Can we honestly say we are surprised?

Since White was hired? 3 alone in the SEC at Alabama, LSU and Tennessee. Now, outside of Oates I wouldn't want any of those coaches, but they were able to come in right away at lesser programs and win conference titles.

It's not a recent obsession of mine. The fact is, that with the quality non-conference schedule we play, if we are competing for and/or winning conference championships we are going to get a better seed. A better seed gives a chance to make a run in the tournament and consequently a better chance to win a NC. It's about putting us in a better position to succeed. Competing for championships whether at the conference or national level brings excitement to the program.

 

I mean that’s great and all, but I don’t believe in any of those programs, nor do I think that they will have deeper tournament runs than UF or UK on any consistent basis.

 

the seven year will look like the other six. 1) 17-12 or 18-11, on the bubble all season, 5-7 in the SEC. but in the tournament and win the first game. Alabama gets a new coach and now they are very good. Tenn got a new coach and they are very good. Both programs have passed us. White is a good coach not a great one.

 

You would have said the same about White as this stage of his tenure.

im not sure what to make of this UT team. They just lost, having scored one basket in the final 11 minutes of the game. They totaled 52 points, even with an overtime session.

 

We never should have ended up in the position of being within one possession of the Sweet 16. We should have beat that team going away last year to make it to the Sweet 16. But Mike White slows it down (AGAIN), we blow a lead (AGAIN), and lose in the final minutes (AGAIN). Same song, different verse.

Mike White coaches similarly to Dan Mullen, with similar results. They both coach scared and artificially give themselves a smaller margin for error. They refuse to blow out teams they should blow out and artificially keep games closer than they should be by trying to run clock too early and wasting possessions. The result of that type of coaching is they lose games they had no business losing. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a recurring theme each season White has coached here.

 

the difference is we lost to Texas southern, Tenn lost to Texas tech.

 

In case you didn’t know this… the other team also has an impact on who wins the game.

 

Yeah… I’m not sure if this was a reply to me. I was never equating the two. My comment was that I’m not sure what to make of this Tennessee team, based upon what I’ve watched so far this year. That opinion Is entirely independent and unrelated to how we have played.

 

Come on man! It's been more than 2 years since TT lost to Virginia in overtime for the national championship.

 

So does turtling your offense with 10 minutes left in the game. His decision to play stall ball created the opportunity for the other team to get back into the game. If White didn’t stall the offense, it wouldn’t matter what the other team did even if the offense was only half as efficient as it previously was. So instead of one empty trip every two to three possessions, his stall ball decision created 6-7 empty possessions in a row allowing the opposing team to get back into the game.

Again, look no further than Mullen in the UK and Missouri game. Mullen turtled at the end of the first half and we lost the UK game. Mullen turtled at the end of the Missouri game and we lost. Seems to be a common theme where playing safe/not to lose ends up losing the game for a coach.