Breaking down the Gonzaga, Washington State and Idaho connections to Olympic basketball in Paris

Mark Few avoids scheduling games against his good friends and close coaching acquaintances and dreads the day he’ll have to encounter one of them on the high-pressure stage of the NCAA Tournament.

Through his work with USA Basketball, Few has learned running into his former players isn’t any easier and the longtime Gonzaga coach won’t have a choice in the matter when group play begins at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Few’s had a couple of those meetings during exhibition games and can count on at least one more when the U.S. takes on Filip Petrusev and Serbia in Sunday’s opener at Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France.

“It was strange last year when we played Kelly (Olynyk),” Few said earlier this summer, referring to the USA-Canada matchup at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. “It was strange. You’re rooting for him, but then obviously you want to win the game really, really bad.”

With games starting on Saturday, we take a look at Few and the former Zags competing at the Summer Games, along with other Olympian basketball players and coaches with ties to local colleges.

Gonzaga

Mark Few (assistant coach), United States

The active NCAA Division I leader in career winning percentage, Few’s association with USA Basketball started in 2009 when he worked as a court coach during the U-19 national team training camp. He’s climbed the ladder, serving in a variety of capacities for youth, select and senior national teams. Few was appointed to Steve Kerr’s coaching staff as the lone college assistant ahead of the 2023 FIBA World Cup and will serve in the same role at his first Olympics. Few was a head coach for the 2015 U.S. Pan American team that won a bronze medal and was part of a gold-medal run with the U-18 national team at the FIBA Americas Championship.

Few boasts a winning percentage of .835 at Gonzaga, leading the Bulldogs to their 25th straight NCAA Tournament appearance, along with the school’s ninth consecutive trip to the Sweet 16. Few joined the exclusive 700-win club last season and owns the highest winning percentage of any college coach with at least that many victories.

Kelly Olynyk, Canada

Check that, captain Kelly Olynyk. A veteran of the NBA and international game, the 33-year-old Olynyk will take on a key leadership role for a Canadian team that’s returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2000. Olynyk, one of two captains along with fellow NBA veteran Dwight Powell, has been the first frontcourt player off the bench in exhibition play, scoring nine points in an 82-76 loss to the U.S. and finishing with 14 during an 85-73 win over France. Olynyk has the second-most international appearances of anyone on the Canadian roster, appearing 67 times since making his debut in 2010 between his freshman and sophomore seasons at Gonzaga.

Olynyk, who had his jersey honored by Gonzaga two years ago during a halftime ceremony in Spokane, is the program’s longest-tenured active NBA player, recently wrapping up his 11th professional season. The journeyman forward has played for six NBA teams, but recently signed an extension to stick with his hometown Toronto Raptors for the 2024-25 season.

Andrew Nembhard, Canada

Nembhard has thrived in the NBA while playing next to an elite guard, the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton, and his role won’t look all that different this summer on a Canadian roster that won’t be in short supply of talented backcourt players. If the exhibitions are any indication, Nembhard will play a key bench role for Canada and shuffle in and out of a lineup that also features the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray and the Houston Rockets’ Dillon Brooks. Nembhard, more of a traditional point guard, brings something different to that quartet of players that could be valuable as the Canadians open group play and potentially advance to medal rounds.

Nembhard should enter his first Olympic experience with added confidence after averaging 14.8 points in the NBA playoffs and delivering a winning 3-pointer that helped the Pacers defeat the New York Knicks in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Filip Petrusev, Serbia

Three years ago, Petrusev averaged 15.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in four qualifying games for Serbia, which came up one victory shy of a berth to the Tokyo Olympics. That version of Serbia, unlike the one showing up to the Paris Games, did not feature Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic, NBA stars who’ve elevated the team’s overall talent level and depth as it makes a long-awaited return to the Olympics.

Even with a stronger group of players around him, Petrusev is still expected to play an integral role for a Serbian team that’s receiving the fourth-best odds (plus-1600, according to DraftKings) to win a gold medal. The former Gonzaga forward has started next to Jokic, the three-time NBA MVP of the Denver Nuggets, during Serbia’s exhibition games and posted a double-digit scoring game against Few and the U.S., and then had another against Greece and Giannis Antetekounmpo.

Rui Hachimura, Japan

Of the four former Zags participating this summer, Hachimura is the only two-time Olympian. Japan’s most prominent NBA player and one of the nation’s most popular athletes in all sports, Hachimura had the unique and prestigious opportunity of serving as the male flag bearer at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Japan bowed out of Olympic competition after group play, but Hachimura posted impressive individual numbers, finishing fourth among all scorers with 22.3 points per game – more than top U.S. scorer Kevin Durant – to go along with 7.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists.

Japan’s roster summer features some old faces and some newer ones (see below) and advancing into the medal rounds will again prove to be a challenging feat. After opening on Saturday against reigning FIBA World Cup champion Germany, things don’t get any easier with another group stage game against France, a team featuring NBA standouts Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert. Hachimura, who should be a focal point for Japan again, is coming off a solid season with the Los Angeles Lakers after averaging 13.6 points and 4.3 rebounds.

Connor Griffin (video coordinator), Canada

A former Gonzaga walk-on, Griffin latched on with Canada’s men’s national team as a result of his longstanding relationship with head coach Jordi Fernandez. Griffin worked with Fernandez during the coach’s tenure as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets. The ex-Zag was recently hired by the new Brooklyn Nets head coach to be a full-time assistant during the 2024-25 NBA season.

Before Griffin steps into that role, he’ll serve as a video coordinator at the Olympics, cutting up game tape, preparing scouting reports and handling a variety of other duties behind the scenes for Fernandez and his coaching staff.

Yvonne Ejim, Canada

The 2024 West Coast Conference Player of the Year took a two-week hiatus from Gonzaga during the heart of the WCC season to join the Canadians in Sopron, Hungary, during their quest for an Olympic berth. Ejim didn’t score in the tournament but played meaningful minutes off the bench in two of the three games to help Canada qualify for its fourth consecutive Olympics.

Ejim is the only Calgary, Alberta, native on the women’s team, but the Canadian men’s team also features one. Melvin Ejim, the older brother of Gonzaga’s star forward, was one of 12 players – and one of only two non-NBA players – selected to play alongside Olynyk and Nembhard. Yvonne is one of the youngest players on the women’s roster that includes four WNBA players: Laeticia Amihere, Bridget Carleton, Aaliyah Edwards and Kia Nurse. Canada opens group play on Monday against hosts France before subsequent games against Australia and Nigeria.

Sunny Greinacher (3x3), Germany

The former All-WCC first-team selection has played overseas in her home country in Germany as well as Poland since her standout college career ended. Greinacher’s had multiple stints with the national team, but more recently diverted her attention to the 3x3 competition to help Germany become one of eight countries to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.

Greinacher was named the WCC Tournament MVP in 2014 after scoring 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds to help the Bulldogs defeat BYU in the championship game.

Kacie Bosch (3x3), Canada

Bosch’s time at Gonzaga didn’t last as long, but the guard spent two years in Spokane before finishing out her career back home in Alberta at the University of Lethbridge. The 27-year-old made her 3x3 debut while helping Canada earn a bronze medal at the AmeriCup tournament in 2021.

In 2022, Bosch was a member of the Canadian team that won a silver medal in its first appearance at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup and helped the country book a trip to the Olympics with a third-place finish at the FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Hungary.

Washington State

Josh Hawkinson, Japan

Competing on the Olympic stage would’ve been a wildly unlikely scenario for Hawkinson after the former Washington State center averaged 1.2 points per game for the Cougars as a college freshman and still a long shot even when he became the nation’s second-most improved scorer the following season, posting 14.7 ppg. Representing Japan surely never crossed Hawkinson’s mind during his four-year stint in Pullman. The scenario became possible when Hawkinson moved overseas in 2017 to start his pro career, with the Toyotsu Fighting Eagles of the Japanese B.League, and then became a reality in 2023 when he became a Japanese citizen.

Per FIBA rules, one naturalized player is allowed on a national team’s roster and Hawkinson made his first stint for Japan count last summer at the FIBA World Cup, finishing the tournament seventh in scoring (21.0 ppg) and second in rebounding (10.8) while helping the country qualify for the Paris Games with a 3-2 record at the tournament.

Idaho

Gordon Herbert (coach), Germany

Herbert left his hometown of Penticton, British Columbia, to play for North Idaho College in 1977 and spent two years in Coeur d’Alene before transferring to the University of Idaho, where he was recruited by Don Monson. Herbert redshirted on Idaho’s 1980-81 NCAA Tournament team due to a wrist injury and started at forward for the 1981-82 team that won a school-record 27 games. Herbert primarily played overseas in Europe before getting his coaching start with Finnish club Korihait.

After roughly two dozen years coaching at the European club level, Herbert had a brief stint as the Canadian national team coach and took the same position with Germany in 2021.

The ex-Vandal guided Germany to a bronze medal at the 2022 FIBA European Championships and helped the nation capture its first gold medal at the FIBA World Cup last summer. NBA brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner and Dennis Schroeder headline a German team that enters the Olympics with a No. 3 world ranking.