After what he did he could have had 10 years of mediocre seasons with first round exits and he still would have deserved his job and pay. I think the elite 8 run from CMW bought him several years, but what bothers me more and more are the trends. Yes, he’s changed the offense this year, but the poor shooting, bad shot selection, and low efficiency still exists. I just wish he’d bring in some kind of “offensive guru” and give that guy the reigns for a season. Same thing Donovan did defensively. He needs to swallow his pride and just admit that he needs help.
Neutral site. Foul trouble Probably a middle of the pack B10 team. Meh. Lots of good teams lose close games like that. I'm still only really bothered by one loss so far...and yes, I know it was a horrific loss.
In his last 5 years, he went to a F4, 3 Elite 8’s and won the conference 3 times, but yes he did have one bad year after that run to end his tenure.
And White rode those players Billy played during that bad year to the Elite 8. Donovan’s last year was when he had a very young squad after graduating a ton of talent from those Elite 8/Final 4 teams. A down year was expected because the previous teams were upperclassmen heavy.
It's sad to see the people relegated to revising history and now being negative towards BillyD to shield Coach White. It's not even close with who has had the rough years since 2011. Coach Donovan 2011 Elite 8 (SEC regular season champs) 2012 Elite 8 2013 Elite 8 (SEC regular season champs) 2014 Final Four (SECT and regular season champs) 2015 Missed NCAAT Coach White 2016 Missed NCAAT 2017 Elite 8 2018 R of 32 2019 R of 32 2020 Missed NCAAT 2021 R of 32
It’s not like Maryland was familiar with Jones since Jones was the best player on an in-conference team
I love Mike being our coach. He is a perfect representative for our athletic dept. You know he is not going to get you in trouble.I think he has done a good job. Why should we as fans expect a UK , Duke , Kansas , Carolina program . We had a flash of that but that’s all. Our fan base is not that. We are who we are and about where supposed to be.
It wasn't a flash. BD spent nearly 20 years building this into at worst the 3rd best program in the SEC. I don't expect us to be Duke or UK nor do I think most people do. I expect us to compete for SEC championships. I expect us to get decent seeds in the NCAA tournament and make the occasional run. Why is that so much to ask? I like White and he does a lot of things right, but I'm not interested in accepting some lesser version of our program in his defense.
If nearly 20 years is a flash then what was Spurrier's 10 years at florida? Guess gator football should just expects mediocrity as well since things aren't supposed to change.....
Hilarious. Donovan had to start some walk-ons in his first couple of years as he rebuilt the team. In year 3, the team finished the season nationally ranked and came within 1 point of advancing to the Elite Eight. In year 4, the Gators played for the national title.
It is really sad that this keeps coming up every year. If you have to defend White by trying to tear down Donovan, you need a new argument.
I think you mistook that as a shot at Billy. I was pointing out that elite results can be lightning in a bottle even for elite coaches. Billy also had 5 straight 1st/2nd round exits after 2000 and 3 horrible years after the 2007 title. Mike is not Billy, but no one really is. I am one of those "Mike White guys" some here like to bash, but I really think he will eventually get over the hump. That loss last night and the Oklahoma loss are no worse than many Billy suffered. The Texas Southern debacle is a different story. I think this is a make it or break it year for Mike. Covid bought him a little time, but we need to see the team that beat FSU show up. That is the capability of this team. Mikes job is at minimum to get us up to our most capable level. He then needs to expand the capability level. Can he? We shall see, but his clock is ticking and Scott just showed us that he will fire a coach that was one season removed from being 1 TD from the playoff. His trigger finger isn't as frozen as people once thought and that may be a strong message on campus.
Ok, but in that streak of 5 straight first weekend exits he also won 73% of his games, won a regular and tournament conference title. In his 3 "horrible" years after 2007 he averaged 23 wins a year and won 67% of his games. If those are horrible results, then how do we define White's winning percentage of 63%, zero conference regular season titles and zero conference tournament titles in 7 years? We honestly haven't even been close to competing for the SEC and the winning % is on a negative trajectory. I want White to succeed, have always been a fan of him, but not sure how long we are supposed to wait to see improved results.
OK. first. can we stop with the 7 years thing? It's five years. This season hasn't unfolded yet and one had no postseason. Second, He isn't gonna be Billy. Period. End of story. Pearl has a 66% winning percentage over his career and only 60% at Auburn. Barnes has a 65% winning % in his career. Not a huge difference. Also to say Mike hasn't come close to winning an SEC crown is just false. Twice he finished within two games of the SEC regular season and also made some decent runs in the SECT. I mean he wasn't seconds from a title, but he was one or two games from one multiple times. To say he "wasn't close to competing" is just wrong. 2017: He is one late season loss at Rupp away from an SEC title. A little refresher. That team beat UK by 22 points at the O'dome...was tied with UK at half in Rupp and the refs allowed a FT difference of 27-6. We outplayed them that day in what was basically a swindle. How do some not remember that? We win at least a share of the SEC with that win. 2018: We finished two games behind both Auburn and UT (Both top 10 teams most of the season.) Scheduling allowed us only one shot at each that year. We beat Auburn at the O'dome and lost a close one (5pts) at UT. That team beat Kentucky TWICE and aTm (#11). They beat Cincy and Gonzaga and lost by 3 to #1 Duke that year. They absolutely competed for an SEC crown all season. 2019: a 3 pt loss to Auburn in the conference Semi's after beating #9 LSU in the quarter finals. That is competing for an SEC title too. 2020: were were in the running for the SECuntil late when 3 of our last 5 games were very close losses to UT and UK (2x). Again, totally in competition for an SEC crown most of the season. We lost by 1 pt to #6 UK on a buzzer beater tip in. And then Covid happened. Season over. 2021. Keyonte. Sorry that gives him a slide in my book. 2022 This story is being written. Now. If you want to argue that Mikes teams play down to competition sometimes and that cost him a couple wins those seasons that would have made him an SEC champion, I am here for that all day. If Scott pulls the trigger and gets a better guy, I am down with that because I want to win. But under no circumstances can anyone objectively say that Mike White hasn't been "close to competing" for an SEC championship. And using 7 years as the metric is silly. He has only finished 5 seasons so far and "competed" in almost all of them for an SEC Championship.
Not sure why those coaches were brought up, I don't particularly care for either. I hope we are not using Rick Barnes as a benchmark for UF. I don't think so. I am not talking about finishing top 5 in the conference. I am talking going into final third stretch of the season with a realistic chance to win the conference. The closest we have been is 2017. The pinnacle of White's time here at UF, and fair or not, a team that was still relying on Donovan players. You bring up 2018, to me that season is the perfect example of the issue plaguing White since 2017. Losing to really bad basketball teams. Yes, we got to within 2 games late, but we never truly threatened to win the conference. Why? Because we went 11-7, with 6 of the 7 losses to teams that had losing conference records. 5 of the losses were to the 4 worst teams in the conference that year - Georgia, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss. It's a story that keeps repeating itself every season and kills our chances of winning the SEC and getting good seeds in the tournament. I don't think I have unreasonable expectations. I thought we would be further along the progression in year 7, its getting harder and harder for me to buy in to the idea that this is going to change with time.
Because they are at the top of the conference during White's tenure. I just listed multiple season where we were in the running late in the season. Billy lost with some of those same players. We agree here and like I said, this is a make it or break it imho in that regard. Understandable. I just think he has two sorta lost seasons with Covid and the KJ stuff. He has a talented roster and no excuses as this team gets more cohesive. He needs to finish in the top 3 or 4 in the SEC and look good in March in my opinion. Failure in any of those and I will be OK with a change.
