WHO replaces White?

They could offer him the same money White was getting, so he'd make more money, and he's not the guy following the guy, and I think if he thinks he could recruit at a high level, then yes, he'd want us. He's already familiar with the fanbase and its expectations. I think he'd at least give it serious consideration, if offered.

 

Losing Key impacted 1 year. Now we could have made a serious run that year and saved his job.

Outside of that injuries are a bit overblown.

 

Wow. That's interesting. Was just going to post about Grant and his ties to the state of Florida and how he'd recruit at a very high level at Florida. I don't think his Florida ties should be dismissed when discussing Grant.

As I've mentioned previously just last year he signed a top 50 overall player in the 21 class and this year as a true freshman, he's Dayton's best player. He's also out of Montverde. Grant in the 21 class had 3 players in the Top 150 overall at Dayton, and was the school's best class ever. For next year's class, he already has a top 150 player overall.

I think if anyone could keep the current Florida class together it would be Grant and Day 1 any high-school especially in Florida, there would be instant credibility. Overall the last 2 years combining the 21 and 22 classes, there have been 21 players out of Florida in the top 50 overall recruits and 35 in the top 100. As of right now Florida has 1 of those players in the 22 class. That number has to change with the next coach and I think that number would change under Grant. At the same time, most of the mid-major coaches will have to build those relationships.

However, as you've stated you don't feel that Grant would be interested so none of that would matter in that circumstance. Still whoever the next coach is has to do better recruiting out of Florida. White did fairly well in the upcoming class signining 2 guys out of Florida in the Top 150 overall, but this should be the yearly minimum imo and other years needs to be even better. The quality of recruits coming out of Florida should be a plus in attracting coaches to want to come to Florida.

 

i think this is a great fallback plan if other prospects don't work out. I would not be unhappy if Coach Grant is hired, but I think there are bigger fish we should at least talk to before him.

 

I agree. I have the guy at Baylor at the top of my list.

 

One in a 100 million. We lost instant credibility when year in and year out we sent undersized players out to guard people 5/6 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier. It was like giving an avid golfer 3 strokes on every hole. Unless you are really a scratch golfer, you will never play on Sunday with those odds. And our program never played on the weekend in the SEC Tournament.

Anthony Grant is the heir apparent and should have gotten the call over MW. Perhaps he was contacted and declined, but I doubt that is the case. As you mentioned, his ties not only to the university but also to the state and specifically South Florida would be a feather in our caps.

 

All of the mediocrity is nullified considering he was coaching in venues that had zero winning traditions, that were not in a hotbed of talent, and where he had no deep-rooted ties to the locations. None of that would be applicable here. And even though no one wants to mention the race card here, I will. As an African American, I think it is high time for one of our major sports programs to be headed by an African American. We are generating talent that is largely African American, and having the portrait of the program- the head coach- provide insight into what a 17-year-old can expect coming to a major institution culturally will go a long way to bringing in talent that would not have considered us in the past.

Given the plethora of stars that have come out of the state of Florida, many of which have played collegiately at Florida, a commitment to diversify the major sports programs on a head coach level is LONG OVERDUE.

 

Yeah, it's a fair question. He's at his alma mater and has a roster that should be pre-season Top 25 next year with potential to make a serious run at some point (six of their top seven in minutes are freshman and the one who's not a freshman is a sophomore).

I think if there's one job for which he might leave Dayton, though, it's UF.

 

Grant wasn't really an option here when we hired White. Donovan's last year here was Grant's last year at Bama. Wouldn't have been easy to spin.

 

Absolutely mind-boggling. And not just Blackshear. There were several that came out of HS and other transfers that completely fizzled under MW's program.

 

I don't know if I'm venturing into the Too Hot realm, but...
Honestly, if I had to guess I would say that the vast majority of black people in Florida believe that UF would never hire a black football or basketball head coach. Now, I'll admit that I haven't polled every African-American in the state, but every one that I know doesn't think it will ever happen. And that includes former UF students. Hiring Grant would go a long way in changing many people's views of UF. That's not why I think UF should hire him, I just believe it is an added positive.

 

we actually had Anthony Grant on the tarmac heading to Gainesville in 2007, before Billy changed his mind.

 

I agree with your post, but I also think
that Grant is the best person out there who realistically is potentially available. I might change my mind if Brad Stevens became available, but that doesn’t seem realistic.

 

I think having Egbunu might of helped us get past sc in the elite 8, and tech the following year to advance us to the sweet 16. Hayes played hard but his hands were made of concrete, and we had nothing behind him.

Losing Jitoboh this year just as he seemed like he was starting to get rolling hurt too. I kinda think we may have made the tourney if he stayed healthy, but not saying we would have made a deep run. We lost some games we should have won even with him and castleton healthy.

Losing key was huge and hurt us bad for two years.

Outside of those 3, I don’t think any others would have made a huge difference in the overall record.

 

How many times did Grant have 6'3" and 6'5" players playing power forward and defending players that were 4-5 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier? Such mismatches year in and year out are conducive to fatigue minimally and higher injury probability. It is one thing when a team sustains injuries competing in a balanced adversarial circumstance. When a coach repeatedly subjects his players to inexplicable mismatches, it is not surprising that they are worn down near the end of the game, end of the season, falter in tournaments and are prone to injury.

I guarantee you, the nonsense that we had to tolerate for the last 7 years will not be tolerated in Georgia, and suddenly MW will be renowned for recruiting giants to his program and not a plethora of guards.

 

Georgia would be thrilled to trade records with us for the last 7 years. They let fox hang around for 9 years and he made the tourney what? Twice?

 

Hi wci347 - Strong case you make for Grant in Eric's "comments" section. Enjoyable read!

 

That says a lot more about georgia than it does us

 

I mean it really impacted more than that. I get the assumption he goes pro after one year, but a S16 run or E8 run with him and the snowball effect could be felt this year. We just dont know.

But White had his share of crazy injury issues beyond Key. Eggs still expected back in January?

 

I would be happy with any of the coaches being mentioned including Grant. They would all have a higher ceiling at UF over White.