If Coyle doesn’t fire Pitino...

[Some Day...Maybe]

...someone should sue him for malpractice. Should of been done 3 years ago like I said back then.

It’s the same thing every February. No confidence. Only time anything happens is if there is an individual outstanding performance or two. Terrible coaching.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

As I've said before, my prediction is that, shortly after the season ends, Coyle will announce that Pitino will not return. Then - less than a week later, the new coach will be announced. I will bet anyone straight-up that Coyle has been working the back-channels for at least a couple of weeks already. Once he has his guy lined up, then he'll drop the hammer on Pitino.

 

[Dano564]

No guarrantee the next coach is better. Indiana has been a revolving door of coaches since Bobby Knight.

But it's probably time for a change.
Keep in mind, we're not exactly a basketball blueblood.

 

[howeda7]

No guarrantee the next coach is better. Indiana has been a revolving door of coaches since Bobby Knight.

But it's probably time for a change.
Keep in mind, we're not exactly a basketball blueblood.

Guarantee? No. But it would be hard not to do more than Pitino has done. We undersell this job because we've had to watch so much bad basketball. The only D-1 school in a state of 5 million people that produces tons of talent recently. Now we finally have decent facilities and still have decent fan support despite ourselves. We can get a good coach here.

 

[GringaGopher]

I just sent Coyle an email but agree with the idea that he been exploring a replacement .

 

[KillmeNow]

Guarantee? No. But it would be hard not to do more than Pitino has done. We undersell this job because we've had to watch so much bad basketball. The only D-1 school in a state of 5 million people that produces tons of talent recently. Now we finally have decent facilities and still have decent fan support despite ourselves. We can get a good coach here.

Tons of talent that are mostly one and doners if they even go to college, and if only going for one year, they want to go to a school with a chance their one year there, of going to the Final Four.

Can hardly blame the players that have left for leaving. Pitino was not hired to be a home run hire who would bring in only Top 50 players and instantly become the next Duke/UNC/UK in cbb. Everyone knew it would take time.

Took Mark Few 16 years to get to just his 3rd Sweet 16 with his own players and his first Elite 8. And it's not like it was because his teams weren't getting good seeds. Twice he got a #3 seed and couldn't get past the first weekend, and another time he got a #1 seed and didn't get past the 2nd round.


His last recruiting class coming in next year has 2 of the Top 18 recruits of the 247 era on it, and it seems he just landed the 7th best recruit of the 247 era, Treyton Thompson. If Oturu returns, and he might as his draft status seems to be dropping, and Curry can finally play, we'll have a nice lineup next year.

 

[builtbadgers]

Tons of talent that are mostly one and doners if they even go to college, and if only going for one year, they want to go to a school with a chance their one year there, of going to the Final Four.

Can hardly blame the players that have left for leaving. Pitino was not hired to be a home run hire who would bring in only Top 50 players and instantly become the next Duke/UNC/UK in cbb. Everyone knew it would take time.

Took Mark Few 16 years to get to just his 3rd Sweet 16 with his own players and his first Elite 8. And it's not like it was because his teams weren't getting good seeds. Twice he got a #3 seed and couldn't get past the first weekend, and another time he got a #1 seed and didn't get past the 2nd round.


His last recruiting class coming in next year has 2 of the Top 18 recruits of the 247 era on it, and it seems he just landed the 7th best recruit of the 247 era, Treyton Thompson. If Oturu returns, and he might as his draft status seems to be dropping, and Curry can finally play, we'll have a nice lineup next year.

Mark Few would not finish behind Wisconsin all 7 years. Your just cherry picking a one and done tourney. Few is a big time winner. Just my opinion but i would not put Pitino in the Few comparison. So you want to wait how many years ?

 

[USAF]

Tons of talent that are mostly one and doners if they even go to college, and if only going for one year, they want to go to a school with a chance their one year there, of going to the Final Four.

Can hardly blame the players that have left for leaving. Pitino was not hired to be a home run hire who would bring in only Top 50 players and instantly become the next Duke/UNC/UK in cbb. Everyone knew it would take time.

Took Mark Few 16 years to get to just his 3rd Sweet 16 with his own players and his first Elite 8. And it's not like it was because his teams weren't getting good seeds. Twice he got a #3 seed and couldn't get past the first weekend, and another time he got a #1 seed and didn't get past the 2nd round.


His last recruiting class coming in next year has 2 of the Top 18 recruits of the 247 era on it, and it seems he just landed the 7th best recruit of the 247 era, Treyton Thompson. If Oturu returns, and he might as his draft status seems to be dropping, and Curry can finally play, we'll have a nice lineup next year.

Yes, the Few program and the Pitino program suffer the same problems...all those winning seasons and unfulfilled high tourney seeds.

 

[ole1710]

Well if they do fire Pitino and say everybody stays, the new coach will be walking into a good situation. Oturo, Gabe, Willis, Carr - returning starters. Williams and Ihnen look like good blocks for the future and omersa as an energy guy off the bench. And then Mitchell and Mashburn as freshmen along with hopefully Walton. I do believe if Pitino leaves 5 of the guys above never see a gopher jersey again which would put us in a really tough spot for next year that looks to be promising if all players above were to be here.

 

[BarnBurner]

KillmeNow has nailed it.

Surprising that Badger is here to be....Badger.

It is now time for BADGER to put up. Who should the next coach be, BADGER? Have you been talking with Coyle. providing your years of experience, knowledge, and analysis?

Who is it, Badger? Time for you to put up.

 

[USAF]

KillmeNow has nailed it.

By comparing Pitino to Mark Few???

Few, starting with his first season at Gonzaga:
26-9
26-7
29-4
24-9
28-3
26-5
29-4
23-11
25-8
28-6
27-7
25-10
26-7
32-3
29-7
35-3
28-8
37-2
32-5
3-4

Won his conference every year except twice, where he finished 2nd.

LOL. We should be so lucky.

 

[Bad Gopher]

Guarantee? No. But it would be hard not to do more than Pitino has done. We undersell this job because we've had to watch so much bad basketball. The only D-1 school in a state of 5 million people that produces tons of talent recently. Now we finally have decent facilities and still have decent fan support despite ourselves. We can get a good coach here.

That one article in the thread about Beilein talks about how the recruiting base here isn't as good as at Michigan, and that's true of course, but it's still very good and more than enough. It's a tired point, but look at what Wisconsin does with their upper Midwest base, including poaching from the Twin Cities and occasionally the Dakotas. It's a successful formula.

 

[Gopherbbdude]

By comparing Pitino to Mark Few???

Few, starting with his first season at Gonzaga:
26-9
26-7
29-4
24-9
28-3
26-5
29-4
23-11
25-8
28-6
27-7
25-10
26-7
32-3
29-7
35-3
28-8
37-2
32-5
3-4

Won his conference every year except twice, where he finished 2nd.

LOL. We should be so lucky.

in a conference this is sub par at best. Few is a good coach but those records could have been done by Dan Dakich(sp)

 

[Spaulding!No!]

By comparing Pitino to Mark Few???

Few, starting with his first season at Gonzaga:
26-9
26-7
29-4
24-9
28-3
26-5
29-4
23-11
25-8
28-6
27-7
25-10
26-7
32-3
29-7
35-3
28-8
37-2
32-5
3-4

Won his conference every year except twice, where he finished 2nd.

LOL. We should be so lucky.

We chose Monson.

 

[TurfGopher]

Im in the give pitino 1 more year camp. He has recruited meh (Gaston, Hurt, Demir, Carlos Morris, Jelly, Seattle kid, etc..) , has had some bad luck (Lynch rape, Coffey injury, sex tape, etc..) but he has made it to the tournament twice. He's doing at least as well as Tubby, is that mediocre? maybe. Good recruits coming in, if Oturu stays its gonna be a great team next year. I like Ihnen, Carr, and Williams. If Mashburn can provide some shooting and Gabe gets his groove back we will be pretty solid.

 

[justthefacts]

in a conference this is sub par at best. Few is a good coach but those records could have been done by Dan Dakich(sp)

This is preposterous for several reasons.

a) If winning a mid-major conference 90% of the time is subpar, then every single mid-major coach in America is subpar. At that point you need to examine the definition of the word "par."

b) Few has 30 conference losses in 21 seasons. You can deride the WCC, but Gonzaga has utterly dominated it. Can you find any team in America with fewer than 50 conference losses in the last 21 years?

c) Gonzaga has actually slightly outperformed seed expectations in those years: http://barttorvik.com/cgi-bin/ncaat.cgi?type=team&sort=18&yrlow=2000&yrhigh=2019

d) Here's how Gonzaga did against Q1 teams in the last 11 seasons. The yellow line is Beilein's Michigan:

T-Rank History for Gonzaga - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank

T-Rank College Basketball Ratings and Rankings. And fun.

www.barttorvik.com

 

[BarnBurner]

This is preposterous for several reasons.

a) If winning a mid-major conference 90% of the time is subpar, then every single mid-major coach in America is subpar. At that point you need to examine the definition of the word "par."

b) Few has 30 conference losses in 21 seasons. You can deride the WCC, but Gonzaga has utterly dominated it. Can you find any team in America with fewer than 50 conference losses in the last 21 years?

c) Gonzaga has actually slightly outperformed seed expectations in those years: http://barttorvik.com/cgi-bin/ncaat.cgi?type=team&sort=18&yrlow=2000&yrhigh=2019

d) Here's how Gonzaga did against Q1 teams in the last 11 seasons. The yellow line is Beilein's Michigan:

T-Rank History for Gonzaga - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank

T-Rank College Basketball Ratings and Rankings. And fun.

www.barttorvik.com

Give us your predictions on how Few would have done should he be in the ACC or Big. Lay it out.

 

[KillmeNow]

Mark Few would not finish behind Wisconsin all 7 years. Your just cherry picking a one and done tourney. Few is a big time winner. Just my opinion but i would not put Pitino in the Few comparison. So you want to wait how many years ?

NOW Few is a big time winner, NOW he is,

but it took him 16 years to become that big time winner.

Before that, he was just an overrated underperforming beneficiary of what Monson left him. Why did he succeed long term while Monson didn't? Well, maybe because Monson moved into a top notch deep as hell conference with the job to clean up the mess Clem left behind while Few got to languish in a weak as hell conference for a decade and a half with an almost guaranteed invite to the Big Dance every year, living off the benefits of his and Monson's getting them to the Elite 8 in 99, which probably would never have happened had the scandal not broke until the offseason? And who brought those players into Gonzaga that got them to the Elite 8 in 99 and the Sweet 16 in 2000 & 2001? Seeing how pathetically Few's teams performed from 2001-02 to 2013-14 with HIS players only, I wonder if it wasn't Monson who made Gonzaga what it has become? Seems to me Few got lucky, was able to live off of that early success and coast getting into the Dance every year at a school apparently willing to give him the time to learn on the job and finally figure out how to win in March.


Must be nice to be given a decade and a half to slowly build up a good enough roster to win despite your lack of coaching abilities.

If we gave Pitino another 8 years and the quality of his recruits continue to improve on the pace it has, he could just as easily end up having the same kind of success that Few had in the 2nd half of his 2nd decade of coaching and now into his 3rd decade of coaching.


Imagine what kind of recruiting class he might be able to snag in 2022 if Oturu comes back next year and Curry is healthy and Gabe solves his shooting problems and Carr and Willis continue to improve and Ihnen and Williams step it up as 2nd year players and Mashburn could have an instant impact? That's 8 solid players with Omersa and Mitchell and maybe Freeman or Greenlee becoming a decent 9th or 10th player able to come off the bench, and then Pitino already has a Top 100 rated player slated to come onboard in 2021, if Pitino can get one or two more in that 2021 class to replace Oturu, Curry & Willis when they leave, he could finally have developed a talented roster with some depth?


Now I don't know Coyle or have any connections to the program much less any influence, so I am just trying to point out how things are not hopeless, even if we stick with Pitino, and seeing how Mark Few was able to finally figure things out after being given a TON of time to do so, IF, and that's a big if, but yeah, even if Coyle opts to stick with Pitino for one more year and Pitino then does well next year and hence gets to stay on even longer, that might not be such a bad thing and in fact, it could end up being a really good thing?

But I'm no longer as convinced as I was even earlier this season about keeping Pitino onboard. I've come to not care really, knowing that Coyle's done pretty well so far bringing in seemingly good coaches and so if Coyle decides to part ways with Pitino, I just hope the new coach is a home run hire or a guy I'd be ok with needing to be a little patient with knowing the long term results would almost be assured, a sort of cbb version of Fleck, if such a thing exists?

 

[justthefacts]

Give us your predictions on how Few would have done should he be in the ACC or Big. Lay it out.

They aren't predictions because we will never know the truth; they would be purely theories. He would have done well relative to the school he took over. Obviously he'd have done better at Duke or UNC than he would have at Boston College or Miami. If it was the former he'd probably have had a couple of national titles. If it was the latter he'd have had a consistent tourney team with several 2nd weekends.

There is no objective metric that anyone can use to say Few hasn't done extremely well at Gonzaga. Gonzaga has 22 tournament appearances ever. Few coached 19 of those.

 

[leib0039]

If there is one person we should all have faith in at this point, its Coyle.

Football: Moved on from a guy we knew wasnt the answer, nailed the hire and are set
Hockey: Moved on from the guy we knew had run his course, HR hire and seem to be on the up and up
WBB: Stollings left/Absolute HR hire in Whalen. Still working on results but its all who we wanted
Softball: Lost a great coach, replaced her with a coach that has us at that same level and a consistent top 25 team

There really is 0 reason at this point to think Coyle isnt going to knock this out of the park.

 

[justthefacts]

NOW Few is a big time winner, NOW he is,

but it took him 16 years to become that big time winner.

Before that, he was just an overrated underperforming beneficiary of what Monson left him. Why did he succeed long term while Monson didn't? Well, maybe because Monson moved into a top notch deep as hell conference with the job to clean up the mess Clem left behind while Few got to languish in a weak as hell conference for a decade and a half with an almost guaranteed invite to the Big Dance every year, living off the benefits of his and Monson's getting them to the Elite 8 in 99, which probably would never have happened had the scandal not broke until the offseason? And who brought those players into Gonzaga that got them to the Elite 8 in 99 and the Sweet 16 in 2000 & 2001? Seeing how pathetically Few's teams performed from 2001-02 to 2013-14 with HIS players only, I wonder if it wasn't Monson who made Gonzaga what it has become? Seems to me Few got lucky, was able to live off of that early success and coast getting into the Dance every year at a school apparently willing to give him the time to learn on the job and finally figure out how to win in March.


Must be nice to be given a decade and a half to slowly build up a good enough roster to win despite your lack of coaching abilities.

If we gave Pitino another 8 years and the quality of his recruits continue to improve on the pace it has, he could just as easily end up having the same kind of success that Few had in the 2nd half of his 2nd decade of coaching and now into his 3rd decade of coaching.


Imagine what kind of recruiting class he might be able to snag in 2022 if Oturu comes back next year and Curry is healthy and Gabe solves his shooting problems and Carr and Willis continue to improve and Ihnen and Williams step it up as 2nd year players and Mashburn could have an instant impact? That's 8 solid players with Omersa and Mitchell and maybe Freeman or Greenlee becoming a decent 9th or 10th player able to come off the bench, and then Pitino already has a Top 100 rated player slated to come onboard in 2021, if Pitino can get one or two more in that 2021 class to replace Oturu, Curry & Willis when they leave, he could finally have developed a talented roster with some depth?


Now I don't know Coyle or have any connections to the program much less any influence, so I am just trying to point out how things are not hopeless, even if we stick with Pitino, and seeing how Mark Few was able to finally figure things out after being given a TON of time to do so, IF, and that's a big if, but yeah, even if Coyle opts to stick with Pitino for one more year and Pitino then does well next year and hence gets to stay on even longer, that might not be such a bad thing and in fact, it could end up being a really good thing?

But I'm no longer as convinced as I was even earlier this season about keeping Pitino onboard. I've come to not care really, knowing that Coyle's done pretty well so far bringing in seemingly good coaches and so if Coyle decides to part ways with Pitino, I just hope the new coach is a home run hire or a guy I'd be ok with needing to be a little patient with knowing the long term results would almost be assured, a sort of cbb version of Fleck, if such a thing exists?

In the seasons from '02 to '14 Gonzaga went to the tournament 13 times, which is every year. ALONE that precludes saying they performed pathetically considering Gonzaga's history. But even if you somehow, ludicrously assume that it's expected that Gonzaga go to the tournament every year, in those 13 years they outperformed seed expectations 7 times and underperformed 6 times.

Tourney Stats, PASE (Performance Against Seed Expectations) and PAKE

95% of NCAA teams would LOVE to have that kind of record. It's hilarious to somehow claim that taking 16 years to become a big time winner at Gonzaga is bad. It's Gonzaga. Monson had 2 good years. Few has 20. There are dozens of examples of schools that had 2 sudden years of success, lost their coach, and sucked again forever.

Remember when George Mason went to the Final Four? That's further than Monson ever went. Prior to GM's final 4 year, they'd been to the tournament 3 times, which is the same number as Gonzaga had been to before Few. How many years have they been in the tournament since? Twice in 9 years with 1 win.

Few's record is incredible. Comparing his first 7 seasons to Pitino's is laughable, especially when you consider that Pitino's predecessor had also taken the team to new heights the previous year. Tubby won the first tournament game for Minnesota in 15 years. As USAF notes above, Gopher fans would murder a man to be only winning 1 tournament game every year after getting 3 seeds.

 

[Go Gophs]

Im in the give pitino 1 more year camp. He has recruited meh (Gaston, Hurt, Demir, Carlos Morris, Jelly, Seattle kid, etc..) , has had some bad luck (Lynch rape, Coffey injury, sex tape, etc..) but he has made it to the tournament twice. He's doing at least as well as Tubby, is that mediocre? maybe. Good recruits coming in, if Oturu stays its gonna be a great team next year. I like Ihnen, Carr, and Williams. If Mashburn can provide some shooting and Gabe gets his groove back we will be pretty solid.

Here's the thing. It isn't even so much the players. Look at HOW they play. Outhustled, outrebounded, bad offense, no fire or urgency, poor defense at times, etc.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Two things.

1. Gonzaga has been to 21 consecutive NCAA tournaments, 20 of those under Few. Gonzaga is one of only 4 Division programs that has played in every NCAA Tournament since 2000. The others are Duke, Kansas, and Michigan State. If anyone thinks that is easy or doesn't require coaching/recruiting chops, no matter conference affiliation, you are beyond help.

2. People close to the Gonzaga program would tell you it was previous Zags coach Dan Fitzgerald who set the table for Dan Monson, not Dan Monson setting the table for Mark Few. And I think there's pretty good evidence now (20-years worth) with Monson here & @ Long Beach State and with Few @ Gonzaga of who the key cog was behind the budding Gonzaga program/machine.

Ya, Mark Few is overrated. Great argument!

 

[Gopherbbdude]

This is preposterous for several reasons.

a) If winning a mid-major conference 90% of the time is subpar, then every single mid-major coach in America is subpar. At that point you need to examine the definition of the word "par."

b) Few has 30 conference losses in 21 seasons. You can deride the WCC, but Gonzaga has utterly dominated it. Can you find any team in America with fewer than 50 conference losses in the last 21 years?

c) Gonzaga has actually slightly outperformed seed expectations in those years: http://barttorvik.com/cgi-bin/ncaat.cgi?type=team&sort=18&yrlow=2000&yrhigh=2019

d) Here's how Gonzaga did against Q1 teams in the last 11 seasons. The yellow line is Beilein's Michigan:

T-Rank History for Gonzaga - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank

T-Rank College Basketball Ratings and Rankings. And fun.

www.barttorvik.com

I was being a little facetious

 

[TurfGopher]

Here's the thing. It isn't even so much the players. Look at HOW they play. Outhustled, outrebounded, bad offense, no fire or urgency, poor defense at times, etc.

He is certainly a better recruiter than he is a motivator. I believe the major difference in the past two games has been Gabe's FG %. He usually plays much better, he is on a shit streak, and we are losing close games.

If we were to get a new coach I would prefer someone who actually played the game at a high level. It would be hard for me to respect the opinion of coach who hasn't played college ball as well. Plus hes daddy's special boy.

 

[KillmeNow]

All of you Mark Few fans/apologists look at his accomplishments and compare them to Minnesota, and Monson, a school that was hit with some of the worst sanctions and restrictions and whose reputation took one of the worst hits EVER. But believe whatever you all want.

If my team is going to the NCAA tourney every single year I'd expect more than 2 Sweet 16s in 13 straight trips, which also included 3 first round exits, as a #6, a #7 and a #10 seed. And of their 2nd round exits, one of those was as a #1 seed, another as a #2 seed and another as a #3 seed. Their 2 trips to the Sweet 16 were as a #3 and a #4 seed, so basically doing only what they were supposed to. As for the other 2nd round exits, one was as a #7 seed, two as #8 seeds and one as a #9 seed, so all 4 of those were also no better or worse than they were expected to do.

So, basically, there was ONLY ONE YEAR where Gonzaga exceeded expectations over that 13 year period, and that was their winning a 1st round game as an #11 seed, which is the seed where the most upsets happen, so again, HARDLY a big upset.


So... Few lived off of the Elite 8 run in 99, his first 2 years, then went 13 seasons straight only once exceeding expectations despite earning 13 straight chances to pull off an unexpected run, and how did he/they "earn" it? By dominating a league that before Gonzaga's Elite 8 run, was a 1 school invite only conference. And how hard was it supposed to be to dominate such a weak league after that Elite 8 run and the following back to back Sweet 16 runs with mostly Monson's players?


And trying to point at Monson's time at Minnesota as proof of anything is disingenuous at best as NO ONE could have won at Minnesota at that time and then who was going to hire Monson after that, and who was going to want to go and play bb for him? Maybe Few was more responsible for the 99 run than Monson was, but it's not fair comparing the two straight up as their circumstances were in no way equal. Had we taken Few instead of Monson, I'd bet Monson would have done BETTER at Gonzaga, than Few did for the first 5-6 years after that 99 season, and Few would have struggled just as much, if not more at Minnesota and then we'd have let him go and then he'd have been the one stuck having to go to some crappy school to try to resurrect his coaching reputation. I might be wrong, I admit as much. But I might be right, too.

And naming sources at Gonzaga??? lol Yeah, sure, because they'd be unbiased? BS, of course they are going to pimp their current coach.

 

[KillmeNow]

Two things.

1. Gonzaga has been to 21 consecutive NCAA tournaments, 20 of those under Few. Gonzaga is one of only 4 Division programs that has played in every NCAA Tournament since 2000. The others are Duke, Kansas, and Michigan State. If anyone thinks that is easy or doesn't require coaching/recruiting chops, no matter conference affiliation, you are beyond help.

2. People close to the Gonzaga program would tell you it was previous Zags coach Dan Fitzgerald who set the table for Dan Monson, not Dan Monson setting the table for Mark Few. And I think there's pretty good evidence now (20-years worth) with Monson here & @ Long Beach State and with Few @ Gonzaga of who the key cog was behind the budding Gonzaga program/machine.

Ya, Mark Few is overrated. Great argument!

WAS overrated. But after being given a 13 year free pass to grow and learn and build his roster up over time, well, it would be different if every program out there could afford to give their coaches so much time to develop and learn and grow and build up their roster.

 

[Outsider]

If you told me we were going to get someone even 1/2 as successful in the Big Ten as Few has been in his conference I would cartwheel across the Barn’s raised floor. Geez, shared or won as many league titles as he has that’s a no brainer. His first 7 years, even if they were only 3 or 4 outpace Pitino by a significant margin.

 

[justthefacts]

All of you Mark Few fans/apologists look at his accomplishments and compare them to Minnesota, and Monson, a school that was hit with some of the worst sanctions and restrictions and whose reputation took one of the worst hits EVER. But believe whatever you all want.

If my team is going to the NCAA tourney every single year I'd expect more than 2 Sweet 16s in 13 straight trips, which also included 3 first round exits, as a #6, a #7 and a #10 seed. And of their 2nd round exits, one of those was as a #1 seed, another as a #2 seed and another as a #3 seed. Their 2 trips to the Sweet 16 were as a #3 and a #4 seed, so basically doing only what they were supposed to. As for the other 2nd round exits, one was as a #7 seed, two as #8 seeds and one as a #9 seed, so all 4 of those were also no better or worse than they were expected to do.

So, basically, there was ONLY ONE YEAR where Gonzaga exceeded expectations over that 13 year period, and that was their winning a 1st round game as an #11 seed, which is the seed where the most upsets happen, so again, HARDLY a big upset.


So... Few lived off of the Elite 8 run in 99, his first 2 years, then went 13 seasons straight only once exceeding expectations despite earning 13 straight chances to pull off an unexpected run, and how did he/they "earn" it? By dominating a league that before Gonzaga's Elite 8 run, was a 1 school invite only conference. And how hard was it supposed to be to dominate such a weak league after that Elite 8 run and the following back to back Sweet 16 runs with mostly Monson's players?


And trying to point at Monson's time at Minnesota as proof of anything is disingenuous at best as NO ONE could have won at Minnesota at that time and then who was going to hire Monson after that, and who was going to want to go and play bb for him? Maybe Few was more responsible for the 99 run than Monson was, but it's not fair comparing the two straight up as their circumstances were in no way equal. Had we taken Few instead of Monson, I'd bet Monson would have done BETTER at Gonzaga, than Few did for the first 5-6 years after that 99 season, and Few would have struggled just as much, if not more at Minnesota and then we'd have let him go and then he'd have been the one stuck having to go to some crappy school to try to resurrect his coaching reputation. I might be wrong, I admit as much. But I might be right, too.

And naming sources at Gonzaga??? lol Yeah, sure, because they'd be unbiased? BS, of course they are going to pimp their current coach.

If your team is going to the NCAA tourney every year you should be going to church every week and thanking the God that you worship to be among the luckiest 2% of all college basketball fans.

The second bolding is just factually wrong. In 13 seasons they exceeded seed expectations 7 times. In the 13 seasons you're calling out they had 12 tournament wins. Prior to Few they had 5 in their history.

The framing of this argument is so ridiculous. "Yeah, Marc Benioff is rich, but if I were a multi-billionaire, I'd be disappointed if I wasn't Jeff Bezos."

 

[USAF]

All of you Mark Few fans/apologists look at his accomplishments and compare them to Minnesota, and Monson, a school that was hit with some of the worst sanctions and restrictions and whose reputation took one of the worst hits EVER. But believe whatever you all want.

If my team is going to the NCAA tourney every single year I'd expect more than 2 Sweet 16s in 13 straight trips, which also included 3 first round exits, as a #6, a #7 and a #10 seed. And of their 2nd round exits, one of those was as a #1 seed, another as a #2 seed and another as a #3 seed. Their 2 trips to the Sweet 16 were as a #3 and a #4 seed, so basically doing only what they were supposed to. As for the other 2nd round exits, one was as a #7 seed, two as #8 seeds and one as a #9 seed, so all 4 of those were also no better or worse than they were expected to do.

So, basically, there was ONLY ONE YEAR where Gonzaga exceeded expectations over that 13 year period, and that was their winning a 1st round game as an #11 seed, which is the seed where the most upsets happen, so again, HARDLY a big upset.


So... Few lived off of the Elite 8 run in 99, his first 2 years, then went 13 seasons straight only once exceeding expectations despite earning 13 straight chances to pull off an unexpected run, and how did he/they "earn" it? By dominating a league that before Gonzaga's Elite 8 run, was a 1 school invite only conference. And how hard was it supposed to be to dominate such a weak league after that Elite 8 run and the following back to back Sweet 16 runs with mostly Monson's players?


And trying to point at Monson's time at Minnesota as proof of anything is disingenuous at best as NO ONE could have won at Minnesota at that time and then who was going to hire Monson after that, and who was going to want to go and play bb for him? Maybe Few was more responsible for the 99 run than Monson was, but it's not fair comparing the two straight up as their circumstances were in no way equal. Had we taken Few instead of Monson, I'd bet Monson would have done BETTER at Gonzaga, than Few did for the first 5-6 years after that 99 season, and Few would have struggled just as much, if not more at Minnesota and then we'd have let him go and then he'd have been the one stuck having to go to some crappy school to try to resurrect his coaching reputation. I might be wrong, I admit as much. But I might be right, too.

And naming sources at Gonzaga??? lol Yeah, sure, because they'd be unbiased? BS, of course they are going to pimp their current coach.

First rule of holes, dude....when you find yourself in one, stop digging.