EXCLUSIVE: Mark Few and Graham Ike talk about Gonzaga's HUGE win over Kentucky! | AFTER DARK

saw you 9 days ago in Vegas.

Yeah.

Um, it was a mollywhopping the other way, and, uh, one that you had never had in your career. How did you react to this? How did you— you had 9 days to think about, prepare, stew, whatever it is for this game, and you came out and showed people that, hey, you know what, we're, we're for real still. I mean, Michigan played a great game.

First of all, yeah, let's start with that. Michigan was terrific. And, and, and Dusty and his entire staff just did a wonderful job. I mean, that was a juggernaut we ran into. Um, and, and they're really, really good. I mean, they're really good and they're smart. They're tough, they're physical, they're well coached, and they're big. You know, they're—

They made you look small.

Yeah. Which it's, it's hard to do.

Yeah.

Um, and so give 'em a lot of credit. And so listen, when this happens, you know, No matter what level or what sport you're coaching, you just want your guys to respond. And that's, that's what we talked about all week was what's our response going to be to this. And then, you know, we just had to get back to kind of reinforcing who we are. And sometimes, Jeff, you get in those 3-day tournaments and you're all— you're just game planning and you're playing 3 different styles and You know, then you kind of deviate away from maybe who you are, you know, and you just need a reminder to kind of bring it back.

Did you question anything after that game? Was there anything you did?

Yeah, no, I mean, you get—

because you guys were so good going into that game.

Your ass kicked that bad, you question everything. Everything.

There was no pickleball in the mornings.

There wasn't. No, it was— there was nothing. There was, you Yeah, no, and you know, so no, you look hard at, you know, inside yourself, and then you have hard discussions with your staff, and then you have hard discussions. And those, anybody who's played knows those practices aren't fun, you know, and, but they're necessary. And the guys know that too. You know, when you have mature guys, they know, they know what's coming.

Well, this guy over there, I mean, this guy over there, Graham Ike, had a maybe the worst performance, probably if I asked him of his career. Against Michigan, 1 point, no rebounds.

No, easily his worst.

Yeah.

And to come out and do— and actually he missed some easy ones early here. I mean, I actually thought you guys should have been up more than you were. Missed some easy ones. You didn't shoot it great. Were you at all— and what Kentucky did to you a year ago coming back, I assume at halftime the speech was—

We talked about they were going to probably reference that, but then I explained to them like, guys, we missed like 5 lay-ins last year and we missed like 8 front ends of 1-on-1. We allowed it, but we just, we just wanted to get back to trying to be the toughest team. And I thought we, you know, I thought we were the toughest team tonight.

So.

And you went to Braden, I thought, over and over in the mismatches, right?

Yeah, I mean, we did. And we, we need— we like to go to these guys over and over anyway. And I think, Jeff, we got away from that. Look, I know Michigan's big, but we got away from that. And in some instances, I think, I mean, it was on us as a staff. We kind of game planned to try to You know, do some things that maybe weren't what we do normally. And—

Well, then you get down like that. I mean, you could probably relate to Pope tonight in a lot of ways, right?

Yeah. No, it's not a— it's not a healthy feeling or, or one I would, uh, wish upon anybody. And I, I feel bad for Mark. I mean, they're doing the right things. They just need to all get healthy. And, and, you know, they, they'll have to have moments like we had last week.

Are you looking up at the clock against Michigan and just saying like, I wish we had a running clock? Like at some point.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, if you notice, I just sat down. I mean, I listen, dude, I tried every defense we had. Okay. We tried every ball screen we had, uh, coverage. Okay. I tried every person, you know, on your bench several times. And then you know what? At some point, 27 years, I just walked over and sat down and like, Yeah.

I'm surprised you didn't just walk off the court and give it— let Mike, let Mike give it a shot right now.

Yeah. But yeah. Hey, those are no fun. I mean, and we haven't experienced those at Gonzaga, so I don't know why you keep referencing it after we just had a 35-point win.

I don't know.

On the road. And this environment is impressive.

Oh, I said it. Hey, this was the least neutral neutral site game I've ever seen.

Yeah, I mean, you walk out here and I mean, and listen, we played 'em in Rupp and we, as you know, we play everybody all over the place, but this was impressive. I mean, this is 3 hours from Lexington or a little more. And I mean, it's blue everywhere with the exception of navy blue.

Yeah, you had about 500 fans, I think.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, listen, we're gonna get Graham in here. Good to see you smiling again.

Christmas shirt.

I don't know what this is. You like it?

Yeah.

All right, I'll let you know. You know, since you took care of me years ago with the suit, Remember in New York? What was the name of the place?

Rothman's.

Rothman's. I know, I know. I spent a lot of money there. Yeah, a lot of money. I don't, I don't have the Mark Few budget. I don't have the right— good to see you. All right, Mark Few, we're going to bring in Graham Ike now and then we'll get back to you guys and we can break down the entire game. But we got it. We got to bring in the guy here who, man, talk about a guy who's got a smile on his face now. Sit down. Sit down, big guy. Get in close to me. All right, how you doing?

Good.

You feeling a little better than 9 days ago?

I feel great, man, honestly.

Looking forward a little bit?

Uh, you know, you just can't get hung up on things like that. We know who we are at the core. We weren't that in Vegas. It was an anomaly. We responded tonight, and that's what we're about. We knew the adversity would hit, not that early or the way it did, but we knew it would come, and I'm proud of our response.

So, so tell me what you were feeling after that game. I was there in Vegas. What you were feeling afterwards and like how hard it was to wait 9 days for this one.

It wasn't too hard for me, man. Uh, Thanksgiving was the next day, so my family, you know, kept me out of it, kept my mind off of things. Uh, right after, of course, like you feel it to the core. Uh, every player would, and if you, and if you don't, then you're not a competitor. Um, but I was looking forward to this, I'll tell you that.

How, how important was it to get off to the start? And you missed some easy ones early, 100%, right? I mean, I was like, you guys should have been up.

Should have dunked that, that one layup.

The bunny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but how important was it, maybe not just for you but as a team, to be able to kind of hit them early and keep your foot on the pedal?

It was huge. Uh, I say we learned that from Michigan and we And we want to apply that. And so I'm glad we did. Um, and we just responded so well to adversity. I'm so proud of this team and the coaching staff for just having us in the right position and just playing, playing our tails off, man.

Is there anything good that can come from a game like that against Michigan? Is there a lesson to be learned?

I mean, from anything, whether it's an injury or a 40-point loss, I mean, it's going to show you who you are. at your deepest core. Either, either you're gonna fall over and just, and just go with the roll of it, or you're gonna hit back. And that's what we did tonight, and that's what we're made of, true deep in our core.

I think what it showed as much as anything— character and chemistry. Because teams can fracture after those losses, right? You could start pointing fingers. Even though you guys had had a lot of success before that game, you guys could start, you know, a lot of new guys on this team trying to figure it out.

Man, it's Gonzaga, man. We don't do that there, you know what I mean? And just our culture is just so tight tight-knit that we would never— we might have a team meeting, it's not going to be pointers.

Uh, did you?

No, we didn't.

Nothing.

We talked about it, but we didn't. Um, a couple guys did, we did not.

Um, but was there any— What, what was talked about? I mean, you're a veteran, you're, you're one of the leaders. Do you remember what you said to the rest of the team?

It's about how we bounce back. The greatest adjust, and ultimately we're judged off of our response through thick and thin.

All right, well, listen, great seeing you. Good seeing you with a smile. All right, this was impressive, and, uh, I gotta get my, my ass out to Spokane this year.

All right, we waiting on you.

Great seeing you, man.

Right now.