Is this the year a B1G basketball team wins it all?

I went to Gonzaga for undergrad and was good friends with the team manager so I constantly got the inside scoop. You are about to get way more info than you probably want, but I figure if you are curious this would help. 

Their success has long been predicated on team culture and player development. That starts with coaching. Mark Few is an ELITE coach, to the point where LeBron has called him out as such, but he also has one of the best assistant coaches in the country in Tommy Lloyd. Lloyd has been approached numerous times by schools looking for a coach, because he is easily ready to be a head coach and is an amazing recruiter. He specializes in international recruiting, to the point that international coaches know him just as well as Coach K or Cal. Lloyd actually has it in writing in his contract that he will be the next coach when Few retires. That helps assure recruits no matter what, and it is basically like having two amazing head coaches with no infighting. 

 

They started off with a focus on recruiting underrated players, and as they have become more renowned those recruits have slowly shifted from 3 stars to low 4 stars, to higher 4 stars, and now they are starting to sprinkle in 5 stars such as Suggs or probably Chet Holmgrem. (My GU sources are confident that as long as he goes the college route he is currently a heavy GU lean). 

 

However, Few knew that they couldn’t compete with Duke or UK when it came to recruits (plus Few was always listed along with Beilein as clean) so Gonzaga hits the transfer market and international player market probably better than any other college program. They are really great at getting transfers that fit their scheme and contribute. The players they bring in know their role, but most importantly they become better players. Players such as Kyle Wiltjer, Brandon Clarke, and Nigel Williams-Goss all came in, became All-Americans, and developed their games immensely. This has resulted in transfer players always eyeing Gonzaga for both a way to win and become better. 

 

Ona international level, Gonzaga has a reputation on par with Duke or Kansas. If you go to places such as Brazil or France, people are likely to know Gonzaga. That is because for 20 years they have taken international players and turned them into elite players. That started with Ronny Turiaf and continued with players such as Domontas Sabonis and Rui Hachimura. 

 

No matter who they bring in, they always have a specific plan for that player that they communicate clearly. For example, Rui Hachimura was always on a 3-4 year plan, The coaches had told him his first year would be spent learning the offense and defense, getting better at English, and developing his body. They told hum his second year he would be a role player, and his next year or two they would use him as the focal point of the offense with an emphasis on using his athleticism and length to create mismatches. They sell all their players on specific plans like this, and they key is they make most of them become true. 

 

Finally but most importantly is the program culture. Few has developed a family atmosphere to the extreme, and combine that with the extraordinarily close knit Gonzaga community (I have toured over 70 colleges, Gonzaga’s family atmosphere on campus stands out among all) and there is a sense of belonging and support for the players. Former players happily come back and play pick up games against the players in the summer, or join the staff as assistants to launch their coaching career. Few’s kids come to practice, and players have said it makes them feel like a family and helps them realize how many kids look up to them. The team knows they are there to be no just athletes, and as such they get involved in campus and academics are stressed, to the point student-assistants are told to make sure players are in class daily. The players are often an extremely close knit group, which becomes important for an offense predicated on movement and sharing the ball. 

 

The team knows their conference is easy, but with no football team since WWII, there is not much they can do about that. Joint the Big East was briefly discussed but it just was not feasible. They will play anyone in no conference who is willing to play them, but the team takes the idea that people discredit them as a constant chip on their shoulder. 

 

Anyways, between that player development and team culture they have created a juggernaut that is only missing one important mark on the resume, one that Gonzaga fans feel will happen someday but for now we are just happy to be a great program that pounces above the weight of a 5,000 person Jesuit school in the Northwest.