Another ho-hum season should cause the heat to increase at Florida
TAMPA — When the ball is at the top of its trajectory, hit the pause button on the video.
At that moment, Florida is still tied with Texas A&M in overtime on Thursday afternoon. The clock is one tick away from all zeroes, and Aggies guard Hassan Diarra is still airborne after launching a 3-point attempt over UF freshman Kowacie Reeves.
Look around the screen and see the excitement in the Amalie Arena bleachers. The anticipation on the sidelines. The desperation on the hardwood.
It’s all there in that one frame for the Gators. The possibility of a historic comeback, a chance to advance in the SEC tournament, the hope that an NCAA Tournament bid might still be in their future.
And then hit PLAY and watch it all disappear as the shot falls through the rim.
“A two-hour microcosm of the season,” Florida coach Mike White said.
He’s right about that. He might also be selling it short. In a way, that tableau is also representative of White’s seven seasons on the bench at Florida.
This program has been on the cusp of something special for a very long time, but it always seems to fall just a little short. A non-call by a referee that ends one season a step away from the Final Four. A tragic health issue that derails a marvelously talented team a year ago.
The Gators have consistently played well for White, but they’ve never quite returned to the heights they enjoyed under Billy Donovan.
And now folks are wondering if the clock has also run out on White.
It’s not as if there are fans lined up with pitchforks outside of the basketball offices in Gainesville, but the debate about White’s future has been going on for quite some time now.
It’s not a pleasant thought, and it’s probably not a fair discussion. In most college towns, White’s 142-88 record would probably have boosters buying him beers at the country club.
After all, prior to this disappointment, the Gators had been invited to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments. They reached the Elite Eight in 2017 and were one of a half-dozen teams to have won at least one game in each of the last four tournaments.
Florida has flirted with greatness, and it has avoided disaster. But mostly it has settled for pretty good.
And that doesn’t cut it in Gainesville. Just ask Dan Mullen.
Two national championships and three Final Fours under Donovan have set the bar absurdly high in Gainesville, and fans are getting restless waiting for White to earn his stripes.
Resilient is the word White used to describe his team, and that’s accurate, too. They’ve had injuries and they’ve had bad breaks. But they’ve also had self-inflicted wounds, including an inexplicably slow start to Thursday’s game.
“We’ve had a ton of adversity that we didn’t bring on ourselves. And these guys have continued to not make excuses, to fight, to work,” White said. “But, yeah, we’ve had too many adversities in games too, that … are on us.
“We had a couple of turnovers (Thursday). Where are we going with the basketball? You get 18 turnovers, if we had 15, you win the game. We might win the game with 17. There’s just a fine line between winning and losing.”
Sadly, the Gators didn’t have much of an identity this year. They didn’t out-muscle teams, they didn’t outrun teams, they didn’t outshoot teams. They just sort of outlasted the SEC’s worst teams.
The loss to Texas A&M was a sad reminder of those limitations. The Aggies made it clear they were not going to let Colin Castleton beat them inside, throwing an extra body at him every chance they got. Essentially, they were daring the Gators to beat them on the perimeter.
And, unfortunately, Florida took them up on that dare.
The Gators were 5-of-21 on three-point shots and, while that line is uglier than usual, it wasn’t totally unexpected. Florida was ninth in the SEC in three-point field goal percentage, which speaks to the lack of shooting touch. Yet, they were second in the league in the number of three-point attempts, which suggests opponents were more than happy to give them that outside shot.
Even worse, you don’t look at this roster and immediately see next season’s promise. That’s because most of them will be long gone by the time October rolls around. White has remade the roster with transfers in recent seasons, and the result is his top six scorers are all seniors.
Now, there is a little hope with next season’s recruiting class. White nabbed a couple of top-100 recruits during the early signing period, which put Florida among the top 20 classes in the nation.
But is that enough? It’s a question that is being asked more and more frequently.
John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.
• • •
Never miss out on the latest with the Bucs, Rays, Lightning, Florida college sports and more. Follow our Tampa Bay Times sports team on Twitter and Facebook.
