It’s early in Mike Roth’s tenure as athletics director at Gonzaga. Long before the men’s basketball program took off as a powerhouse on the West Coast. Roth had made many superficial changes to the school’s brand (logos, color schemes, other ways of branding that stood out), but his philosophies and visions had not yet spread to the entire athletic department.
That is, until a meeting with school administrators and leadership helped lay the groundwork for the type of people Roth wanted to coach Gonzaga student-athletes.
“Someone asked, ‘So, Mike, what do you look for when you hire a coach?’” Roth recalled. “I said, ‘I’m not looking for the best coach; ‘That’s not what I’m looking for, I’m looking for the best person for Gonzaga University.’ We are not going to prioritize conquest over the right option. And once we find the right fit, we have to make sure they can train.”
It is not a foolproof method, but the successes far outweigh the failures. Mark Machtolf, a five-time WCC Coach of the Year, has been Gonzaga’s head baseball coach for more than 20 seasons. Pat Tyson, Gonzaga’s director of cross country and track and field, is widely considered one of the most successful cross country coaches in the country. The women’s basketball team has flourished under Kelly Graves (2000-2014) and Lisa Fortier over the past two decades.
“At Gonzaga, we’re not going to turn a blind eye… that’s not who we are… you look at the coaches we have, they’re very good people first and foremost, who at the same time are also very good coaches,” he said. Roth.
Of course, Roth’s influence also ushered in Mark Few and the Gonzaga men’s basketball program’s past 25 years of NCAA tournament excellence. The Bulldogs have been dancing every season under Few, who eclipsed his 700-career win mark and advanced to his ninth consecutive Sweet 16 last season. All while Few and his coaching staff embraced and prioritized “fit” above all else when recruiting.
“What we’re totally focused on when we’re in the transfer portal is finding the guy who values that and understands, okay, we have a history of not just winning, and if you want to talk about growing your brand, I mean you’re into one of the most popular brands in all of college basketball,” Few said on an episode of Gonzaga Nation. “The ones that maybe end up valuing that, and that resonates and they listen, are the ones who belong at Gonzaga because that’s what we based this program on.”
“Winning is fun. “What we are looking for is to win,” Roth said. “But winning with great kids, great coaches who are good people.”
Roth shared more information about what makes Gonzaga different and much more in a new episode of Gonzaga Nation.
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE OF MIKE ROTH:
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