Florida Basketball: Mike White wasn’t a bad guy, just a bad coach

Guess who’s back? Back again? If you guessed former Florida basketball coach Mike White, tell a friend. Yes indeed, White is back in Gainesville ready to stroll into the Gators’ locker room and channel his inner Randy Quaid when reuniting with aliens and scream “Hello boys. I’m back!!!”

He probably won’t do that though, because White at his core is actually a solid human being. That doesn’t mean he knew what he was doing during his time in Gainesville.

Florida Basketball: White went up to Georgia

The Twitter account Big Game Boomer, a troll that even Skip Bayless would be proud of, recently posted that Florida Gator fans don’t care about Florida basketball.

Was he reading the comment section of any game thread during the Mike White era?

No, basketball is not bigger than football at Florida and it never will be.

At least while we are alive.

But to say people in Gainesville don’t care about basketball is nonsense. People have become complacent because for seven years they had to watch a coach that was complacent.

I have a one and a half year old son, and whenever I need him to take a nap I put on highlights on Mike White’s offense and he instantly passes out.

That story isn’t actually true, but it is indicative of how Gator fans felt during his time here.

White had the impossible task of following the guy whose name is on the court he plays on, but was it really that impossible? The expectations at Florida are lower for basketball than they are for football. Most Florida basketball fans recognize that the back-to-back national titles were once in a lifetime, but having standards to at least make the Sweet 16 isn’t unreasonable.

Yet in White’s seven years in Gainesville, he made it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament once. Fans grew complacent because they knew Florida might win it’s first round game, then get outclassed in the second round and that was that.

The biggest issue with the Gators during his time here was a stagnant offense that never seemed to have any rhyme or reason to it. In 2021-2022 the Gators were 152st in assist per possessions, only getting that extra pass on 18.5% of possessions. That was actually an improvement from 2020-2021, when Florida basketball was 276th in the country in that metric.

Despite the chronic underachieving White had during his time here, it’s hard to dislike White the human being. Florida basketball was free from major scandals relative to the rest of the country, White has five children with his wife Kira, and even with mounting pressure he never got snippy with the press like Dan Mullen did.

Compared to Sean Miller, Rick Patino, Bruce Pearl, Kelvin Sampson, Dave Bliss or Chris Beard, White is just a normal guy looking to coach basketball.

So boo Mike White today because he is the coach of Georgia. If you blame him for the current state of Florida basketball, don’t.

That’s on Scott Stricklin. 

But don’t boo White because you think he is a terrible human, because he’s not.

Keep up with all things Florida basketball with Hail Florida Hail.