With Tuesday’s Florida Gators Media day came the official media guide, a whale of a project put together by Gators basketball communications director Denver Parler that included write ups on the coaching staff and players as well as all-time stats, official compliance information, and opponent statistics. With the whole guide being a 188-page monster, I thought I’d go through and get some of the highlights so that you don’t have to! Here we go.
Coach White Career Records
One of the great parts of the guide was a breakdown of Coach White’s record against every school he has ever played against as a head coach, including his time at both Florida and Louisiana Tech.
Some of the schools he has dominated:
Arkansas (5-2)
Auburn (3-0)
Charlotte (4-0)
Mississippi State (3-0)
Missouri (3-0)
Rice (4-0)
San Jose State (4-0)
Texas-San Antonio (5-1)
Here are some schools he has struggled against:
Florida State (1-4)
South Carolina (2-4)
New Mexico State (1-4)
Vanderbilt (1-6)
And finally, some of his tightest rivalries:
Kentucky (3-3)
Texas A&M (3-3)
Southern Miss (4-3)
It might be time we schedule New Mexico State to help exorcise some demons from Coach White’s Louisiana Tech days! And while we’re at it, exorcising some demons against Vanderbilt would be great, too.
Mike White Fun Facts
There are some intriguing numbers I stumbled upon going through some of White’s stats at Florida. I think you’ll like some of these.
The Gators are 9-0 under Coach White when they play on Thursdays.
The Gators are 24-1 under Coach White when scoring between 80-89 points, but are 3-11 when they allow between 80-89 points.
The Gators’ best month of the year is November where they’re 16-3 under Coach White and their worst month is March where they’re 10-8.
Pronunciation Guide
After glancing over the pronunciation guide I realize I have been saying a couple names wrong. First, Kevarrius Hayes’ first name is KEE-vahr-ee-us. I’ve been pronouncing it more kah-vahr-ee-us in the past, and will now adjust accordingly! And Gorjok Gak? His first name is pronounced GORE-zhahk. That second syllable takes some practice, but I’ll be working on saying it properly and not saying it gore-jock like I have in the past.
Some Good News
I had never been able to get full conformation that Chase Johnson did, in fact, get a medical redshirt after going down to injury last year but everywhere in the media guide he is treated as a freshman and his last season is referred to as a medical redshirt year. This is great news to preserve a year of eligibility that he very well may use.
Miscellaneous Stats
If you’ve read my work at Gator Country before you know I love stats that border on obscure and oh baby, were there some in this media guide.
KeVaughn Allen and Egor Koulechov tied last year for most times opening a game in scoring with 7 each. How did Florida most often get their first points of the game? The three-point shot, with 10 of their games starting off with a deep ball.
The Gators really bought in to protecting the rim with their bodies and taking charges this past year. After taking only 3 charges as a freshman, Keith Stone drew 13 last year to lead the team. Taking charges might be a Florida thing as well because after taking 0 charges in his first 3 seasons of college basketball Egor Koulechov drew 9 last year and after drawing 0 charges in 2 seasons at Virginia Tech Jalen Hudson drew 6. Way to lay your body down for the team!
The Gators kept things pretty civil last season. They didn’t commit a single technical foul, and neither did their opponents.
When Coach White first came to Florida he bragged about never having a shot clock violation due to the pace they played at. I don’t think he’ll be happy about this, but the Gators had 26 shot clock violations last season.
Situational Stats
When leading with 5:00 left the Gators were 19-3 last year and when they were trailing with 5:00 left they were 2-9. It’s good to see them holding onto leads when they’re ahead but they’ll have to find a way to squeak out some tough wins when trailing with 5:00 left. They are 4-30 under Coach White when trailing with 5:00 left.
Shooting the ball efficiently was huge for the Gators. They were 11-0 when shooting 45% or better from the field and 15-0 when they shot a better percentage than their opponent.
Feeling superstitious? The Gators were best when they played in their orange jerseys going 7-3 and struggled the most in their blue jerseys going 1-3.
All-Time Records Watch
By the end of this year some of the seniors might find their way near the top of some of Florida’s all-time records. Here are some you should be watching out for, starting out with KeVaughn Allen who finds himself in the mix of a few records.
Savvy Veteran
Allen is currently sitting at 106 games played. The Gators played 34 games last year, and if they matched that same number and Allen finished at 140 it would put him 10th in all time games played (lead by Walter Hodge with 151). If Allen started all those games, which he very well could, it would put him at 133 games started which would make him second behind Kenny Boynton with 142. If Allen played the identical number of minutes this season as he did last year, he would end up with 4138, good for third in all-time minutes played.
Scoring Machine
Allen hasn’t always been the most efficient scorer but he has been somewhat consistent in his raw numbers. If he keeps up similar numbers than last year he should finish somewhere between 4-6 in all-time points scored. Ronnie Williams has the all-time lead in points with 2090.
Protecting The Lead
I don’t want to jinx it but Allen currently has the record for career free throw percentage at 87.5%. Hopefully he keeps that up and holds on to the record.
Kevarrius Hayes should be in the mix for a record, too.
Shot Eraser
One of the best shot blockers the Gators have ever seen, even a slight dip in shot blocking production from last year should see Hayes coming second all-time in that category.
I know I threw a lot of numbers at you for this one, but I hope you found a tidbit or two you found interesting! We’ll have some more content from media day coming to you shortly.
Basketball is coming!
That’s a darn good write-up Eric. Thank you!