The problems with this program go much further than Mike White. He's a decent coach, neither great nor terrible. The lack of commitment from the Administration and the unwillingness to even try to up the ante and recruit the best is what has held us back since 2008. We're back to 1995, when coming off a final four, we couldn't convince Vince Carter to stay in state. A fresh outlook and some hard work got us there for awhile with Billy. However, after our B2B, UK stepped up and brought in Cal and WWW and it was game over. Now, before everyone says we can't get dirty like that, then consider how many times UK and other schools like them have been put on probation. Pretty sure the answer is 0. What they do is tolerated, overlooked or frankly is now considered acceptable. What are we waiting for? Now, the rest of the league has stepped up and we are now even further behind having to rely on the transfer portal to find mid major grad transfers to complete a roster. Mike has done an okay job, he didn't completely and utterly fail as I feared he would in the beginning. However, unless someone gets with it, nothing is going to get better. I agree that we're stuck treading water as the current takes us further out to sea. They can fire White, but his replacement will have the same difficulty he has and nothing will change.
I completely disagree. Think about it. Two seasons ago, we had Nembhard at the point. He now leads the best offense in the country and is considered by some of the national experts to be the top point guard in college hoops. We had a great forward in KJ. We had the pre-season SEC POY in Kerry Blackshear. We had 2 Mickey D’s in Lewis and Mann. We had a gunner in Locke. We also had plenty of depth behind these guys. And what happened? 19-12 and 11-7 in the conference. That’s on Mike White and no one else. He needs to go.
I've said it before, Mike White is who he is. And Mike White cannot fix Mike White. He is a mid-major coach. Nothing more nothing less. He will NEVER win ANYTHING major. It is beyond his capabilities. We are, for all intents and purposes, a mid major program. We cannot compete with the true major programs night in and night out. MAYBE for a game here or there, but not on a consistent basis. Just like most decent mid-major teams. And SS expects us to be happy with that................Are YOU?
what an odd premise for a post - injuries happen ALL THE TIME in ALL sports, and an injury for one guy who only misses six games is not even notable, much less reason for boasting. it's practically the only thing a Coach is expected to do, manage the team that is healthy enough to participate that day (no matter what sport). we are going to see some "Mike White is so good at breathing! He breathes just like Coach K!" threads soon after we keep losing.
I'm more disappointed in the admin for keeping White around for this long. Anyone who had eyes and could think rationally (not the sunshine pumpers on this board), knew he wasn't the answer after year 4 and definitely after year 5. We prolonged the inevitable and just pulled the program further along into accepting medocrity as a whole while we become father removed from the great years and times Billy built.
The mike white topic seems incredibly similar to the situation w/ Dan the last 2 years. After 7 years u r what u r. Same heat I’m taking from this is the same I took for dan. Bamar gets 1 thing right. Unfortunately if u want to win and win big u hire and u fire til u find the right guy. That is if winning is truly ur goal.
I corrected myself in post 78. I either forgot to count the 2 8th place finishes twice, or, I intentionally brought myself down to the intellectual level of the typical poster on THFSG. You can guess which one.
Elite 8 in his 2nd year is what we are hanging our hat on eh? Keep in mind in that great win against Wisconsin we blew a lead which has become a characteristic of White teams here. Also wasn't his roster. That isn't to take everything away from him. Its not. He gets credit for it. But he hasnt come close to replicating that year and in fact we have regressed slightly more each year. It would be nice if the staunch defenders and the vehement detractors could actually meet in the middle and discuss the nuances reasonably which is where Mike White lies....smack dab in the middle of the road.
A nuance with respect to that Elite Eight team is that White had 2 of the best players in the league and, arguably, the country, in Barry and Chiozza, who started one game between them that year. White had a loaded roster and didn’t know what to do with it. The team made it to the Elite Eight because Barry and Chiozza made miraculous plays at the end against Wisconsin to win it. Then, the Gators lost to an inferior team in the Elite Eight game.
I dont think Mike White is "terrible" but it is amazing that this tournament metric is the only one they continue to value. That and his reputation as a good person which should bear some weight as it rightly seems to. But SEC play matters. Home court matters. Sec tournament matters. Roster turnover matters. Dry spells that characterize the offense every year matter. Edit: trend lines matter. Mullen had a pretty good 3 seasons but the program was trending way down starting middle of 2020
Past records aside, the SEC is improving basketball wise. We are not and given the current environment we look like a middle of the pack team in our 14 member league. Time will tell after we finish our league schedule. Going back to the beginning of Mike White’s tenure here, I was excited when he was hired and stated that he was going to bring a running high powered offense to Gainesville. What happened? We are now a half court offense with a quick point guard walking the ball up the court. Even with the presence of Colin we are not very long nor are we a good shooting team, but yet we play a methodical offense and a half court trapping defense on the perimeter. It’s not fun to watch that’s for sure. As a season ticket holder for the past 30 years the last few years of White’s version of basketball have been boring to watch and much less than entertaining. I’ve seen enough of it to know it’s time for a change. Do I think our AD will let White go at the end of the season? No I don’t, as once again the administration will lean on White’s misfortune injury wise and give him more time. He is well liked within the UAA and therefore will be given more rope before he finally hangs himself. What will cause this is a decline in ticket sales which has not happened to this point. I am not talking about home game attendance. I am talking about ticket sales. Buckle up your seat belts gators. Mike White will be here for a while longer no matter what this season’s outcome.
Consistently average. I don't think anyone really disputes that. With that comes no chance of winning conference titles. No shot of getting good tournament seeds. We are just here, never a threat to do anything of significance and there is zero sign that is changing.
Again, the pinnacle of a MW coached team is making the NCAA tournament. THAT'S IT. No championships of any kind EVER, regardless of talent level. In no way, shape or form will his offenses ever be able to get this program back to an elite level, as it is just way too pedestrian. He is boring, and so are his offenses.
I've seen a lot of people talk about the lack of commitment for the basketball team from the administration and this has to change, but its most likely going to need to start with a fresh head coach who pushes the administration to make these neccessary changes similar to Napier. With the amount of money the school is getting now from the SEC there is no longer an excuse to not make basketball a priority. The fact is everything around the program has become stagnant and it appears right now under White, we'll never be a top SEC team or even close. It's frustrating that White finally has big men coming in next year, which is especially exciting after watching the UK game, but the question is if he's the guy to maximize that talent. Without a top level offensive guru type coach, I'm going to say no. Perhaps SS gives White this ultimatum so he can have 1 more year. I'm not sure, but from game to game it just feels like White is trying any in-game combination to find the best line-up for that particular game. 6 games left in the regular season and White doesn't have a set go to lineup. It just feels very disjointed and in year 7 that's not a good sign.
A few things. First, when Texas and Oklahoma join the league, we could plummet into the bottom tier of the league. Second, there is no juice in the arena anymore, while at the same time, the excitement level at most other SEC arenas seems to be going through the roof. Third, practically no high school recruit stays at Florida for very long anymore. Fourth, White knew what he was doing when he recruited these transfers. He was signing guys who were all-league defenders elsewhere. He knew these guys could defend, and he knew or should have known that they were not going to be very good offensive players. So, if you know what you’re doing as a coach, you institute a Princeton-type offense, that uses clock, works the ball around and sets screens to get guys open shots at the basket or on the perimeter. But, instead, we got the same old offense that relies on players to be skilled enough to create off the dribble when we don’t have those types of players on the team. Finally, as one of the announcers said yesterday, we have the #1 team in the SEC when it comes to the highest amount of time per offensive possession. So we got that going for us. Gonzaga, led by AN at the point is, I believe, last in the country when it comes to that stat. So take that Andrew Nembhard.
Mike White is a mid-major caliber coach. Period. Nice guy, very average coach. So welcome to very average basketball Gator fans. If you yearn for more, pick another team.
