Noise from Mike White’s camp

Flash in the pan is who we were! We were lucky

 

I think it can go either way. One thing is for sure. If he leaves or is fired (which is highly unlikely), he won't be taking ANYONE with him from a player standpoint. He certainly won't be going to a better program given his precarious track record here at Florida. He has never even threatened to win the SEC outright or in the tournament. His teams are unpredictable which is why Vegas hates us right now. Felder, Reeves, Kennedy, Gatkek, and Jitoboh should all come back. And with the addition of Reed, Reneau, and Aberdeen and the traditional 4-5 transfers cherry-picked for need (especially a backup center for Jitoboh), MW will have the first team that will legitimately contend for an SEC Championship.

 

I think its 50/50 that he leaves. He won't be fired, that's certain.

There are many programs where Mike White would be an upgrade. One of those programs could offer him security, albeit not as much money. What he has done
at Florida would be celebrated at those places and he could coach for a decade without the same pressure and expectations that exists in Gainesville.

I'm pretty sure he knows that he won't succeed here. I know coaches have egos, but White comes from a family of sports administrators. He's smarter than many here think. He knows that the support for the program is average. He knows he can't recruit the caliber of players necessary to compete for championships in today's SEC. He won't cheat, nor will this administration let him do it, even if he wanted to.

If you want to win this league now, go deep in the tourney, you have to pay players.
That's what happens at UK, Auburn, LSU and others. Until we resolve to play by the same rules (or lack of them) that others play by, we will remain where we are, regardless of who coaches us.

 

I wish that there was a mostly agree emoticon for your post.

BD recruited some great players from rich families. David Lee, Joakim Noah and Al Horford are three examples.

 

I’m know it’s fun to shit on UK and Calipari but I find it interesting that when Billy was the coach he and Billy Sr would embrace Calipari like he was family. If they thought he was cheating I don’t think they would have been as warm. Just my thought. He doesn’t have to be a slimeball at UK to succeed.

 

recent articles with quotes from Billy cursing at Nike for paying and leading recruits to UK. Might be Donovan didn’t blame Calipari for all the money leading players to UK but he certainly blamed Nike. And we know based on fbi tapes that lsu and auburn were paying recruits. It happens.

 

Mike White is a good but not great coach who always seems to have a somewhat imbalanced roster that results in his teams generally having higher floor/lower ceiling type of seasons. 8-9 SEC wins in a bad year and 10-11 in a good one. And catching lightning in a bottle once a decade doesn’t change that. But the league is improving quickly so it’s getting harder and harder to hit that ceiling.

His bad losses are not usually offset by the same number of good wins over the course off a season, but they are offset by the fact that he’s a decent man who seems to do things the right way.

It’s a close call, but it’s been 7 years and we certainly know who he is by now.

 

I wonder if people think it requires cheating to move up into the top 4 of the SEC. If so, would you prefer better results albeit with cheating, vs. current results without cheating?

I struggle with this hypothetical.

 

With the NIL deals, is there any real cheating going on anymore? The players are now literally getting paid so they just go where they can make the most money. The schools that can get their players the biggest endorsements are gonna get all the top players and there is no way for the no name schools to compete. There was already a huge divide but now it is even larger.

 

We don’t really know if there are blue blood basketball programs that don’t have Mike Whites name on a short list.
I think you would be surprised.

 

I'd be very surprised if any blue blood program has him on its shortlist of prospective coaches.

 

Yeah, we got lucky to get Billy. But Billy built an elite program and showed that with the right leadership it can be a top tier program year in and year out. I think most of us who are ready to move on from CMW want him to be the guy but have very little confidence in what he has shown after seven seasons.

The mindset that UF isn't capable of consistently competing for SEC Titles and every 3 or 4 years having a legit shot to make a run to the F4 is annoying.

 

I don’t think even the most ardent White supporters believe that. The most compelling argument is that White is still growing as a coach and will improve. Very very few people think this is good enough.

 

I think that might be true going forward. I don't think anybody can predict how all this chaos shakes out.

OTOH CMW is being graded on performance over last 7 years, pre-NIL. I think -- but I'm unsure -- that part of his underperforming relates to personnel and part of that relates to UF staying clean. My guess is, each year, most of the teams ahead of us in the SEC are slimy in a way that we wouldn't and shouldn't tolerate.

Lots of "ifs" in that and likely some rationalization.

 

As several have already posted, the concept of "cheating" is pretty much obsolete. Why do things underhanded when you can do it easily in the sunshine nowadays? But now to a bigger issue, and this is more towards football at UF than it is in basketball. How much blatant purchasing of hired mercenaries are we (meaning me) going to accept before we realize we are supporting a minor league professional team and not a bunch of young, passionate student-athletes? In the past, you could at least figure out that a few elite players were more comfortable than others but not that the team was bought and paid for.

And so, would you like a coach who buys a NC, a la Calipari, with a bunch of misses and absolutely no attachment to your alma mater or do you want to do it "the old-fashioned way" and never sniff the champion's podium? Personally, once I see the cost to do business crosses a certain line (to be determined) I will find better things to do than attach my emotions to a team of mercenaries who are sponsored by the U of F.

 

It wasn’t luck. It was a lot of hard work and dedication by Donovan, his assistants, the administration and boosters. You don’t luck into that kind of success.

 

We are playing 7 transfers. What’s the difference?

 

We have that many transfers because the NCAA changed the rules to allow a one-time transfer without the penalty of sitting out a year. And if you were to get a real answer out of Mike (and Dan the past 2 years), he would prefer to have HS talent for 3-5 years instead of transfers. Transfers are Plan B for making immediate upgrades to the roster.

Now if you want to claim that the next round of players are going to be like the Oklahoma QB who transferred to USC then yes, there is no difference.

 

Especially back to back titles. Anyone that thinks and says that was luck is disparaging BD and his staff and is just throwing crap out there.