Gonzaga coach Mark Few may be the NCAA’s active leader in winning percentage (.809), but Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has Few beat in the postseason. Boeheim has 51 career NCAA tournament wins – good for fifth all-time among all coaches, active and retired.

CHICAGO – Gonzaga coach Mark Few may be the NCAA’s active leader in winning percentage (.809), but Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has Few beat in the postseason.

Boeheim has 51 career NCAA tournament wins – good for fifth all-time among all coaches, active and retired.

He’s had quite the head start over Few though. Boeheim is in his 40th season at Syracuse, while Few has headed the Gonzaga program for 17 seasons and has a 21-16 NCAA tournament record to show for it.

But in many ways, Boeheim has helped influence the blueprint Few has used to build Gonzaga into a national basketball power.

“He’s a really really good friend and he’s a mentor. He’s meant a lot to my career,” said Few, who first met Boeheim about 18 years ago. “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. Coach (Tom) Izzo has stayed at Michigan State and (Mike Krzyzewski) has stayed at Duke.

“Those have kind of been great role models and mentors for me as far as me just staying the course at GU and being happy and content.”

Since that first meeting, Few and Boeheim have gotten to know each other off the basketball court too. They’ve played cards and taken fishing trips together – “He’s a great card player, average fisherman, but there’s some hope there, some promise there if we ever get him off the golf course,” Few said – and Boeheim also helped to conceive the Coaches for Cancer event the Few and his wife, Marcy, put on every year in Spokane as a fundraiser for cancer research.

Few also credits Boeheim for getting him involved with USA Basketball. Boeheim is an assistant coach for the national team, and was a source of advice for Few last summer when the Gonzaga coach was selecting his squad for the Pan-Am Games, which he coached.

Home-court advantage?

After the Zags practice on Thursday, Domantas Sabonis was greeted enthusiastically by several green-and-yellow clad fans sitting courtside at the United Center. Handshakes and hugged were exchanged all around.

As it turns out, Chicago is home to a large Lithuanian population. True Lithuania, a website that tracks Lithuanian communities worldwide, estimates the state of Illinois has a population of about 80,000 Lithuanians, and the basketball fans among them are excited that Sabonis, who also plays for the Lithuanian national team, is in town to play in the Sweet 16.

“It’s awesome. I knew there were some Lithuanians here in Chicago, and there’s a Lithuanian (basketball) league in Chicago,” Sabonis said. “It’s just awesome having them here, it made me happy to have some Lithuanians to support me.”