Things might be a little awkward at the White Family Christmas this year after the Florida Gators take on the Duke Blue Devils on Tuesday. Florida head coach Mike White is the son of Duke University athletic director, Kevin White. White has been over the athletics program at Duke since 2008.
While it is a unique storyline, Coach White doesn’t want the focus of this game to be on him or his family. This is set to be a great basketball game between two of the top teams in the country, and that is what it’s really about.
“I knew the questions were coming,” he said. “No disrespect, but this isn’t about me or my dad — and I know the questions will continue to come. But it’s not about any of that stuff at all. Obviously, it’s a great honor for any of us to compete against Duke basketball and Coach K and be on the same floor with Coach K. That’s goes for our entire staff and our managers, but most importantly for our players. For John Egbunu and Devin Robinson and Kasey Hill and these guys, to arguably compete against the best program in the country, arguably the best coach in all of sports. It’s a really unique opportunity that all of us are excited about.”
The questions did continue to come. White simply restated the previous answer, as he was much more focused on preparing his players for what will arguably be the biggest game he has coached in at Florida, and not because his dad is on the other side.
“Yeah, again, I promise you and I said, it’s not about that,” said White. “I really haven’t thought much about it all. I know my family is probably talking about it 24-7. But we’ve got our hands full with defending Grayson Allen and Luke Kennard and [Marcus] Bolden and [Jayson] Tatum are back, my goodness. They play so hard, they’re so unselfish. There are so many challenges ahead with facing a program like Duke that if you’re thinking about the wrong things you give yourselves zero chance at success. My parents, night in and night out they’re going to cheer for Florida. I guess one way to look at it is they’re going to be wearing royal blue regardless.”
This is the game Florida needs to compete in to gain national respect as a real contender as conference play inches closer and closer. The question is, will the Gators come in with the right mindset to do that?
Maturity is everything when playing Duke, a historic basketball program, at Madison Square Garden, one of the biggest stages in all of basketball.
“Probably the mind set of not over complicating it, not making it a bigger issue than it is,” White said. “Devin Robinson had a great quote, I don’t know, two or three weeks ago with the team that is just, ‘It’s another game. It’s another day. It’s another gym.’ The focus needs to be on us doing our jobs and getting better and those are things that we talk about a lot. We can’t allow for the stage to be too big. We can’t play differently because we’re in Madison Square Garden or we’re playing Duke. Great opportunity, really exciting. But I know this if we get better during those 40 minutes, if we’re really doing our jobs at a high level, playing for each other, being extremely accountable, playing with crazy energy, slowing down when the ball’s in our hands, then we’ll be competitive. If we’re thinking about ‘oh wow. This is Madison Square Garden. This is really, really different,’ then we’re thinking about the wrong things.”
It is easy to say that treating this like every other game against every other team this season is the right mindset to have, but the truth is, this is not just any another game. It is much bigger. A lot is going to have to go right for Florida to defeat the best offensive team in the country, and the players know that. The biggest thing now is to find the maturity to play sound basketball the entire 40 minutes, while knowing it is not a normal game.
“Being 100 percent honest, we both know that it’s a bigger game, said guard Canyon Barry. “It’s Madison Square Garden, it’s Duke. But I think that just adds to the atmosphere and fun of college basketball. Growing up as a kid, you see great Duke basketball teams constantly, so to have the opportunity to go out there and play on a huge stage, and play against a great team is awesome. That being said, at the same time, it’s important that we kind of maintain our composure and our poise, and like I said, go about it like it is another game. Obviously, we’re excited, it’s going to be a fun atmosphere, a great time up there. I think that’s going to be one of the challenges, how well we can kind of regulate that excitement and energy level and play within ourselves, kind of slow down on offense, take our time, and just execute the game plan that coach White and the staff has laid out.”