Exactly a year ago to this day, Florida kicked off a new era for its men’s basketball program when it officially announced the hiring of Louisiana Tech head coach Mike White to the same position as a replacement for the Oklahoma Thunder-bound Billy Donovan.
Overall, White’s first season on the job had its share of growing pains and was a learning experience for all, but there still is plenty of optimism about what he and his team have to offer moving forward.
During this offseas0n, the 39-year-old White has had plenty of time to reflect on his debut season as Florida's head coach - one that White said was one of the hardest years of his coaching career from a workload standpoint. The Gators finished 21-15 with the season coming to a close with a loss against George Washington in the NIT quarterfinals, as Florida failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
“I’m a lot more comfortable now with our program than I was," White said last week during his time at the Titletown Gator Club in Gainesville. "I’m not thrilled where we’re at right now, but I feel like we’re headed in the right direction for sure. I’ve always felt like my family and I have been well-received by the great people of Gainesville. We have awesome neighbors so I guess there’s a couple of ways to look at it. Personally, we’ve felt great since we’ve been here about a month, on the personal side of things."
Following in the footsteps of a future Hall of Famer is a difficult task for any coach, but it's one that White has tackled with enthusiasm. As the 2015-16 season progressed, his relationships with the players he inherited from Donovan's staff eventually grew stronger. He admits that one of the biggest challenges of last season from the get-go was getting a roster of players recruited by the previous staff to buy into his coaching style.
White began to realize that developing those relationships with his players would be trickier than expected.
“My last year at Louisiana Tech it was - here’s what we’re doing, and there were 13 guys doing it as hard as we can with no questions,” White said. “It’s different when you take over something new. Going into it, I didn’t realize it was going to be as big of a factor. ... On certain days you had a lot of it and on certain days we may take a step backwards and then we may take two steps forward - and that’s still a process with these guys that we didn’t recruit.
"I feel a lot more at home in Gainesville, my staff does, but most importantly we understand our roster a lot better and they understand us a lot better.”
On the recruiting front, White and his staff have also gradually made progress. The first big victory on that end for White following his hiring was maintaining the commitment of four-star guard KeVaughn Allen, who turned out to be a key contributor for the Gators this past season.
Although Florida hasn't yet landed any five-star recruits under White's watch, the staff's has had some positive momentum on the recruiting trail as of recent. After landing commitments from 2016 recruits and Oldsmar (Fla.) High School teammates Eric Hester (four-star guard, No. 87 in 2016 rankings) and Dontay Bassett (three-star forward), Florida added a third member to its 2016 class with the commitment of skilled three-star big man Gorjok Gak. The Gators have done well so far in the 2017 recruiting cycle, with commitments from four-star guard Shai Alexander (No. 60 in 2017 rankings) and four-star forward DeAundre Ballard (No. 82 in 2017 rankings).
UF's $64.5 million interior renovation of the O'Connell Center, which is scheduled to be completed by December, should also help the program from a recruiting standpoint.
"I feel a lot better about our recruiting than I did 12 months ago," White said. "I understand our recruiting base more. I think we’re received more positively today than we were 12 months ago, when there were a lot more questions about how we were going to play and whether or not we were going to have any success."
The outlook of the current roster heading into the 2016-17 campaign also looks better. Although Florida lost Dorian Finney-Smith to graduation, it returns the bulk of its rotation with guards Kasey Hill, KeVaughn Allen and Chris Chiozza, forwards Devin Robinson, Justin Leon, Kevarrius Hayes and Keith Stone, and centers John Egbunu and Schuyler Rimmer all back in the mix.
Last season didn't end how the Gators wanted it to, but now heading into his second season White is looking for his group to take the next step.
“I can’t sit here and just rave about all the success we’ve had, of course," he said. "I do feel like we got some things accomplished. We got better throughout the year. I thought we finished strong.
"In terms of the basketball program and how you look at it, it’s still evolving. We’ve got to turn the corner and get back in the NCAA Tournament.”
