Gonzaga's Mark Few on Pac-12 collapse: 'Everybody across the whole scope of college athletics is really disappointed'
Growing up on the West Coast, Mark Few became very familiar with the nature of the Pac-12 long before he became a thorn in the conference's side as head coach of Gonzaga men's basketball.
Few, a native of Creswell, Oregon, watched the league expand from eight to 10 members by the time he graduated from the University of Oregon in 1987, a decade after Arizona and Arizona State joined. There were rumblings of expansion in the 1990s to include high-major schools from Texas amid the destruction of the Southwest Conference, though the schools decided to form the Big 12 Conference instead. It wasn't until 2010 that the league became the modern-day Pac-12 after Colorado and Utah accepted invitations to join.
Fast forward a dozen years later to a world where media contracts and NIL rule college athletics. All four of the aforementioned schools will join the Big 12, while Washington, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal will join the Big Ten and ACC, respectively, as soon as 2024. In the blink of an eye, a Power 5 conference with 100 years worth of history has disintegrated down to two remaining members in Washington State and Oregon State.
"I think everybody across the whole scope of college athletics is really disappointed," Few said of the Pac-12's situation ahead of Saturday's game against Washington. "Whether you're on the East Coast or obviously on the West Coast, it really hits home. A lot of mistakes were made and probably could have been avoided, but it wasn't and now everybody's got to adjust to that."
The Pac-12's current demise doesn't leave a direct stain on Gonzaga (despite the league's rumored interest in adding the men's basketball program over the years), though there's no denying the history between the school and the surrounding conference that will have its final chapter written on Saturday
In the Few era, Gonzaga is 45-15 against Pac-12 schools and currently rides a 16-game win streak against the league heading into the Washington game. It hasn't been a cakewalk either — nine of those victories have come against ranked teams, as well as the win over UCLA in the 2021 Final Four. Overall, the average KenPom ranking of the last 16 Pac-12 foes Gonzaga has defeated is 44.8, with only two being ranked outside the top 100 (Washington in 2022 and 2016).
The Bulldogs have kept up with some of the best competition the conference has had to offer in recent years, including the 2023-24 season. They've already jousted with USC and UCLA, both of which were picked to finish top three in the league standings, and will face a Washington team that's in line for its first top 100 KenPom finish since the 2019-20 season. That's not a high bar to reach for the Huskies, granted, but it's a feat considering the Pac-12 could send five teams to the 2024 NCAA Tournament, at least according to the latest ESPN Bracketology.
"We're expecting a great effort from the Huskies and great effort from the crowd," Few said. "They've taken full advantage of the transfer portal and some NIL situations. So they really max those things out and they've changed the roster and added some real talent."
