What Mark Few stated following Gonzaga’s 2024 NCAA Tournament defeat to Purdue

DETROIT – The only thing Mark Few could manage was a small bow to the Purdue Boilermakers.

In Friday’s 80-68 loss against Zach Edey and Purdue, his Gonzaga Bulldogs battled bravely in the first half, but things became out of control against the 7-foot-4 All-American and his supporting cast in the latter minutes.

As a head coach, Few expressed his disappointment with the outcome of the game, but he was also extremely pleased of his team for how they persevered throughout the season despite all of its challenges. “Therefore, give a bow to Purdue.”

Following the season-ending defeat, Few made the following comments:

Regarding Zach Edey’s abilities:

“He is merely a being in his own right. However, by drawing on our previous encounter with him in Hawaii, we believed that we played that game fairly evenly and merely committed a few careless mistakes and missed a few shots in the closing moments.”

“Yes, he is a load, and the Boilermakers performed admirably.” In the first half, they made their threes, which really focused our attention and made us want to take those away. In the second half, they simply kept going to him again and again. Either way, something will go wrong or, you know.”

Regarding the route Gonzaga went this season:

Yes, I merely informed them that, given the standards our program sets and the circumstances we were facing, I believe the bulk of collegiate basketball teams would have collapsed in January.

“But these guys didn’t back down; instead, they competed, displayed their true selves, and grew closer rather than farther apart. They deserve a lot of credit, in my opinion, and even though there was a lot of background noise going on around them at the time, they demonstrated their genuine selves.”

About the career of Anton Watson:

“I’m really thrilled that, to be really honest, we kind of followed through on everything we said when we initially invited him to Gonzaga. His career has been just amazing.”

In the locker room, I mentioned to the players that it seemed like he had won 300 games at Gonzaga. That’s how it feels, after all. I’m not sure what his winning percentage is, but he has made crucial plays and shots in National Championship, Elite Eight, and Sweet 16 games. He has been amazing. When we had no idea what we were doing, he solved zones and broke presses.”