn't just flee attention. Winning is fun."īut he would rather not discuss his legacy. "What job is better than that? You want to win, and we've been able to win. "We're in the middle of February, and two of the last three years, we've been in the running for a No. The program has been perceived by many as a quality unit that has struggled to justify the hype when the games count most in the postseason. North Carolina topped Gonzaga on its way to the 2009 national title. 1 seed but suffered a loss to Wichita State in the second round. But other non-Power 5 schools such as Wichita State, VCU, George Mason and Butler have all reached the Final Four while Gonzaga still hopes for another deep run in the Big Dance. They've been the preeminent mid-major for nearly 20 years. Coach Mark Few has led the program to the Sweet 16 four times, but the Zags haven't surpassed their 1999 Elite Eight run. Gonzaga is 26-1 overall and 14-0 in the West Coast Conference. An office the size of a comfortable West Coast condo. The scattered jewelry boxes on a shelf behind him rings come with those WCC titles. It's clear he's a winner, although he's stoic in a room that's crowded with the 15 West Coast Conference regular-season championship trophies he's earned.
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