Reports: Florida coach Mike White hired by Georgia to replace Tom Crean
Georgia has reportedly found its new men's basketball coach. And it is the man who coached the Bulldogs' biggest rival.
According to multiple reports, Florida coach Mike White will be the new coach at Georgia.. White has been at Florida for the past seven seasons after he was hired to replace Billy Donovan after the national title-winning coach went to the NBA. White will replace Tom Crean at Georgia after the Bulldogs went 1-17 in SEC play this season and lost in the first round of the SEC tournament.
Florida has been to the NCAA tournament in four of White’s seven seasons with the school. But the Gators never lost fewer than nine games in any of those seasons and went 19-13 overall and 9-9 in the SEC in 2021-22.
It was fair to wonder if White was going to be on the hot seat entering the 2022-23 season without another NCAA tournament appearance and a winning season in the SEC. The standards are high at Florida after Donovan won two national titles with the Gators. Simply getting to the NCAA tournament on a regular basis isn’t enough.
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That’s an achievement at Georgia at this point, though you don't see coaches leaving Florida for Georgia on a regular basis. The Bulldogs haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2015 and only finished above .500 once in Crean’s four seasons with the school. Georgia was an abysmal 6-26 in 2021-22 and it was inevitable that it was going to move on from Crean at the end of the season for months.
Georgia also hasn’t been past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 1996 when Tubby Smith was coaching the Bulldogs. Smith left for Kentucky two seasons later and ended up winning the NCAA title with the Wildcats in his first season at the school in 1998.
The Bulldogs’ lack of men’s basketball success is baffling given the population of the Atlanta area and the talent that it produces. And with a national champion football program, Georgia would like to get another revenue-producing program on the track to success.
Florida, meanwhile, is now searching for a new head coach along with three other SEC schools. Missouri, Mississippi State and LSU are also looking for coaches. Will Wade was fired at LSU over the weekend because of NCAA violations, Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin was fired after the Tigers made the NCAA tournament just twice in five seasons and Mississippi State fired Ben Howland on Sunday.
