What Gonzaga's Mark Few said after loss vs. Houston in NCAA Tournament

"We had our opportunities. We didn't take advantage of them, so we had to do it the hard way."

Cole Forsman | Mar 23, 2025

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few looks on against the Houston Cougars during the first half at Intrust Bank Arena. / Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images

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Gonzaga Bulldogs

A season that was full of close losses for the Gonzaga Bulldogs ended in one last narrow defeat, this one in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament to the 1-seeded Houston Cougars.

Two days after decimating Georgia in the first round, it looked like early on against the Cougars that the 8-seeded Zags were in for a taste of their own medicine. Fueled by senior guard LJ Cryer, Houston seized control in the opening minutes before going ahead by 14 points late in the first half, as Gonzaga's offense struggled to find any sort of rhythm against the No. 2 scoring defense in the country.

Fittingly, the Bulldogs battled and fought until the final buzzer sounded on a season that was riddled with unlucky bounces, close calls and missed opportunities. Led by an inspiring second-half performance from Graham Ike, the Zags slowly but surely chipped away at their deficit, even when it seemed like the Cougars had the game wrapped up in the final minutes. But Ike and Ryan Nembhard had other plans, as they combined to score 16 points consecutively to make it a 3-point game with just over 30 seconds left on the game clock.

Gonzaga's players had been conditioned for these moments all season long, as well as in practice with late-game situation drills. "Zag time" became an integral part of the team's identity late in the regular season after coming up short on numerous occasions in nonleague play. But the first few minutes of a game can just as easily decide an outcome, and it appears that was the case at INTRUST Bank Arena on Saturday as the Cougars held on, 81-76, to advance to their sixth-straight Sweet 16 game.

Here's what Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said after the game.

On his team's effort down the stretch to make it close:

"Hey, it ended up being just a great, great basketball game, especially the way our guys fought their way back into it. I'm so proud of how they hung with it, hung with it, hung with it, and gave ourselves a chance right there at the end. That's not easy. I mean, I'm telling you, Houston was everything and more that we thought they were going to be. Especially the opening 10 minutes and then start of the second half."

"Just extremely proud of the guys. Man, they hung in there. They hung in there. We made enough plays. Our offense kind of kept us in it. We were just trying to find something that could get us some consecutive stops there just to give us a chance. We just came one possession short there at the end."

On Gonzaga overcoming adversity earlier in the season and against Houston:

"I told them afterwards, I mean, they just showed their winning character. You know, where we
fought back from where we were maybe in mid-January to now or even after we took some tough losses in the nonconference portion of our schedule. I mean, they never had a bad practice. They kept their heads high, and they just kept — they stayed together and kept battling and
learning. We got so much better."

"I just ran into Kelvin out there, and it's a shame we had to meet in the second round. You know, like he said, if they're a 1, we're a 1B. That's the way it goes. We had our opportunities. We didn't take advantage of them, so we had to do it the hard way."

"I think they showed their true colors tonight, and that's the blessing that I've had all year, the two years with this group, just how high character they are, winners they are and how easy they are to coach, and what a blessing to have that as a head coach."

On Ryan Nembhard's impact on Gonzaga's program over the last two years:

"Incredible. He's as good a guard as I've ever coached ever. I mean, he has the heart of a
champion, and he goes and goes and goes. I mean, [assistant coach Brian Michaelson] is asking me if we need to get him out of the game. I was, like, hell, no, we just had a 2-minute timeout because I'm scared as hell if I don't have him in there."

"Just delivers, delivers, delivers. Every time they made a big run, I mean, he knocks down a big 3, several of them. I thought he played great defense tonight. Again, we talked about Graham's numbers. You get 11 assists against that kind of pressure against, again, every ball screen being doubled that he's in, I mean, that's a great night."

"I mean, I think he's the best point guard in college basketball, and I've had some great ones. I think the coaches that go against him would share that same thing. At least we got it out there now. Maybe we don't need awards especially if we have knuckleheads that are voting on stuff like that."