It’s another lost season for Mark Few’s Gonzaga.

On Thursday, the Bulldogs crashed out with a 74-68 defeat to Arkansas in the Sweet Sixteen. Once again, the best team in the country by most metrics — and the overall top seed in the men’s tournament — hasn’t delivered the school its first national championship.

The defeat was Gonzaga’s fifth time entering the tournament as a 1-seed and failing to win a title — which ties Oklahoma for the most in NCAA history.

• During Few’s 23 seasons at the helm, the Bulldogs have reached two Final Fours, four Elite Eights, and 11 Sweet 16s.
• They were ranked No. 1 wire-to-wire in 2020-21 but were blown out by Baylor in their second-ever title game appearance.
• Few hasn’t won a title despite the best career winning percentage (.836) among Division I coaches (min. 10 seasons).

Perhaps most shocking was Gonzaga’s lack of offense — the Bulldogs led the nation in scoring (87.2 PPG) behind projected NBA first-rounders Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren.

Timme scored a game-high 25 points but led the team with five turnovers, while Holmgren went scoreless in the first half and fouled out with 11 points.

Few still earns around $3 million per season with an estimated net worth of $12 million — but his legacy is nothing without a title.

Third-year head coach Taylor Jenkins took over a 33-win Grizzlies team in 2019-20 — and turned them into championship contenders.

With eight games remaining, Memphis clinched the postseason in a 133-103 win over the Pacers on Thursday. Not only have the Grizzlies (51-23) been winning without Ja Morant, who’s out for at least two weeks (knee), but they have the second-best record in the NBA with the second-youngest roster in the league. 

Yet Jenkins, who is overachieving with the team, remains a long shot for Coach of the Year (+800*), trailing Phoenix’s Monty Williams (-200*) and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra (+700*).

• The Grizzlies are 16-2 without Morant this season; they won 13 of those by 10+ points.
• Without Ja, their offensive rating is 118.9, they’re scoring 118.1 PPG, and shooting 38.4% from three — which would all rank first in the NBA.
• Jenkins and GM Zachary Kleiman are working with the second-lowest payroll in the league ($117.3M).

The 37-year-old comes from Mike Budenholzer’s coaching tree, which includes prominent player development coaches such as Quin Snyder and Kenny Atkinson.

Even with a firm grip on hosting a first-round series — and a chance to hold on to the 2-seed, the Grizzlies have just the ninth-best (+2200*) title odds.

But at this rate, no one will want to run into these Grizzlies in the playoffs — with or without Morant.

Hope Solo is arguably the greatest goalkeeper in history and one of the sport’s most outspoken figures — she recently criticized the equal-pay settlement between the USWNT and the U.S. Soccer Federation. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion just launched her podcast “Hope Solo Speaks” on SiriusXM, which she says was attractive to her because “it’s my voice — nobody’s speaking for me.” 

Below is an excerpt from our interview:

What appealed to you about doing a podcast?

People have their opinions about me, even though they’ve never met me. I have been called outspoken, and that is a badge of honor to me. In this day and age, it’s very difficult to be honest and truthful, so I think a podcast was kind of right down my alley because I can be myself. I can be honest, I can be truthful, I can be outspoken, I can have my opinions, I can educate myself about other topics, and I can hopefully educate listeners.

In the announcement of the podcast, you said you’ve been “placed in a box” and that perceptions of you have been “off-target time and time again.” Why do you think that is?

There’s a lack of accountability when it comes to traditional media. It’s clickbait; it’s headlines. There has to be a villain, and when it comes to women’s soccer, I was always the villain, and it just stuck. It just makes news and makes highlights, and people like to drag others down, honestly. And it’s not just media, it’s on social media as well. I’ve been through it, and I really just don’t care anymore. 

Why is the $24 million equal-pay settlement inadequate in your eyes?

When it comes to equal pay, it shouldn’t be based on contingencies and conditions. The [settlement] number is a fraction of what we were going for. Many of the former players will not get paid, and many of the players who started this fight back in 2015 will not be beneficiaries of it. So to me, it’s a selfish deal, a deal everybody just wanted to get done and move forward.

Read the full interview here.

—Chris Kuc