What Gonzaga's Mark Few said ahead of 2025 NCAA Tournament

The Zags take on Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament

Cole Forsman | Mar 19, 2025

Gonzaga head coach Mark Few is the only NCAA Division-I head coach to appear in 25 consecutive NCAA Tournaments to start their coaching career / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

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Gonzaga Bulldogs

Qualifying for the NCAA Tournament isn't a given for any college basketball team when the season tips off every November, but the Gonzaga Bulldogs have certainly made accomplishing that feat seem routine at this point.

The Zags (25-8, 14-4 WCC) have gone dancing every year the tournament's been played under head coach Mark Few, who's set to become the only NCAA Division-I coach to make the NCAA Tournament in each of their first 25 seasons at the helm. Few's latest feat will be made official when 8-seeded Gonzaga battles 9-seeded Georgia in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament this Thursday from Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Here's what coach Few had to say ahead of the matchup.

On the accomplishment of 26 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances:

"I mean if it was so easy and everybody did it, there would be more of us that have done it 27 straight times. I mean, just that. It's really, really, really hard. There are some great teams out there. There's some really, really good teams out there, and there's obviously some hungry teams that would do anything. There are some players — we had two this year on our squad that had never been to the NCAA Tournament, and they've been in basketball five, six years and were dying to come to a place that could get them to the NCAA Tournament. You factor that in over 365 teams, you know, there's only 68 slots."

On what he tells the player's who've never played in the NCAA Tournament:

"Just channel all the best things that you have in your game and in your mind and live in that moment and enjoy the heck out of it. As I also tell them, it's a one-and-done tournament where you can't have a bad afternoon or a bad night."

On the importance of getting off to a fast start in the NCAA Tournament:

"They're ready. I've got guys that have played a lot of these games, so, I mean we're ready. The first 4 [minutes of the game] is OK. There's 36 others. We better be good in the last four too. I mean, that's quite frankly what we struggled in the most earlier in the year."