Florida Gators and Mike White have both come out ahead on basketball court| Whitley
The scoreboard said Florida beat Georgia 82-75 Saturday afternoon. What Mike White’s return really showed was that both programs won.
The Gators are better off with a fresh face at coach. And the old face is better off in a new place, even if it is Athens, Georgia.
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Fittingly enough, White wore all black in his O’Connell Center homecoming. He almost played the role of supervillain, but the Bulldogs couldn’t quite keep Florida from winning a strangely important game.
It was strange because it’s early January. With their local football team playing in some game Monday night, only a handful of people in Athens probably knew the Bulldogs had a basketball game Saturday.
People in Gainesville don’t have such a diversion. They’d watched the Gators lose three straight close games to fall to 0-2 in the SEC.
Florida reeeeally needed to win Saturday.
“For the team, it was really important,” Todd Golden said. “There are only so many blows you can take before you have some issues with trust and belief.”
Speaking of trust and belief among fans, it really would have been disillusioning to lose to the guy who essentially was booed out of town. The old, familiar sound greeted White when he was introduced.
It wasn’t surprising, but it’s odd when a guy like White gets more derision than John Calipari. You boo weaselly coaches like Cal or Sean Miller or Chris Beard. Coaches who cheat or get arrested or undermine their programs.
Nobody could accuse White of not giving his all to UF and doing it in a classy way. His biggest sins were having a snooze-inducing offense and only once making it to the second weekend of an NCAA tournament.
Fans got frustrated with White. White got frustrated with the criticism.
By last March, it was obvious that things had run their course. If Florida wanted to be more than a middle-tier SEC team, it needed a bolt of coaching energy.
If White was going to find coaching and personal happiness, he needed a new start. Georgia’s turning out to be a fine choice.
Athens would be thrilled to have a middle-tier SEC basketball program. White’s already won more SEC games (two) than Tom Crean managed all last season.
A win Saturday would’ve doubled last year’s total of six. Most of those victories have been over tomato cans, though beating Auburn last Wednesday showed the Bulldogs are at least semi-legit.
They were certainly good enough to give the Gators problems. Georgia took an early 13-point lead, only to see it wiped out by halftime.
Yes, Gator fans. A White-coached team blew a big lead at the O’Dome. Some things never change.
Only this time, UF was the beneficiary. The Gators got nice games from Kyle Lofton (18 points), Will Richard (14 points) and Colin Castleton (12 points, eight rebounds, seven blocks). Then there was Myreon Jones.
“Man, three of four from 3,” White said, gazing at the stat sheet.
He had to be wondering, “Where was that shooting when I needed it last year?” Jones was 5-for-7 from the field and finished with 13 points.
He got a big hug from White in the handshake line after the game. The biggest embrace was between Castleton and his old coach.
“I love my current guys. I’m blessed to be at Georgia,” White said. “But I also love those other guys here that I had an opportunity to help develop.”
Now it’s Golden’s job to develop them, recruit more and build a program. It’s light years too early to tell whether he’ll be Billy Donovan 2.0, or even Lon Kruger 2.0.
For now, UF is a mediocre team in a killer league. But the hope that’s been placed in Golden is not unfounded.
As for the Man in Black, he was just happy to get Saturday’s awkward homecoming out of the way.
“I’m glad it’s behind me,” White said.
He lost the game, but he’s in a better place. You can say the same for the Gators.
David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: The Gators got a much-needed win against ex-coach Mike White Saturday.
