What Gonzaga's Mark Few said ahead of NCAA Tournament game vs. Houston

Gonzaga's head coach broke down his relationship with Houston's Kelvin Sampson, whether the Bulldogs were underseeded in the tournament and much more

Cole Forsman | Mar 22, 2025

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few in the first half of a first round men’s NCAA Tournament game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Intrust Bank Arena / Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images

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Gonzaga's players have been hearing about Houston all season long from their head coach.

There are some comparisons to be made about how Mark Few and Kelvin Sampson have brought their respective programs to the national limelight over the course of their coaching tenures. The Bulldogs haven't missed the NCAA Tournament under Few and have been to nine straight Sweet 16 games, which is tied for the longest such streak since 1985.

Meanwhile, Sampson's Cougars have made the jump from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12 look easy, winning 39 of their 44 league games since joining arguably the toughest conference in the country, as well as appearing in the last five Sweet 16s.

But long before they reached the top of the coaching realm, Few and Sampson were once assistant coaches in the Eastern Washington area, as Few sat on Gonzaga's bench next to Dan Fitzgerald while Sampson was down in Pullman, Washington, where he worked with former head coach Len Stevens from 1983 to 1987. Prior to that stint, Sampson spent the previous five years in Butte, Montana, with the Montana Tech program.

LIVE SCORE UPDATES, HIGHLIGHTS: GONZAGA VS. HOUSTON

"Great success there," Few said of Sampson's tenure at Montana Tech. "Then he's down the road from us at Washington State and had awesome success there. I mean, he just wins everywhere he goes. He's just an amazing guy, amazing coach. It will be an honor to tee it up with him tomorrow and see what we can do."

Here's more from Few ahead of Saturday's matchup with 1-seeded Houston at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas, (5:40 p.m. PT/8:40 p.m. ET, TNT).

On his relationship with Sampson over the years:

"I'm so happy for Kelvin, man. He's one of the great ones in our profession and one of the fun ones. He really helped me out when I was first getting going on those old Nike trips. Kind of took me under his wing. I always remember him and Karen doing that for Marcy and I."

"There's a lot of those guys once you get one-on-one with them around them who are great. Roy Williams did the same thing for me, Jim Boeheim. You're looking up at these guys, and they treat not only me, but my wife, who is nervous on those things too, and golfing outings and dinners and things like that. You find out they're just great people. In many cases just like we were, and fun. We've stayed in contact. Heck, we get Christmas cards from Kelvin every year and excited to watch his family grow and expand."

On the notion that Gonzaga was underseeded in the tournament:

"We don't even look at it like that. Once the tournament comes out, you know, all the speculation where you are going to get seeded and all that, I think as you get older, you are, like, whatever. You're going to have to play great teams or hot teams or probably even scarier than that, probably really lucky teams if you win and advance in this thing. One of my first teams we ever had. We were focused on 1 seed and didn't get. In fact, got seeded really low. I thought that kind of brought our whole aura down and everything. We went into the tournament with the wrong frame of mind."

"At some point, like I said, you are going to play a great team, and this is a great team, and it's a great well-coached or greatly coached team. It will be a huge challenge. I mean, I think our guys are really looking forward to it. The staff knows it's a daunting preparation in 24 hours to try to put it all together, but a lot of things we've been doing all year hopefully will help us against them."

On how it would sit with him if he didn't win a national championship before his career ended:

"I don't know. It's fine. I've had a great life. I'm fine. Listen, I'm as competitive as anybody too, crazy competitive. I think I referenced that last night. You get hooked on winning. You want to win everything. You want to win at everything you do. But, you know, I think coaching is about getting your team prepared and being ready for them to play the best and each individual player achieving their highest potential. Not only individually to move them on from Gonzaga, because I think that's really important, but just also, you know, for our teams. Then you just let the chips fall where they may, you know."

"We've been right there several times. We've had several teams that should have got to a Final Four and beyond that didn't, but blessed to have been able to be a part of those and get us that far."

On whether Sampson's coaching style has evolved over the years:

"Not really. Guys, he was a great coach at Washington State. I think he just adapts to the level of players that he's able to get at each spot and coaches the heck out of them, and that's why they're so good. They do a great job evaluating. Like I said, they do a great job of finding guys that want to play their style and hold them accountable. Everybody understands it, and that's why they're so incredibly successful."