I'll preface this by saying that Archie would have been my first choice but I’m failing to see why some look at their resumes and see him as the second coming and White as a failure of a hire. With how brief their careers have been I don’t think you can evaluate the two as simply as Coach A has won a few tournament games he’s a home run hire and Coach B hasn’t so he’s a disappointment which seems to be a common theme I've seen in criticisms.
Basing the whole evaluation on their postseason success is apples and oranges, Archie has the benefit of being at a much better program in a state with a much better pool of high school talent. Archie’s teams his first two years were worse than his predecessor’s and they actually got worse from year one to year two. He only started having success once a former top 40 recruit transferred in to get more playing time. In the first game of both tourney runs Archie’s teams made crucial mental errors and/or failed to execute in the final seconds. Luckily for them their opponents failed to capitalize on those mistakes or the narrative surrounding Archie completely changes even though his coaching ability does not.
White is up 3-0 in regular season conference titles and they are tied in conference tourney championships (0). Dayton left their fate up to the committee last year by failing to come through when it mattered most in their conference tourney but were fortunately given an 11 seed in the play in game on their home floor.
Setting aside the comparison I’m excited to see White’s style of play. We may struggle some next year with the current roster but with the type of athletes we can bring in it could be fun down the road. The national perception seems to always be that we play a “Billy-Ball” up tempo style but we really haven’t played that way in years. We haven't been in the top 100 of adjusted tempo since the KenPom rankings started in 2002 and only twice inside the top 200. LA Tech has been in the top 50 the past three seasons. Obviously tempo does not = good but it should be exciting to watch.
I’m not sure what some of you were expecting with this hire. There is no home run sure thing out there and there rarely is. There is a risk or counter argument to every candidate. Of the at least somewhat realistic options Marshall is probably the closest to a proven commodity but he still has missed the tourney in 4 of his 8 years at Wichita State.
While we are a good program with great recent success we are still a football school and not a destination job no matter what some want to believe. Billy was the best coach we’ve ever had and he still had to play second fiddle to the likes of Will Muschamp and Ron Zook during his time here, it’s just the way it is. For the foreseeable future the only realistic options we’ll have when the job is open are taking a chance on an up and comer or settling for an established coach who isn't good enough for a blue blood job.
I like Archie and would have loved it if we had hired him but he is far from a sure thing. All White has done is turn around a program with no real history of success and win at a rate never seen at that school before. All of the LA Tech fans seem to love him, all the analysts say it was a great hire, he has ties to the region and plays an exciting brand of basketball. While he’s far from proven, so is Archie and I’m still excited for the future of Florida basketball.
TL;DR - Still some reasons to believe Archie might not be Wooden 2.0, There are reasons to be excited about White
Basing the whole evaluation on their postseason success is apples and oranges, Archie has the benefit of being at a much better program in a state with a much better pool of high school talent. Archie’s teams his first two years were worse than his predecessor’s and they actually got worse from year one to year two. He only started having success once a former top 40 recruit transferred in to get more playing time. In the first game of both tourney runs Archie’s teams made crucial mental errors and/or failed to execute in the final seconds. Luckily for them their opponents failed to capitalize on those mistakes or the narrative surrounding Archie completely changes even though his coaching ability does not.
White is up 3-0 in regular season conference titles and they are tied in conference tourney championships (0). Dayton left their fate up to the committee last year by failing to come through when it mattered most in their conference tourney but were fortunately given an 11 seed in the play in game on their home floor.
Setting aside the comparison I’m excited to see White’s style of play. We may struggle some next year with the current roster but with the type of athletes we can bring in it could be fun down the road. The national perception seems to always be that we play a “Billy-Ball” up tempo style but we really haven’t played that way in years. We haven't been in the top 100 of adjusted tempo since the KenPom rankings started in 2002 and only twice inside the top 200. LA Tech has been in the top 50 the past three seasons. Obviously tempo does not = good but it should be exciting to watch.
I’m not sure what some of you were expecting with this hire. There is no home run sure thing out there and there rarely is. There is a risk or counter argument to every candidate. Of the at least somewhat realistic options Marshall is probably the closest to a proven commodity but he still has missed the tourney in 4 of his 8 years at Wichita State.
While we are a good program with great recent success we are still a football school and not a destination job no matter what some want to believe. Billy was the best coach we’ve ever had and he still had to play second fiddle to the likes of Will Muschamp and Ron Zook during his time here, it’s just the way it is. For the foreseeable future the only realistic options we’ll have when the job is open are taking a chance on an up and comer or settling for an established coach who isn't good enough for a blue blood job.
I like Archie and would have loved it if we had hired him but he is far from a sure thing. All White has done is turn around a program with no real history of success and win at a rate never seen at that school before. All of the LA Tech fans seem to love him, all the analysts say it was a great hire, he has ties to the region and plays an exciting brand of basketball. While he’s far from proven, so is Archie and I’m still excited for the future of Florida basketball.
TL;DR - Still some reasons to believe Archie might not be Wooden 2.0, There are reasons to be excited about White
