— Mixed. Some are pretty unhappy. A lot of their posters think he’ll get them back to respectability and then they can get a proven winner. My favorite post was on the UK board. There was a post that uga stole UF’s coach and a poster replied, “I'm not sure if "steals" is the word that you are looking for. I'm sure UF paid for the UHaul”
U are right ! My bad Mikes first 3 teams: 9-9 14-4 11-7 In SEC No doubt Billy was phenomenal.. and at a school without much pedigree
No, not quite. Billy’s last two teams were as follows: 2013-2014 — 36-3 — 18-0 — reached Final 4. 2014-2015 — 16-17 — 8-10 — no tournament. However, Billy’s 2014-2015 squad was a complete revamp as his previous years squad that reached the Final 4 all graduated, and he was basically starting over from scratch. Egbunu was injured and we had no inside presence and it showed. White took that core from the 2014-2015 team and rode them to the Elite 8. White did add some pieces, but Chiozza, Robinson, Egbunu, and Hill were strong pieces left by Billy.
Yep. Dooley is going to be Dooley. Complain about the fans without trying to see whether what the fans are complaining about is valid or not. While average may work for UGA, I hope that the UF basketball program has grown beyond that. Reaching the NCAA tournament should be considered the bare minimum for success at UF now. I don’t agree that we should settle for the level of success that White brought as some posters have suggested. Prior to Billy, we would have been thrilled for White’s level of performance, but Billy proved we can do better than that. Think if we had settled in this manner after Spurrier left and kept Zook around. Where would the football program be at this point in time?
Mike White seemed like a great guy but an average coach.. If he couldn’t win at Florida then how can he win at UGA? Kinda similar to another coach of a different sport at UF, but was fired instead.
Once again, its not about just results. Its the trendline that fans were unhappy with. NITs are ok as long as the team was taking its lumps in preparation for a bi year down the line. I remember UNC and UK having down years under Roy/Calipari and most fans were understanding. Roy usually went a final 4 every 4-5 years and Calipari hardly had two down years in spite of starting over with a revamped roster most years. But the possibility of a big year helps fans tide over the bad ones. MW was consistently borderline NCAA/NIT his last few years with roster turnover that belied reason.
This quote is silly: "Mike White may have left Florida because of a subset of fans who are difficult to please, and are never satisfied unless a coach delivers multiple championships." MW got 8 years. If he won an SEC championship or seriously competed for them he would still be here. If the trend line was different he likely would still be here. Nobody expected him to be Donovan, but being a "barely made it to the tourney team" most years with no upward trajectory was not enough. We have fallen behind Auburn, Alabama etc. We were not expecting to be UK but being the only win for UgA this past year must be addressed. Dooley could defend White without attacking valid criticism from fans. Lazy analysis of a hard situation. Simply put, it is just an oxymoron to argue that UF fans don't care about basketball but demand perfection. MW could have been here a long time with teams that regularly competed for the SEC. From his introductory press conference: “It’s an absolute honor of mine to replace Billy Donovan. One of the best coaches in the history of this game. I have tremendous respect and admiration for the legacy that he leaves and it’s my charge to continue the momentum that he has maintained for an amazing 19 years.” He did not need to match Billy but he did need to continue the momentum. He did not. Much of the criticism was very fair.
That doesn’t sound right Wasn’t the year before Billy’s final year the Young/Wilbekin/ Prather SEC championship year?
We're seeing a lot of this. It's easy to beat up on a nameless, faceless, anonymous social media fanbase as opposed to coming to terms with the reality that this program is going nowhere fast. White knows this more than anyone. That is why he bailed. His friends in the media (and they are numerous) are trying to cover for him. Now, before anyone thinks this is 100% on White, I will tell you that this AD and administration is just as responsible for the failure to keep this program relevant. We'll soon see if there has been an attitude adjustment among SS and his people.
