CHICAGO – Jim Boeheim and Mark Few will be on opposite sidelines, each vying for a spot in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, but their relationship extends far beyond the face value of Friday night’s competition.

Boeheim and Few, the Gonzaga (28-7, 15-3 West Coast) head coach, met almost 20 years ago on a Nike coaches’ retreat and have stayed close ever since. Through involvement with USA basketball, fishing trips and charity foundations, the two head coaches have been integral parts in each others’ lives both on and off the court.

“He’s a really, really good friend, and he’s a mentor,” Few said. “He’s meant a lot to my career. If you think of all the icons and kind of the legends in our game currently, think about how Coach Boeheim has stayed at Syracuse the whole time.”

The Syracuse (21-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) head coach began assisting Mike Krzyzewski on the U.S. National Team in 2006 and helped Few assimilate to his head coaching job with the U.S. Pan-American Men’s Basketball team that he took in 2015.

“He’s helped me obviously so much with USA Basketball,” Few said. “… I definitely owe him for that.”

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Few also said that the idea for his Coaches vs. Cancer foundation that he jumpstarted with his wife in Spokane, Washington was inspired by discussions with the Boeheims. This April, the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation will hold its 17th annual Basket Ball and Few’s wife, Marcy, and Juli Boeheim became close after Few and Boeheim met on one of the Nike coaches’ trips.

On one of those trips, Few joined in on a card game a group of coaches were playing. It didn’t go so well for him.

“He jumped into our card game and got his butt kicked, and he took it well,” Boeheim said. “He took his beating like a man.”

Boeheim said the two have been friends ever since.

They even share fishing trips and Boeheim called Few a world-class fisherman. Few classified Boeheim as average with the rod, but noted there’s room for improvement in Boeheim’s fishing game if he can be pried off the golf course.

“I can’t hold a candle to him fishing-wise,” Boeheim said. “He’s really good.”

Boeheim will call Few, who’s three hours behind on the West Coast most of the time, and simply share his thoughts about a particular game or basketball in general. It’s on those phone calls that Few said Boeheim is who others don’t see him as, especially the media that’s exposed to his demeanor in a basketball setting.

But in the relationship the two have developed since meeting almost two decades ago, Few has grown to know Boeheim as far more than what will show on Friday night.

“He’s not the surly curmudgeon you all think he is,” Few said. “He’s a really, really good guy.”

Published on March 24, 2016 at 7:21 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman