‘Not easy’: Men’s NCAA Tournament shows tradition matters in promoting assistants to head coaches
- There’s a reason college basketball programs are promoting assistants to their top jobs.
- Gonzaga Coach Mark Few is an example; he’s turned Gonzaga into a perennial contender.
- Coach K’s successor, Jon Scheyer, doesn’t efel pressure because he can lean into Duke brand.
Dan Monson remembers the conversation he had with the Gonzaga athletic department and university officials about who his replacement would be in 1999.
“We were talking about having an assistant step in to be head coach, and they said, ‘That’s great. Now which one is Mark Few?’ I still laugh at that.