Mark Few, Head Basketball Coach, Gonzaga University

Willy welcomes Mark Few. He is the Head Coach at Gonzaga University and was announced as an assistant coach for the 2022-2024 USA National Team. He served as an assistant coach for ten seasons before reaching the top position. Originally from Creswell, Oregon, Mark boasts of an extensive coaching career. He once worked as a head coach for the 2015 Pan American Men's Basketball team, an assistant coach for the gold medalist 2012 USA U18 National Team, and a court coach for the 2009 USA Men's U19 World Cup/World University Games Team Training Camp. He and his wife, Mercy, have four children, one of them currently playing and studying at Gonzaga University. The podcast begins with Mark returning to his graduate assistant days at Gonzaga University. He describes it as an enriching experience, teaching weight training, basketball, and other sports, and encouraging people to watch the sports games. He took a coaching job and brought the team to the Elite Eight. "The cool thing about it was to see a group of guys who deserved it with all their hard work," he says. He describes it as "pure fun, unadulterated hoops with no pressure." However, the stakes have gotten higher as more is expected from him after that taste of success. He retells the culture shock of having more expectations than before and questioning his situation at that moment. What helped him most was knowing everybody in the program, from compliance to academics, he was able to manage the burden. In the end, his team won the tournament. He reminisces about the moment he became head coach. "It's nice to have the humility and peace to level you out a little bit," he says. He adds that two backbones drive everything they do in Gonzaga: team chemistry and team culture. He prioritizes strong relationships with players with the right amount of fear, "demanding without being demeaning." As a coach, he aims to have his players "play with the most confident they've ever had and still play with unbridled joy." He looks back, seeing Coach Nick Saban's style, thinking he would never want to be in a position where his players are terrified of him. He wants to harness his players' strengths and create an organized model with a common goal and a plan. He talks about Kevin Pangos as someone who loved "working on chemistry instead of just talking about it." He mentions that mental coaching isn't just saying "toughen up and work hard." Working with Travis Knight led them to spend 25-30% of the athletes' time in mental development with Personal Growth Mondays (PGMs) that aided in processing pressure, expectations, lack of confidence, and handling adversities and success.
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