I agree with some people who have been saying that it appears the administration is ok with White’s results, even though he is trending in the wrong direction and his teams have been barely above average the past 4 years. My issue is we got rid of the baseball coach before Sully just because he couldn’t get us over the hump in baseball, even though he didn’t do that poorly. Is baseball held to a higher standard than the basketball team now? My opinion is that if they don’t think White is the guy to get us back to the top, then we are better off getting a new coach now instead of prolonging the inevitable.
I like Mike White... he teaches his players to play the right way. He's a good man and deserves to be somewhere worthy of his skill set. But if the 'right' coach does became available... How many years does a coach need to be consistently in the playoff hunt, or to get in? Are we a school that expects to get into the playoffs? 6 years ago we were still talked about as the number one or number two team in the SEC... that seems like a lifetime ago.
Why wouldn't he? Mike White had made the NCAA Tournament for 4-years straight (probably 5-years straight if one also includes the canceled Covid-2020 NCAA Tourney): 2016 - NIT (2W) 2017 - E8 (3W) 2018 - RD32 (1W) 2019 - RD32 (1W) 2020 - Cancelled. 2021 - RD32 (1W) --------------------------- White's NCAA record: 6-4. 2022 - ?NIT No athletic director will fire a coach who may have just barely missed the NCAA Tourney after making it for 4-5 years straight. Recall Kentucky's John Calipari had a losing record in 2021 and missed the post-season entirely. Even though UK's last Final4 was in 2015 (UF's was similarly in 2014), Calipari did not get fired for a bad season!
White will probably have seven straight-years of bringing Florida to the post-season. A lot of losing basketball programs who have no clue, say Georgia for instance, would love to have a coach like Mike White. ================================ Here are what SEC teams have done in the last decade or so (since the 2007-2008 season after UF's last NC): (For all of the "funny boys" like anty & company, ) 1. UK: missed 3 NCAAT (made 10 NCAAT)<-Cal(10) 2. UF: missed 4 NCAAT (made 9 NCAAT)<-White(4) 3. Tenn: missed 5 NCAAT (made 8 NCAAT)<-Barnes(3) 4. Mizzu: missed 6 NCAAT (made 7 NCAAT)<-C.Martin (2, 1 at Tenn) 5. TexasA&M: missed 7 NCAAT (made 6 NCAAT)<-Buzz.W(0) 5. Vandy: missed 7 NCAAT (made 6 NCAAT)<-Stackhouse(0) 7. Arkansas: missed 8 NCAAT (made 5 NCAAT) <-E.Musselman(1) 8. LSU missed 9 NCAAT (made 4 NCAAT) <-Wade(2) 9. Miss: missed 10 NCAAT (made 3 NCAAT)<-K.Davis(1) 9. Miss St: missed 10 NCAAT (made 3 NCAAT)<-B.Howland(1) 9.Georgia: missed 10 NCAAT (made 3 NCAAT)<-T.Crean(0) 9. Alabama: missed 10 NCAAT (made 3 NCAAT) <-N.Oats(1) 13. Auburn: missed 11 NCAAT (made 2 NCAAT) <-B.Pearl(2) 14. S.Car: missed 12 NCAAT (made 1 NCAAT) <--F.Martin(1), Wow! ================================ Many of these coaches will pick up another NCAA invite, so add 1 very soon.
I agree that White could do many things much better like recruiting (in the state of Florida) for instance. And, keeping his teams more intact from year to year rather than having so many players transfer-out (i.e, Nembhard) Many of the transfers-in have been solid but not necessarily have been all-conference type of players. White still has not fielded a team capable of winning the SEC conference out right. That should be the goal. If one strives in trying to win the conference title, other higher goals will take care of itself. Even without Mann & Lewis, had the 2021 Florida roster stayed intact (i.e, Locke, Glover, Payne remained), Florida may have had a much better season.
@RD_gator why should he stay if we haven’t come close to winning the SEC in 5 years? I think top 25 nationally and top 4 SEC program is a fair expectation and he isn’t close to that.
If KJ stayed healthy in 2021 he wouldn’t have been back for this season. That excuse only works one year.
So u want to dump White and do what ? Go get Wade ? Weber ? Crean ? Louisville fired coach ? You want the baggage of a lot of these perspective coaches ? We have a guy that gets to the dance often . This is not the program it was ! Mike is doing as good as any guy that’s out there ! Florida is not in the state of mind to fire a guy that doesn’t deserve it . BD ain’t walking thru the door