What Gonzaga's Mark Few said after historic win over Southern Utah

Bulldogs run away with 72-point win over the Thunderbirds

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

Room had to be made in Gonzaga's record books following a historic victory for the Bulldogs over Southern Utah on Monday.

The Zags (5-0) trounced the Thunderbirds (1-4) in a 122-50 blowout from McCarthey Athletic Center, setting a new program benchmark for the widest margin of victory (72 points) over a Division I opponent.

A 78-point win over NAIA constituent Eastern Oregon from December 2022 still stands as the program's biggest win when including non-Division I schools, but Monday night's outing did surpass a 66-point drubbing of Eastern Oregon from November 2023 and a 61-point triumph over Denver from December 2018 in the record books. That 101-40 win over Pioneers stood as Gonzaga's widest margin of victory over a Division I team prior to Monday.

The Zags also came within one point shy of matching the single-game McCarthey Athletic Center record for most points scored, which was set during the 123-57 win over Eastern Oregon in 2023.

The Bulldogs got the job done with another impressive outing on the defensive end of the floor, forcing a season-high 23 turnovers while holding their Western Athletic Conference foe to 18-of-61 (29.5%) from the field. The Thunderbirds were held scoreless for the first 4 minutes and trailed by as many as 32 points in the first half.

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

On what he liked most about his team's performance

"I thought everybody that got in there kind of gave us great effort. And I thought for the most part, each of our units that we threw out there were really, really up to the task defensively. We were hitting our coverages and flying around and being very active and getting our hands on a lot of balls, and then that led to obviously getting out on the break and running."

On Braden Huff's efficient night

"It should give him some good confidence, and that's what we need. We need him confident and really just being being B-Huff off. I mean, he can score on anybody, and I think he had a couple games there where he got rattled a little bit, and so it's good to have him kind of back, seeing a big rim."

On whether the team is where he thought it would be as it prepares for Players Era Festival

"It's just always a work in progress. I just told them, we finally got a little time. These games are just boom, boom, boom, boom. So you're just always moving on to the next opponent or resting. Now we got a little bit of time to fine tune some stuff and hopefully get everybody on the same page."

"The thing about these three games in three days, you're literally going to see every situation out there — in-game situations, side out, out of bounds under, match up zone; everything with no practice time. So it's kind of just getting everybody to be able to adjust on the fly, and everybody from one through five, just really understanding what we're trying to do here, and then also putting in some kind of new wrinkles. Some stuff's been working and some stuff hasn't been working. So we got to fine tune some stuff."

On facing Alabama to start the Players Era Festival

"They're often incredible start. I mean, all Nate's teams have been terrific, and we've had some good battles with them. But this one's going to be I think a real, real big challenge. They looked every bit like a top five, top three team the other night when I was watching them."

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