Just over ten years ago, the Gators were celebrating its first basketball national championship under future hall of fame and current Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan. Donovan would win another national championship the following year. Fast forward to 2016, the Gators are coming off of 21-15 campaign that ended with a NIT quarterfinals loss to George Washington. According to first year Head Coach Michael White, this year was not up to expectations of the Florida program.
“It’s never a success at the University of Florida, if you don’t go to the NCAA tournament.” White said when addressing the overall success of the season in his post-season press conference.
As we know, nothing in life in guaranteed, especially success. Donovan experienced a few ups and downs during his tenure before leaving for the NBA, but he set the bar high for the men’s basketball program, and White has been baptized in the unrelenting expectations of following a legend.
Since May of last year, White has learned that even though the success of the Florida basketball program is not that of the blue bloods of college basketball the expectation to win and win consistently is no less.
White learned a lot in first year, especially the passion surrounding the university. “The electricity around this program, and in the O’Dome, the pride of our fan base…I wasn’t quite as familiar with how special of a place this is”
Prior to Billy Donovan there had not been much tradition to educate anyone with, but White quickly learned of Donovan’s success and in his first year, grew to appreciate what had been built by the previous regime. Despite missing the NCAA tournament White does believe that a solid foundation was laid this year.
“We did build a solid foundation” White expressed in light of not meeting the expectations.
Michael White will not just have to rebuild and maintain the success of the program, but it will have to be done in a way that he has never experienced. Florida is not to the level to expect winning national championships year in and year out, but they should expect to be in the field of 68 every year. As a head coach, Michael White has yet to lead a team to the NCAA tournament. When hired by Jeremy Foley this was a cause of concern for some, but White did prove at Louisiana Tech that he could build a winning program, now he has to get over the hump and lead a team deep into March, in the tournament that the Florida fan base expects to participate in and be successful.
A part of getting over the hump for White will be getting more out of the current roster. There are still some questions about the roster moving forward. As of now Dorian Finney-Smith, Alex Murphy and Devon Walker (who chose to transfer) will be the only departures from the roster. Murphy’s status is still in the air and the staff is still awaiting a final answer and could try to get a medical hardship waiver.
Florida does return some parts to be an improved roster. If Kasey Hill can build on his post season play and fellow guard KeVaughn Allen can build on a quality freshman season, that gives Michael White a quality backcourt to go along with John Egbunu and Kevarrius Hayes down low. White did say that forward Devin Robinson is considering a jump to the NBA, something Robinson confirmed later on Tuesday with an Instagram post, but Robinson has until 10 days after the NBA combine to withdraw his name.
With most of the roster intact, that is already a win for this coaching staff, which came in last year already playing catch-up.
“About 11 months more, a ton more” said White when asked about how much more he knows about this team.
Having the ability to know what he has to work with will give Michael White a better chance to produce this off-season and increase each player’s ability. Instead of re-recruiting current players and creating buy in, White can build on the foundation they have laid.
“I just feel like we will have so much more of a productive off-season, last off-season was about getting to know these guys, re-recruiting them, communicating our vision. Them communicating to us what they are looking for.” White said.
With the meet and greet behind them, Florida can move forward to building a tournament worthy team. The verdict is still out on the young Michael White, but his passion to build a quality program is unquestioned. White has not shied away from the expectations and understands the questions that come with losing a coach like Billy Donovan.
“Anytime that you lose a coach of the stature that we lost in Coach Donovan, the initial reaction is that, that program is unhealthy now.” White said. “Not that we set the world on fire this year by any stretch. I think that recruits, and their parents and their coaches were able to see that the University of Florida basketball, Gator basketball is still healthy,” White added.
Florida is certainly not in an unhealthy state, but there is a need for a boost in multiple areas. Getting more on the offensive end of the floor, building depth on the bench and especially finding a way to improve from the free throw line. Those are a few of the areas that need enhancing, but overall Mike White has an opportunity before the next tip-off to prove Florida is still one of the top programs in the SEC and in the nation.
“This is still a very, very good program.” White said.
While Michael White and his staff work those areas out and work to put a winning team on the floor, he is very confident that the Florida basketball program is not in a decline.