DAVE BOLING

SAN FRANCISCO – Picture Mark Few, tucking into bed, and like any coach this time of year, his mind is awash with anxiety. So much can go wrong on the basketball floor; how can a coach get any sleep at all?

PORTLAND – Man, if you weren’t watching the Gonzaga-Memphis game Saturday, what’s your excuse?

Drew Timme, All-American.

In 1995, Gonzaga coach Dan Fitzgerald, showman, comedian, curmudgeon, colorful story-weaver, was asked how he managed to get his team rolling late in the season and earn the school’s first NCAA trip. “I kept telling them: ‘Get the round thing to the bald thing’.” The round thing: A basketball. The bald thing: John Rillie.

Gonzaga professor Nichole Barta, Ed.D, who teaches a class in exercise and sports psychology, helps decode the mysteries of competitive motivation from the minds of the underdogs and the favorites. With her help, I’ve arrived at three suggestions for the Zags.

LAS VEGAS – Most college basketball games are determined by matchups, hot hands and insightful game plans. Some of the special ones force players to plumb deeper qualities and reveal their truest identity. To show who they are, and what they can become.

LAS VEGAS – For those Gonzaga fans fretting over the recent loss to Saint Mary’s in the last regular-season game, maybe you can breathe easier now. At least a little bit.

No coach builds the best winning percentage in the history of college basketball, as Few has, by clinging to outdated methods. Holistic and relationship-based coaching worked fine for Phil Jackson and Pete Carroll, and others who recognized that coaching has become a matter of effective messaging.