By Fred Delkin

 The little burg has only some 2,400 residents, but it boasts the birthrights of two of the current stars in collegiate basketball.  Creswell, some 10 miles south of Eugene off Interstate 5, has two sons making a big splash on this season’s college courts.

Mark Few, 40, coaches a Gonzaga University team that has become virtually every NCAA tournament fan’s favorite underdog and is having its best season ever after following Few’s direction to two straight third round appearances in the Big Dance.

Luke Jackson, 6’7” forward on the University of Oregon’s nationally-ranked cage squad, earned 3A all-state honors at Creswell high and owns all his prep alma mater’s scoring records.  He is now a standout on a Duck team challenging for the Pac10 title.

Coach Few was a standout for the Creswell Bulldog basketball and baseball squads despite his diminutive 5’9” frame.  Injury cut short his baseball playing career at Linfield and he transferred to Oregon for his degree.  After graduation, Few became an assistant coach at Creswell high, then assisted at Sheldon before moving to a graduate assistant’s post with Gonzaga, a second Bulldog affiliation for Few..  His work ethic carried him to a full-time assistant’s job under Don Monson, just in time to participate in one of the great Cinderella stories in recent college cage annals…the 1999 Gonzaga climb to the final eight of the NCAA tournament.  That earned Monson a move to the University of Minnesota and Gonzaga chose to take a chance in moving Few into the head post despite his inexperience.
 
Better offers refused

The good Catholic fathers at Gonzaga are not in a financial position to pay Few what major schools such as Tennessee, Wake Forest, Wisconsin and South Carolina offered for his services prior to the current season.  The pride of Creswell has stayed put, however, to lead his team in a bid for heights the little school in the center of Spokane has yet to climb.  

Gonzaga did make a bid three years ago to land Creswell’s Jackson as a player, but Luke opted to stay closer to home.  That decision has resulted in a 16 points per game scoring average for Oregon’s Ducks and a possibility that two sons of Creswell may take opposite sides of the stage during this year’s NCAA collegiate hoops extravaganza…each as solid evidence that big city playgrounds have no monopoly on the development of hoop stars.

 (C) 2002 Oregon Magazine