Coach Mike White’s best year of coaching for the Gators!

NERD FIGHT!!!

 

Mike White isn’t a great coach.
Even I haven’t made that contention.

 

if only there was a poster and/or thread who could help with this!

 

If we could just keep people healthy. Just look at injuries. Our injuries have certainly cost rhe team several wins.

 

We have our our own Mark Few already, IMO. Few hasn’t won a title in 20 years at GU yet. He just recently became elite after what… his 15-16th year at GU. Also, I’m not sure he runs through a real SEC conference like he does in the West Coast Conference. Few was given time to develop. I think Mike White has taken his lumps and you can see improvement. You can see him tweaking lineups and making adjustments. You see how his players like him.

I am a Coach White supporter, but I do criticize him at times. Let some people here tell it, and they’ll say I think he walks on water. It’s like we aren’t allowed to like and support our coach and players on a Gator fan site.

I hope he doesn’t get run out of town. Very interested to see how this season ends, and what next year brings.

 

Kentucky blew us out two weeks ago. Mississippi blew us out as well. As did Texas Southern, which should never have happened at home.

 

Mark Few's worst record is the kind of record Mike White is averaging. He also has an 83% win rate, and he's only had 2 seasons with ten or more losses.

 

I can find 258+ who do not have his record of getting into the tournament over the last 5 years. To my way of thinking, that counts for something.

 

Donovan's record for his first 7 years was 149-73. White's is 142-86. So, 2 more losses per year and 1 less win. Donovan got into the NCAA tournament 5 times to White's 4 times (which would have been 5 but for the canceled tournament) in the first 7 years. I would argue that the SEC is a tougher conference now than it was during Donovan's first 7 years. We have 5 SEC teams in the top 25 today. Don't remember that being the case back in the day. I also don't remember Donovan's teams having a lot of injuries to his stars. Nor did Donovan have to deal with the transfer situation that White has to deal with. Does anyone doubt that we would be in the top 10 this year if we still had Glover?

 

Very hard to say if this was coach White's best job of coaching at UF. I can see arguments either way.

Building the team:

Pros:
- He did an excellent job in the portal, picking up some good players that contributed mightily
- Previous portal acquisitions also played heavily in the successes of the team
- Reeves has contributed. Gatkek has been a nice surprise. Kennedy has shown some skill, but hasn't contributed much.

Cons:
- Recruiting class was small and didn't have that one big guy to develop and provide backup
- Lost a lot to transfer. Not saying we came out with lesser talent from the portal, but I don't like the lack of continuity/amount of turnover. I guess we just ahave to get used to that

Player development:

Pros:
- Probably his best year in this category.
- Castleton has continued to improve
- Lane and Jitoboh are clearly improved
- I think he has handled Reeves well, bringing him along slowly at first, but using him more now

Cons:
- Not really a regression, but Appleby still does not protect the ball
- Jones' regression from previous years at Penn State is not great...not sure you can blame Coach White for that

Coaching:

Pros:
- IMO, Coach White also improved here. I don't remember a game where we took ourselves out of it by slowing down with a lead. We have seen that happen in multiple games in most seasons of Coach White's time here.
- Mostly, the defense was solid. I think we had good personnel to run Coach White's defense this year
- The team never gave up. They pretty much always played with effort and enthusiasm (with a few exceptions). Coach White never "lost" the team.
- Wins and competitiveness when we were down key players were encouraging

Cons:
- Offense was stagnant too often. If we're not hitting our shots, the offense loses all rhythm.
- We relied too much on shooting threes in some games. I understand that guys need to shoot themselves out of slumps, but when the whole team is shooting like 20% from three, you gotta try something different.
- At times, ball and player movement on offense was excellent. More often though, there was way too much standing around
- Long scoreless stretches continue to plague us at times
- There we a few games where we opened up flat and got in a hole early. Good news is that we clawed our way back in some of those.

Results:

Pros:
- Looked like a top 10 team out of the gate. Beating fsu was much needed. Impressive win over OSU
- Have clawed back to .500 in the SEC after a terrible start
- Pretty good achievement getting back on the bubble after it looked like there was no chance
- Team has never given up

Cons:
- Some VERY bad losses after starting hot
- Horrible start to the SEC season. Feeling good about getting back to .500 in conference is not where we want to be
- On the bubble is not where we want to be either
- After the hot start, much of the fan base is now apathetic and expectations are low for the postseason

The bottom line is results. Unfortunately, it's hard to say that double digits losses and .500 in the conference is a great coaching job. If it is, then we're in pretty deep. There were extenuating circumstances, especially with injuries, but everybody has to deal with hurdles and ultimately you have to be judged on your results. I'm encouraged that we seem to have recovered after a bad start to the conference schedule.

There are still games left. Let's hope for success in the postseason.

 

Well, one thing for sure, it will be a dramatically different club for CMW if he returns next year. I have this little gremlin in my ear saying we will be much better next year if he stays, but he needs a really good guard from somewhere to complement the new faces coming in.

 

I would love for that to occur. However, it needs to happen.

 

There’s only a 3 letter difference between Few and White. Few is a really good go shy. White is “not” a really good coach.

 

Love the ignorant sarcasm at the end if your post. Glover transfers to Samford, and Samford has the best season they have ever had in the Southern Conference. They are beating teams they never beat. Glover is 2nd in the conference in scoring and assists. He is a fiery team leader. The team has gone 9-2 in its last 11 conference games, and Glover is averaging about 21 ppg and 5 apg during those 11 games. He is a true point guard who can also score off the dribble when needed. Yeah, this guy wouldn’t have helped the Gators.

 

Yet same amount of NC and Few has 13 more tries.

 

Are you looking for a volunteer?

 

Yeah… ok let him coach in the SEC and see what happens. His conference is extremely weak.

 

As for the coaching part and slowing it down, we are 301st nationally in adjusted tempo pace of play. Last in the SEC. If he were to have them play any slower they would be going in reverse. Not an exciting style of basketball to watch in my opinion. Kinda like watching paint dry.

 

I think he probably would have helped. That was my point. Sure, it was a friendly poke at you, but no ill will intended. i respect your bball knowledge.