SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Gonzaga Coach Mark Few did not like the question but answered it anyway.
His Bulldogs had just held off West Virginia to reach the Elite Eight and he was asked if he felt like the monkey was off his back.
Few gave a long answer about no one believing there was a monkey there in the first place. Not him, his players, his wife, fishing buddies, not the people of Spokane.
At the end of his mini rant, Few shifted the focus to his players with this zinger: "It's not about me and my monkeys and my dogs and my cats. It's about them."
The Elite Eight is not new territory for Gonzaga or its opponent today, Xavier. Both teams have gone this deep twice before.
The next step is the big one: The Final Four in Arizona.
"It's a credit to Gonzaga, it's a credit to the guys up here and the guys in the locker room and the ones before them at Xavier, that both of these programs are in the position that we're in," Xavier Coach Chris Mack said.
Few built one of college basketball's most successful programs from scratch.
With limited resources and even less exposure, Few built the small Catholic school in Eastern Washington into a national powerhouse by recruiting high-character players who fit into his system -- principles he still sticks to.
That has turned Gonzaga into one of the nation's most consistent programs. The Bulldogs have been to the NCAA Tournament 19 consecutive seasons, fourth-longest in the nation, and have reached the Sweet 16 eight times. And this may be the best group of Few's 18 seasons in Spokane.
"As far as going to a Final Four, I desperately want it for this group of guys," Few said. "I desperately want it for everybody who has played at Gonzaga, the players who have been such a huge part of that."
Mack's rise also came from humble beginnings.
He played his final two seasons at Xavier and returned to Cincinnati to coach girls junior varsity basketball because it was the only job he could find after a professional career overseas was cut short by injuries.
Mack joined Skip Prosser's staff at Xavier after six years of coaching in high school and followed Prosser to Wake Forest. Mack returned to work on Sean Miller's staff at Xavier and was named head coach when Miller left for Arizona in 2009.
Mack has elevated the program Miller kick-started.
Xavier has made the NCAA Tournament seven times in Mack's eight seasons and reached the Elite Eight four times. The Musketeers battled injuries this season -- point guard Edmond Sumner's torn ACL was the big one -- but kept scratching out victories to reach the doorstep of the Final Four.
"There's always going to be some type of adversity through the year," Mack said. "How your team handles it usually reveals the type of team that you have. And our team handled it extremely well and for that I'm really proud of our team."
Now about that monkey on Few's back. Mack says he found it.
"I got off the elevator today and was coming to the bus to come over to the arena. I saw this monkey running around, and I picked him up," he said. "So if anybody sees Coach Few later on, if they want to return that monkey, it's in our locker room for him."
Sports on 03/25/2017