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Do Mark Few's colleagues think Gonzaga's championship window is closed?

Originally posted on Gonzaga Bulldogs on SI
By Andy Patton | Last updated Oct 8, 2025 11:06 PM ET

There is no debate that Gonzaga's Mark Few is one of the single greatest college basketball coaches of all time. With over 700 career wins, countless coach of the year awards, a gold medal, and the legacy of taking a program no one had ever heard of and turning it into an annual powerhouse, Few is a true legend of the sport.

It's also true that Few is missing the ever-elusive national championship trophy, among the very few accolades he has yet to receive. The Hall of Fame is likely to come calling in the near future — he was on the ballot for the first time in 2024 — but Few would love to add that final trophy to his mantle before he rides off into the sunset, or rather the fly-fishing waters of the inland northwest.

However, a recent survey of over 100 college basketball coaches, conducted by Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander of CBS, indicates coach Few's colleagues may think his chances of winning a natty are in the rearview mirror.

The surveyed coaches — who range from high major to low major, head coaches to assistants — were asked a simple question: which coach will be the next first-time national champion?

Eight coaches received votes from the surveyed group, with four earning a combined 86%: Houston's Kelvin Sampson (38%), Purdue's Matt Painter (26%), Duke's Jon Scheyer (16%), and Kentucky's Mark Pope (6%). The other four who were included are Alabama's Nate Oats, Michigan's Dusty May, Texas Tech's Grant McCasland, and former Gonzaga assistant coach and current Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd.

Parrish specifically noted the absence of coach Few on this survey, saying, "If we'd run this poll three years ago, I'd be willing to wager Gonzaga's coach would have easily been in the top five. This suggests that Few's compatriots think his window has passed."

Parrish also noted that most of the coaches surveyed viewed this question through the lens of this upcoming season, which is understandable. If you don't think one of the seven active head coaches who have won a championship is going to do so again in 2026, then you'd vote for the team you think is most likely to win it all this year.

Only seven active head coaches have won a championship, making it very likely 2026 will feature a first-time winner for the second year in a row after Todd Golden won his first last season with Florida.

Joining Golden among national champion-winning coaches are John Calipari (Arkansas), Scott Drew (Baylor), Dan Hurley (UConn), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Bill Self (Kansas) and Rick Pitino (Saint John's).

Most analysts, fans, and coaches believe Houston and Purdue are the two best teams in college basketball heading into this season, so it is not surprising to see both Sampson and Painter at the top of this list. Scheyer and Pope coach at two of the bluest blue blood programs in America, and Oats, May, Lloyd, and McCasland are all at high-resource programs that are projected among the top 25 teams in the country.

Still, not a single mention of Few is surprising, considering the team's recent nine-year streak of making the Sweet 16, which also included a pair of national title appearances. Coach Few's track record is nearly unmatched, and the program's move to the Pac-12 will provide a financial windfall that could help this team compete with the big boys in the NIL era.

Coach Few will look to prove this group of coaches wrong this season — his last in the WCC — when Gonzaga tips things off on Nov. 3 at the McCarthey Athletic Center against Texas Southern.