Billy Donovan lost 4 of his starters who went to 4 consecutive Elite 8 appearances and a Final Four to graduation yet you love to point out his losing season.
Are you seriously suggesting that you would prefer Bruce Pearl and his back yard bbq antics, Wade and his player payment plan, or Regular Season Rick to lead the Florida Basketball Program?
How the hell Wade remains employed is beyond me. Guy is dirty. Pearl's issues, outside of profuse sweating, were really minor. He's a really good coach. You nailed Rick Barnes, great during the season, lousy come tourney time.....
Look, sadgator probably ain’t the best person to be arguing that Mike White has had some awesome success here...sadgator has questions too...
Winning 1 game in the NCAA tournament does not make us one of the Top 32 teams in the country. It just means we were in the final 32 for the national championship. There's a difference. The Final polls take into consideration the entire year's body of work, not just how a team does in the tournament. For example, the year we made it to the Elite 8 under Mike White the Final rankings had us at #20, not in the Top 8. And that's a really low bar for THE University of Florida, just making the tourney. And my original post not only talked about making it to the conference tournament final, it included not winning a regular season SEC title and not even being in serious contention except for that 1 year. Plus only finishing the season ranked 1 time in 6 years (and that one year being #20), when some of those years we started the season ranked, a couple of times in the Top 15, I believe. And why should Mike White not be held to the same standards that other coaches at UF are held to? We fired 2 football coaches between Meyer and Mullen and we made the SEC title game in 2 of those "off" years, plus finished the season ranked in the Top 25 twice. Becky Burleigh is the only coach in UF soccer history, won a ton of SEC titles and a national championship and has even won 1 regular season SEC title, 2 conference tournaments, took her teams to 3 Sweet 16's and 1 Elite 8 since Mike White was hired. Yet she resigned because the program has stagnated and done very little the last 4 years and a time for change had come. UF has, historically, forced coaches to move on if they have 5-6 years of not being an SEC challenger on a regular basis and being in the national rankings. Why should basketball be any different?
So if our baseball team, softball team, volleyball team, gymnastics team and every other sport at UF simply has a winning record each season, finishes 5th or so in the SEC, gets ranked 20th in the country 1 out of every 6 years and not ranked the rest, doesn't win an SEC title or a tournament title during that time, but does make the post season and wins 1 game or gets past the first round each season, that's fine - we all should praise those coaches? If that happened we would drop so far down in the Director's Cup standings it would be embarrassing. UF doesn't finish in the Top 7 in the Director's Cup standings every season by having our teams just have a 62% winning percentage and get to the 2nd round in the post season. The expectations are much, much higher and you know it. You're trying to defend the indefensible.
floridagators.com
Illy D. In his next 3 years went to Rd. 1, 2 and 1. Would you be all over him? You know nothing of our or college BB history. Win I g ain’t East. Ask FSU. Is that what you want another round or two?
What year are you referring too? Billy’s 7th-9th years? Because I know darn well Billy’s first 6 years were much better than White’s.
Billy won regular season SEC titles in years 4, 5, 6, 11, 17 & 18. He won the SEC tournament titles in years 9, 10, 11 & 18. He was in the Sweet 16 in years 3, 4, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 & 18, Elite 8 in years 4, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17 & 18, Final 4 in years 4, 10, 11 & 18, national runner-up in year 4, national champion in years 10 & 11. He won 71.5% of his games at Florida, 65% of his SEC games. Mike White has won nothing in his first 6 years at Florida.
floridagators.com
Love this post!
Laugh all you want, my man, or whatever you choose to call yourself today. Gator soccer was at one time the class of the SEC and the state of Florida. Not so anymore. FSU has far surpassed us, winning 2 national titles in the last 7 years and being seeded #1 going in to this year's tournament. I happen to follow and enjoy ALL Gator sports programs and want to see ALL of coaches and athletes do well. When they aren't living up to the standards of excellence/achievement that have been established over the last 30 years or so, it's time for a change. That was the case with UF soccer and that's the case with UF Men's basketball, IMO.
15 Players (13 ships) and 4 xfer out = half the team using LLL math.
