Mike White and Futility
Being a fan of the Florida Gators men’s basketball team is a strange experience. We think of ourselves as the best non-Kentucky basketball program in the SEC. This isn’t categorically true, but this is how we regard ourselves with all of the arrogance that it entails. The University of Florida expects to be able to win at everything we put our resources and passion toward. When Billy Donovan took over the basketball program, it was an afterthought to a fandom and school for whom football is and was king. What Donovan did for the program cannot be overstated, I don’t know if another coach could have brought us those teams and those back-to-back national championships. What is also true is that any time the team wasn’t hitting those highs, fans stopped paying attention. When Coach Donovan left for the Oklahoma City Thunder (RIP Sonics), it felt like it was time. Enter Mike White, who as coach of the Gators is in the unenviable and unprecedented position of following a legend.
Mike White inherited a program which although at a low compared to more recent history, is still one with banners on the wall of the O’Connell Center. He came from a mid-major program in Louisiana Tech that had low expectations which he undoubtedly exceeded. The closest the Gators have come to hanging another banner in the O’Dome is the 2017–18 Elite Eight run, where Chris Chiozza became a program legend. White’s failings in the win/loss column are well documented, as are his SEC regular season and tournament mediocrity. I’m not here to vent about these things, if anyone Googles “Mike White” I’m confident they would find plenty of material on that subject. I want to talk about the players, and what it means to see them develop as a fan.
Player development is, I think, one of the truly enthralling things about sports. Tracking a player’s progress as they accomplish new things year after year is something that can’t be experienced elsewhere. Even if a player isn’t destroying opponents or making huge leaps in performance, just seeing a solid performance from a guy you know is going to help your team in his own certain way is so satisfying. While we all love the wing who goes off for 30+ points and wins a game for the team, we also love the backup guard who comes off the bench and makes a couple of three-pointers to spark the offense. It’s the same for the forward who is quiet all night but gets his rebounds and takes a charge or two. These are the things a fanbase can rally around. Mike White, I would argue, has not only failed to produced these players at a rate we should expect, he has actively prevented players from developing into important pieces of a program.
The most recent player for the Gators who fits this mold is Kevarrius Hayes, a Gator through and through. He didn’t take over games or lead the team from the front, but he did what he needed to help the team win. He was always where you needed him to be and Kevarrius could always come up with a block or rebound when the team had to have one. It was great seeing him on the court on Senior Night. Since Kevarrius left that court, the team has lacked any real cohesion or identity. So many players have cycled through the program, and none of them have left as part of a successful team.
I’ll pause here and note that Mike White cannot be blamed for every player not reaching their potential, some just never quite adapt and some have personal issues that interfere with their careers. White is also obviously not completely at fault for the situations the team has found itself in over the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Between the pandemic and Keyontae Johnson’s scary collapse there is a lot that can be forgiven. I am so glad to see Keyontae doing well, and I hope he can accomplish everything he wants to in life.
Jalen Hudson transferred to the Gators from Virginia Tech after his sophomore season. He was an exciting scorer and brought a dimension to the Gators offense that no one else could. His first season as a Gator was a success, and he was set up to the The Guy on the team the next year. This is where it starts to get strange. Jalen Hudson just stopped being able to score. It was like the Monstars stole his talent. He couldn’t make layups, he couldn’t hit his shots from outside. While this isn’t anything that can be tied directly to scheme or coaching (as far as I know), it was indicative of a trend of talented Gators underperforming offensively.
Still, even though Hudson had a poor end to his college career the Gators had exciting players. Young freshmen Andrew Nembhard, Keyontae Johnson, and Noah Locke had hammered out spots for themselves on the team. Nembhard was the cerebral point guard, Johnson the explosive wing who threw down incredible dunks, and Locke the sharpshooter. This really felt like a team which could build itself on the foundation of this young core. Nembhard tested the NBA waters, but came back to school and the Gators felt like they just might have a new version of the ‘04s.
The next incoming class felt somehow even more exciting, with two McDonalds All Americans and a highly-rated center. Tre Mann was a combo guard who could bring a different dimension to the offense than Nembhard, with his speed and shot creation while handling the ball. Scottie Lewis was a super athletic forward who was billed as the first one-and-done for the program since Bradley Beal. Omar Payne was a top-50 center, a position the Gators needed to fill after the departure of Hayes. The cherry on top was the addition of the top transfer in the country, Kerry Blackshear Jr. The Gators reportedly beat out Kentucky among other programs for Blackshear, so the hype train was leaving the station. The Gators were ranked №6 in the nation to start the season.
Immediately something about the team felt off. No one was really scoring, Blackshear didn’t look comfortable in the offense, and the Gators quickly crashed out of the AP rankings. This was not a case of the players not being good enough, these guys worked hard when they were on the floor and when things did click it was easy to see the vision for the team. Things seldom clicked, though. Blackshear was played as a five, when he really should not have ever been put in that defensive position. Keyontae was at the four, when he should have been a small forward/wing, and those were just the most basic problems with the team. Everyone looked lost, and Mike White often put the onus on the players, citing lack of effort and leadership. For the fans, it was off-putting to see our players look completely without direction on the court and then blamed by the coach for the team’s losses. Eric Fawcett broke down the team’s lineup issues much better than I ever could here. The team never got it together, Blackshear went undrafted, and Nembhard transferred.
Another quick pause to talk about inept coaching. Mike White might cause some Gator fans to conjure Will Muschamp (good recruiter, bad coach), but he reminds me a lot more of Jim McElwain. White is, of course, a much better recruiter than McElwain, but the confusion evident on the court when the players try to run anything just screams McElwain to me. McElwain had a knack for getting bailed out by his players (Will Greer etc.) and doing just enough to create the illusion of success. To point, I had the same distinct feeling watching the football team play under McElwain as I do the basketball team under White: “These guys don’t know how to do the things they’re being asked to do.”
As I mentioned before, much can be forgiven in our present times. Gator basketball had an extremely difficult time off of the court, and those young men did their best all year. In 2021, the Gators were more of the same. Tre Mann would bail them out occasionally and they made the NCAA tournament, where they lost in excruciating but unsurprising fashion to Oral Roberts. Colin Castleton emerged as a quality player, a good second option for Tre Mann. At the end of the season, everyone left. Mann will be drafted after declaring, Lewis will probably not. Locke and Payne will suit up for other High Major schools. Two bench players, Ques Glover and Osayi Osifo transferred and will play at a lower level. We don’t know when or if Keyontae Johnsons will be back. White is bringing in transfers to replace them, as is every other coach in the NCAA. While this might be the new normal for college basketball, at Florida the situation feels worse than that.
In the last few seasons, talented players have arrived atFlorida to much fanfare. At the end of their time, they drift out of the program without making their mark on the school. Andrew Nembhard went to go play for a national championship, he helped Gonzaga hang a banner. When think of the players in our program I feel sad for them. I can’t help but feel that if they went elsewhere they could have better careers, and that some kind of trick was played on them. It feels like they’ll never get to carve out their spot on a team that accomplishes anything. Mike White hasn’t positively impacted the players he’s brought into his program, and he has no impetus to change. I’ll just continue to watch players struggle to find their game until they leave, it feels futile to think it could be any other way.
