Florida Gators look to improve in Mike White’s second season

Navigating the SEC basketball season is something Mike White was familiar with having played and coached at Ole Miss. White knew what to expect from the league, but spent the entire season trying to learn what his team’s identity.

White led the Gators to a 21-15 record, tying Tommy Bartlett’s school record for wins in a first season by a UF head coach, and to the NIT quarterfinals. That’s a better start than White’s first head coaching gig at Louisiana Tech, where he went 18-16 in 2011-12. White’s team improved to 27-7 the next season, a nine game improvement.

“If you could promise we’d win 30 this year, I’d take it right now,” White said Thursday. “I guess there are some similarities in that it’s your second year, not only in a new community and you’re adjusted, personally of course, with your family and so on and so forth, but most importantly for the program you have a better sense as to who you have, who you’re working with, what their strengths and weaknesses are, what your team’s strengths and weaknesses are.”

Florida returns four starters from a year ago and add Canyon Barry, who averaged 19.7 points-per-game at the College of Charleston last year. They’ll also get back a healthy John Egbunu. Florida returning so much depth reminds White of his second year in Ruston.

“I hadn’t thought about it much, but we returned a bunch that second year. This year we return a bunch. So there are obvious similarities there,” said White. “Probably some differences, too, in terms of the level and the schedule, and the non-conference schedule specific to our predicament and all those type things. But probably a bunch of similarities.”

The scheduling will be the biggest early season test for the Gators. The O-Dome is getting a $64.5 million dollar renovation. Florida will hit the road for its first 11 non-conference games, opening up the season in Jacksonville for thee games before barnstorming through Lakeland, Tampa, Orlando, New York to play in the Jimmy V Classic and Sunrise before getting back into the O-Dome on December 21.

“We can sit here and complain about having to play on the road. I’m pretty happy we get to play on the road in the fall because that means we’re about to move into a beautiful facility,” White said. “Also, it gives you advantages, opportunities to grow, to become more cohesive as we’re traveling and coming together.”

That may be White looking at the glass half full, after all, the schedule is out of his hands. Last season the Gators went 9-11 away from the O’Connell Center. This season they’ll play 22 games away from Gainesville .

“It brings a lot of challenges on the court and off the court, especially with our academics and things like that. We’ll have to stay on top of that,” John Egbunu said. “It’s nothing we’re not capable of doing. As a team, we understand what’s at stake. We know we’ve got to make good use of our time.”

There will be trials and tribulations for the 2016-17 Florida Gators basketball team but they’re confident that the second year under Mike White will be a successful one. The familiarity amongst the players, coaches and trainers will get a boost in year two and the road warriors believe that will be their biggest asset.

“It’s always good to be on the same page,” Kevarrius Hayes said. “Now if the whole team, the coaches and the staff are, we can make something great happen.”

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC