When Mark Few retires...

[Malastein]

Who will take the place of Tommy as coach in waiting? Will it be immediate or take time to develop? Also, will Tommy succeed?

[kdaleb]

I'm sure Tommy will do great. But for all the talk that Tommy is the key to recruiting, Coach Few is clearly a (the?) vital cog in the program. So grateful for all that he's given to the Gonzaga community... I'm in no rush for Tommy to move one seat over.

[MDABE80]

Sometimes ya just got to wonder...…...what's in peoples' heads...….

[jazzdelmar]

Shhhhh.....we fine

[MickMick]

Brian of course.

[Bogozags]

Talking of retirement???

After Coaches Few and after Tommy, who relinquishes the HC to Bmick and Bmick retires, who would then take the reigns?

[GoZags]

Talking of retirement???

After Coaches Few and after Tommy, who relinquishes the HC to Bmick and Bmick retires, who would then take the reigns?

55 year old GU assistant coach Liam Lloyd

[kdaleb]

55 year old GU assistant coach Liam Lloyd

lol

[TravelinZag]

Thread is an insult to coaches. Speculative conjecture that is absurdly premature, and lacks any basis in fact. Current team has delivered great results and has tournaments pending.

[sittingon50]

Rem.

[GoZags]

Thread is an insult to coaches. Speculative conjecture that is absurdly premature, and lacks any basis in fact. Current team has delivered great results and has tournaments pending.

You realize there is a 9 game stretch between games, correct? And the 1 star is fairly reflective of the feelings about this thread. But glad you got a chance to vent.

[MDABE80]

The waiting is the hardest part GZ. Tom Petty told me that

[tummydoc]

You gotta fight for your right to party- Beastie boys

[Bogozags]

55 year old GU assistant coach Liam Lloyd

[Stache]

Lorenzo Romar. ��

[ZagsObserver]

Few is one of a kind. No one truly replaces him. As for Tommy, he is great within his current role. I actually would not love him in the head coach role. That’s my take.

[sittingon50]

Lorenzo Romar. ��

Jim Boeheim

[75Zag]

When Mark Few retires in 2048 this will be an interesting discussion.

[Malastein]

Who will take the place of Tommy as coach in waiting? Will it be immediate or take time to develop? Also, will Tommy succeed?

To answer my own questions and perhaps revive any chance at decent conversation, I’d say that there is no clear cut person after Tommy. Though, it certainly had been a matter of time served in the ranks up to this point. Perhaps that is part of what has made Gonzaga is a keen interest in continually building to get better. I’ve been a fan of the program since I was 11 years old, watching the 1995 tournament team because they were the unknown local team. Then they really made waves during that first Elite Right run. I wasn’t overall aware of the pedigree of the program at that point, and I thought that once Dan Monson had left that they’d fall off. They started the next season 8-5, and at that point I thought the soft spoken Mark Few was out of his league and the magic was gone. Then they started to get better and better, and at this point I was hooked.

I think people will have that same doubt with Tommy initially at least. That’s fair, but I see something similar in Tommy to Mark Few in his approach to the game. There’s a reason he stuck around when Bill Grier and Leon Rice decided to pursue other opportunities. Gonzaga has never been a place about perfection, but of always building towards something better. Tommy sees that as Coach Few sees it. That’s why I think he’ll succeed, and hopefully his successor proves himself in the next 20 or so years after that.