The only thing that I am proud of is that the players play hard. I am not proud of watching what might be the worst conceived offense in the country. I am not proud that 2 of the best point guards in the country used to play for Florida, but now play for other schools. I am not proud that almost all Gator freshmen leave the program early. I am not proud that Alex Klatsky didn’t get into the Vandy game until the last 30.5 seconds. I am not proud that Niels Lane didn’t get into a single game for a month until he started the 2nd half of yesterday’s game because White was pissed off at his starters. I could keep going.
Yesterday's result was a lot of fun. The team played extremely hard (I know some suggest they always do, but I see what looks like a variance in effort), and the crowd was very clearly responsive to how hard they were playing. Kudos to the students who brought life to an otherwise (and unsurprisingly ridiculous basketball atmosphere...crowd definitely got better late in the game). THAT is the kind of effort I can buy into. I would much rather miss the Tournament this year, and see our kids play with a sustained level of heart and effort and start building on our younger talent than to focus on the upperclassmen and transfers and see if they can take us to the second weekend. Here's the challenge, Coach White, bring a team that can consistently bring that level of effort. Fans will buy into that, and the successes will come. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
If Glover is one of the best PG in. Country he will go in first Rd when time. who left early that matter as freshman? I could keep going but then have to hear same old things. That terrible O scored what 80 last game.
Was Chiozza one of the best point guards in the country? Was Wilbekin? Neither got drafted. Is Nembhard? He will likely get drafted in the 2nd round. Size will be an issue with Glover. Where did I say that the Gator freshmen who leave, leave after their 1st year? Here's 2 true statements for you. The team scored 81 points against Oklahoma State. The Gators have one of the worst conceived offenses in college basketball. It's a shame that you have to hear the same old things, but people are just trying to educate you. Maybe this will help a little. There is no rule in college basketball that says that 3 players must stand still and watch the other 2 players play 2 on 5.
We definitely do not see the game the same way. You are quite consistent in saying that White’s coaching is fine, but he needs to recruit better players. I don’t see it that way.
Im not sure if this is a troll or legit. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. It comes down to this. It’s been 7 years. We’ve had 1 good year and the rest mediocre. Good years are defined by either a good regular season or a good postseason. Of course they often go hand in hand. The postseason has a lot of randomness in it, it’s one and done. But long term the best regular season programs will have the best postseason result. Simply getting in the tournament isn’t that big of a deal. It’s like getting a bowl game in football. Getting a mediocre seed (6+) and winning a game in the tournament doesn’t mean much either. Thats like winning the weedwacker bowl in football. It’s reasonable to expect UF to be a top 20 program. Sometimes have elite years (top 5 or 10), a lot of good years (top 25) and some bubble or worse years. White isn’t even remotely close to that. Nobody here expects us to be a top 5/10 program (although it’s doable). We’d be ok with a step down from Billy D. Coach Cal has an elite track record. A down year is the outlier. This year for UF is the exact expectations. This is what White does. If White has a great year that would now be the outlier and most likely would be a fluke In football terms we are basically UK, Mizzou, MSU. Solid teams that can win some good games, but will lose a lot and end up in a crappy bowl. We aren’t expecting to be Bama. There is a lot of real estate between Bama and Mississippi State
Not chest thumping but overall pretty impressive in that kids could have easily quit and shut it down against OSU. But they didn’t. Probation has nothing to do with it. They are a talented Power 5 team that beat the previous number 1 team in the country holding them to 54 points. With our biggest guy that played being 6”9 172 ( don’t forget before the season we projected him to play 5-6 minutes a game) and our next biggest guy ( 6”7 230) still recovering from a serious Illness we had no business winning this game. If this team finds a way to get to 18 regular season wins, not only will they be an tournament team but White will be a solid candidate for coach of the year (would not win it-3rd). With 9-10 wins in conference this year I’d say impressive considering who they are missing.
Getting to the tournament this year when missing your leading scorer and your most improved player is a big deal.
I think Mike White is a mid-major coach who is in over his head at UF but have to give him much credit for his team fighting and scrapping out a victory today. The facts are he lost his best player last year and again this year, his developing talent is suspect at best but here this team is getting close to the magic # for another NCAA bid. It is definitely not pretty but I am fired up about this win today
How does it feel tampajack1 to be rooting against your Florida Gators for SEVEN years.... SEVEN years because they didn't hire Shaka Smart and hired instead Mike White. SEVEN years of your life rooting against your alma mater because YOU want the coach fired. PATHETIC. From the sound of it your bitterness is tied to the lack of time left in your life that you will see the Gators win back to back National Championships again. SAD. May your basketball dreams... RIP
In addition to the lies and nasty tone of your post, it’s readily apparent from it that you are as far from being a true Gator fan as one can get. No, I didn’t want the Gators to hire Shaka Smart. I did hope, however, that the Gators would hire Grant or Pelphrey so that Billy’s coaching philosophy would continue at UF. I also expressed concern about White’s dribble drive offense, which has turned out to be a legitimate concern. Nevertheless, I fully supported White in his first several years despite his obvious shortcomings, with the one exception being that I expressed disappointment with White not starting Chiozza in his junior year even though it was apparent that Chiozza was one of the best point guards in the country. My public dissatisfaction with White began after he completely mismanaged the team that had Blackshear, Nembhard, KJ, Mann and Lewis on it. That was a team that I felt and still feel was a legitimate national title contender. Watching that mediocre season convinced me that the Gators needed to get a better coach. As far as rooting against the Gators, the only time that I have thought about it has been during this season when a 12-seed in the tournament might get us another year or more of mediocrity, and I have expressed that thought on here. As for you, I doubt that you understand most of what I have written, but keep rooting for the Gators to be one of the top-50 teams in the country. That’s not my cup of tea.
Either you don’t read a lot of my posts in this forum or your troll-o-meter needs new batteries. There is nothing about my posts that indicate trolling characteristics.
I wish the AD would have or will force his hand to hire a strong Offensive minded assistant. Offensive scheme, motions and rotations seem to be where his biggest challenges are. I just don’t think Mike has a good handle on that, based on his teams we’ve seen. I just don’t think that changes, unless he’s pushed to really embrace that kind of change.
Here’s the thing about basketball offenses… they all work. As long as your players execute it and hit their shots, almost any offense that keeps players moving and screening will do. As much as I like and support Coach White, I agree that our offensive sets aren’t always crisp and don’t seem to have an identity. When that happens, we are forced to rely on talent and individual playmaking to score. I want White to figure it out, here, though. I think he’s right on the cusp of getting it all straightened out.
As disappointed as I have been with the program under White I agree with this. I'm still not convinced on his ability to evolve and raise his ceiling though. For better or worse getting to the tournament this year absolutely affords him more time. The bad home losses have to stop though.
I said in another thread, that I’ve seen him be more flexible when we’re pushed to the wall ( ie, injuries). What I’d like to see, is that same innovation and rotation flexibility, when he has a full roster. Historically, he’s fallen back to that same…offensive approach, and we lose winnable games, and/or, don’t hold leads. Fingers crossed
And that offensive approach he defaults to here isn't anything like the up-tempo offense that got him on our radar I believe we would win more games if he would run and gun and empty the bench every game so we always have fresh players on the court. It would let us push the tempo on offense and defense and most of our opponents don't have the depth to keep up with that for a full 40 minutes.
