Florida’s men’s basketball team has been in a bit of disarray since Billy Donovan left for Oklahoma City to take his first NBA gig with the Thunder. His replacement, former Ole Miss standout Mike White, has struggled to meet the lofty expectations that his predecessor had set on the program, much to the chagrin of the fanbase.
In response to a fan named Chip N., who essentially asked if head coach Mike White is the right man for the job, The Athletic’s Eammon Brennan offered the following take in his mailbag Saturday on the state of Gators basketball under the charismatic skipper.
I’m nowhere close to a Florida fan, but I do spend big chunks of my late winters writing about bubble teams, which means I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time writing about and watching Florida these last few seasons, and let’s just say this: I get it. It’s frustrating for me, and I don’t care what happens one way or the other. I can only imagine what it’s like to be on Diehard Florida Basketball Fan Island.
Last year was pretty typical. Florida started with huge expectations and obvious talent. It almost immediately fell short of those expectations, then spent most of the season gradually working its way back into reasonably solid NCAA Tournament position. It was, for a team with so much talent, a very workmanlike sort of season. Things always felt a little disjointed. Very little was smooth. There was always some struggle, some new reason the Gators never quite got there.
I don’t know what that is. I don’t know how to quantify it. But it does seem to be a thing. And it is massively frustrating.
Though White’s 2016-17 squad reached the Elite Eight behind the heroics of Chris Chiozza, his sophomore campaign still had remnants of the Billy D era on its roster. In the years since Florida has only made it to the Round of 32 — the following two seasons — and had a terribly disappointing showing this past season, starting at No. 6 in the polls before cascading into a fiery mess, only to claw their way back into tournament contention before the postseason was canceled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Brennan may not be a Gators fan, but his words should resonate with many members of the Gator Nation. And with the uncertainty facing the basketball season this winter, who knows what might happen with Mike White after five seasons of futility in the search of both an SEC and National Championship.
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