What Mark Few said after Gonzaga's upset loss to Portland

Zags get out-classed by the Pilots in an unimaginable upset from Portland

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

Wednesday's West Coast Conference tilt at Chiles Center between Gonzaga and Portland was one Pilots fans won't ever forget.

For Gonzaga followers, it was one they couldn't wait to move past.

In one of college basketball's most unexpected results of the season — and perhaps the Zags' worst loss in the Mark Few era — the Pilots, who came into the game ranked outside the top 200 in KenPom and in the NET, jumped the almighty Bulldogs from start to finish, earning the program's first win over an Associated Press top 10 team with an 87-80 triumph over a Gonzaga team that came in ranked No. 6 in the AP poll, No. 5 nationally in the NET and No. 11 on KenPom.

Here's what Few had to say about his team's performance, Portland's Joel Foxwell (27 points, eight assists) and more following the game.

On Gonzaga's porous defensive effort

"They were getting better shots on the offensive end and we couldn't find a way to stop them. We knew coming in Foxwell was a special player. Their posts were posting us hard, and they were kicking our rear end on the rebound. They beat us in all facets."

"We give up almost 60% from the field, and it's [effort, missing coverages, executional errors]. They just outplayed us, out-executed us, outshot us. When they got open shots, they made them and we didn't.

On Gonzaga's shot selection

"I think we could have had a little more 'stick to it' with getting it to Graham, and Graham could have done a lot better job attacking their doubles in the post ... instead of just kind of surrendering and throwing it out.

On Gonzaga's will to climb back into the game

"I think when you have a program like ours and the kind of season like ours, yeah. You always feel like you got to respond, but then you have to respond; you can't be talking about it. Just bear down and get stops on defense, basically. We pride ourselves on getting three stops in a row and we didn't have that one time tonight."

On inconsistent play from his rotation

"It's hard to find any consistency on the defensive end. And yeah, it was really hard; we got some real inconsistent effort from some guys, and some guys probably didn't bring what they were supposed to bring. If everyone does their job and bring what they're supposed to bring, we've been pretty darn good this year. But when they deviate from that and not bring what they're supposed to bring, that really exposes us."