With Florida’s run to Elite 8, Mike White steps out of Billy Donovan’s shadow
NEW YORK — Coaches normally don’t embrace the idea of replacing a legend — they like the idea of replacing the guy who replaced the legend.
But not Mike White. He was not intimidated nor deterred by the idea of following future Hall of Fame coach Billy Donovan, who left Florida after 19 seasons that included four Final Fours and two national championships to coach the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.
And that’s part of the reason he’s succeeded as Donovan’s successor so quickly — by not viewing himself solely as such.
“I just haven't given it any thought, to be just dead honest with you,” White said Saturday as his No. 4-seeded Gators prepared to face familiar foe South Carolina for a trip to the Final Four. “It's about this team developing and getting better. I'm so happy for our guys. The external stuff just doesn't matter to me. It's the Florida job. I'm blessed to be here. It's a great job, and it's a great opportunity. I’ve got a great group that I'm proud of working with every day and we want to keep playing together.
“I do find it very, very rewarding that we're having success and that the buy-in level has increased immensely with the coaching staff, with each other. The togetherness is off the charts, and the fight.”
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What White finds most rewarding is what other coaches notice. Those little details are how they, too, can tell a team has bought in to what the coach is selling — which is more than half the battle during a coaching change, especially with a coach from Louisiana Tech who at that point had never even coached in the NCAA tournament.
Frank Martin, South Carolina’s coach, has noticed that. Martin has known White for a while, dating to White’s days as an assistant coach for Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy, one of Martin’s close friends. And he’s followed the arc of White’s career closely.
“Mike is just real good,” Martin said Saturday. “He's letting the world realize how good he is. When Billy first got it started at Florida, his first two real good players he signed played for me in high school. And Anthony Grant, who is my son's godfather, was Billy's assistant. So, I'm very, very close to that situation. And I always said, ‘Poor guy, whoever replaces Billy. Oh my God, poor guy.’
“But Mike's been unreal. We’re talking about this year, but also the way he did it last year, and he won. Now he's got those guys playing through his eyes. That's powerful stuff. That shows the kind of leadership ability that he has, the kind of staff that he has. Mike's one of those guys that's — he's not a rising star, he is a star in this business. And unfortunately, we’ve got to play each other — because I root for him a lot.”
White’s first Florida team went 21-15 last season, finished eighth in the Southeastern Conference and made it to the quarterfinals of the NIT. Again, no NCAA tournament — but it was understandable, a transition year filled with White and players he didn’t recruit getting to know one another better.
And though everyone on the outside waited to see what the then-38-year-old head coach could do in the shadow of a legend, those inside the Florida athletic department simply waited patiently — for a season like this. A second-place finish in the SEC. A No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. An Elite Eight appearance to come on Sunday, giving the Gators a chance to reach the program’s first Final Four since 2014.
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“There was always a ‘but’ attached to our hire — ‘but he’d never coached an NCAA tournament game,’ ” Florida athletic director emeritus Jeremy Foley, who hired White in 2015, told USA TODAY Sports in a phone interview Saturday. “So it’s really nice, obviously, for the Gators and Gator nation to get into the NCAA tournament, and to advance. But it’s certainly nice for Mike that the stigma is gone. It’s not a surprise to me.
“I just think it’s really good for Mike. Now a recruit can’t hear, ‘Why would you go to Florida? Billy Donovan’s gone, and they hired a guy who can’t get into the tournament.’ Now you’ve got an Elite Eight coach. It allows this thing to keep building, this thing Billy built. That’s why Mike came. He’s always said it was a great job because of what Billy had done."
He was right — and remains right. The idea that Florida could compete for national championships in men’s basketball did not die with Donovan’s departure. Far from it.
And you can thank the guy who replaced The Guy for that.
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