Legge's Thoughts: Mike White to UGA - Is This Going to Work?
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ATHENS - The move was, well, pretty surprising. A coach leaving the Florida Gators - that’s not really anything new.
After all, the last three successful coaches for the Gators, Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer and Billy Donovan all left Florida. But to leave Florida for Georgia?
That’s strange, but the question here is about the future. And that question is very simple:
Is this going to work, or not?
I don’t know. I don’t. I’m not sure how anyone could know if this is going to work. White was pretty successful at Florida - particularly at the start. Successful compared to Donovan? No. Successful to Florida’s basketball history, Georgia’s basketball history and compared to today’s SEC and nationally? No question - he’s been successful.
Again, what will the future be at Georgia? White has no real ties to the state. I’m not aware of any ties he has in Atlanta. Unlike hires in the recent past, however, White is from the SEC’s neck of the woods. He played at Ole Miss; coached the Gators; and was the coach at Louisiana Tech before that.
He’s been around the South. Will that translate to being able to steadily recruit metro Atlanta? I’m not sure. Tom Crean was successful with that for a time with recruiting, and then everything fell apart.
If Mike White is going to be successful in Athens, and he should be successful, he’s going to have to recruit Gwinnett, Atlanta, DeKalb, Savannah, Albany and Augusta effectively. The world of basketball is much, much smaller than Kirby’s world in football. All of the top players in the country are not that difficult to find - they all play in Georgia twice a year - in Cartersville or Augusta - every single year.
Metro Atlanta hemorrhages talent. I will repeat for the 197,232,456th time this century: Georgia should be a national power in basketball. The reason is simple… talent surrounds the school in ways that places like Kansas and Kentucky only dream about.
It is remarkable Georgia has been so accomplished at being so inept at basketball for as long as it has. Can White change the culture in Athens? Can he get the powers that be to buy in? That’s likely the No. 2 thing on his list behind recruiting.
Josh Brooks and Jere Morehead made this hire. They can’t follow that up with lip service about basketball. This is simple math for Brooks. He’s been a big part in Kirby’s run to the national title, but he knows like the rest of us that he didn’t hire Kirby - he inherited him.
But much like Roger Sterling, Brooks has the chance to take what he’s inherited and make the most of it. And making the most of it will now involves success in the one thing that’s very rarely been successful. Will the school go all out to win in basketball?
Will UGA continue to take care of Stegeman, or decide to move forward with a downtown facility? Either answer can produce championships. Will Georgia think outside the box and schedule a game each year in on MLK Day in Atlanta with Morehouse, Howard, FAMU or even move the annual rivalry with Georgia Tech to that day?
Will Georgia play a game in Sanford Stadium to start the season? How? Build an elevated court in the corner of Sanford with the hedges surrounding it for a Friday night tipoff. What about a game in middle November outside in downtown Athens at Broad and College? Or even on Old Campus?
Will White sell his program to the students? That’s going to take a lot of manpower, but it is going to be a necessary part of building a program that has to happen. There’s a lot to criticize about Tom Crean’s time at Georgia, but he understood marketing.
And White is going to have to market the hell out of this thing. This is about as strange a hire to explain to fans (and all hires have to be explained and sold to a fanbase) as I have ever seen at UGA. The coach from Florida coming to Athens?
Strange.
It also makes me wonder what’s going on with the Gators. Dismiss it all you want, but too many folks I know that have coached at Florida, or understand the SEC say that Florida isn’t what it used to be. Perhaps the Gators are learning that “Its Florida” means about as much as “Its Georgia”, which is to say that means nothing.
Georgia isn’t going to win because “its Georgia.” Florida is no different. White, no doubt, was hearing the chirping in Gainesville, but no one really thought he was going to get fired this offseason. If he was to get terminated why wouldn’t the Gators do that Friday?
They didn’t. So in a matter of a few months Florida has fired its head football coach - the only one that’s won a meaningful bowl game and had them ranked in the top ten at the end of the season in a decade - and seen its head basketball coach walk to their arch rival. It should be pointed out that Georgia called Florida to ask for permission to talk with White, and the Gators didn’t stop them.
But, still…
If you think things are going well in Gainesville your head is buried in the sand. The administration down there isn’t fighting for its athletic department the way Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State’s are with theirs. I know people who have worked at Florida. The complaining I’ve heard sounds a lot like what I heard at Georgia in the past. I don’t hear that sort of complaining in Athens any more.
You have to plan to win. You have to choose to win. Is Georgia doing that with this hire? I really don’t know. The proof will be in the coming months and years.
Take away that White worked for Florida over the last seven years.
In that time he’s never failed to reach the post-season, which should be the minimum with a decent job in the SEC (he’s only failed to reach the post-season once in his career). He’s won a post-season game every single year he’s gotten into the NIT or NCAAs. He’s never had a losing season in SEC play. He’s 6-4 in the NCAA Tournament.
Again, will this work? History says Mike White has a lot against him - anyone hired to take this job has history against them. But the reality on the ground in 2022 shows that this is probably the job in the country with the biggest upside out there.
I previously wrote about Georgia trying to do what Donovan did at Florida in the 2000s. White couldn’t do that with the Gators. Could he do it with the Dawgs? He can, but it won’t be easy.