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Gonzaga Basketball

Few Good Men staying close to home in The Basketball Tournament’s Hoopfest pod

Steven Gray, shown at the Hoopfest alumni game last June, played a key role for Few Good Men in The Basketball Tournament last year. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Meehan jimm@spokesman.com(509) 459-5585

Few Good Men will open The Basketball Tournament, a $2 million, winner-take-all event, in familiar surroundings as part of the four-team Spokane Hoopfest pod in the West Region.

Few Good Men, comprised of former Zags and probably a few others who played at schools in the region, will be joined by Gael Force (featuring Saint Mary’s alums), Team Utah (Ute alums) and TBTBombSquad (Air Force alums).

TBT and Hoopfest announced a partnership nearly a month ago to bring TBT games to Spokane during Hoopfest weekend. Those contests will be held June 29 and 30 at Lewis and Clark High School. First-round pairings haven’t been announced.

“We got a late start on our roster,” said Dan Dickau, who joined Blake Stepp as a player and/or coach on the first two Few Good Men squads. “People all over Twitter have been asking about the team. We’ve had to work around the fact that Kevin Pangos is getting married on the (second) weekend so we’re piecing together who is going to play the first weekend and who can get to the Super 16 and the final four if we advance.”

Pangos isn’t playing, but some ex-Zags potentially on Few Good Men’s roster could be attending his wedding. The roster is far from set, but it looks like Matt Bouldin, Steven Gray and Jordan Mathews will play. Silas Melson, who wrapped up his GU career last season, is a possibility. Rem Bakamus is helping assemble the roster.

Players don’t have to be at every game, but they must be on the team’s original roster, Dickau said.

Few Good Men has some history with Team Utah, going 1-1 against the former Utes in the last two TBTs. Few Good Men, which has reached two Super 16s, hasn’t faced Gael Force in tournament, but alums from both squads have been part of the Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s WCC rivalry.

Dickau will be involved in some capacity the first weekend but wasn’t sure if that would be coaching, playing a few minutes if necessary or being part of the television coverage.

The 72-team TBT is divided into four regions. The Super 16 will be in Atlanta, and the semis and championship are slated for Aug. 2-3 in Baltimore.

The TBT’s Hoopfest pod replaces the alumni game featuring numerous former Zags that tipped off Hoopfest weekend.

“I think it’ll be perfect tie-in with Hoopfest,” Dickau said.