Will Few Finally Bolt to Eugene?

Rumors of Mark Few leaving the Gonzaga basketball program to coach at the University of Oregon, his alma mater, have persisted ever since the U of O hired his buddy Pat Kilkenny as AD. But the stars have never lined up quite right for this to happen, namely because Oregon has never been bad enough to justify the ouster of longtime head basketball coach Ernie Kent, and Few seems to have learned a lesson from his predecessor, Dan Monson, whose decision to bolt Spokane for the bigger-time (back then, anyway) pastures  of the University of Minnesota proved a disastrous one (he's now at Long Beach State).

But if there were ever a year where Few might end up supplanting Kent in Eugene, 2009 is it. The Ducks are terrible this year, sure to finish in the bottom half -- if not the cellar -- of the Pac-10 and miss the NCAA tourney by a good margin. Meanwhile, for the first time in his career, Few is on something of a hot seat in Spokane, where his Bulldogs have underachieved lately after a torrid start that, for a couple weeks at least, had them on a short list of national title contenders. So here's my prediction: If Gonzaga doesn't make it into the round of 16 come March, Few will end up in green and gold next season.