Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports reported that Louisiana Tech head coach Michael White is being targeted as the man to succeed Billy Donovan as the next Florida Gators men’s basketball coach.
Forde reported that Foley and White have yet to meet but that a meeting could happen as early as Thursday.
On Monday, during Billy Donovan’s farewell press conference, Foley warned that there would be names thrown out in the media but that his search for a new head coach would not begin in earnest until that afternoon. Foley wasn’t, however, naïve to the possibility and began an initial search soon after Oklahoma City parted ways with Scott Brooks.
“We’ve been collecting information on a number of coaches. Candidly when Oklahoma City decided to make a change, we paid attention too,” Foley said on Monday afternoon. “We heard some undercurrents that this is a possibility, so we began looking at coaches probably several weeks ago.”
The 38-year old White has coached at Louisiana Tech for four seasons, taking the Cajuns to the NIT Tournament the last three. White was sought after by Tennessee and last season but chose to stay in Louisiana with a new contract extension and raise.
White implemented a fast-paced style of basketball at Louisiana Tech and he has experience recruiting in the SEC (he served as an assistant at Mississippi State) and continued recruiting the state of Florida while at Louisiana Tech — he had five players from the state of Florida on his roster last season.
White fits the bill for what Foley looks for in a coach. He’s young, thought to be up-and-coming and he has some head coaching experience. The other quality that Foley is looking for is someone who believes in the vision at Florida and someone who believes that Florida won’t miss a beat in transitioning away from the Billy Donovan era.
A face-to-face meeting with White would go a long way in seeing if White meets all of Foley’s criteria.