When Mark Few was informed by text he had been selected as Sporting News college basketball Coach of the Year, his reaction was about as predictable as Gonzaga winning another West Coast Conference championship. He flattered us by saying it was “really cool” especially coming from our organization and that he would look forward to informing the members of his staff.

“Because, as you know, it’s a staff award,” Few told SN. “And I have the best staff around!”

Few has managed to become a commanding presence in college basketball without ever insisting you pay attention to him. It is about the Zags, a term he uses with an obvious sense of pride. Before Few came along, no one knew what a Zag was. Now, it has become an established brand and many have forgotten the school’s official nickname.

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Though he’d prefer it not be about him, this award is mostly about Few. He has been the constant as Gonzaga rose from an innocuous mid-major two decades ago to a national power that has earned No. 1 rankings in two of the past five seasons. He is the one who had vision to recognize the Zags could rise above their conference surroundings to play a national schedule, recruit big-time players and compete for prominent NCAA Tournament seeds and long March runs. And he is the one who decided, despite opportunities to leave at different points for such elite jobs as UCLA and Indiana, to see the project through.

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He is the one who presided over a 29-0 start to the regular season, to within just a minute or so of an undefeated regular season, and ultimately a 32-1 finish. Few was in charge of building the roster capable of such a performance and the brand that drew those players to Spokane from as far away as Poland (center Przemek Karnowski), France (reserve Killian Tillie) and Memphis (power forward Jonathan Williams). He is the one who convinced such elite prospects as point guard Nigel Williams-Goss and freshman center Zach Collins to trust him and Gonzaga with their basketball futures. He is the one who made Gonzaga so successful the team can afford to charter to most road games and the school can afford to pay Few enough to keep him content.

What Few has achieved is unprecedented in college basketball history. John Calipari transformed Massachusetts during his time there, but his time there didn’t last. Jim Calhoun made UConn from a light middleweight into a championship heavyweight, but the Huskies were part of an elite conference when he did.

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Gonzaga has remained a part of the WCC throughout its ascent. This has been a source of some consternation, from Zags fans longing for more consistent challenges, from rival fans debasing the program’s achievements and even some in the media who have so many times moved the target the program must strike to receive their approval.

The one accurate criticism, if one wants to call it that, is that Gonzaga never has reached a Final Four. Few told The Washington Post’s John Feinstein last month, “If the worst thing they can say about us is that we haven’t been to a Final Four, well, I think that means we’re doing pretty well. I get it. I understand it. But I think it’s kind of shallow.”

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It is. However, that’s not really the worst thing people will say.

With the Zags having won the WCC regular season in 16 of the past 18 years and the league tournament 14 times in that period, there are constant snipes about the quality of competition in the league despite Saint Mary’s emergence as a legitimate rival and BYU’s entry into the league not long after it held the No. 1 ranking as a member of the Mountain West. There always is this doubt: What would Gonzaga do if it were a member of the ACC (or Big Ten, or Big 12, or Pac-12)? But Gonzaga is 28-13 against major opponents in the past five years, including in the NCAAs. So, one can surmise, it probably would do quite well.

When the Zags annually were entering the tournament — they have won first-round games in 15 of 18 tournaments under Few — then stalling in or before the Sweet 16, they were assailed for failing to move beyond that round. You’ll still hear them lambasted for annually falling short in the NCAAs, even after they reached the 2015 Elite Eight (and lost to the eventual champion) and then the 2016 Sweet 16 despite entering the tournament as a No. 11 seed.

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This is curious, that so many could be so threatened by the extraordinary accomplishments of an unassuming gentleman who does so little to call attention to himself that he wants to make sure we also honor assistants Tommy Lloyd, Donnie Daniels and Brian Michaelson, and director of operations John Jakus.

Few does not rant nor rave. He does not deal in bombast. He keeps doing his job, almost quietly — except for the cacophony of the Zags’ success. He keeps Gonzaga among the nation’s most successful basketball programs.

Calling him Coach of the Year seems too limiting to adequately recognize what Few has accomplished at Gonzaga. It’s what we have to offer, though. He seemed to appreciate it.