What Mark Few said after Gonzaga's dominant season-opening win

The 2025-26 season-opener was business as usual for Gonzaga in many ways, though Monday's matchup against Texas Southern still had room for a first in Mark Few's storied coaching career.

Long before the final buzzer sounded on a 98-43 win for the Bulldogs, marking their 22nd consecutive 1-0 start to a season, Tyon Grant-Foster's name was called during the starting lineup introductions — much to the pleasure of the jam-packed McCarthey Athletic Center crowd that followed the 6-foot-7 forward's eligibility saga during the offseason.

The only thing was, Grant-Foster wasn't supposed to be alongside Braeden Smith, Emmanuel Innocenti, Braden Huff and Graham Ike in the Zags' first starting five of the new season. But thanks to an unnamed assistant coach who wrote the wrong name in the book, the Grand Canyon transfer got to make quite an entrance for his official Gonzaga debut.

"[Grant-Foster] wasn't even going to start tonight," said Gonzaga head coach Mark Few after the game. "This is the first time in 37 years this ever happened: One of our assistants put the wrong name in the book for starters, or whatever, and so he was sitting there in his warm ups, as we were calling it; we had to get him back out there. [Adam] Miller was supposed to start."

Grant-Foster, who was considered ineligible by the NCAA a week ago, was subbed out for Miller minutes into a shaky start for the Zags against a physical Tigers squad. But as the Bulldogs clamped down defensively, Grant-Foster made his presence felt on the glass and in the scoring column, racking up a team-high 15 points to go along with five rebounds in just under 20 minutes of action.

Here's more of what Few had to say about his team and Grant-Foster after the game.

On his team's performance on the defensive end

"I thought we really got going at the end of the first half, and that's where we kind of began to get some separation. We can put some guys out there that can really guard the ball, and then obviously, it's kind of a proactive group that makes plays. I think we can turn guys over maybe a little bit better than we have in the past, too."

On Jalen Warley's night (four steals)

"That's kind of what Jalen has been doing. He does it in practice, he did it in our exhibitions and I think in Kraziness. That's just kind of what he does. It's what he brings."

"He brings great energy, he doesn't take a possession off and definitely is somebody that's going to try to make a play on that defensive end. Very versatile, too."

On getting Tyon Grant-Foster up to speed

"He's still got a long ways to go ... we're throwing a lot at him. He's kind of having to play multiple positions, so he's really just kind of scratching the surface as far as being totally immersed in what we're trying to do."

"It was just kind of a little bit too much too soon. It's going to take us a while. We got again all these days we can use as kind of catch-up days, and then I think we're still a ways from getting him fully immersed."

On how Gonzaga's frontcourt handled Texas Southern's physicality early on

"I mean, as the game went on, they handled it a lot better. They weren't handling it great at the start. We were getting pushed around, and I thought they were playing us very physical."

"Those guys are going to demand a lot of attention, and they're going to get it. They're not mysteries to anybody; everybody knows who they are and what they're capable of, so they've got to kind of get ready to go from the jump here. Definitely coming up on Saturday, Oklahoma's really, really good."

On facing Oklahoma on Saturday

"They've had a heck of an offseason. They went out and got some really, really good transfers. It seems like they've done a nice job meshing them together. They've won both their exhibitions against really, really good teams (Wisconsin, Saint Francis). And I believe they've both been on the road. So, they'll be old, they'll be smart, and I think that's going to be a really, really tough game."