Few talks to press but keeps players silent

Gonzaga’s Mark Few, in the wake of the media frenzy surrounding the weekend drug-possession arrests and indefinite suspensions of Bulldogs players Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis, put his team members off limits during Wednesday’s weekly prepractice media day gathering in the McCarthey Athletic Center.

But the Zags’ eighth-year head coach was quick to address the troubling situation that has stirred unfavorable interest nationwide, saying both players remain suspended after their late-night escapades in Cheney on Friday, which, according to police reports, included a stop at a party.

Few, who is dealing with such a public incident involving GU players for the first time, said he has drawn on the support from the university’s administration, his family, his coaching staff and close friends – many of them current or former coaches – for advice and strength in his attempt to sort through the wreckage heaped upon his program.

“There are really three entities involved,” he said. “There is the legal part of this, there’s the school policy part of this and there’s the (basketball) program, which, as leader of that program, is eventually my part of this.”

Few said again that his decision to suspend Heytvelt and Davis was based on their violation of team policy rather than the drug possession charges.

“They’re suspended indefinitely because they violated the internal code of our program’s essence,” he said, “which is, ‘What in the heck were you doing out late at night in a bad place the night before a game?’

“And we still haven’t moved past that.”

Few said he’s been receiving advice from other coaches about how to cope with the situation.

Few gave no indication when – or even if – the suspensions will be lifted. But he said he expects his team, despite the absence of Heytvelt, its leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, to be prepared for Saturday’s non-conference showdown against No. 8-ranked Memphis in the Spokane Arena.

“They’re focused,” he said of his players. “They’ve been inundated with this, but they want to show they’re still a team and that this isn’t about just one guy and move on.

“But that being said, (Heytvelt) was a huge talent and entity we’re really missing right now.”