Mark Few says 'lack of leadership is really showing' after NCAA's latest move

The Gonzaga coach spoke out after the NCAA allowed a 2023 NBA draft pick to play for Baylor

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. | Photo by Erik Smith

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs have long been on the cutting edge of roster construction in college basketball. The Zags loaded up on international talent before it became a trend, and they utilized graduate transfers - who had immediate eligibility - well before the creation of the transfer portal fundamentally altered college athletics forever.

So coach Few knows it's not fair to blame his fellow coaches, or the players, for what is happening in college basketball right now - following the news on Christmas Eve that Scott Drew and the Baylor Bears landed a midseason addition in James Nnaji.

Nnaji was the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA draft, and while he never signed an NBA contract or played in the league, he became the first player to commit to college basketball after getting selected in the draft - and unsurprisingly, it has caused a bit of an uproar around the game.

"It's just wild out there right now," Few said after Gonzaga's 40-point win over Pepperdine on Sunday. "I mean, we really don't have any organization or any real rules right now, and so guys are just trying to do whatever they can do. Until there's a rule that says you can't do it, it's hard to blame anybody for doing what they're doing."

Few's comments echo what many other coaches have said about this new development, that it's not fair to blame the coaches for doing what they can to bolster their roster, but that some level of guidelines needs to be enforced before this spins even more out of control.

Drew defended his decision to bring in Nnaji, a 7'0 center who has been playing with FC Barcelona off and on since 2020.

Dec 21, 2025; Waco, Texas, USA; Baylor Bears head coach Scott Drew. | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

"Early on, when it first came out with G League players, I wasn't in favor of that either," Drew said. "But again, we don't make the rules and as we find out about things, we're always going to adapt to put our program in the best position to be successful, because that's what we get paid to do."

Gonzaga will square off against one of those G League players, Thierry Darlan, who committed to Santa Clara in October after spending time with the G League Ignite and the Rip City Remix over the past two seasons. Darlan is averaging 6.5 points in 20.2 minutes for the Broncos, while another G Leaguer, London Johnson, has yet to suit up after committing to Louisville.

There were reports that multiple high-level programs showed interest in signing 6'8 guard Trentyn Flowers, who was a top 25 recruit in the 2023 class before opting to play professionally in Australia. Flowers went undrafted and has appeared in eight NBA games across two seasons, and is not officially eligible by the NCAA as of this writing.

"Lack of leadership is really showing," Few continued. "Now is probably time to get some help from congress, but they're more screwed up than the NCAA. They got to start listening to coaches."

Gonzaga (13-1) will close out the calendar year 2025 in San Diego against the Toreros on Tuesday, Dec. 30, at 6:30 PM PT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.