WHO replaces White?

It cracks me up that people here are actually thinking we would hire the big names they now seem crushed we “missed” on. They were never coming. McMahon and Golden were arguably the 2 biggest names in the mid major world, and we got one of them. There’s not guarantee of success, but this is about the hire everyone should have expected from day 1.

 

At least we aren't hiring Al Golden.

Looking at his resume, pretty thin and he was an assistant under Pearl at Auburn. Not sure if that's good or bad. He does appear to be a salesman. Wikipedia already has him as Florida's coach, fwiw.

 

agreed, this is an underwhelming hire to me, but if he's the guy then he has my 100% support.

 

After watching how his team played I like several things.
He had several bigs ready to go. The inside players looked prepared and well coached. I liked the pace his team played at. I like the fact that he is young and energetic… hoping that translates to recruiting. In fact, that is my biggest worry. How will he recruit? He spent time with Pearl so I’m sure he learned some of the dirty fighting that goes on with recruiting. Anyways, if he is our coach I’m excited and will gladly support him.

 

Just when I was about to joke we should ask Billy Napier to make the hire..

Seems they got Foley to do it instead

It is a "promising" coach, hope he does well, just hoping SS doesn't pay him or keep giving extensions as if he were playing with someone else's money..

 

Richmond beat Syracuse and Boeheim as a 15 seed.

Lute Olsen and Arizona lost to Santa Clara as a two seed.

Middle Tennessee State beat MSU and Izzo as a 15 over a 2.

Even Coach K lost to Lehigh as a 2 seed.

Eddie Fogler coaching South Carolina as a 2 seed losing to Coppin State is not in the same conversation.

 

Completely agree. Not excited at all.
Any new hire entails some sort of risk.
What baffles me is why hedge your bets on someone who in actuality has never finished higher than 4th in their conference (a bad one at that). Why not mitigate the inherent "risk" with someone who at least has had success at current or previous stops. To me, this appears like a more "I hope this is going to work" than "I know this is more likely to work."

Wildly unimpressed on how this shaped out.

 

I liked San Francisco.

Can we get Bill Russell to help with recruiting?

Would kids actually know who he is?

 

If not, he has about 10 pounds of rings he can show them

 

When you look at the big picture you both are right.

 

i have three things to say:

1. do not be a racist (not kidding)
2. love the hire, coach G offense is sex
3. hrs 36 and in the pearl tree, he can croot

 

My simple brain says hire the best guy, and I didn’t think that was Grant, as much as I love him for what he did here in his two stints. His time at a Bama was a disqualifier. And he’s only made the tournament four times I think in 14 years as a head coach, that’s not UF material.
If the best man out there were black, I honestly believe the overwhelming majority of gator fans would support him. Heck a lot of folks here wanted Grant anyway.
If the argument is “Grant is more stablished than Golden”, that’s true. But if you can’t get a sure fire winning name, you bet on risk reward, that’s Golden, and that’s how it goes if you don’t want another Mullen (or White) - high floor low ceiling coach.
So it just wasn’t the path this cycle. If Golden doesn’t work out and the next man up is a minority candidate, bring em on. Folks care about winning above all else.

 

it is a moot issue, but where did he coach where he had the resources and advantages that he would have had here?

This guy’s former boss is the coach of Chicago Bulls.

This administration has take mega chances on white coaches. But it too much of a leap of faith to take a chance on a black one? He was a number 2 seed in the canceled 2020 NCAA tournament. He launched the progression of VCU to a powerhouse under Shaka Smart.

I am a Gator and I am all in for Golden. My comments are not critical of our selection. But when Mississippi State can hire a black coach and Alabama can do the same, what is Florida’s problem?

 

Anthony Grant’s coaching has been as good as anyone’s in the country over the last 3 seasons. National coach of the year 2 seasons ago and an extraordinary coaching effort in this current season. He also brought in the best recruiting class in Dayton history this past season. He almost certainly would have kicked butt in recruiting for UF, and he would be playing Billy’s style of offense. As for the racism part of the discussion, what percentage of Power conference players are black? Chances are it’s way over a majority of them. What percentage of Power conference coaches are black? Chances are it’s under 20% of them. That strikes me as racism. I am not saying that this particular hire had anything to do with race, but Anthony Grant obviously is a Power conference level coach to say the least.

 

I was a little hesitant about Grant because the Alabama experience had stuck with me. Turns out, I hadn't been paying attention to his post Alabama resume, which has been very impressive.

I'd like to think that Stricklin reached out to Grant to see if there was interest on his part. He has enough reasons to stay at Dayton, so I'm going to go with that as a reason until I hear or read something else.

 

Actually Mike White’s resume was better. Golden never finished better than 4th in his conference in his three years, Mike White finished 1st three of his four years, and had a fairly significant advantage in winning percentage.
Even Billy Donovan won a conference championship in his two years at Marshall… in fairness to Golden though, Billy’s winning percentage at Marshall was only slightly better than Golden’s at San Francisco.
Hopefully Golden will be more like Donovan than White but there is not much in the way of “analytics” to form any solid opinion.
I don’t so much hate the hire as I don’t understand it. I keep hearing our only focus should be hiring the best coach regardless of any other factor… I question wether we did that.

 

Todd Golden.

 

That's not accurate on the conferences. What makes what Golden did impressive is that the WCC is a good mid-major league now, good enough that he was able to earn an at-large bid for the first time at the school in 40 years. And did it as a 10 seed no less. White never made the tournament at La Tech despite winning the regular season because they were a one-bid conference. The WCC is a much better league, especially this year in part because of USF's rise.

 

Well, they at least had Golden listed - #8