Della, they have 9 blue chip players on their roster. They are flat out loaded, a top 10 roster in the country, and Mike White has them on the verge of missing the Dance entirely. He has plenty of offensive weapons.
Florida has "9" blue chip basketball players:
C K.Hayes (Sr), C Stokes (rsFr); PF K.Stone;
SF: K.Johnson (Fr);
PG Nembhard (Fr),
SG's: K.Allen (Sr),
N.Locke (Fr),
Jalen Hudson (Sr), and D.Ballard (So). (Bolded players are the starters this year.)
Well, Florida lost PF Keith Stone (rsJr) to injury which has made a
negative, impact on the
front-court since the middle of January. The loss of front-court depth forced White to play freshmen SF Keyonte Johnson at PF. Hayes is more of a shot blocker (2nd in school history) than a scorer. Isaiah Stokes finally lost a significant amount of weight but he has conditioning issues and can only play a few minutes at a time plus he is a defensive liability.
Essentially, Florida plays
a 4-guard offense most of the time. The length & quickness of Florida's guards allows them to play well defensively (KP defensive rank 10) but at times on offense can make it more difficult to score consistently without a potent, front-court offense like many other teams enjoy. Coach White tried to adjust from the lack of big man scoring by having some of our bigger guards (i.e, Nembhard, Allen, etc.) post up from time to time.
Coach White has been playing mainly three freshmen and two seniors in the starting line-up. Hudson has been like the 6th man off the bench while C Ballard, SG Okauru, and SG Bassett give limited bench minutes.
It was an unfortunate loss to Georgia after Florida previously had won 5 straight games including significant Quadrant 1 wins over Alabama & LSU on the road. Georgia has been playing well lately where many of their games were lost in the final moments to teams like Miss St (1 pt loss), LSU (4 pts), Mississippi (1 pt), Auburn (3 pts), etc.
The Gators (17-12, 9-7, tied for 4th in SEC) will still have a chance to right the ship with upcoming games against LSU & Kentucky before the SEC Tournament begins soon. In his 4th year, Mike White has Florida on the brink of a
third-straight NCAA Tourney appearance. Next year, there is another top 10 recruiting class to add to the ranks. White is doing a fairly, good job if not for the front-court issues (i.e to C Gak, PF Stone, etc.) due to injuries and such.
I would hardly call that Mike White is under-performing at Florida. Besides, it is not easy for anyone to follow a coaching basketball legend like Billy Donovan.
