Apr. 3—Will Graves is in select company.
The former Gonzaga walk-on has gone to three of the past six Final Fours, one as a son, one as a player and one as a graduate assistant. There are no official records kept of individuals with that background, but it is safe to say it cannot be a long list.
"They're all different," said Graves, a first-year grad assistant on former San Francisco coach Todd Golden's staff at Florida. "My dad (Oregon women's basketball coach Kelly Graves) going in 2019 was pretty special for our family because it was our first one and (the regionals) were in Portland, so it was a homecoming for him. It felt like the stars aligned and everything was awesome.
"The next one with Gonzaga (in 2021) and now this one. They get sweeter each time."
The stars aligned before, during and after the 6-foot-5 Graves' playing career, which included one year at Lane Community College in Eugene, three with Gonzaga and a final season at NAIA Southern Oregon.
Gonzaga's bid to go unbeaten was derailed by Baylor in the 2021 championship game in Indianapolis. Graves played on another No. 1-seeded GU team that was upset by Arkansas in the 2022 Sweet 16. After averaging 12.8 points in his lone season at Southern Oregon, it was a matter of if, not when Graves would enter the family business of coaching.
Kelly Graves was 316-136 in 14 years at Gonzaga with 10 West Coast Conference titles and seven trips to the NCAA Tournament. He's been Oregon's coach the past 11 years and guided the Ducks to the program's first Final Four in 2019. Oregon lost in the semifinals to eventual national champ Baylor.
Jack, Will's older brother, is an assistant coach at NWAC women's power Lane and older brother Max works for Soccer Without Borders in Baltimore.
"Everything I know is from the people before me," said Graves, who played in 39 games at Gonzaga. "Brian Michaelson and Stephen Gentry (Gonzaga assistant coaches and former Zags walk-ons) were always awesome to me and I'm thankful for what they did for me.
"I had just lost in the tournament at Southern Oregon and I was calling Rem (Bakamus, a former GU walk-on who has been on Tommy Lloyd's staff at Arizona for the last four years) asking, 'How do you know you're built for this (coaching)?' He told me to try the pro route and if that doesn't work out get into coaching."
Graves did just that, suiting up for a pro team in the Dominican Republic before focusing his attention on coaching. He emailed numerous programs hoping to land a grad assistant job.
Pepperdine, under new coach Ed Schilling, brought Graves aboard. He was roughly a month on the job when he heard from the Gators.
"I loved it in L.A., but I'd reached out to a lot of schools earlier and Florida was a little later in their hiring process for GAs and they'd just seen my email," Graves said. "They're super fond of Gonzaga down here — what do they have, a 30-game winning streak versus the Dons (actually 33) — so we talked on the phone. It seemed like a great fit and they gave me a good offer."
Graves joined a Florida program coming off 16-17 and 24-12 records in Golden's first two seasons. The Gators are 34-4 in year three under Golden, who was a three-year starter at Saint Mary's.
Florida finished second in the SEC, one game behind Saturday's semifinal opponent Auburn, and snagged the fourth and final No. 1 seed. Florida won the only regular-season meeting with the Tigers, 90-81 on the road, reinforcing what Graves knew from the minute he started working with the players.
"The SEC is just so physical, such good athletes that I wasn't really used to," Graves said. "The WCC ...
