Hell, just be *in* it. I can swallow NIT or even missing the NIT every few years if it feels like you are building toward better success in between. My expectations are realistic realizing FL is not a blue blood. Just challenge for a conference title once on awhile, win the conference tourney once in awhile, get to elite 8 or even sweet 16 maybe once every 4 years. Just put a team you believe is in the hunt. Where has the high water mark been the last 4 years? White’s high water mark was when he mostly still had the players he inherited (with a few key additions of his own). It’s actually been a slide down in each subsequent year, perhaps finding yet another new bottom. The issue really is the directionality. Hell, the guy (until this year) was completely dominated by FSU. Enough said. IMO to keep the job, needs to at least sneak into the big tourney, or barely miss but make a run at the NIT. I just don’t see that he’s earned his pay if it goes down the tubes.
The trajectory of Florida’s basketball program changed with the hiring of Billy Donovan. Billy’s teams won 6 regular season SEC championships and 4 conference tournament championships. What did the football team win before Spurrier? I believe that the answer is nada. No one, perhaps other than you and a smattering of other Gator fans, wants to go back to the old days.
That's the thing: the metrics used by those promoting White's performance seem like they were decided on ex post. If you had asked them, I doubt that they would have said "Winning exactly 1 game in the tournament most years" was their metric. But that is the only lens by which his career reasonably could be considered a success. I would say that we should be using something that more closely resembles a series of ex ante metrics. For me, I would use the following for Florida, a program that should be competitive in a top conference but is not a blue blood: 1. NCAA tournament berths in most years (let's say 7 out of 10). This is where White has succeeded. 2. Second weekend of the tournament: 3 out of 10 years. 3. 1 Final Four a decade 4. Some combination of 4 league regular season/tournament titles per 10 years. That basically means winning 1/5 of the regular season or SEC tournament titles (there would be 20 over 10 years). 5. Finishing ranked 5 years out of 10. Then I would supplement it with a variety of quantitative and qualitative marketing metrics to demonstrate continued interest of the fan base in the program. Frankly, he has failed in 4/5 performance metrics and just about any marketing metric, as interest in the program is waning and has been waning for years.
I do not want to go back to the old days. We got lucky with Spurrier and Donovan. But it is not like we are entitled to that kind of success either and that is what I am railing about. We are not entitled. We have to earn it. And cleanly or else I don't want it.
Man this thread would be understandable about 3 years ago but at this point this attitude is laughable. And good lord murph please stop talking about hiring Rick Pitino sr. What a ridiculous pipe dream and a terrible fit for our university. Gross.
Urban Myer succeeded even if he was a jackass. I wouldn’t trade that in for a nicer coach. If White could coach, I wouldn’t be quite as dead set on getting rid of him, but, unfortunately, he can’t coach.
Something like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Michigan State, UCLA, Wisconsin, Syracuse, Connecticut, Villanova, Gonzaga, and of course Florida. I think Oklahoma, Butler, Michigan, and maybe Ohio State might be up there. We are on that list for our achievements under Donovan, but averaged out over the last twenty years, I think we get there.
I on the other hand was glad to see Urban Meyer leave. He had different rules for star players and other players. Want me to name the player he kept on the team?
Thanks to Phil for the answer. I didn't terribly want to go through every program in the country. It should be noted that I did not say that a coach needed to hit every single one of those metrics. There is a qualitative element to performance evaluation. If a school hit every metric but won only 3 conference titles, it is reasonable that a coach should be allowed to continue and be well paid, especially given that it is unlikely that he hit right at the mark in the other 4. Also, the nature of this fundamentally starts from a rather difficult point, as Florida is now a solid basketball job. Putting those expectations on a coach at Mississippi State would be ridiculous. But Florida has a history now, it is the premier program in a major talent producing state, and it used to have a famously difficult home court.
People crying out for a new head coach have inexplicably totally ignored the reality of how injuries have affected our ability to compete. Not only this year ---- but last year as well, when Keyontae went down. They also don't even acknowledge that with Keyontae on the roster and not playing......we remain short an actual player at all times. Yet we continue to make it into the NCAA Tournament every year. Hell....Coach White should get a freaking medal!
I agree that KJ was a brutal blow for Mike White, but the year before that they were preseason top 10. That team was decent, not great with Blackshear, KJ, Nembhard, Mann and Lewis. Right before the Covid break, they were beating UK by I think 19 pts in the 2nd half and they blew the game. This year, they were fully healthy vs Tx. So and Maryland, but lost those games. In fact, they were blown out at home vs Tx. So. Then there was the LSU game at home, in a game that LSU gift wrapped to the Gators, but they still didn't win. Also, fully healthy in that game. If the Gators had 2 or 3 total losses when CC went down, I can see the argument, but this is the same inconsistent, at times very poor offense we see every year. The only common denominator is Mike White. I'm still hoping for a turnaround and will always root for the Gators regardless of how I feel about the coach, but the excitement for Gator basketball is getting worse each year. In fact, on Twitter they showed Trinity Thomas at the gymnastics meet score a 10 (she's unreal btw). There looked to be a much better crowd for that meet at home than any of our basketball games this year. That should never happen, especially against ranked teams.
So, we have fans believing that the only thing that's keeping Florida from being a perennial top team is finding a new coach next year. There are plenty of teams that were at that level over a decade or two and have struggled greatly to return wiyh no success. But our fans wanting that makes the difference and they know how to make that hire better than dozens of other institutions that have a longer history and stronger tradition in hoops. You don't have to be happy with the situation today but there's no need to be impulsive. Besides, NIL will change everything going forward, more so than social media alone.
I honestly didn’t think I’d see this post at this point this year, but here we are…AGAIN Poster was saying the exact same thing last year..
My .02 cents: - The "UF doesn't support hoops" argument is BS. If we win we support very well. His job is to win. - He has not won enough. We have never really competed for any titles over 7 years. - Worse, his teams seem to play joyless basketball 90% of the time. They also are grossly inconsistent EVERY year. I thought MW would grow out of this. He has not. - His teams play below their talent too often. This is the one I cannot stand for any well paid coach of any sport. The minimum job requirement is using your talent to its potential. Murphee, as for fair arguments, you point to UK being bad last year to excuse UF this year. When somebody raises "but it has been 7 years for MW" you argue "how many coaches have won titles in 7 years?" Be consistent b/c UK sure has. You don't get to point at UK for being bad one year and then say they are irrelevant to as a comparison over time. Plus, UK is way better this year after their bad year. Will UF be top 5 next year? History says no. Your arguments are weak and inconsistent. MW is coaching at a hoops program that played for and won SEC championships and should regularly be a top hoops school in the conference. We have not competed for a conference title in 7 years. That isinarguably damns his coaching. Plus his style of ball is painful to watch far too often. Guy needs to go.
Years ago I used to watch as many games as I could during the season. Now I’d rather watch Netflix than them.
I had to read this entire thread to realize that the OP discussion of we need patience beyond 7 years was not actually satire.lol
