NIL - Will Florida hoops compete?

You don’t need to have a ton of cash to win in college basketball. Look at the Final Four teams… not exactly representative of the biggest budgets out there. We had our deep tournament run roster, but we blew it. KJ and Appleby on this squad would have been enough.

Many here talked themselves into believing Mike White was terrible because he made the tournament and didn’t usually get past the 2nd round. They will still tell you he was bad if you ask them today. The truth is that he was consistent, and eventually these kinds of coaches break the ceiling. Impatience on white and cowardice on KJ ruined what would have been a great season. It wasn’t NIL. I think NIL has become a boogeyman.

That said, I’m in on Coach Golden and hope we don’t turn on him too quickly. I already hear the fan rumblings of dissatisfaction on him (and Napier), and I hope we don’t run them off and start another 4 year cycle.

 

No, we will not compete under the current dynamics.

With some structure regarding NIL rules, then yes, I believe we play ball at that point.

We'll find out soon enough, based on the incoming transfers.

 

To me, the inmates are now running the asylum. Is this what the big spenders want? And if the answer is "not really", will enough of us regular fans maintain our fandom as a middling program? Personally, I want players who embrace the U of F experience and not who is the highest bidder. And whether we talk about basketball or football, if you pay someone substantially more than the rest, human nature says resentments WILL manifest.

I still say the best plan is the Carmelo Anthony - Syracuse model; you build your team over the years and then you sign that "lead singer" to take the band to the next level. It is just that the cost of "one of those", especially if you aren't getting enough positive spin/results up to that time frame and so your regulars aren't as good as you need, may be extravagant and so you may never achieve that goal. And then do you get another head coach and start over?

 

I believe Chandler Parsons and Hugh Hathcock are big Gator basketball fans and will help. How much we don’t know yet. The UAA and Scott Strickland having had egg on their face with the Rashada episode will still put controls on the team to do what they have to do to get who they want. Hopefully CTG can work the magic. He better be both contacting the best players and talking with everyone in the school as to who he needs and what it is going to take to get them here, daily. Ontop of this getting deals for Riley and Will. All hands on deck with the help or we will be facing Ruiz like player agents all over the U.S. so just asking them to come play for Florida in the SEC is not enough for most players. We can only watch as another young, nice, family orientated coach tries to navigate the UF controls and the media, of which, no matter how bad we get, it is in full force across the nation bearing down on anything Florida Gators. It is great when winning, but the other end of the spectrum is embarrassing, negative and hurts the program. Young coaches are behind the curve on recruiting the state of Florida, and the east coast have their uphill climb to rebuild our program. Hopefully CTG sees the need to have someone who coordinates recruiting and takes care of helping market our brand. He should be selling this to SS and the UAA and let whoever this is, be the go between the AD, UAA, NIL concerns and CTG. Right now it doesn’t seem that we are working on recruiting year round, too many things to fix, so I try to stay calm in the advance of this recruiting season, also trying to stay positive. Hopefully CTG sees this and is working on this. Just using a graduate student that is trying to be a coach is not the answer, he needs someone who knows the game already and can hit the ground running. He should talk to Katy and see who could help!

 

Mike White was consistent. Consistently mediocre. Why can't people just admit it didn't work out for him at UF? That's it. But I'm glad for this thread because NIL seems to be an afterthought for basketball and football. Hope I'm wrong.

 

If you think it’s mediocre to make the tournament consistently and win a game or two, then you have an unrealistically high standard.

 

Coach White was very consistent. He was consistent over his long tenure here (relatively speaking). His consistency was, well, mediocrity. I think his consistency is why he left by agreement of all sides.

As for Golden, we really don’t have a clear picture of how he’ll do. He had one year, and midway through that first year he lost our best player on the team. We need to see how Golden recruits to his system and how the teams play over time. I just think we don’t have enough information, yet.

 

Yes. I think an SEC Team, which gets a ton of teams into the tourney every year, particularly one with the reputation of Florida at the time he took over, that cannot advance, and does the same thing virtually every year, is mediocre.

He certainly had the potential to break through that glass and advance. He certainly had some bad luck over his tenure here. But his teams here were never anything more than “good.” Moreover, his teams consistency played awful at the end of games, blowing big leads or failing to win close games.

If not mediocre, how would you rate White’s performance here?

 

I would rate White's performance as performing in the top 5% of coaches, nationally. What he did here is not common by any means, so I don't know what objective measurement you are using to say it was mediocre.

A lot of good teams blow leads or lose close games. Look at who is in the Final Four. There are a lot of elite teams and coaches watching from the couch instead of playing. You are being unrealistic in your expectations. We had a good coach. Did he need to improve, yes, but that's why you stick with him.

 

Didn't take long for a NIL discussion to disintegrate into another string of Mike White posts, did it?

 

As far as the Final Four and its relation to NIL money, please be aware that Miami wasn't hindered by the Florida NIL law like all the public universities in the state. I don't know if that had much to do with UM's sudden rise in hoops, but watch out for Miami in all sports.
Miami and Dade County are huge international cities with an incredible number of wealthy international companies and rich folk willing to throw big bucks at anything they can use to promote themselves. It wasn't a coincidence that Miami's rise to power in football in the 1980s happened while the music industry there spawned a bunch of suddenly rich rap stars. Those guys were paying Miami players. Once that got exposed, UM started to falter as a football power.

 

It is definitely possible he’d get over the hump. I don’t think there’s anyone out there that didn’t like White. He was/is a total class act.

However, remember that he quit, he was not fired. The question was his performance over the course of his tenure at the clear-cut No. 2 SEC basketball team behind Kentucky (when he took over). And over his tenure, our team performed consistently mediocre — never great, never awful. Does anyone think we are the top 2 SEC team anymore? Following his tenure, were we even a top 5 SEC team?

 

I'm not going to get into any lengthy discussion about MW. I like the guy. Thanks to him for being a Gator. That's all.

 

He quit because he was about to get fired. Let's not act like we don't understand this. Boosters and fans had already put the pressure on the AD and Admin.

 

I would rate him as a bottom third 6th grade coach, and I am trying to be generous.

 

That's cool, but your opinion is not supported by his record.

 

Not sure who Scott "Strickland" is lol, but why would the UAA have egg on its face over Reshada? The UAA doesn't do NIL deals. UF boosters and fans are handling that aspect, so I guess you and me could arguably have blame.
By and large the UF fan/booster base hasn't responded to NIL as well as needed. We have lost players in numerous sports that likely could have improved the roster/season because they went elsewhere for $$. There are many big boosters willing to support projects/infrastructure/etc but not keen on NIL. I get that, truth be told that would be my lean as well. Knowing my money went to something worthwhile (Hawkins Center, Football facility, stadium or arena enhancements) seems more sensible than paying some kid that may or may not help the team and may or may not actually be a good kid. I'm not sure Bama hoops boosters feel great about some of their spending, same could be said of lots of NIL deals. It's problematic, one can only hope the market settles somewhat but it's the wild wild west for now.

 

This was my thought pertaining to NIL. These are primarily external constituents who are providing the NIL bucks, yes? If yes, then that's who we should be recruiting. Kinda sad that it's come to that, but it appears to be necessary in order to be competitive. We have staff whose jobs it is to make these deals happen. Can they do it?

 

He had a lot of talented players, and I will give him credit for that, although he inherited a bunch of them from Billy.