Mark Few reacts to Gonzaga's loss to Texas in NCAA Tournament

PORTLAND, Ore. — Mark Few went into Saturday's second-round battle between Gonzaga and Texas knowing just how dangerous an 11-seed that had to earn its way onto the main bracket with a First Four win can be.

Few's dominant Bulldogs squad that went undefeated in the regular season a few years ago came close to losing to a team like the Longhorns — Jalen Suggs just happened to be there to save the day against 11-seeded UCLA in that memorable Final Four game from 2021.

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But there was no storybook ending in the cards for this particular Gonzaga group, which failed to muster up enough offense down the stretch of its 74-68 loss to Texas on Saturday at the Moda Center.

Here's what Few had to say after the game.

On Texas not being a Cinderella

"I think we're all adults here in this room, some of these monikers we put on everybody from Cinderella to blue bloods and all that, I have a hell of a time understanding it. I mean, they make literally no sense.

"[Texas] is not a Cinderella team. That's a really talented basketball team with a really, really, really good coach, that has incredible resources and has a great history of doing great things in the tournament. That's just an 11 seed that had some tough losses during the year."

"But definitely more than enough talent to win another game after this."

On Texas' success in the paint against Gonzaga

"Listen, they have some great isolation players. I thought we did a nice job in the first half on [Dailyn] Swain and [Tramon] Mark, but in the second half, those isolation players got loose. They have a terrific big guy who puts a lot of foul pressure on you."

"They run some nice stuff, just like we do for our big guy, to get him a variety of looks and coming from a lot of different spots on the floor and the ball's coming from different areas. We tried doubling, we tried everything."

"But honestly, the thing that really probably hurt us the worst was their role players came in and just, I mean, we gave up 12 to [Nic] Codie and eight to [Chendall] Weaver. They're good players, but I thought we, by and large, did a good job on their kind of best scoring options. But those guys killed us. That's 20 points."

On processing NCAA Tournament losses

"We all need time. Look, the suddenness of this tournament, no matter how many years you've done it, is just shocking to have to walk in the locker room and address these guys that really, truly, honestly, care about each other and love each other and would do anything to get one more possession together. To stand up there and address them and try to have to make sense is hard. So I always try to tell them it will make more sense as time passes. Kind of just like everything in life."

"They will realize it was a hell of a season. I mean, 31 wins is no joke, especially the way we schedule and with, especially, as I mentioned earlier, just all the injuries and everything that we had to overcome. It's a heck of a run. We leaned in on this guy so hard, I mean, and he just delivered night in and out. Night after night after night after night, including tonight, he just delivered."

On moving on to the Pac-12 after this season

"The weird, strange, just awful thing that I'm thinking about is not being able to coach these guys. I mean, that's what you process first. And you kind of just got to get over that and with time, that will happen and it does take time, back to your earlier question."

"So, I haven't even thought about really the Pac-12, to be honest with you. We've just been focused day by day in kind of this deal and now like I said, no matter how many times it's happened it's kind of just shocking how fast it happens and all of a sudden you're one stop away from winning a game and then it's over."