#20/16 Florida (7-2) vs. Maryland (5-4) 12/12/21 4:30

The ones referencing "rough" and "horrible" years. Sure, there were some but I think some of your specific assertions were erroneous (and noted by others as such).

 

Not making the tourney (twice) after back to back titles when recruiting should have been through the roof, was horrible. Billy likely agreed.
His first few were rough. As was a period between 2000 and the '04's arrival.

His last season? Horrible.

My intent was not to say anything negative about Billy, but more to show how even he had his down moments at Florida. We are not UK, or KU...or UNC...or Duke.
Billy did something miraculous here. Took 3 different units to F4's. That doesnt put us on the elite level that some think where we can just go out and get another Billy. We may have to grow one ourselves. For now, I am content in seeing if a (still youngish) Mike White can grow into more than he has.

 

Experience, recruiting connections, clean coach, great face for the Athletic Dept. , Tournament experience

 

Appreciate that.

Now it's your turn. My answers were pretty generic, but where am I wrong? I am open to a good back and forth and as I said previously, pre-covid I had just about cashed out on Mike.

 

I think this becomes the question though. This suggests you don't necessarily think the results are good enough to see if he can still progress as a coach, which is a spot I tend to straddle at the moment. To me its a question of how long he gets to show that growth. I think my issue is with those that think there's really nothing wrong with the current results and would be content with these kind of seasons for perpetuity.

 

Egbunu was pretty good until he got hurt.

 

Hang on man. January is comin'!

 

Agree, although I dont see anyone here saying they are fine in perpetuity. Different lines in the sand perhaps, but we all have one.

 

I will reply directly to your prior post.

 

I have stated my basic problems with Mike White numerous times over the last several years. I’m sure that a lot of posters would like to say enough already. However, I don’t see changes being made. First, I can’t stand this dribble drive offense. It’s exactly what I was afraid of when White came under consideration, and it’s why I preferred Grant or Pelphrey. Since day one, we have been forcing plays on offense. It has resulted in difficult shots being taken instead of easier shots. It has affected plenty of good players, including Allen, Hudson, Lewis and others. This year’s team, especially, should be setting tons of screens and the players and the ball should be constantly moving. Eric has told us many times about all the types of screening that actually is in the playbook that could be used. We have a poor shooting team. How about some Princeton offense to get these guys to the basket where their experience, age and strength can pay off? I have constantly said that guys like Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey would not have had success on this team. They were the classic types of players that I love. Green, Horford and Noah would get the ball to Brewer and Humphrey for step-in jump shots, and they delivered. That doesn’t happen on this team. Instead, we have guys dribble driving all over the place while other guys stand around watching. That has wasted the talent of a lot of good players and has led to a lot of bad shots being taken.

Second, White doesn’t appear to believe in players being in a rotation and having defined roles. So, a player might play 20 minutes in one game and none in another. From personal experience, it’s hard to be effective when you are a player in that situation, and it’s hard to feel that you are a true member of the team.
Third, and it’s directly related to the second above, the player development on this team has been terrible. Much of it is related to players not being in the rotation. This started from day one with White’s teams. Eric Hester was a solid high school player who had a college ready body, was an excellent defender and could shoot and handle the ball. However, he would play well one game and not get into the next 2 games. It amazed me that this kid shot 57.9% from the 3-point line in his freshman year, but didn’t get off of the Gator bench in half of their games. This has continued to this day. We have a 5-star freshman right now who is not in the rotation. We had an equally good player last season in Ruzhnetsev who wasn’t in the rotation. You can’t be surprised when they leave.

As to your bullet points, I have been disappointed in the team defense. It was outstanding when Hayes was the backstop at center and we had great on-ball defenders like Chiozza and Robinson, but it has been passive in recent years. I like the fact that White has the team super-aggressive on defense this year. That takes advantage of the skill set of the transfers on the team. However, if you’re going to do that, you need to go deeper into your bench, and you have to teach these guys how to defend against back door plays.
As to recruiting, we got Mann and Lewis because of their connections to Gainesville and the Gators. We are off to a good start in recruiting this season, but we are being out-recruited by quite a few other SEC teams. White has done a very good job recruiting transfers, although my preference would be to see him bring in talented high school players and develop them into good college players.

 

I don't think we are a dribble drive offense. We much more try and pass the ball around the three point line to get a quick ball reversal for an open three. Too bad we don't shot them at a high percentage. Occasionally CC gets an open lane from this from the top of the key.

And often we work to get CC the ball in the low post.

We ran a lot more dribble drive when we had Tre Mann because he was a real threat to finish at the rim.