I don't think a lot of people were completely onboard with the hire of our previous coach. Florida icon Billy Donovan assists in Gators’ coaching search leading to Todd Golden
Most uncomfortable introductory press conference ever. UGA Introduces Coach White with Ceremony and Press Conference - University of Georgia Athletics Questions start at the 14 minute mark. Lots of cringe, but i just wanted to see the difference.
I attended the game in Auburn in '09. I got there early and saw Mr. Donovan sitting at courtside watching warmups. I walked over and sat next to him and talked a little Gator BB. What a great guy.
Can you enlighten me as to how Mike White ended up at georgia while still the coach at UF? I'm normally a "once a Gator" person. But this seems so unusual. He was not fired, right? He was not shoved out the door so that a hasty decision was necessitated, right? It's as if he was negotiating with georgia while still a UF coach. Odd.
From a player’s perspective, a head basketball coach isn’t going to make anyone a better shooter. Mechanics are overrated as well, unless you are speaking of repeatable results. Essentially, the prettiest mechanics don’t necessarily mean good shooter. If that was the case, I’d be in the NBA… I have textbook form and an an average shot. I know guys with an ugly shot who are great shooters. Reggie Miller had an ugly shot. Jordan’s form was nicer than Stephen Curry’s. Nobody would argue that MJ was a better three point shooter. Repetition in the gym in off hours… outside of practice… is the key. Shot selection is somewhat important and running offense that gets you open is also somewhat important. It’s not as important you guys are suggesting, though. Good shooters make tough shots, because once the defense knows you are good, you rarely get wide open looks unless there is a defensive breakdown. Or, they are just so good at shooting it doesn’t matter if there’s a hand in their face. So yeah… you need a combination of ability and hours of practice. A coach wouldn’t have enough time to focus on one player’s shooting reps… at least not enough to make a real difference. Maybe a personal shooting coach, but not the head basketball coach. All this is to say that a player has to put in the work. Many many hours every week… outside of practice. That’s how you become a better shooter.
Bringing in a lot of transfers with no eligibility left & not a true PG among them when you desperately need a PG was unusual because it guaranteed next year would be difficult. How do you categorize a coach who would do that to himself? The way he left was more than unusual though. Stricklin's comments seemed to indicate he was surprised White bolted without warning. Is it usual for a coach to leave while a team is still playing games? All weird.
I absolutely loved this part too! Said something like he was surprised by two stats from last year’s team: defensive rebounds and 3pt shooting percentage. Then said about the 3pt shooting, 30.5%….that’s not going to get it. Thought it was a great opening presser!
It depends who you ask. One version is that White was frustrated with the fans' lack of satisfaction with his results here, and his wife was upset that fans said bad things about the coach in the stands and on social media. So White left totally of his own accord even though Stricklin was perfectly happy with White's job performance. I don't buy that story at all. White is smart enough to know that fans popping off on social media and calling the coach an idiot in the stands are things that happen at every major program, UGA included. And I find it hard to believe that Stricklin was 100% thrilled with a program trending in the wrong direction with fan and booster apathy and discontent. Another version is that Stricklin told White that he was on a short leash and needed to make major overhauls to his staff and other aspects of the program in the offseason. White was not pleased at the meddling and decided to move on to a place that would allow him full autonomy. This is believable, but I doubt it. The last version is that Stricklin informed White that big program changes were needed and it was unlikely White would be retained after next year if those changes didn't reverse the downward trend significantly. (Some even claim White was told he would be out after the end of this season that just concluded.) So White sought another good job to save face. This makes the most sense to me. I don't think White was fired, but I think he knew he was either at serious risk of being fired or would be fired. So the UGA gig gave him a fresh start at an awful program. He will get several years of salary before anyone can become dissatisfied as he tries to dig them out of the cellar. Plus, if he achieves anything approaching his UF success at a bad program like UGA, he'll be hailed as a massive success rather than a disappointment. There are different insiders pushing all three of these contradictory stories. I think the insiders are sincere despite their different stories. An insider is only as good as the information the source is relaying. You have to choose which story to believe. Personally, my gut is for door number 3: White knew Stricklin and the boosters were dissatisfied, knew he was at serious risk of getting fired, and was nudged by Stricklin to find somewhere else to coach because it was very likely that he wasn't going to last very long at UF. The speed with which White took the UGA job and the speed with which Golden was hired suggest to me that both sides knew White was leaving. Seemingly, both White and UF were working on the next gig/coach some time ago to close their deals so quickly after the regular season ended. I have contacts who can confirm which story is true, but I haven't asked. I might inquire when we're together for other reasons, but I'm not going to pester them now because it doesn't really matter. White is gone, Golden is here, and in my opinion, both programs are better off.
Wow! Thanks for posting that. Lots of support from the former players. Goes to show they pay attention more than we might think. They're obviously pumped too!
If you’re about to be fired, I don’t think you seek out another good job to “save face”, you seek out annother good job because you are going to be unemployed. Saving face is probably priority #2 or #3, right?
In normal circumstances, yes. But not, in my opinion, when you can get a substantial severance by letting yourself get fired and then seek out another job to double dip, as White could have done. So I think saving face was important, both personally and to remain more marketable for a job like UGA’s.
yeah, Reggie Miller had some ugly form for sure. Sam Perkins was another guy whose shot always looked broke to me, but he could fill it up from deep. I agree MJ had a great-looking shot, but I think Steph's is fundamentally great too, they just have different release points. Steph's is higher above his head and Jordan's was a little more out in front. Mike wasn't a 3pt shooter because in that era people weren't shooting from deep all the time like they do now, but I know you remember how wet his midrange jumper was - I bet you he'd go shot for shot with Curry from the college line. also I agree with you that guys with great form don't always shoot great and guys with bad form don't always launch bricks. But most of the time it's a lot harder to be a good outside shooter with bad form. I used to use the BEEF method with kids to get their form as nice as possible and then have them get as much repetition of that same motion as possible to build consistency. And like I was saying in that post you quoted, the repetition and consistency comes from putting up a whole bunch of practice shots - so see, we agree on that too. I do feel like generally by the time a guy gets to college, most of them are pretty locked in to a shooting motion and won't be able to really change their mechanics too much. You can do minor tweaks like centering weight better, changing release point, etc to get a little more efficient, but even little stuff like that's gonna take a couple years to fully change muscle memory and become completely natural.
