Whether it be in a gym in Las Vegas or at a clinic somewhere, it's a question that Gonzaga coaches can't seem to avoid.
"What's the blueprint for what you guys have done?" is a question asked by almost every basketball coach in one manner or another. "How have you been able to do it?"
"There's no secret recipe or anything like that," said former 'Zags assistant Bill Grier, now the head coach at San Diego.
Well, not so fast.
"What we have is special," said current Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice. "And for us to give the recipe all the time is kind of idiotic."
Gonzaga had made the NCAA tournament just once — in 1995 — before the incredible and ongoing 10-year run of appearances in the Big Dance first began in '99, the final season Dan Monson was the head coach.
In every single season that Mark Few has been at the helm, the 'Zags have made the NCAA tournament.
Stability on the staff is one major factor why the program has been able to achieve consistent success over the past decade. In fact, he has had to endure just two changes in a decade.
Prior to Grier leaving a year ago to take the head gig at San Diego, the only other move came when Tommy Lloyd was promoted to an assistant, replacing Scott Snider.
"We've all been together for a long time and we know what works here," said Rice, who has been to the Big Dance in all of his nine seasons in Spokane. "There's a level of trust with the staff."
The group was so tight that Few, Grier and Monson all lived together in a house from 1991 through the 1997 season.
Just think about the staff turnover among Top 25 schools. Memphis lost its top two assistants in the offseason. Arizona State coach Herb Sendek lost Archie Miller and Mark Phelps in successive years.
"Everyone wants to know the magic formula," said ex-'Zag Casey Cavalry, who now works in Spokane. "It's the people."
In Cavalry's first season with the 'Zags, he went to the second round of the NIT. An Elite Eight and a pair of Sweet 16s followed.
"I don't think that in my 20 years of coaching, I felt more pressure than the first couple of years here," Rice admitted. "We went to the Elite Eight the year before, Dan left and Mark took over. The program was at a crossroads and we could either make it stick as a Top 25 elite program or fall back the other way and be one of those blips on the radar."
Few and his staff managed to keep Gonzaga atop the West Coast Conference for the past eight seasons and also in the conversation when it comes to the elite programs in the country. In fact, it's almost taboo to call Gonzaga a mid-major program nowadays.
"It's much harder to try and maintain a high level than it was to get there," Few said. "That's what's been so amazing about what Duke's been able to do and what UCLA has done with three straight Final Fours."
Part of the issue for many programs who burst onto the scene and attempt to remain is that the support for the program doesn't always coincide with the increased expectations.
That's not been the case in Spokane.
Few remembers his first season with the program as a grad assistant in 1990 when the team was coming off a three-win campaign in the WCC.
"We used to have to put our place cards in the student center to announce there were games," he recalled. "People didn't even know we had games."
The McCarthey Athletic Center, a $25 million facility, opened in 2004 and is one of the top arenas on the west coast.
"The old place was a great home court advantage, but it was basically a glorified high school gym," Rice said.
Cavalry remembers the days when the showers would go from normal temperature for scalding hot for no apparent reason and he and his teammates would be shouting as they stepped out from underneath the water.
But much has changed since.
On his official visit, Cavalry wanted to buy some Gonzaga gear to bring back home with him to Tacoma. He went to the Northtown Mall and came up completely empty, unable to find a shirt, shorts or even a pair of socks with the 'Zags proudly displayed.
"After I left, I went to a shop in Tokyo and they had Gonzaga stuff," he said.
Gonzaga is also one of the few programs in the country that has its own private plane to fly to each and every road game. Few and his staff are also able to utilize private planes for recruiting, which makes it easier for the staff to be a presence at out-of-state recruits' high school games.
Not too long ago, Gonzaga's roster was filled with local players and foreigners. Now, out of the 12 scholarship kids, only four hail from the state of Washington.
Rice said that recruiting has changed in that the 'Zags are able to get in the mix with highly touted recruits, but that's not always worth getting excited about.
"A lot of people think it's easier than it was, but now we recruit against Kansas, UCLA and Arizona," he said. "All it's done is changed who we recruit against. Now we go against the elite of the elite and, if anything, it's become more difficult."
The challenge now is to try and mix the hard-nosed Gonzaga-type of player that has become synonymous in Spokane with the elite-level kid who is able to adapt to the mindset of the program.
"We want guys with a chip on their shoulder," Few said.
The 'Zags are still searching for that Final Four appearance and while it may consume some fans, Few is still at peace with where the program stands.
"The story to me is how we've been in the discussion," Few said. "It's such a crapshoot and it's really difficult for me to see people put all their eggs in one basket when it's a one-and-done deal."
"I know it's inevitable that people talk about it, but that doesn't mean I have to subscribe to it," he added.
