Gonzaga's Mark Few and VCU's Shaka Smart will serve as assistant coaches under Florida head coach Billy Donovan for the USA junior national team this summer. More here and here.

Back with some notes, quotes and impressions from Gonzaga’s first practice.

OK, we’ll leave the impressions to senior center Rob Sacre. More below. 

I watched roughly an hour of Gonzaga's opening practice and I filed a notebook that will run in Saturday's S-R. 

The first item is on the six newcomers (five freshmen and J.C. transfer Guy Landry Edi). My best guess (caution: after 60 minutes of watching) is that Gary Bell, Kevin Pangos and Landry Edi will at the very least be in the rotation, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ryan Spangler is as well. He is solid at 6-8, 232 pounds, and I kept trying to imagine defensive backs attempting to tackle him in the open field when he was a prep quarterback back in Oklahoma). We'll see how the next few weeks play out, but the point guard position (David Stockton, Pangos, Bell) will be an interesting one to monitor.

There are also notes on Elias Harris and an update on offseason injuries and how those players are doing now.

I'll have a follow-up post tomorrow morning. 

The swiftly evolving story involving college basketball coaches, including Gonzaga's Mark Few and Ray Giacoletti, caught up in an investment debacle with Houston businessman David Salinas took another turn Monday night when ESPN.com reported that the NCAA isn't planning to investigate the situation.

You can find a link to my story that will run in Wednesday's S-R and here's a link to ESPN.com's latest report on the situation.

S-I.com is reporting that Gonzaga's Mark Few is among a growing list of college basketball coaches who invested money with David Salinas, the Houston-area investment adviser who also founded the Houston Select AAU team. Few reportedly invested $353,000 with Salinas, who committed suicide Sunday.

GU assistant coach Ray Giacoletti acknowledged Monday that he's invested money with Salinas for 22 years.

More here.

Running short on time, but here are my previews of the Gonzaga men's and women's teams as they head to their respective WCC tournaments in Las Vegas this weekend.

Back with some notes from Gonzaga’s media day on Monday. We touch on Steven Gray and Kelly Olynyk finishing up their parts in “Romeo and Juliet,” as well as several other items.

Read on.

I attempted to contact GU coach Mark Few late last week when Leon Rice was landing the Boise State job, but didn’t make connections until Monday afternoon.

Nothing earth shattering to report, but there are a couple items of interest below.

Leon Rice loaded the family into the Wagon Queen Family Truckster (yes, that’s a Vacation reference) and drove to Boise Thursday night/Friday morning. He arrived at 3 a.m., slept a little and then was introduced as BSU’s new coach at a 12:30 press conference.

I tuned in to the proceedings on BSU’s Web site and put together the unedited article below. I also checked in with Billy Grier, the last GU assistant to leave for a head-coaching gig, for his thoughts on Rice and his interesting take on Mark Few’s future.

Few didn’t return my phone message, but he was quoted in a BSU press release on Rice’s hiring: “Boise State is getting a great coach and an even better family into the greater Boise area. I hope the fans and the community reach out and embrace them. He was the co-architect of this entire run (at Gonzaga) and a huge part of our success. We’ll miss Leon, Robin and the kids greatly.”

The BSU release also has this quote from Adam Morrison: “I’m excited for Leon and this new opportunity for him.  He brought a great spirit and attitude to the team while I was there and is a tremendous choice to head the Boise State basketball program.”

Meanwhile here’s a blog post from the Oregonian on the Ducks’ search for a new coach and another on Phil Knight’s interest in Tubby Smith.. There’s also this from the Register-Guard as well as a column that discusses what the Ducks might pay for a coach. 

I’ve been stationed at my computer in the bowels of McCarthey Athletic Center for about an hour after the first media opportunity of the young season. I can hear the squeaking of shoes and coaches barking out instructions out on the court, so GU’s first practice rolls on.

Meanwhile, here’s our first-day practice story that will run in Saturday’s paper. The unedited version is below.

Gonzaga’s Mark Few is one of six court coaches chosen to work with USA Basketball’s U19 and World University Games team trials. More here.

The rumor mill went into overdrive Wednesday and it involved Gonzaga’s Mark Few. First, there was internet speculation that Few had accepted the job at Arizona. Then came a report that the Arizona’s job was Few’s if he wanted it. Then came a report that Few had declined and the Wildcats were focusing on Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel.

UPDATE 8:30 P.M.: By early evening, several media outlets were reporting that USC coach Tim Floyd was in Tucson visiting with Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood. ESPN Radio 620 in Phoenix, citing multiple sources, reported that Floyd was Arizona’s choice. Here are some of the evening links: KTAR radio in Phoenix, Los Angeles Times, CBSsports.com, Foxsports.com and ESPN.com. (Note that the links listed in the extended post are from earlier today).

Read on for an unedited article I filed for Thursday’s S-R. This story could change, obviously, with the next phone call, so I’ll update it as necessary. 

Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth told me nobody had called him to ask for permission to speak to Few, but the A.D. admitted that is a common courtesy that many schools simply ignore.

I’m working on a Gonzaga season wrap-up article and getting the daily deluge of coaching carousel articles in my e-mail every morning. Arizona’s looking and Oregon hasn’t announced if Ernie Kent is staying or going. For what it’s worth, here are some viewpoints from Arizona and Eugene. 

I’ll try to post the season wrap-up article later today.

Several items below on Gonzaga’s matchup with Santa Clara Thursday, but first this note on Josh Heytvelt and two GU women’s basketball players, Jami (Bjorklund) Schaefer and Janelle Bekkering earning All-WCC academic honors. More here.

Forbes.com puts Mark Few on its list of top 10 college coaches. More here.

And, Santa Clara will be without Decensae White, a transfer from Texas Tech. San Diego’s Trumaine Johnson is no longer a Torrero. USD entertains Gonzaga on Saturday.

Read on for more on Gonzaga-Santa Clara.

Our Four Corners college basketball page runs in Thursday’s S-R, but you can look at the unedited Gonzaga-related content below. 

Congratulations to the Few family, which welcomed a new addition, son, Colt, who was born on New Year’s Day.

Mark was back in plenty of time from Gonzaga’s trip to Utah. He returned Wednesday night with the team charter. Marcy went into the hospital on New Year’s morning. Colt joins brothers Austin James (born in 2000) and Joseph Dillon (2002), and sister Julia Ann Elizabeth (2006).

—And a quick injury update from Wednesday’s loss at Utah: It sounds like Micah Downs, who was limping after appearing to sprain his left ankle with roughly 8 minutes left in the second half, should be available for Gonzaga’s game at Tennessee on Wednesday. On replay, even at 1/15th speed, it’s tough to tell if Downs stepped on the foot of Utah’s Carlon Brown or his ankle just rolled while he was boxing out for a defensive rebound. Downs did return to play briefly near the end of the game.

Gonzaga’s slide continued Wednesday night as the Bulldogs missed two shots in the closing seconds and fell to Utah 66-65 in Salt Lake City.

The Bulldogs have dropped three straight and four of five as they head into what could be their toughest matchup of the regular season. No. 14 Tennessee (8-2) will be looking to avenge an 83-74 defeat to GU five weeks ago in the Old Spice Classic championship when the Bulldogs visit Knoxville on Wednesday.The Vols have a 37-game home winning streak and they’re 28-0 in non-conference home games under coach Bruce Pearl. UT’s last home loss was in the final game of the 2005-06 season (Kentucky 80, UT 78).

GU-Utah game stories and Mark Few quotes below.

An interesting day on the roads. It took about 55 minutes (normal trip 25-30) to get to Gonzaga for media day because traffic was backed up on I-90 from a vehicle spin-out near Barker Road. Later, I was stuck, briefly, in a carefully selected parking spot at NIC and, to cap off the evening, a good Samaritan with 4-wheel drive helped pull my wife’s van out of a snowbank midway up an icy hill. That was interesting.

GU coach Mark Few mentioned that he and several neighbors spent part of Saturday helping a neighbor whose barn had collapsed under the weight of the snow.

Enough of the weather. An unedited Zag notebook below. Also, Tennessee’s Wayne Chism was hurt in the Vols’ win Monday night. GU visits the Vols on Jan. 7th.

Where to begin the day after Portland State post? By giving proper credit to the visiting Vikings, who overcame travel issues and were the hungrier team in knocking off No. 7 Gonzaga 77-70 on Tuesday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Portland State hopped off a charter bus, which arrived in Spokane about 3 hours and 30 minutes before tip off, and managed to play with more energy, effort and intensity than the Zags, who flew back on their charter plane from Seattle on Saturday night after losing to UConn in overtime.

Much more below.

Back with the game story from Portland State’s 77-70 upset over No. 7 Gonzaga at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Gonzaga couldn’t contain 5-foot-6 guard Jeremiah Dominguez, who had 25 points, made seven 3-pointers, and grabbed six rebounds. He added five assists.

Read on for the unedited game story.