I don’t know what the poster intended, but I would say it’s the university itself. It’s striving for excellence academically and athletically despite some state government interference, including, on the athletic side, interference with NIL.
Thanks. Got it. Me too. Had really high hopes for MW but I see no glimmer in either the structure of the team or trajectory of the program that makes me think he can get us beyond about 5th in the league. Maybe that is all UF fans should expect (some might say "deserve") but in my opinion Florida has a lot to offer. No, we are not UK but we certainly can average top 3 in the SEC. That is my expectation. Billy.... lightning in a bottle we were lucky to witness but should not expect.
One point to add is that Georgia could be competing with us for a coach if White leaves. If that happens, we can’t sit around on our butts. The initial due diligence in finding a new coach should be done now but should be done confidentiality.
ok.fair enough. so you believe … specific to basketball … the UAA does enough to “deserve” more from its program. It’s actions, decisions and commitment to the program/sport “deserves” more than program has recently produced?
I'm a bit confused when coach didn't put Applebee's butt on the pine after the first two air-balls and turnovers in the last 4-5 minutes. I know he has been a go to late in games but how much punishment does the team have to take from selfish play? Gee - Appleby, throw it to Castleton who was carrying the team offensively anyway. Last 4 minutes may have been the worst meltdown by a UF player I have ever seen and coach just let it continue until the end. Was unreal to watch that.
Good post. I am ready for a new coach and direction but Mike white does not crawl under my skin like, say, Muschamp. Muschamp was embarrassing (screaming on the sidelines, fraternity incident) AND his results were bad. MW has always had class and runs a clean program. Makes me contemplate what behavior fans/colleges will accept for wins/losses. A great guy like MW might get a few extra seasons with subpar results. Or a jerk of a guy who wins titles has winning absolve his behavior. Happens from kids to pros in sports and in life. I do hope that while "providing a championship experience" UF always keeps the "with integrity" part. I thank MW for that.
The irony is that this year 5th would be great as the conference is loaded, we would probably be a Top 20 team. We will be lucky to finish in the top half at this point.
We were a 4 seed, which should be our average seed...not our best. A 4 seed is not a great year. Tournament results can have a lot of randomness in it. A 1 and done basketball tournament will always have that. You can't get too optimistic from a deep run after an okay regular season just like you can't be too pessimistic after a 1st round exit after a great regular season. A 4 seed + E8 is a good year. That firmly puts you in around 10th in the country. I expect us to be a top 20 program and consistently be in contention to be ranked. So ~10th or so is a solid finish. However being in the 8th-12th range once a decade isn't good enough for our program.
I think giving White another year will lead to a lost year and getting further behind. Just like if UF would have stuck with Mullen instead of moving on to Napier. Both of them had this year to get things trending in the right direction, and both have seemed to fail. The chances of a coach completely changing who they are after 8 years is extremely unlikely. It reminds me so much of Muschamp’s last year and how he only needed help on the offensive side of the ball to turn things around. Well Muschamp got his new OC, and the offense looked similar to how it did in the previous years.
Castleton, Appleby, and Duruji - all seniors - are the only consistent players all season. You never know what you are going to get with everyone else. Lane and Kennedy are cobwebbing on the bench. Felder is a complete mystery. Showed so much promise but has been relegated to "desperate times call for desperate measures" playing time which is sad. Because he is definitely better than that. And more problematic, he is coming back with Kennedy and Reeves three who get minimal playing time on a team that is under .500 in the SEC. How do you build when 7 of your players are gone from eligibility, and the 5 you have coming back one has a devastating injury and the other 4 barely play on a losing team. This begs the question if the transfer portal is more miss than hit, why do we have 7 scholarship players leaving and only 3 HS players signed to LOI? It can't be because we are getting such great results from the transfer portal. Granted on this current squad, Castleton, Duruju, and Appleby, all transfers, are playing SEC caliber basketball (which requires consistency). We have seen flashes from Jones, flashes from Fleming, flashes from McKissic, and flashes from Felder. I am not totally convinced that had we just allowed Lane, Reeves, and Kennedy to play and even Gatkek, that we would have not gotten similar numbers on offense. Perhaps not on defense. But what difference does it make? We play veterans to be not so much under .500 as we might have been playing freshmen who next year having played a full year with major time, would be ready for prime time? Not to mention the draw seeing freshmen and sophomores playing major minutes every game would have on recruiting. As it turns out we are going to be forced to get a least 4 transfers in the offseason. One will have to be a center, one will have to be a swingman, one will have to be a power forward, and one with have to be a combo guard. We cannot even afford the luxury of getting either a one or a two at the guard position. From what I can see Aberdeen (freshman) will start at the point (unless Kennedy does something extraordinary in development in the offseason), Reeves (sophomore) will start at the shooting guard, Jitoboh (junior) will start at center, a transfer will start at power forward or perhaps Reed (freshman) or Felder, and a transfer will start at the small forward or Reneau (freshman). It will be the first time in Mike White's tenure that we will have three starters that are 6'8" and taller. Our front line will average 6'9.6" in height with a bruising man in the middle at 6'11". Then we will have a 6'4" to 6'5" point guard in Aberdeen who can literally do it all (don't sleep on him), and Reeves who will be the focal point for scoring at 6'6" maybe 6'7" by next year. That is a bona fide tournament team given good selections in the portal to back them up. For the first time in 8 years, we won't have 6'2" guards guarding 6'10" power forwards. I don't know if the SEC will be ready for playing us without a handicap as White has had us doing for almost a decade. If Gatkek puts on 20-30 pounds, he could be a factor in the post also. Next year is the pivotal year for MW. If he can get the team above 500 in the SEC, earn a solid seed in the NCAA tournament, everyone will start to say the ship has been put back on course. Another year of musical chairing the players through transfers, and winning 2 and losing three throughout the year coupled with mediocre recruiting, and 2023 will be MW's swan song.
It is becoming apparent that next year is the pivotal year for MW. He is finally going to have taller players, and he has some really good young talent on the team in Reeves, Aberdeen, Reed, Reneau, and perhaps Kennedy if he develops his game. Jitoboh has proved that he is a legitimate SEC center and will be feared next year. Defenses will have to adjust when they play against him. No more excuses for MW.
BD was the right guy at the right time at UF. Pitino and Spurrier were way ahead of the curve with how to run an offense and BD learned it from the basketball side from Slick Ric. BD could offer an exciting style of play to entice elite players and getting Mike Miller was a key. When BD was first on campus I saw John Pelphrey shooting at a basket in Florida Gym and I asked him if he wanted to play because I had downs. He agreed. While waiting for the game to end I told him that I expected BD to play a fast paced game with lots of 3's so that he could get good players to commit and then over time evolve into a more traditional approach to the game when he had the talent. John didn't say anything, but that is what he did. The 2014 team is exactly that. I know that most posters here view BD as a god and wish that we could get back to Billy Ball. Billy Ball now is a stupid way to play and after the first few years we didn't play it. Every coach now knows what to do against it. It worked well in the distant past because the coaches didn't know how to play against it. Late in his UF career BD was running NBA style offensive sets with lots of reads so freshmen couldn't just step in and do it. Likewise Fun and Gun for football won't work now much like the veer offense is a relic of the 1970's. The games are more complicated now.
To get to NCAA we MUST beat both uga and vandy on road, that is 19-12, plus one in SEC gets to 20-13 which will get us a 13-15 seed. Anything short of that is the NIT vs Albany Teachers College, a round 1 knockout with a left hook.
Won’t they make an exception for Mike White considering his bad luck, the cheating by all the other teams and dishonest reffing?
