The Mike White era is officially underway in Gainesville.
White met with the media today for the first time, and showed an impressive demeanor- calm, cool and collected, very similar to Billy Donovan. He talked about several different things, his passion for coaching, why he wanted to come to Florida and how he turned down other schools to wait for the perfect opportunity- like Florida.
Here are a few things to take away from the press conference:
-White confirmed that Louisiana Tech assistants Jordan Mincy and Darris Nichols will join him at Florida.
-White said that he had spoken with each of Florida’s four signees. That includes KeVaughn Allen, who asked to be released from his scholarship.
-White on UF job: “It’s something special. It’s the most googled university in the world- I’ll be using that one a lot.” He mentioned that he was courted by two other SEC schools (Tennessee and Missouri) but turned them down.
-White on coaching: “It’s not work for me, it’s a passion. To be paid for what we do is like stealing.”
-White on his Louisiana Tech tenure: “I accomplished 99% of what I wanted to. The missing 1% was the NCAA Tournament.” White won 27, 29 and 27 games in his last three years at LT, including three straight regular season conference championships.
-White mentioned that Coach K at Duke has reached out to him on several occasions. Says he’s one of the greatest coaches in the history of all sports.
-White made a point of saying that he would be harder/more demanding on point guards than he would be on any other position. White was a point guard himself, averaging 5.3 points per game in three years at Mississippi.
I like this guy already. I really do. Now let’s see how he does on the court. But I’ll say this: his infectious attitude makes him even easier to root for.
