I don’t think that the general consensus is that White is a good coach. I have yet to hear a cogent argument for why White continues to run a lousy offense, plays as slow as a turtle, doesn’t play quality young players, etc. The only things that I hear for why he’s a good coach is that the team usually makes it into the NCAA tournament, wins one game in the tournament, and he’s a jolly good fella.
Now is the time to make inquiries into Big 12 coaches other than at Texas or Oklahoma, that are rightfully concerned that their league is heading to the dumpster.
Be that as it may, the discussion isn't as to whether Mike should've been hired or not, it's whether he should be retained.
Mike White wasn’t an obscure hire, or some sort of crazy reach. He was widely considered among the top young, ascending coaches in the country. In the two years prior to his hiring… he turned back both Missouri and UT. That said - was there a higher profile coach you had hoped would be a candidate? Who?
What part of our offensive performance this year screams new offense and genius? This offense was similar to last year’s offense, except we didn’t have a Tre Mann to bail us out. Dribble the ball around and hoist up a last second three ball. We still experienced 5 minute plus scoring droughts in multiple games. DDO is great, but only when you have superior athletes. We don’t have those athletes, yet try to run it with the same results.
Our overriding issue has been incredibly poor shooting. To what degree you assign that to coaching, I don’t know. We have definitely added different looks and sets. Again, I’m not sure how much of that was or was not imported with the assistant coach arrivals. I was just wondering how much you knew of their backgrounds or skillsets.
That is not how things work at all and is an awful way to evaluate. Evaluation needs to be based on sample size. Your seed in the NCAA is much, much, more relevant than if you win 0,1,2 games in any particular year.
The biggest misconception is White is a victim of Billy D success. Nobody is expecting titles. Nobody is expecting consistent E8s We are expecting to be a top 25 program. That is the bare minimum. That is Richtian. Florida can certainly be a top 15 program with a good coach, and a great coach we can get in the top 5 (see Billy). But top 25 is keep your job territory. We are maybe top 40 or top 50 at this point. Just nowhere near good enough. I’m in the camp there is no downside in firing White. The worst case scenario is we get…a guy like Mike White. He is totally replacement level and is quite clearly proven not to be a good coach.
Not a big deal. We'll know our placement in the NCAA Tournament in a little while. I'm guessing a 5-seed somewhere nearby, maybe a 4. Why isn't everyone as excited as me?
im not saying that isn’t a fair benchmark…. But it would be one that surpasses virtually every other segment in program history not named Billy Donovan. I understand the argument that White inherited a better program. And that is valid, but maybe overplayed. I really think the national perception of Florida’s success was almost exclusively tied to Billy. And so when he left, I think so too did much of the mystique.
Florida finished the season unranked in 7 out of BD's 19 seasons at Florida (more than one third). Is it a realistic expectation?
Literally every year? No. Most years, yes. It was actually 6 years and 2 of those years were his first 2. Missing the rankings in 4 out of 17 years is solid performance and means that you are pretty consistently in the rankings.
I'm pretty sure it was seven years. You are also skewing the data point by eliminating BD's first two years. Maybe final AP polls are a good measure of a coach's success, but I thought it worthy of mention that BD's teams did not always fair well to that end.
Poor shooting in college equals horrible coaching imo. White never disciplines his players for jacking up shots without their shoulders square. I’ve been seeing this for 6+ years. He also won’t discipline or sit the players who stand around on offense. He’s awful and needs to go somewhere else like a community college. Watch Tennessee play, now that’s a well coached team. UF has no identity with teams as much fun to watch as paint dry. It’s no wonder he has problems recruiting.
You are correct, it was 7. Regardless, it isn't really "skewing" to think of those first two years as not being representative. I would argue that it is skewing to view those years as a completed example of the program that he built.
Throw out the 1st 2 and the last 1, and the remaining 16 year run was pretty close to the best, if not the best, in college basketball.
A top 25 program doesn’t mean you finish in the top 25 every single year Florida was easily a top 15 program under Billy. Arguably top 5. We were right up there with the very best in titles, F4s, E8s, and average seed.
