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No. 1 seed Gonzaga is moving on to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament after knocking off West Virginia 61-58 on Thursday night. It’s a huge win for Mark Few’s program, which is now just 40 minutes away from a first Final Four appearance.
Gonzaga has been close to reaching the final weekend under Few — appearing in the Elite Eight in 2014-15 and again this season. But each time expectations have been high the program has come up just short. And when one reporter asked what it would be like for Few to reach the Final Four and “get the monkey off his back,” Few had an epic response that had his own players rolling in laughter at the postgame press conference.
“First of all, I don’t know that I have a monkey on my back. I don’t certainly wake up with one or walk around with one. So I don’t think these guys think I have one. I don’t think my wife thinks I have one or anybody in my family, close friends. Fishing buddies never talk about it. So those are the only people that really matter to me.
“It’s not about me and my monkeys and my dogs and my cats. It’s about them.”
The Zags face No. 11 seed Xavier on Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET. Regardless of the outcome, the winner will advance to its first Final Four in program history.
