The timing and the destination were a shock to the system, but no one seems to be surprised that Mike White chose to reboot his coaching career somewhere else. Absolutely no one thought White would say adios with games still to play, however, even if it is the NIT. You’ve probably heard it said a hundred times – NIT means Nobody’s Interested Tournament. Mike White obviously wasn’t interested, nor were Florida fans, who stayed away in droves from Wednesday night’s first round game at the O-Dome, missing out on one of the better performances by the Gators all season long. Mike White was never going to get fired, but you could sense the growing discontent among the fan base with the administration. Fans looked at only one year in seven years on the job that finished with 10 or fewer losses. They saw a program that plateaued and was spinning its wheels. Florida fans and perhaps even the UF administration breathed huge sighs of relief when rumors White was finalizing a deal to go somewhere else began to surface Sunday morning. That the deal was with Georgia is a surprise, a big one actually. Yet, it does make more sense than some of the other places he could have landed. Louisville is toxic. LSU is going to get the hammer dropped on its basketball program by the NCAA. Missouri seems to be a ship adrift in the ocean with no visible direction or plan. Georgia is the place with the lowest expectations, the least amount of recent success and yet the highest ceiling. Hugh Durham is the winningest coach in Georgia basketball history and he won only 57.9 percent of the time. The most recent coach – Tom Crean – never had a winning record and had the worst season in school history (6-26, 1-17 SEC) in 2021-22. At Florida, White went 142-88, which is 61.7 percent and although he made it to the Elite Eight game in 2017 and the NCAA Tournament four times in seven years, it wasn’t good enough for a fan base spoiled by the success of his predecessor. At Florida, White was measured by Billy Donovan’s 467 wins in 19 seasons, six SEC championships, 14 NCAA Tournaments, four trips to the Final Four and back-to-back NCAA championships (2006-07). Measured against Donovan’s success, White was under constant pressure and in the end, it’s the pressure that made him think it was time for a fresh start. So, he left for a place he won’t be measured by a legend and where duplicating what he did at Florida will draw rave reviews from a fan base that views basketball as what you do between football season and spring football practice. The timing was weird but Georgia was motivated to get White signed, sealed and delivered. Georgia, you see, wasn’t the only place that thinks Mike White will be one dandy of a fit. There were other suitors, but Georgia beat them to the punch with the right offer and the deal was done in a single day. White saw the timing as perfect so he took the deal and left his team behind with a tournament still to play. “It’s basketball, it’s life,” Colin Castleton said Wednesday evening after the Gators had advanced in the NIT by knocking off Iona, 79-74. “Things happen. You’ve got to respect people’s decisions and you’ve got to move on from anything in life. You’ve got to move on from stuff that happens that you don’t think is going to happen. We all respect him [White], but he moved on and he knew what he wanted to do.” It took a day for the Gators to move on. They were so emotional Sunday after finding out that White was leaving that their practice was about as close to rotten as you can get. By Monday, however, the shock had worn off and instead of an emotionally distraught team, interim head coach Al Pinkins found one that was in a that was then, this is now mood. They showed up at the practice facility focused and intense, ready to do the necessary work to deal with Iona. “Monday and Tuesday, I thought were probably the best we’ve had all year with energy and focus,” Pinkins said after the win over Iona. “I thought our walk-through today was unbelievable – walked through everything … details and I thought they were as good as they’ve been in a long time with just details.” Most coaches, no matter the sport, will tell you good practices usually result in good games. In beating Iona, a 25-win team coached by Hall of Famer Rick Pitino that owned a win over Alabama, the Gators played without Anthony Duruji (ankle) and CJ Felder (hip), so an already short bench got even shorter, particularly in the post. Colin Castleton (18 points, 13 rebounds) got six minutes of relief from skinny freshman Toungthach Gatgek, otherwise he was on his own in the paint. Pinkins kept shuffling his guards in and out of the game and they chipped in mightily to help Castleton on the boards. In the final 10 minutes, Pinkins had Iona constantly trying to adjust to an ever-changing lineup and it worked well enough that the Gaels started missing shots on one end and couldn’t get stops on the other. Down eight in the second half, it was a 13-point turnaround in the end. Pinkins got a win in his first ever game as a head coach and a locker room bath of bottled water and Gatorade. You expect those things after championships are won, but the relief the players must have felt after losing their coach was indeed cause for celebration. If nothing else, they proved to themselves that it is more about them than a coach who left them for another job. With one NIT game under their belts, Florida travels to Cincinnati for a second round game Sunday with Xavier. This will be a duel of interim coaches since Xavier fired head coach Travis Steele Wednesday morning after the Musketeers had won their opening game of the tournament. While Xavier’s players may be in shock from the firing, Pinkins and the Gators already have a win and they’re believing that even if this isn’t the NCAA Tournament, it is a tournament that can be won. “You’re in a tournament,” Pinkins said. “Is it the ideal tournament or the tournament we all strived to be in, no it’s not, but you’re in a tournament and you’ve got a chance to win a tournament. Our staff did a really good job, too. We did a really good job of talking about the tournament in Fort Myers (Gators won it in November). We referenced that tournament quite a bit and said, ‘Hey, we won a tournament at the beginning of the year, how good would it be to just win it at the end of the year, regardless of what tournament it is.” Beyond the NIT, however, what’s next for the Gators? Maybe the better question is who’s next because who’s next will go a long way toward determining what’s next. There are six seniors on this team but because of the COVID year rule put in place by the NCAA, Castleton, Appleby, Duruji and Myreon Jones all have the option to return. As they were leaving the postgame media room Wednesday, both Castleton and Appleby said they’ll address the future when the season ends. Because there is an NCAA portal that allows first time transfers instant eligibility, if athletic director Scott Stricklin doesn’t land the right coach to replace White, Niels Lane, Kowacie Reeves, Gatgek, Felder, Elijah Kennedy and Jason Jitoboh will have the option to leave for someplace new. Then there are three signees – Malik Reneau, Jalen Reed and Denzel Aberdeen. None of them have asked to be released from their letters of intent but they could if Stricklin doesn’t move quickly or if he brings in a coach they believe will be a bad fit. So, what’s the procedure here? How does Scott Stricklin move quickly and land a new coach who not only checks all the boxes for what the UF athletic department demands, but also satisfies players currently on the roster and the signees? To find the answer to those questions, go back to December of 2020. Remember those juicy rumors that football coach Dan Mullen was flirting with the NFL? There wasn’t any real interest from the NFL at the time, but Mullen was putting his name out there to see if there was a team that would swallow the bait. Stricklin perceived Mullen’s flirtations as a coach who might want to move on to the next level, so he put together some task groups within his administration and charged them with coming up with a short list of candidates in case a move had to be made in the fall. By the time the 2021 season began, the list had been narrowed to a few who were being closely monitored and vetted. When the season tanked and Mullen was pink-slipped, Billy Napier was at the top of the list, already vetted. It only took a first interview for Stricklin to know he had his man. It was a very quick process to hire Napier, who has totally transformed the Florida football program in just three months. Stricklin was not going to fire Mike White even though there was growing discontent in the fan base. When the Gators lost to Texas A&M at the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Stricklin sat quietly with associate athletic director Chip Howard toward the back of the media room as an obviously upset and frustrated White addressed the media, ironically with Georgia associate athletic director for communications Claude Felton acting as the moderator on the podium. Seeing White on the podium tight-lipped and stressed while Stricklin sat almost motionless, this postgame press conference did have somewhat of a farewell feel to it. Consensus among the media was White did not want to be at Florida much longer. Farewell by Sunday, no one would have predicted, however. When it happened, it’s highly doubtful that Scott Stricklin was caught by surprise. Judging by the way he went about compiling a list of candidates for a football coach, narrowing it down to a few and then landing No. 1 target Billy Napier to replace Mullen, it seems likely that Stricklin already had a target list with top candidates vetted and ready to be interviewed even before the loss to Texas A&M. The big question moving forward is does Stricklin go for a big name, experienced coach or does he roll the dice with a coach from a non-power conference? On the surface it seems that he rolled the dice when he hired Billy Napier from Louisiana of the Sun Belt, but Napier worked for Dabo Swinney at Clemson and Nick Saban at Alabama before going 40-12 as a head coach. That pedigree eased the tension among the Florida fan base and has a lot to do with why the hire of Napier is being hailed as a home run by fans and media alike. Because White came to the Gators after four years at Louisiana Tech, fans seem to be skittish about the idea of bringing in a new basketball coach who has never led a big time program, and especially one who’s never experienced the pressure of the NCAA Tournament. That doesn’t mean Stricklin won’t target an up-and-coming coach, but it seems more likely that would be a fall back position if the established, experienced head coaches elect to say no. Here are several coaches who might be on Stricklin’s short list starting with older, experienced coaches: BIG NAME, EXPERIENCED COACHES Scott Drew, Baylor: This is Drew’s 19th year at Baylor. He’s 400-221 at Baylor with a national championship, 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and an NIT title. Stricklin was the associate AD at Baylor and the point man in the coaching search that landed Drew in 2003. The two remain friends. Baylor could make it a second straight NCAA title this year. Would Drew leave for another job having won two in a row? As much as Florida can offer, Baylor alums have very deep pockets. Consider him a longshot. Tony Bennett, Virginia: He is 315-116 in 12 years at UVA with eight NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2019 NCAA title. His teams are known for their ferocious defense. The offense is boring but the Cavaliers win. Virginia pays $4.15 million and he’s under contract through the 2025-26 season. Florida could do much better. Word on the street is Bennett wants 10 years and $6 million a year. Ten years seems excessive but not the $6 million. If the length of the contract can be cut to perhaps seven years, this could be do-able, particularly since Bennett and the Cavaliers are in the NIT this year. Brad Underwood, Illinois: Underwood coached Illinois to the Big Ten championship this year. He’s 202-92 for his Division I coaching career that includes stops at Stephen F. Austin and Oklahoma State. He spent three years in Florida as the head coach at Daytona Beach State College where he was 70-25. Underwood got a contract extension through 2025 and a pay raise to $3.4 million after the 2021 season. His buyout is $6 million after this year. His teams get up and down the floor offensively and play tough straight up man defense. If he were to land the UF job, the Gators likely retain assistant Erik Pastrana, who recruited both Reneau and Reed. Danny Hurley, UConn: He has resurrected three programs – Wagner, Rhode Island and UConn – while compiling a 224-151 career record. He’s 73-46 at UConn including 23-9 this year when the Huskies are a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. He’s the son of legendary high school coach Bob Hurley. Hurley worked for his dad before turning St. Benedict into a prep powerhouse. His salary is $2.75 million at UConn. Because the school is swimming in debt and the athletic department is in danger of insolvency, it is thought Hurley would leave for a good situation. Buyout is in the $3 million range. Anthony Grant, Dayton: He was Billy Donovan’s chief lieutenant when the Gators won the 2006 national championship. Since then he’s been the head coach at VCU (76-25), Alabama (117-85) and Dayton (101-51) and has taken all three teams to the NCAA Tournament. His 2020 Dayton team went 29-2 and could have won the national title if the NCAA Tournament had not been canceled because of COVID. He does not have a charismatic personality but his quiet demeanor resonates well with recruits and parents. He makes $2 million at Dayton, which is his alma mater. He’s quite content there. Would he leave if UF offered? Would UF offer? Shaka Smart, Marquette: There is a connection to Billy Donovan. Shaka was a Donovan assistant in 2008-09. He’s 291-154 as a head coach with stops at VCU and Texas prior to Marquette, where he is 19-12 after a first round loss in the NCAA Tournament. His full court pressure defense worked wonders at VCU, which he took to the Final Four in 2011. He never duplicated his success at VCU (163-56) at Texas (109-86). He left Texas one step ahead of the pink-slip. He is a dynamic recruiter. Would he leave Marquette, which threw him a lifeline after the Texas debacle? Rob Lanier, Georgia State: He knows the SEC inside-out from his time working for Billy Donovan at UF (2007-11) and Rick Barnes at Tennessee (2015-19). He’s in his third year at Georgia State (Sun Belt) where he is 53-30 including a Sun Belt Tournament title this year with an NCAA berth. He’s 53 years old, a dynamic recruiter and makes $550,000 a year. Mark Pope, BYU: He played for Rick Pitino on Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team and worked as an assistant at Georgia (2009-10), so he knows the SEC quite well. He is 143-81 in seven years as a head coach including 66-25 at BYU in three years. The Cougars are in the second round of the NIT. He’s 6-10, makes approximately $2 million and is said to be willing to leave BYU for the right offer and situation. YOUNG GUYS WITH A BRIGHT FUTURE Wes Miller, Cincinnati: He’s a product of the North Carolina system, which means he runs the Dean Smith offense and that means a lot of points. Miller is only 39 years old. He is 203-150 in 10 years as a head coach at UNC-Greensboro and Cincinnati, 18-15 in his only year at UC. He makes $1.25 million per year with a buyout in the $2.5 million range. Matt McMahon, Murray State: He’s 153-66 in seven years at Murray State including 30-2 this season. He is 43 years old and has a base salary of $500,000. His teams score points in bunches. Played collegiately at Appalachian State. Todd Golden, San Francisco: He’s a former Saint Mary’s point guard and Auburn assistant (2014-16) who knows the SEC from his time working for Bruce Pearl. He’s 57-35 as the head coach at San Francisco since 2019. Salary is estimated in the $450,000-500,000 range. Dennis Gates, Cleveland State: He’s a former Florida State assistant (2011-19) who is 50-40 (39-19 last two years) at Cleveland State. He makes $550,000 a year. FSU people like him as the natural successor to Leonard Hamilton when he retires. Grant McCasland, North Texas: He’s a former Baylor point guard who was an assistant for Scott Drew from 2011-16. He’s 178-81 as a head coach, 103-57 at North Texas where he’s 24-6 this year and has the Mean Green in the second round of the NIT. He has four 20-plus win seasons in five years at North Texas. He’s 45 years old and makes $500,000. Mike Rhoades, VCU: Only 49 years old, he’s been a head coach since he was 27. He’s 345-180 as a head coach at Randolph-Macon, Rice and VCU. He is 101-52 at VCU where the Rams are in the second round of the NIT. He has a base salary of $459,000 and a buyout of only $1 million if he elects to leave on his own volition.

(Editor’s Note: Former Ohio high school coach Loren Meadows, a loyal GatorBait member who recently moved to Gainesville in a medical job transfer, took his first trip to see the Gators as a media member Tuesday.) By LOREN MEADOWS GatorBaitMedia.com Pen? Check. Notebook? Check. Media credentials? Check. Umbrella? Check. Now it’s time to hurry up and wait. On a rain-soaked Tuesday members of the media flocked to the Heavener Indoor Practice Facility to catch a 15-minute glimpse of the first day of the Billy Napier Era. 15 minutes? Not much time to gather much information, so I thought. It turns out, you can get a lot done in one quarter. The first few hours of covering the Florida football program revealed two immediate truths. First, covering a sport that is consistently cloaked in the element of surprise and deception comes with a strict set of rules and guidelines. The media is given 15 minutes to take pictures, some short videos of practice. This limited access comes with strict instructions not to engage in conversation with anyone involved, particularly recruits that may be attending the practice. Second, after the 15-minute “access” there is a period of dead time where many seasoned writers run to make print and publishing deadlines. While others wait in a crowded room on the north end of the facility for the opportunity to get highly valuable but limited tidbits from Coach Napier himself and select players such as Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson. With all that said the time between the “access” and “availability” could be four quarters so bring a bottled water and a snack. So what did we see? Practice was in high-speed mode as the media period began. Players were dressed in shoulder pads and shorts and the excitement of spring ball was in the air. My friend and teammate Franz Beard interviewing AR15. (Chris Spears Photo) In the middle of the field was Napier, coaching what he called “the standard bearers of the organization,” the quarterbacks including Anthony Richardson (15), Jack Miller (10), and last year’s starter Emory Jones (5). Coach Napier would state later in the day that “practice performance is game day reality,” and that could not have been more evident as even team managers were being coached up to move intently when lining up trash cans for the given quarterback drills. The running backs and tight ends were involved in the early pass catching with Demarkus Bowman (23), Lorenzo Lingard (21), and transfer Montrell Johnson (2) impressing with their size, quickness, and pass catching ability. Shortly after the wide receivers joined the routes-on-air period and receivers coach Kerry Colbert was immediately pressing the attention to detail that many expect from this Gators football staff. There were reminders of placing the ball in the right hand after the catch. A few more dig routes by physically impressive Ja’Quavion Fraziers (0), and Xzavier Henderson (3), and just like that media period was complete. What did we hear? We were escorted back to the small room to hurry up and wait. There is a dead period between the viewing session and individuals being made available after practice that can test the patience of a novice in the media person. It seemed the norm for the more seasoned members of the media as they hurried to a designated area to meet deadlines. Shortly after, Coach Napier was the first to greet the media for the spring. Seasoned media members asked very sound questions regarding what needed to be accomplished during the allotted 15 spring practices. Napier stated he thought that his team was “well-prepared and organized,” and gave “great effort.” He also noted that the staff wanted to get “as many teachable reps as possible.” Attention to detail and effort seem to be a consistent theme in the early days of practice. Napier finished by stating he “was most impressed with the reception of the players to the strength and conditioning program” that was instituted during the “FOUNDATION” and “IDENTITY” phases of team building. This was a nice transition as Associate Head Coach/Director of Football Strength and Conditioning Mark Hocke came to the podium. Hocke spoke of “tremendous buy-in by the players,” with a “premium on the trenches.” Addressing the importance of the weight room development of both the offensive and defensive lines: Most intriguing was Hocke explaining that the weight room is seen as an extension of the football field with staff members dedicated to work with the positions they played themselves. “We don’t see a weight room, we see a football field.” Last to the podium were Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson who both expressed positive thoughts regarding the direction that the football program was headed under Napier. Jones, who at one time announced his intentions to transfer, informed the media that it was the staff and their plans for him that ultimately led him to change his plans and remain at Florida. Most impressive was the fact that both quarterbacks have a strong admiration for one another and consider themselves close friends. In any major football program, competition is constant and Jones and Richardson seem to embrace that competition for themselves and the benefit of the team. With an extremely small sample size, it looks as if the Billy Napier era of Florida football is on the right track. Expressions of commitment, good attitudes and effort are what fans and media both like to hear as things get going. Although it is easy to be positive when as the say hope springs eternal. There will be more sample-size looks at the first iteration of the 2022 Florida Gators. It will be interesting to see what those in the media have to say after a look at a total of 210 minutes of viewing time. For now, the “FOUNDATION” has been set. We have IDENTIFIED some of the key parts. Ultimately it will be the fans, not the media, that dictates if a phase of joyful glee resonates anytime soon, but for now “hurry up and wait” for the next 15 minutes.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: “Billy’s great to work for. He’s the reason I’m here. You’d be hard pressed to find – you always want a great coach. He’s the CEO so everything kind of trickles down from him. He sets the standard for the entire organization but beyond that, not just a great coach, but a great human being, a great man. He’s somebody you can look up to as a great father, a great husband, which is important to me because I’m a father, I’m a husband and I consider him a mentor. You want to have someone in that CEO role that you can look up to in all those areas. I’m not sure there’s a better one in the country. That’s my opinion.” – Mark Hocke, associate head coach We keep learning more and more about Billy Napier’s approach to transforming Florida football which has gone from the winningest program in the country from 1990-2009 (202-52-1) to the 28th program (95-57) in the last 12 years. From 1990-2009 the Gators never had a losing season. They’ve had three in the last 12 years. From a program that won eight SEC championships and three national championships to one that has spent 12 years spinning its wheels in the muck of mediocrity is tough to swallow. How do you stop mediocrity in its tracks and reverse the bad fortune that has 12 years of momentum? It starts with a CEO who sets the standard for the entire organization and who understands all that goes into putting a successful product on the football field. When I asked Scott Stricklin several weeks ago about what went into the hiring process, I was struck by this statement: “We asked a lot of questions of a lot of people and no one had anything negative to say about Coach Napier. Everything he does, he does it with integrity and he sets the example for everyone in his organization to follow.” We’re still 5-1/2 months from the start of the 2022 football season. I have no clue how many games the Gators are going to win this year, but already I can see a football program that is changing before our very eyes and it’s being done the right way. I become more convinced every day that the Gators may have caught lightning in a bottle when Billy Napier was hired as the head football coach. NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT: CAN GATORS MAKE IT 26-0? There is no shortage of incentives for either Florida (21-10) or UCF (25-3) when the two teams meet Saturday in Storrs, Connecticut in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Florida is 25-0 all time against UCF, a constant grind on the Knights’ mindset. The Gators, meanwhile, feel a bit disrespected, because they have wins over teams seeded three (LSU), four (Tennessee), six (Georgia and Kentucky) and ten (Arkansas) and yet they’re a No. 10 seed. UCF, which has only one win over a ranked team (then No. 24 South Florida), won the American Athletic Conference Championship but the Knights are a No. 7 seed. All that has done is fuel the fire that burns in UF coach Kelly Rae Finley. “We love it,” Finley said earlier in the week. “That’s who we are. We want to earn everything. We’re not an entitled group. Going into the NCAA Tournament the mindset is no different. We’re the underdogs. We’re the 10th seed. UCF is the 7th.” The two teams will face off at 3:30 Saturday, the game televised on ESPN News. NIT: CALL THIS THE INTERIM BOWL There is a certain irony about the coaching matchups for Sunday’s (1 p.m., ESPN) second round NIT game between the Gators (20-13) and Xavier (19-13). Florida is 1-0 playing for interim coach Al Pinkins, who took over when Mike White left to become the head coach at Georgia. Xavier, meanwhile, will be playing its first game under interim head coach Jonas Hayes. Hayes became the interim when the school fired Travis Steele Wednesday morning. This was AFTER the Musketeers had beaten Cleveland State, 72-68, Tuesday night in an NIT first round game. What makes this story so juicy is that Hayes and twin brother Jarvis were stars at Georgia and prior to the surprise announcement that White was leaving Florida to become Georgia’s head coach, Jonas Hayes was thought to be a shoo-in to take the job. If ever there was an unlikely guy to become the Georgia coach it was White. If ever there was an unlikely guy to be passed over as the Georgia head coach by a Florida coach, it is Jonas Hayes. Florida had one traumatic day to deal with the emotions of White leaving and then the Gators had what Pinkins says might have been their two best practice days of the year. Was that because there had been so much noise in the system regarding White that they were relieved it was all over? Or was it a case of a team deciding coaches don’t shoot, coaches don’t rebound and coaches don’t depend, so it’s up to us and not the coaches to win or lose the game on the floor? Whatever the case, the Gators played one of the best games they’ve played all year – if not THE best – to defeat Rick Pitino and Iona Wednesday night. They did it for themselves and they also did it for “Coach Pink.” Can they do it a second time Sunday afternoon? And what about Xavier? How will they react to the firing of Travis Steele? It’s one thing for a coach to leave on his own volition as Mike White did. It’s something altogether different when your coach is fired and you’ve had a winning season. So, Sunday we’ll have The Interim Bowl and when it’s over, one coach will have the best winning percentage (1.000) in school history, while the other will see his time as the interim crash and burn. SEC Basketball NCAA Thursday’s scores South Region: 3 Tennessee (27-7) 88, 14 Longwood 56; East Region: 15 Saint Peter’s (20-11) 85, 2 Kentucky (26-8) 79; West Region: 4 Arkansas (26-8) 75, 13 Vermont (26-8) 71 Friday’s games Midwest Region: 15 Jacksonville State (21-10) vs. 2 Auburn (27-5); 11 Iowa State (20-12) vs. 6 LSU (22-11); West Region: 11 Notre Dame (23-10) vs. 6 Alabama (19-13) NIT Saturday’s games Oregon 20-14 at Texas A&M (24-12) Sunday’s games FLORIDA (20-13) at Xavier (19-13); Dayton (24-10) at Vanderbilt (18-16) UF BASEBALL: GATORS OPEN SEC PLAY AT ALABAMA Lefty Hunter Barco (3-1, 19.3 ERA) will get the ball tonight (7 p.m., SEC Network+) when the 9th-ranked Gators (13-4) open SEC play against Alabama (12-6) in Tuscaloosa. Alabama will counter Barco with its own ace, righty Garrett McMillan (2-0, 1.80 ERA). The three-game weekend series will mark Florida’s first trip outside the state this season. The Gators are 4-1 on the road this season, their only loss in the opening game of the Miami series a couple of weeks ago. Alabama is 12-2 at home, 0-4 on the road. For Saturday’s 4 p.m. matchup, Florida will send righthander Brandon Sproat (3-1, 2.11 ERA) against Alabama lefty Antoine Jeane (1-1, 2.60 ERA). UF SOFTBALL: NO. 5 GATORS ON THE ROAD AT TEXAS A&M The Gators (23-2, 2-1 SEC) venture out of state for the first time this season when they travel to College Station to face Texas A&M (16-8, 0-3 SEC). The Gators lead the SEC in ERA (1.48) and rank third in hitting (.363). The Gators are next to last in the league in home runs (19) but second in runs scored (183) and first in stolen bases (68). The Gators will likely go with a rotation of Elizabeth Hightower (6-0, 1.35 ERA), Natlie Lugo (5-1, 0.56 ERA) and Lexie Delbrey (8-1, 1.96 ERA). Other UF sports: The 2nd-ranked Gators (13-0-1) already own the SEC regular season gymnastics championship. The Gators will try to add the SEC Championship Meet trophy to their collection in Birmingham on Saturday … Florida women’s swimming team is 12th with 62 points after two days of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships … The No. 1 Florida men’s tennis team (12-2, 4-0 SEC) will face Ole Miss (11-5, 1-2 SEC) today and Mississippi State (11-6, 1-3 SEC) at the Ring Tennis Center on campus … The No. 16 UF women’s tennis team (10-4, 2-2 SEC) will be on the road this weekend, at Missouri (6-10, 1-2 SEC) today and Arkansas (10-3, 3-0 SEC) on Sunday … The No. 13 lacrosse team (3-4) is at Drexel on Sunday … The women’s golf team, ranked 10th nationally, will be at the Mountainview Collegiate Tournament in Tucson this weekend … The Florida men’s golf team, ranked 17th, will be at the Linger Longer Tournament in Greensboro, Georgia starting Sunday. MARCHING TO THE MADNESS Power conference standings: SEC 2-1; Big 12 2-0; Big Ten 2-2; ACC 2-0; Pac-12 2-0 Upset central: No. 15 Saint Peter’s 86, No. 2 Kentucky 79 in the East; No. 12 Richmond 67, No. 5 Iowa 63 in the Midwest Studs: Drew Timme, Gonzaga (32 points, 13 rebounds); Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga (19 points, 17 rebounds, 7 blocks); Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee (18 points, 6-8 on 3-pointers, 7 assists); Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky (30 points, 16 rebounds); Daryl Banks III, Saint Peter’s (27 points, 5-8 on 3-pointers); Brady Manek, North Carolina (28 points, 5-10 on 3-pointers, 11 rebounds) Duds: The Mountain West got four teams in the tournament. They’ve all lost. Friday upsets: I like No. 10 Loyola over No. 7 Ohio State and No. 12 UAB to upset No. 5 Houston. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Saint Peter’s 85, Kentucky 79. Overtime. Almost in synch, however many million members there are in the Big Blue Nation clutched their hearts and did their best impersonation of Fred G. Sanford: “It’s the big one, Elizabeth!” Simply calling Kentucky losing to a 15th-seeded team ranks with the understatements of the century. At some point over the next week or so, reality will set in and the Good Ship Saint Peter’s will strike an iceberg and sink to the bottom of the NCAA Tournament ocean. Until that inevitable moment happens – inevitable since no No. 15 has ever made it to the Final Four – the wonderfully-named Peacocks will bask in the glow of one of the more stunning upsets in NCAA Tournament history. This wasn’t just No. 15 kneecapping a No. 2, it was No. 15 kneecapping Kentucky, winner of eight NCAA championships in its illustrious history. What Saint Peter’s did Thursday night should grab the lapels of the three braindead commissioners who head “The Alliance,” which has stood in the way of expanding the College Football Playoff. The NCAA Tournament makes it possible for a Saint Peter’s to dream the impossible dream. The College Football Playoff that we’re stuck with until 2026 doesn’t allow for dreamers or Cinderella. Four teams will make the playoff field in December. It’s mid-March and the odds are the four semifinalists will emerge from this pack: Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma or Notre Dame. The same can’t be said about the NCAA Tournament. If mighty Kentucky can flame out in the first round, then what other upsets are brewing? This is why for three straight weekends the NCAA Tournament grips the entire country and when they play “One Shining Moment” the champ won’t necessarily be the best team in the country. As Billy Donovan used to point out, the NCAA Tournament is about one team going 6-0 over three weekends and the team that wins it all might be 6-0 because it had the easiest path through the brackets while the best team got stuck in a bracket with bad matchups. We desperately need college football to learn from its basketball brethren. We need an expanded playoff that opens the possibility for a team from nowhere to hoist the big trophy. Odds are that a Group of Five team will never win an expanded playoff, but that’s not the point. It is the idea that one of them actually could do it someday that makes an expanded playoff so intriguing. Someone needs to shove ammonia capsules up the nostrils of Kevin Warren (Big Ten), Jim Phillips (ACC) and George Kliavkoff (Pac-12), the commissioners of “The Alliance.” They seriously need to wake up from their self-imposed comas and quit being an obstacle to College Football Playoff expansion.

Before the game, Rick Pintino honored Donovan On Twitter with this. (Rick Pitino Photo) (Editor’s Note: GatorBait intern Kyle Curtis is a journalism /communications major at Florida. This week he went to the streets on campus to ask students about the replacement of Mike White) By KYLE CURTIS GatorBait Intern Recently, Mike White decided to move on from the Florida and accept a job as the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs. During his seven seasons as the coach of the Gators, only Tennessee and Kentucky have won more games in the SEC. Florida went 19-13 under White this year and missed the NCAA tournament after a sluggish end to the season. White compiled a 142-88 record during his tenure, good enough to be the Gators’ second all-time winning leader behind Billy Donovan. White was also 1 of 5 NCAA coaches to win a game in the past 4 NCAA tournaments, including an Elite 8 run. If Mike White had not decided to head to Georgia, in the eyes of certain Gator fans, he was destined to be on the hot seat this off-season. When asked if White’s departure was a good or bad thing for the state of the program some of the University of Florida’s students had some strong opinions. Out of 42 people asked, 35 believed that the program was better off with Mike White gone. Goodbye Mike. Enjoy Athens. “Mike White couldn’t develop any of the big recruits he was able to get here,” said Cade Beal, current student, “Even some of those transfers, like (Kerry) Blackshear, just never panned out.” “It wasn’t the level of production or NCAA tournament appearances,” said J.T. Story, “It was the underachieving with the tools he had in front of him.” On the other side of things, there were a few students who believed that Florida and Florida's fans were dumb to virtually invite White out of town. “I think he has a great basketball mind,” Grant Migetz said. “Billy Donovan didn’t make it to the final four every year and now he has the court named after him. Patience is key.” Donovan was the paradigm as the all-time great at Florida and may have even spoiled fans, setting the expectation too high. His Gators squad was the last NCAA team to win back-to-back national championships and will likely looks to be that way for a while due to the lack of stability in modern-day college basketball. When asked students who they wanted Mike White’s successor will be the answer was anything but resolute: Rick Pitino: By far the most mentioned name was Florida’s opening round opponent’s head coach Rick Pitino. Pitino has had stints coaching all over, most notable Louisville and Kentucky where he was able to capture two national championships. Pitino also had Billy Donovan under him at one point which gives him the Florida tie. Steve Pikiell: Rutgers head coach has led his team to recent success. In a competitive Big 10, which had nine tournament teams, Pikiell was able to make the field with some quality quad one wins. Jerome Tang: The Baylor assistant coach who is becoming ready for a head coaching position. Baylor’s head coach, Scott Drew, name has also been tossed around, although he did just sign a contract extension with the Bears. Tang is a realistic option being in a Baylor program that has received yet another one-seed for the tournament coming off a national championship. Darian Devries: Current head coach at Drake. Devries was a graduate assistant and eventual assistant head coach at Creighton university before he was able to get his first head coaching job at cross-conference rival Drake. Bruce Pearl: Head coach at Auburn, hard to see him leaving Auburn after a contract extension and having such a successful past few years. Kyle Curtis polled students. (Chris Spears Photo.) When conducting the survey, there was no name suggested as a set target. When the tournament concludes, it will open the door more for Scott Stricklin to have a clearer view in the ongoing search. It is safe to say most Florida students were ready for a change, whether that means good or bad for Gator’s basketball future.

“This is going to create an opportunity for us to engage the student body for the first time. " -- BILLY NAPIER GAINESVILLE – Florida Head Coach Billy Napier announced Thursday that this year's Orange & Blue Game, presented by Sunniland, has been moved to Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. The game is free and open to the public, and it will be streamed on SEC Network+. Further gameday and parking information will be announced at a later time. “We’re really excited to announce we’re moving [the game] to Thursday night, April the 14th with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff,” Napier said. “The game will be streamed live on SEC Network[+] in The Swamp, under the lights, April 14th, 7:30 kickoff. “This is going to create an opportunity for us to engage the student body for the first time. We are going to be able to get them here prior to Easter break. We’re going to have some of the best recruits in the entire country here to show them what the University of Florida and Gator Nation are all about. Again, this is a personal invitation for you guys to join us. We look forward to the challenges and the opportunities that are ahead of us. Thanks again and go Gators.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: WHEN IN DOUBT, PUT IT TO A VOTE It was during a second half time out, which one Al Pinkins can’t recall off the top of his head, that democracy ruled in the Florida basketball huddle. The Gators were having all sorts of trouble getting stops defensively on Rick Pitino’s Iona Gaels, who seemed to be one pass ahead of the Florida defense. After consulting with his assistant coaches, Pinkins, in his first game as Florida’s head coach, decided to ask the guys playing the game what they wanted to do. “The first half we were going zone to man, zone to man,” said Pinkins, Florida’s interim head coach for all of three days following the surprising decision by Mike White to leave for the Georgia job on Sunday. “In the second half – I can’t remember which timeout – I asked the guys, ‘Hey guys, what do you believe in? What do you want to play?’ They said one, which is our man, so we stopped switching defenses and just went to man-to-man for a long period of time and we just started getting stops.” In all probability, the time out Pinkins was referring to was the under-12 media break with 10:49 to go. The Gators were trailing Iona, 58-52, at that point in the game and it seemed that every time the Gators closed the gap on the Gaels, they couldn’t get a defensive stop. Over the next 1:02, Florida outscored Iona 6-0 to tie the game with four of the points the direct result of the defense – a steal by Kowacie Reeves that led to a Niels Lane jumper in the paint followed by a pressure that forced an Iona turnover that allowed the Gators to tie the score at the other end on a Colin Castleton dunk back of a Tyree Appleby missed layup. That was the first time the score had been tied the entire game. A pair of Appleby free throws with 9:21 left gave the Gators their first lead of the game at 60-59, but Iona regained the lead on a stickback by Nelly Joseph. That’s when the defensive pressure ratcheted up even more. Iona suddenly couldn’t score and the Gators couldn’t miss. UF went on an 8-0 run with Appleby hitting back-to-back 3-pointers and Castleton scoring on a layup off a nifty pass from Phlandrous Fleming Jr. for a 68-61 lead. Things did get a little dicey toward the end when the Gators had some problems inbounding the ball and making free throws – three misses in a row – but after allowing Iona to tie the game at 72-72, the Florida defense kicked in one more time. The Gators outscored Iona 7-2 over the final 2:54 to finish off a very emotional win that was all about the guy they call Coach Pink. “It was all for Coach Pink,” Appleby said. “He came in, he told us we weren’t going to do anything special. We’re just going to keep it simple and have the game plan ready for Iona because you know they’re a well-coached team. I think it was just for him, just wanting him to be a first-time head coach. Just winning felt good.” It had to feel good for Appleby, who has been playing hurt lately. He finished the game with 14 points, three rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. Before the game, Pinkins told him if the Gators were going to win this game, he would have to play well. “[He] didn’t play well in the SEC Tournament,” Pinkins said. “Our staff challenged him the last two days in practice. We talked about him being a guy for us, like you’re our guy, like ‘if you don’t play well, we don’t win. We hate to put that pressure on you.’ We knew he could take that and he would own it and he owned it.” It was a solid performance for a team whose coach surprised them by leaving with games remaining to play. Pinkins said the Gators were in emotional shock when they practiced Sunday, but they bounced on Monday. “We had like two really good days of practice,” Pinkins said. “Monday and Tuesday, I thought were probably the best we’ve had all year with energy and focus. I thought our walk-through today was unbelievable – walked through everything … details and I thought they were as good as they’ve been in a long time with just details.” Castleton finished the game with 18 points, 13 rebounds and two steals while Fleming had 18 points, five rebounds, one assist, two steals and two blocked shots. Among the 14 points scored by freshman Kowacie Reeves were three 3-pointers and two thunderous dunks. The Gators will face Xavier (19-13) in Cincinnati Sunday at 1 p.m. in their next NIT action. SEC Basketball NIT Wednesday’s scores: Virginia (20-13) 60, Mississippi State (18-16) 57 NCAA Thursday’s games South Region 14 Longwood (26-6) vs. 3 Tennessee (26-7) East Region 15 St. Peter’s (19-11) vs. 2 Kentucky (26-7) West Region 13 Vermont (28-5) vs. 4 Arkansas (25-8) UF LACROSSE: NO. 13 GATORS STUN NO. 3 SYRACUSE The Gators (3-4) put together their best defensive effort of the season Wednesday afternoon at Donald Dizney Stadium when they scored a 14-10 win over 3rd-ranked Syracuse (6-2), holding the Orange to their lowest scoring output of the season. Danielle Pavinelli led the Gators with four goals and three assists, while Maggi Hall and Ashley Gonzalez each added three goals. Emma LoPinto had two goals and a game-high four assists. The Gators will travel to Philadelphia Sunday to face Drexel. UF MEN’S TENNIS: NO. 1 FLORIDA 7, ILLINOIS 0 The Gators, the 2021 NCAA champions who regained the No. 1 ranking after a weekend when they took out No. 8 Georgia and then No. 1 Tennessee on the road, improved to 12-2 on the season Wednesday afternoon with a 7-0 non-conference win over Illinois. The Gators (4-0 SEC) return to conference action this weekend when they play host to Ole Miss (Friday) and Mississippi State (Sunday). Sophomore Ben Shelton is the SEC Player of the Week for the second consecutive week, the first time a Gator has ever won the award back-to-back. MARCHING TO THE MADNESS I have No. 4 Providence (25-5) and No. 13 South Dakota State (30-4) circled as my most likely upset of the first round of the NCAA Tournament. South Dakota State has won 21 straight games and might have the best player you’ve never heard of in 6-6 point guard Baylor Scheiermann, who hits 47.3 percent of his 3-pointers and averages 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. The Jackrabbits go 11 deep, don’t turn the ball over and they hit 52.5 percent overall from the field and 44.9 percent from the 3-point line. I’m not sold on Providence or any Big East team not named Villanova. I have all three SEC teams – Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas – advancing without a whole lot of difficulty. The only SEC team that I don’t think gets out of the first round is LSU, which plays Iowa State Friday. If Will Wade hadn’t been fired, I’d have the SEC going 6-0 in the first round. I’m still perturbed that the NCAA Tournament committee put nine Big Ten teams in, which is about three or four too many, and excluded Texas A&M. I also believe the ACC got too many teams in. Notre Dame beat Rutgers in a play-in game, but neither of those teams should have sniffed the tournament. I expect the Big Ten, which is 1-1 in playoff games after Rutgers lost to Notre Dame in double overtime Wednesday night, to go 1-2 today. I’ve got Colorado State (25-5) all over a Michigan (17-14) team that has no business in this tournament in the South Region and I think Indiana (21-13), which had to win a play-in game on Tuesday, to take a powder against a 5th-seeded Saint Mary’s team in an East Region game. Iowa (26-9) is favored by 10.5 points in a 5-12 game with Richmond (22-13). I expect Iowa to win but I wouldn’t be shocked if Richmond gives the Hawkeyes as much as they can handle. Best game of the day might turn out to be No. 10 San Francisco (24-9) vs. No. 7 Murray State (30-2) in an East Regional game. I love the matchup between San Francisco big man Yauhen Massalski (6-9, 240 … 13.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.2 blocked shots) and Murray State’s center KJ Williams (6-10, 245 … 18.2 points, 8.6 rebounds). I think this game goes mid-80s to high-90s. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: This is in no way meant to disrespect UCF (25-3), which has put together a marvelous season to win the American Athletic Conference championship, but someone at the NCAA needs to explain how it is that the Florida Gators (21-10) are a No. 10 seed and UCF is a No. 7. UCF is a conference champ of a decent conference and no doubt worthy of a No. 7, but the Gators finished fifth in the Southeastern Conference which has eight teams in the NCAA Tournament and is, unquestionably the toughest league top to bottom in the entire country. Could UCF have finished fifth in the SEC? Could the Knights have won 25 games in the SEC? It’s a pipe dream to think they could have. While they’re about it, perhaps the NCAA folks could also explain how it is that Florida won five games against ranked teams in the month of February and is a No. 10. Among the wins were a 25-point hammering of Kentucky in Lexington, a win over LSU in Gainesville, a 25-point win over Tennessee in Gainesville and a win over Georgia in Athens. LSU (25-5) is a No. 2 seed, but the Tigers barely beat the Gators when they had a rematch in Baton Rouge. Tennessee (23-8) is a No. 3 seed but the Lady Vols lost to every ranked team they played in the month of February. Kentucky (19-11) and Georgia (20-9) are No. 6 seeds. Both finished behind the Gators in the SEC standings. Do the Gators feel disrespected? Kelly Rae Finley isn’t about to give UCF any bulletin board material, but she can’t help but wonder why it is the Gators are seeded so far down and teams they hammered got better seedings and better pairings. As a No. 10 in the Bridgeport Region, the Gators are playing their opening game Saturday against UCF on UConn’s home court in Storrs. Win and there is an almost 100 percent chance they’ll be playing UConn in a sold-out arena. The NCAA Women’s Tournament operates differently than the men’s. All the men’s tournament games are played in neutral site arenas. To ensure better crowds, the first two rounds of the women’s tournament are played on campus. It certainly generates larger crowds, but fair it certainly isn’t. Beating a very good UCF team would be difficult no matter where it’s played but win that one and it almost becomes mission impossible. It’s that way for every team in the women’s tournament that has to play a road game on someone else’s home court rather than getting a fairer shot at a neutral arena. By playing the entire men’s tournament in neutral arenas, the NCAA has made it possible for Cinderellas to have a chance. It’s rare when we get a team like 2018 Loyola, which made the Final Four as a No. 11 seed. Usually, the teams are top four seeds but neutral arenas make it possible for a team like the Fighting Sister Jeans (Loyola) to get there. I’m not at all certain the NCAA Women’s Tournament has ever been won by a team seeded outside No. 4 or if a team seeded outside No. 6 has ever made the championship game, but I can almost guarantee that it won’t ever happen when you’re playing the first two rounds on campuses with the host team a top four seed.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: SOME ANSWERS ABOUT WHAT WENT WRONG IN 2021 Everybody, from watched those same Florida Gators slug it out with Alabama three games into the 2020 season to those who stuck around and shook their heads when the final whistle blew in that embarrassing loss to UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl, has at one time or another wondered what went wrong. Dan Mullen got fired before the Florida State game and has not made himself available to answer how the Gators could go 29-6 in the first 35 games of his tenure as Florida’s football coach then crash and burn to 6-10 in the last 16. New head coach Billy Napier surely has theories but he’s spent the last three months putting in place a system that he believes when implemented completely will heal all the wounds and move the Gators forward, never again to return to the dark days of the 2021 season. We can label this restoration process by any one of a hundred different names, but whatever we decide to call it, it still comes down to one basic thing: Changing the football culture once and for all at the University of Florida. Napier answered questions for 10 minutes at the indoor practice facility Tuesday afternoon after the Gators finished day one of the 15 allotted practice days for spring football. Quite frankly, he really didn’t have time to get into the depths of what he’s changing. That’s because he’s not only the head coach and CEO of this operation, but the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. He only used the word culture once in the entire 10 minutes he spoke and that was to express how he pulled off the first practice with only a few glitches. This was, after all, the first time he and his staff have been on the field to teach football. Everything they’ve done heading up to this moment has been in preparation. By the time we get to the spring game, Napier expects a well-oiled machine in place to squeeze the life out of every second the Gators are on the practice field. Rather than point fingers, Napier made it a point to equally distribute the shortcomings experienced on day one. “Everybody out there made some mistakes today,” Napier said. “There’s no question from the managers that work with the quarterbacks all the way up to the head coach nobody was perfect. The key is that we’re committed to trying to do our best. Everybody’s got a role. I think that’s part of the culture that we want to try to create. Every person in that building contributes to our team.” He never mentioned the 3-game bender at the end of the 2020 season that carried over into the disaster that was 2021 but even though his remarks were directed toward the team that was on the practice field Tuesday, the hints about what went wrong with the previous coach were anything but subtle. Nobody was perfect. Nobody was also committed to trying to do their best. Not everybody was committed to contributing to the team. This was one of those moments when the head coach really didn’t have to go into detail. He is fully focused on sailing the Good Ship Gator past the shipwreck left smoldering in the water by the previous head coach and staff. Strength and conditioning coordinator/assistant head coach Mark Hocke took things a little bit further. Speaking about the previous month when the Gators went through what is labeled the “Identity Program” – by any other name they’re called mat drills – Hocke hit on accountability, something that seemed to get tossed out the window last year when things began going from bad to worse. “One of the best things that kind of kept coming up was, ‘We need to make the small things important’ and that’s accountability,” Hocke said. “That’s another way of holding people accountable. We put a premium on that – making the small things important. You might think from a weight room standpoint, is how you do a clean or a power clean or a back squats really important? No, we want to know are you tucked in? Are you in your dress code for the day? Are you early? Are you on time? Do you work throughout the entire 60-minute period? Those are the details. “All of these guys, they wouldn’t play at Florida if they weren’t blessed with a tremendous amount of ability. We’ve got to get consumed with the intangibles – integrity, discipline, toughness, effort, play together, and then, obviously, becoming believers. Believe you can do it and compete with anybody.” Good stuff, yes, but it still didn’t get to the heart of how the Gators imploded last year. Emory Jones did, however. So did Anthony Richardson. Jones was going to transfer out but elected to stay for the spring when he became convinced that Billy Napier and his new coaching staff had his best interests in mind. He does have the option to put his name in the transfer portal but that decision won’t be made until spring football is over and he graduates in May. For now, he’s committed to being a Gator. Speaking about the 2021 season and why he had one foot out the door until sometime around January 1, Jones said, “Basically things that went on last year that I wasn’t really comfortable with and I didn’t want to be around that any more. I kind of wanted a new environment to start with, but he [Napier] kind of preached to me that what was happening here. They were planning new environment, a new culture. I just trusted him and bought into it.” There you go. The old culture stunk. Richardson, who will be battling his best friend Jones and three other quarterbacks for reps this spring, went into more detail. “Yeah, I feel like we didn't, honestly as a team, like, care enough about the little things like, putting your hand behind the line, or just looking a certain way,” Richardson said. “Hands on your hips, just things like that, because all that stuff correlates when it comes to the game. So I feel like the little things messed us up.” Little things become big things that go poof in the night. Remember the Kentucky game? A first quarter false start killed one first quarter drive. There was another false start that killed a third quarter drive. A holding call in the third quarter forced a field goal attempt that was blocked and returned for a TD. A fourth quarter false start forced UF to kick a field goal. Another false start at the Kentucky nine kept the Gators from possibly scoring the game-tying TD in a 20-13 loss. And how will poof in the night be avoided in the future? Richardson has an idea. “I feel like a lot of people, they're into it now,” Richardson said. “You know, when it comes to discipline, and just focus on little things, just fixing the little things, I feel like everybody is a lot more focused when it comes to that.” Discipline. Focus. Accountability. Everybody doing their part for the team from the managers all the way up to the head coach. It’s only day one of spring football, but already there is a new, very positive vibe about what is going on. Rome wasn’t built in a day nor will the Florida football program be restored to a championship level, but every restoration project has to start somewhere. Billy Napier knows what he wants and expects. He’s off to a very good start. WILL THE GATORS EXTEND THE HOOPS SEASON OR WILL TONIGHT’S NIT GAME BE THE END? It has been a rather traumatic week since the Gators had the rug pulled out of their NCAA Tournament hopes by the Texas A&M Aggies in the second round of the SEC Tournament. Florida’s 83-80 overtime loss not only doomed the Gators to the National Invitational Tournament but it also brought the curtain crashing down on the Mike White Era. When the Gators (19-13) take on MAAC regular season champ Iona (25-7) in an NIT first round game the O-Dome (9 p.m., ESPN2), we will find out if they feel there is something still to play for or if they’ve simply mailed it in. Al Pinkins will serve as Florida’s interim head coach against the Gaels, coached by Rick Pitino. Among Iona’s 25 wins is a 72-68 upset of then 10th-ranked Alabama, which, in turn, beat the Gators, 83-70. The Gators won’t be anything close to healthy. Anthony Duruji (ankle) will be a game-time decision as will Niels Lane (sick and unable to practice Saturday and Sunday). CJ Felder (hip) is definitely out. SEC Basketball Tuesday’s NIT game: Texas A&M (24-12) 74, Alcorn State (17-17) 62; Vanderbilt (18-16) 82, Belmont (25-8) 71 Wednesday’s NIT games: Iona (25-7) at FLORIDA (19-13); Mississippi State (18-15) at Virginia (19-13) UF SOFTBALL: GATORS FACE STETSON IN DELAND Fresh off a 3-0 win over Mississippi State in the series-clinching game Monday night, the 5th-ranked Gators travel to DeLand to face Stetson (10-17) tonight (6 p.m., ESPN+). This might be an opportunity for the Gators to get lefties Haley Pittman (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and Rylee Trlicek (1-0, 2.63 ERA) some innings so that Elizabeth Hightower, Natalie Lugo and Lexie Delbrey can be saved for the weekend when UF (23-2, 2-1 SEC) travels to College Station to face Texas A&M (16-8, 0-3 SEC). UF GYMNASTICS: LEANNE WONG SEC GYMNAST OF THE WEEK Freshman Leanne Wong was selected SEC Gymnast of the Week after her 39.850 score to win the All-Around as the 2nd-ranked Gators (13-0-1) won a tri-meet with North Carolina State, Rutgers and Pennsylvania. Wong’s score tied teammate Trinity Thomas for the highest all-around score in the nation this year. The Gators, who have already won the SEC regular season title for the fourth consecutive year, will compete in the SEC Championships in Birmingham this weekend. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: At his introductory press conference in Athens Tuesday, the University of Georgia gave Mike White a heroes’ welcome. Brotherly love was abundant at decrepit Stegman Coliseum for the former University of Florida basketball coach, who was greeted by smoke cannons, cheerleaders, dancers, the pep band and fans chanting, “We like Mike! We like Mike!” The excitement for White is in contrast to the apathy that was gathering at warp speed after the Gators bowed out of the SEC Tournament last Thursday, a loss that eliminated the Gators as a potential NCAA Tournament team and doomed them to the NIT. At his Tuesday press conference, White said he was actually looking forward to coaching the Gators in the NIT when Georgia came calling. “I was excited about an NIT run,” White said at his press conference in Athens. “I wanted to go to the NIT. I love those guys. That team [Florida] in particular had more adversity, got to be, than any team in college basketball.” White may have wanted the NIT. Florida fans didn’t which may have something to do why a deal with Georgia was accomplished in a single day. Just like that, Mike White transformed into ex-Florida and current Georgia coach in one swell foop. White was in no danger of being fired at Florida – not this year, at least – but he definitely felt the discontent from a growing percentage of Gator fans. He has a fresh beginning at Georgia and a chance to become the best basketball coach in Georgia history. Hugh Durham holds that title and he was just 298-216 in 17 years on the job – 57.9 percent. At Florida, White was 142-88 or 61.7 percent. If White can replicate that success rate at Georgia, he’ll be embraced, something that just wasn’t going to happen at Florida. So consider the Mike White chapter of Florida basketball history over and done with. He starts brand new at Georgia and Florida will hire a new coach, most likely in the next two weeks. Think of this as a win-win for all parties involved.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: SPRING FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINS TODAY There is a new sheriff in town and his name is Billy Napier. When Napier and his staff take the field this afternoon when the Gators hold the first of their 15 allotted practices this spring, perhaps the single most thing to keep an eye on is discipline, an obvious sore point the last two seasons in which the Gators have gone from the brink of winning the SEC Championship Game to a losing season that resulted in Dan Mullen and his staff getting pink-slipped. There are plenty of questions that the new coaching staff will be hoping to answer such as who’s going to emerge as the No. 1 quarterback – Anthony Richardson probably has the inside track but there will be plenty of competition – but nothing will be more important than a disciplined approach on the practice field. Napier is said to be the closest thing to a Nick Saban clone there is, and if there is one thing Saban won’t tolerate, it’s sloppy, undisciplined practices. In his previous press conferences, Napier has given straight to the point answers. He doesn’t duck or dodge questions unlike a certain yellow-toothed, sockless coach from years gone by. Instead he seems to live by a tell it like it is philosophy, so it will be quite interesting to hear his post-practice remarks later in the afternoon and throughout the spring when practices conclude. SEARCHING FOR A NEW BASKETBALL COACH The more I think about it, the more I talk with people who are just now getting over the surprise of Mike White leaving Florida for the Georgia job, the more I’m convinced that Scott Stricklin has to make a home run kind of hire. The reason is quite simple. The very last thing Stricklin can afford is for White to suddenly begin channeling his inner Dean Smith, turning Georgia from SEC doormat into the unexpected success story of the decade by cleaning up when it comes to recruiting Metro Atlanta. Five years from now, Stricklin can’t be looking at Mike White giving him the finger from Athens because he’s winning 25 games a year while the Gators are still floundering at the 19-20 wins per year level. There is only one way to make sure that doesn’t happen and it is by hiring a proven head coach from the highest levels who has a record of success wherever he has been and who knows how to recruit. As a friend told me Monday morning, Scott Stricklin has to use the Papa John’s approach: Better players equal better basketball teams. You don’t get better players if you don’t have a coach who has a successful track record on the recruiting trail. Getting better players also means hiring a coach who understands that the rules of recruiting are off-the-charts different than they were seven years ago when Billy Donovan left for the NBA. Billy grew weary of coming in second for top recruits because an impermissible benefit or two may have been received. What was illegal during Billy’s day is legal now thanks to NIL. Since kids can sell their name, image and likeness to the highest bidder, Scott Stricklin has to find a coach who knows how to make NIL work. There are some fine coaches at the low-to-mid-major level and some outstanding assistants but I’m of the opinion that unless they have a pedigree of working for a blueblood coach, they should be avoided at all costs. Let the young guys who haven’t worked their way up the ladder apprenticing with a top program learn to ride without the training wheels someplace else. Here are five coaches who I think could be on the move, all of whom could be categorized as home run hires: Scott Drew, Baylor: I’m sure you’ll see the Louisville, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina and Maryland all list him as a home run hire. He’s been at Baylor 19 years and built the program from the absolute depths to a national championship in 2021. He may do it again. If Florida has a chance it’s because Drew and Scott Stricklin go way back. Stricklin was the assistant AD who is credited with hiring both Kim Mulkey and Scott Drew to Baylor. Mulkey won three NCAA titles as the women’s coach before she left for LSU. Would Scott Drew also be willing to leave? This is a long shot, but you have to go after him to at least gauge his interest. Salary is somewhere in the $4 million range. Brad Underwood, Illinois: He’s won at Stephen F. Austin, Oklahoma State and recently won the Big Ten regular season title at Illinois. His teams score points, rebound the basketball and shoot the 3-ball well. Landing him probably means Eric Pastrana stays on as an assistant (worked for Underwood at SFA). Pastrana is the recruiter who landed Malik Reneau and Jalen Reed. Salary $2.4 million. Mark Pope, BYU: He played on Rick Pitino’s 1996 NCAA championship team at Kentucky, has NBA experience and he’s worked as an assistant in the SEC (Georgia) and ACC (Wake Forest). He resurrected the program at Utah Valley and is 66-25 in three years at BYU, playing in the same league as Gonzaga. He’s 6-10 so he understands how to coach a big and he’s well regarded as an offensive coach. Thought to be making less than $2 million a year. Danny Hurley, UConn: The entire UConn athletic program swims in debt and it’s not going to get better. He won at Wagner and Rhode Island before UConn. His teams play excellent defense and they don’t turn the ball over. He’s an excellent recruiter who runs a great offense. Makes $2.75 million. Mick Cronin, UCLA: He’s 428-199 as a head coach at Murray State, Cincinnati and UCLA. He’s gone to the Final Four at UCLA. His teams run up and down the floor and play a style reminiscent of Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan. He makes $4 million a year at UCLA. With the state income tax what it is in California, Florida could offer him the same thing and he’d be getting a 13.3 percent raise. Dad was a high school coach and he worked for Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino as an assistant. GATORS BLANK MISSISSIPPI STATE, 3-0, TO TAKE SERIES An inside-the-park home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth and a 2-run homer off the scoreboard backed up the 4-hit pitching of Elizabeth Hightower (6-0, 1.06 ERA) Monday night as the Gators (23-2, 2-1 SEC) won their first SEC series of the season, 3-0, over Mississippi State. Falby simply outran the ball when she led off the inning with a high drive off the top of the fence in left center field that ricocheted back toward the infield. By the time the Mississippi State outfielders got to the ball Falby was already rounding third. She slid into home but it wasn’t necessary. Hannah Adams then walked, stole second and took third on a throwing error. Wallace ran the count full, then got a pitch she could drive off the scoreboard in left center field for her team-leading fifth home run of the season. Hightower, who struggled with control her last two outings after sitting out a week with back issues, was particularly sharp. She walked only one batter and struck out three. She was only challenged one time and that was in the top of the sixth when Katie Kistler bailed her out with the defensive play of the game, a perfect strike from left field to catcher Emily Wilkie to nail Phoebe Florian at the plate for the third out to end the inning. The Gators will travel to DeLand to play Stetson Wednesday and travel to Texas A&M for their second SEC series Friday. D1Softball Top 25: 1. Oklahoma 20-0; 2. Florida State 23-1; 3. UCLA 22-3; 4. Alabama 21-2; 5. FLORIDA 22-2; 6. Virginia Tech 18-3; 7. Duke 21-3; 8. Arkansas 17-4; 9. Northwestern 15-4; 10. Washington 19-5; 11. Oklahoma State 16-5; 12. Oregon 19-3; 13. Kentucky 19-2; 14. Tennessee 18-6; 15. Michigan 15-6; 16. Missouri 16-6; 17. Auburn 24-1; 18. Clemson 16-6; 19. LSU 19-7; 20. Arizona 19-4; 21. Georgia 22-3; 22. South Florida 22-4; 23. Oregon State 22-4; 24. Arizona State 18-5; 25. Texas 16-9-1 UF BASEBALL: GATORS MOVE UP IN THE POLLS, HOST FSU TONIGHT After a 3-1 week, the Gators moved up to No. 9 in both the D1Baseball and USA Today Coaches polls. Florida will play host to No. 8/12 Florida State (10-5) tonight (6 p.m., SEC Network+) at the Florida Ballpark. The Gators open SEC play this weekend when they travel to Alabama. D1Baseball Top 25: 1. Ole Miss 13-2; 2. Texas 13-4; 3. Arkansas 11-3; 4. Vanderbilt 13-2; 5. Oregon State 11-2; 6. Notre Dame 11-1; 7. Tennessee 15-1; 8. Florida State 10-5; 9. FLORIDA 13-4; 10. Georgia Tech 13-3; 11. Oklahoma State 9-6; 12. Stanford 9-5; 13. LSU 13-3; 14. Liberty 12-2; 15. North Carolina 14-2; 16. Arizona 12-4; 17. Texas Tech 14-3; 18. Clemson 14-1; 19. Virginia 14-1; 20. Georgia 13-3; 21. TCU 11-4; 22. Texas State 14-3; 23. Mississippi State 10-7; 24. Maryland 12-2; 25. Gonzaga 11-4 USA Today Coaches Top 25: 1. Ole Miss 13-2; Texas 13-4; 3. Vanderbilt 13-2; 4. Arkansas 11-3; 5. Tennessee 15-1; 6. Oregon State 11-2; 7. Notre Dame 11-1; 8. LSU 13-3; 9. FLORIDA 13-4; 10. Georgia Tech 13-3; 11. Stanford 9-5; 12. Florida State 10-5; 13. Texas Tech 14-3; 14. Liberty 12-2; 15. Oklahoma State 9-6; 16. Arizona 12-4; 17. Virginia 14-1; 18. North Carolina 14-2; 19. Clemson 14-1; 20. Georgia 13-3; 21. TCU 11-4; 22. Maryland 12-2; 23. Texas State 14-3; 24. Mississippi State 10-7; 25. Gonzaga 11-4 SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL STUFF Alabama: Wide receiver Ja’Corey Brooks and center Darrian Dalcourt will miss spring football practice. Brooks caught 15 passes for 192 yards and two TDs, while Dalcourt started 11 games. Auburn: Bruce Pearl’s 8-year contract extension is worth $50.2 million, plus there are plenty of incentives. Georgia: Arch Manning will visit Georgia on March 19. LSU: With the firing of Will Wade, 4-star signee Devin Ree (6-8,185, Terry MS) is asking out of his signed letter of intent. Mississippi State: Reports of basketball coach Ben Howland’s demise are greatly exaggerated. He has not been fired. He will at least coach the Bulldogs in the NIT. Beyond that, it’s a toss-up. Missouri: Freshman guard Anton Brookshire has entered the transfer portal in the wake of firing basketball coach Cuonzo Martin. South Carolina: After 10 years on the job and a 171-143 record that included a 2017 trip to the Final Four, South Carolina fired basketball coach Frank Martin. Tennessee: Basketball assistant Mike Schwartz is expected to be hired as the HBC at East Carolina. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: When it self-imposed sanctions such as reducing scholarships and opting out of a bowl game in 2020, LSU was already in damage control. Hoping the NCAA would bite on self-imposing for football violations, LSU was trying its best to keep football separate from the basketball violations that ultimately cost Will Wade his job. The NCAA didn’t bite and lumped the two together in the Notice of Allegations received last week on the eve of the SEC Basketball Tournament. LSU knew Level I violations were coming against basketball but its attempt to keep football out of the equation was an attempt to avoid lack of institutional control. That’s important because even the equivalent of a parking ticket in ANY sport is deemed a major violation and can result in heavy sanctions against all sports in the athletic department. Since it’s so easy to run afoul of the NCAA when it comes to football recruiting, when there is lack of institutional control even a self-reported Level II or Level III violation will be considered a Level I. Here is what Paul Finebaum had to say on WJOX Monday, “When you throw around lack of institutional control, throw around Level I violations, accusations of Level I, you’re talking about a real problem in an athletic department. It goes way back, but to me, LSU has played the long game in this, and they lost.” The only way LSU could have avoided certain lack of institutional control sanctions would have been to fire Will Wade when it had the chance. LSU chose to wait for the Notice of Allegations so it could fire Wade without paying buyout money. They played the long game and indeed they lost.

Perhaps at another time and under different circumstances, Mike White would have taken the Gators to new basketball heights. Maybe, but he came to Florida, eyes wide open as the successor to Billy Donovan. Maybe Mike never got the memo that’s been passed around for generations in just about every sport there is: NEVER, under any circumstance, follow a legend. Lou Holtz once said he didn’t want to be the coach who followed Woody Hayes at Ohio State, but he wouldn’t mind being the guy who followed the guy who followed Woody. The guy who followed Woody was Earle Bruce, who got to two Rose Bowls in nine years and had a dandy 81-26-1 record. But he didn’t win national championships. He wasn’t Woody Hayes. He was “Old 9-3 Earle Bruce,” alluding to the string of six straight 9-3 seasons he posted. Six coaches, including one who never coached a game after a close encounter with a stripper named Destiny in Pensacola torpedoed his career before it even started, tried to chase the ghost of Bear Bryant. It only took 35 years for Alabama to find a worthy successor in Nick Saban. Now that he’s won six national championships and probably will win a couple more before he retires, pity the fool who tries to follow Nick. At Kentucky, Tubby Smith won a national championship in 1998 but discovered that until you’ve won four national championships like Adolph Rupp you’re just another coach. The pressure of chasing the ghost of Rupp grew so intense he resigned after 10 years and left for Minnesota, which had neither tradition nor prestige. Mike White wasn’t a bad basketball coach at Florida, but he wasn’t Billy. Billy had charisma both on and off the court. Billy’s teams were exciting. Billy’s teams won six SEC championships, four SEC tournaments, two national championships and made it to the Final Four two other times. Mike White’s teams weren’t all that exciting, never won the SEC regular season nor the tournament and the closest he came to a Final Four was 2017 when a disastrous final two minutes against South Carolina in the Elite Eight game ended the season. And what a season it might have been except that 6-11, 260-pound center John Egbunu went down with an ACL tear midway through February. With Egbunu, the Gators had a force in the middle. Without him, they lived and died by the 3-ball. In the end, they died. A lot of coaches believe that Florida could have won the national championship in 2017 with a healthy Egbunu. If the Gators had won it, would that have significantly changed the trajectory of Mike White’s career at UF? Would he have struggled to recruit big men in the next 2-3 years if Egbunu had gotten the Gators to the Final Four and perhaps to the promised land? Those are things we’ll never know. Injuries have had a significant effect on winning and losing the last seven years. Besides Egbunu there were Gorjok Gak (knees cost him three seasons, transferred to California Baptist), Keith Stone (ACL, transferred to Miami), Chase Johnson (concussions, transferred to Dayton) and Keyontae Johnson (collapsed on the court at Tallahassee December 12, 2020, hasn’t played since) and always, it seemed there was someone with some nagging injury that either slowed him down or kept him out. This season alone Colin Castleton hasn’t been able to practice due to a bum shoulder that cost him six games. Jason Jitoboh suffered a season-ending eye injury while Castleon was out. Tyree Appleby has been playing through a thigh contusion. Anthony Duruji has been trying to go for weeks on a bum ankle. CJ Felder’s hip has limited him for the last eight weeks. Injuries are part of the game and dealing with them often separates bad from good and good from great coaches. White has been a good coach. Who knows if he could have or would have been great without so many injuries. Recruiting was also a major issue. In seven years, White only had two memorable recruiting classes – 2018 when he landed Johnson, Andrew Nembhard, Noah Locke and Omar Payne; and 2020 when he landed McDonald’s All-Americans Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann. When White departed for Georgia, Johnson was the only Gator remaining out of that bunch and he hasn’t played since he collapsed at FSU. Nembhard (Gonzaga), Locke (Louisville) and Payne (Illinois) transferred out. Mann (first round) and Lewis (second) were drafted by the NBA after two seasons. White didn’t do a very good job replacing those guys and it showed this season when he had to rely too heavily on transfers. White always had transfers on his team, but it’s one thing to have a Canyon Barry or an Egor Koulechov or Kerry Blackshear Jr. for one year and it’s altogether different when your first seven players all began their collegiate careers somewhere else as was the case in 2021-22 and only two of them started out at power conference schools. Recruiting is one reason Billy Donovan left for the NBA. Billy finally got tired of losing recruits to teams he knew or had reason to suspect were bending way too many rules. He also got tired of those same recruits coming back to beat him. So, he threw up his hands and left for the NBA where he doesn’t have to deal with 17-year-old kids whose AAU handlers tell him he’s the greatest thing since the invention of paper cups, crushed ice and plastic straws. White spent seven years at Florida playing it squeaky clean on the recruiting trail. He didn’t land many stud recruits, but there wasn’t a hint of a recruiting violation either. That can’t be said about many others in the Southeastern Conference. The phrase “Sure, Everybody Cheats” was coined about the SEC back in the 1970s. A lot of folks say the same thing applies to basketball these days and times. Well, Mike White didn’t cheat although we can’t say for certain that applies to the other 13 SEC coaches. Auburn, for instance, made a Final Four (2019) with a coach (Bruce Pearl), who was implicated in the college basketball corruption trials and who got fired and show cause at his previous gig (Tennessee). Bruce Pearl still has a job, still lands top recruits like SEC Freshman of the Year Jabari Smith, who is probably going to be the first player taken in the NBA Draft, and might very well win the NCAA championship this year. Will Wade won an SEC and 105 games in five years before the long arm of the NCAA law caught up with him with a Notice of Allegations served on the eve of the NCAA Tournament. He’s been fired but it took three years for it to happen and that was after the FBI produced a wiretap recording of Wade bragging about buying Javonte Smart. Alabama and South Carolina were implicated in the corruption scandal, but both managed to wiggle out of serious trouble and instead got slaps on the wrist. John Calipari has never been lit up by the NCAA while at Kentucky but he had Final Four appearances vacated by the NCAA while at UMass and Memphis, his previous two jobs. It's admirable that Mike White never cheated and ran a clean program. It’s one of the reasons that he wasn’t about to be fired. Not this year anyway. He’s leaving Florida on his own free will. Perhaps Georgia will be a better fit because for whatever reasons you can think of – lack or relationships with the AAU coaches, injuries, inconsistent recruiting, relying too heavily on transfers, never hiring an assistant coach who was a real offensive guru – White just wasn’t the right fit here. There was always something that kept the stars and planets from aligning so the choice to find a new place to coach might be the result of serious looks in the mirror and soul searching that told him there is no time like the present to leave. The choice of Georgia seems a bit questionable although one thing for certain, there are no legends to follow in Athens when it comes to the round ball. Tom Crean was 6-26 last season, the worst year in Georgia history, and 47-75 in four years. Before Crean, Georgia fired Mark Fox, who was 163-133 in nine seasons. Some think the reason Crean, Fox and nearly every other coach who’s been at Georgia has failed is because there is no serious commitment to the sport as evidenced by Stegman Coliseum, which has earned its reputation as the worst arena in the SEC. The renovated O-Dome is adequate, but an absolute palace compared to Stegman. Maybe Georgia is promising White to spend some of that big SEC money into a new building, the kind that will be attractive to all those studs an hour away in Metro Atlanta. Maybe there are promises that basketball will become a priority sport, not just something to pass the time before spring football. Perhaps Georgia has gotten jealous watching football schools like Alabama and Auburn commit unprecedented (for them) resources to basketball and get the results. Perhaps Georgia thinks that a coach with a squeaky clean image and squeaky clean, brand new facilities can do what Nate Oates is doing at Alabama or Bruce Pearl is doing at Auburn. Whatever promises have been made, they are enough that Mike White is no longer at Florida and is the head basketball coach at Georgia. At Florida, much of the fan base adamantly called for a new coach while an equal number were apathetic. Georgia fans may very well welcome White with open arms and think he can’t be any worse than the guy they just fired. Then again, they may look at White as a bunt single hire when a home run was demanded by the fan base. Only time will tell if White can win consistently enough to win over the Georgia fan base. About the only thing that is an absolute at this point is that both the University of Florida and Mike White have wiped their slates clean and both have a fresh start. Florida is now one coach removed from Billy Donovan and that should help lure the kind of coach who will successfully woo the Florida fan base and regenerate the excitement that has been lost from the program. Florida is very capable of regaining its status as one of the better programs in the country. It just takes the right guy with the right approach. At Georgia, Mike White starts new without the pressure of trying to be the next Billy Donovan. Instead he can focus on being the first Mike White and maybe that’s all he needs to win more ball games than he won at Florida.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: MIKE WHITE TAKES THE GEORGIA JOB After days of speculation that Ole Miss was going to relieve Kermit Davis Jr. of his job and hire Mike White to return to his alma mater, White pulled a huge surprise Sunday by leaving the University of Florida for the job at Georgia. After a dismal 6-26 record that was the worst in school history, Georgia fired Tom Crean on Thursday. Some Georgia fansites were reporting that Georgia was trying to lure Baylor coach Scott Drew. Others thought Xavier assistant and former Georgia player Jonas Hayes would be the guy. Either that was wishful thinking or else Drew and Hayes said thanks but no thanks. Crean was making $3.2 million at Georgia and White was making $3.2 million at Florida. It’s being speculated that the Georgia contract will pay White approximately $4 million per season. White leaves UF with a 142-88 record, 19-13 this season when the Gators failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 (no tournament in 2020). Florida will host Iona (25-7) in the NIT Wednesday (9 p.m., ESPN2). Associate head coach Al Pinkins will lead the Gators in the postseason. White and the Gators were two minutes away from the Final Four when they lost to South Carolina in the Elite Eight game, but they never got beyond the second round of the NCAA Tournament again. The Gators were plagued by injuries throughout his tenure, the most devastating John Egbunu’s ACL tear in February of 2017 that probably cost the Gators the Final Four, and Keyontae Johnson’s collapse on the court in Tallahassee on December 12, 2020. The Gators always had good teams under White, but never could get those breakthrough wins that would give them a shot at winning the SEC or high NCAA Tournament seedings. Despite fan discontent, White’s job was secure for at least one more season, but he chose to take the Georgia job. He gets a fresh start in his coaching career and Florida gets a chance to bring in a new coach who can perhaps elevate the program to the levels it achieved during the Billy Donovan era. Athletic director Scott Stricklin said in a statement Sunday that the search for a new coach begins immediately. Here are seven coaches who should be on Florida’s short list (not in any particular order): Brad Underwood, Illinois: First and foremost, if Florida hired him Eric Pastrana would probably stay since Eric was his top assistant when he was the head coach at Stephen F. Austin. He’s 202-92 as a Division I head coach with stops at Stephen F. (89-14 in three years), Okie State (20-13 in one season) and Illinois (93-65 in five seasons including a tie for the Big Ten title). Underwood (age 57) knows the state of Florida from his days as the head coach at Daytona Beach juco. Salary is $2.4 million. Anthony Grant, Dayton: If it hadn’t been for COVID two years ago, Anthony probably would have had the Flyers in the Final Four. He’s 100-50 in five years at Dayton. Grant (age 55) got fired at Alabama despite a 117-85 record but only made the NCAA one year. He’s 293-160 with stops at VCU (76-25), Alabama and Dayton. Dayton is his alma mater. He’s well paid ($2 million), happy and I’m told he is not going anywhere. Rob Lanier: He knows Florida from five years as Billy’s assistant (2007-11). Knows the SEC further as Rob Barnes top assistant both at Texas and Tennessee (2015-19). In three years at Georgia State he is 53-29. Lanier (age 53) won the Sun Belt Tournament this year and is in the NCAA Tournament. Outstanding recruiter. Makes a base salary of $575,000. Wes Miller, Cincinnati: He took a dead end job at UNC-Greensboro and turned that program around, going 125-43 in his last five years there. Cincinnati was a train wreck when he took over this year, going 18-15. Miller, who is 39, played for Roy Williams at North Carolina so he runs the Dean Smith offensive system, which is about as efficient as there is. The question is does he take another job or wait to see if Hubert Davis is going to make it at UNC. Salary is $1.25 million. Danny Hurley, UConn: He is 53 and has spent his entire life and coaching career in the northeast, working for his legendary dad at St. Anthony and then as the head coach at St. Benedict, which was 223-21 in nine seasons. As a college head coach at Wagner (38-23), Rhode Island (113-82) and UConn (73-45) he has taken over programs that were in bad shape and turned them into winners. UConn is 23-8 and a No. 5 seed. Hurley does have a long friendship with Montverde head coach Kevin Boyle, which could help in keeping Malik Reneau and recruiting Sky Clark. Salary is $2.75 million. The UConn athletic department is swimming in debt. He might be looking to leave for a more stable job in a league where money is no object. Rob Golden, San Francisco: He’s 36 years old and he’s done a tremendous job resurrecting San Francisco where he’s 57-35 in three years as the head coach. He was a Bruce Pearl assistant at Auburn from 2014-16. His teams play like clones of Bruce Pearl teams. His salary is thought to be in the $500,000 range (San Francisco is private so doesn’t have to disclose). Matt McMahon, Murray State: He is 43 years old and his only high major or SEC work came as a grad assistant at Tennessee 20 years ago. He is 153-66 at Murray State, but his last five teams have gone 120-35. The Racers are 30-2 this season and a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. His salary is $500,000. UF WOMEN: No. 10 SEED IN BRIDGEPORT REGION It has been a remarkable turnaround for Florida women’s basketball under Kelly Rae Finley. After five straight losing seasons and two coaching changes (Amanda Butler fired after 2017; Cam Newbauer fired in the summer of 2022), the Gators (21-11) are back in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed that will face American Athletic Conference and No. 7 UCF (25-3) in a first round game in the Bridgeport Region. UCF comes into the tournament with a 13-game winning streak. Should the Gators get past UCF in the first round, their likely opponent is UConn, whose campus is 79 miles away. It's a bit perplexing that the Gators are a No. 10 when they beat LSU, Tennessee, Georgia Besides the Gators making it into the NCAA Tournament are (seedings listed): 1. South Carolina; 3. LSU; 4. Tennessee; 6. Georgia; 6. Kentucky; 7. Ole Miss and 10. Arkansas. UF WOMEN WIN NCAA INDOOR TRACK TITLE This merits more than a few words midway through this column, but with all that happened with Mike White taking the Georgia job, the Gators going to the NIT and the women’s basketball team making the NCAA Tournament, the Florida women taking the NCAA Indoor Track and Field championship in Birmingham doesn’t get the publicity it deserves. The Gators won five individual events, which tied an NCAA record, as they ended a 30-year drought between national championships. Florida finished with 68 points, followed by Texas (56), Kentucky (44), Arkansas (40) and LSU (29.5). Winning individual events for UF were Anna Hall (pentathalon), Grace Stark (60 meter hurdles), Talitha Diggs (400 meters) and Jasmine Moore (long jump and triple jump). Natricia Hooper had a second place finish in the triple jump, while Stark placed fourth and Semira Killebrew sixth in the 60 meters and Claire Bryant seventh in the long job. For UF coach Mike Holloway, the national championship was his 10th as Florida’s head coach (men’s indoor champs 5 times, men’s outdoor champs 4 times). UF MEN’S TENNIS: NO. 4 GATORS 5, NO. 1 TENNESSEE 2 With senior Duarte Vale earning his 100th career singles win (6-7, 6-3, 6-1) over Tennessee’s Angel Diaz the 4th-ranked Gators (11-2, 4-0 SEC) overpowered No. 1 Tennessee (14-4, 2-2 SEC) in Knoxville, 5-2, Sunday afternoon. The win completed a dominating weekend for the Gators, who won last year’s NCAA title. On Friday, the Gators blanked No. 8 Georgia (11-4, 3-1 SEC), 4-0, in Athens. Next up for the Gators is a midweek matchup with Illinois. The Gators will be home next weekend to face Ole Miss on Friday and Mississippi State on Sunday. GATORS WIN TWO OF THREE VS. SETON HALL The 11th-ranked Gators (13-4) spotted Seton Hall a 3-0 lead and never recovered Sunday afternoon, dropping a 6-4 decision in the final game of a three-game weekend series. The Gators won the first two games, 16-4 and 11-9. Hitting stars for the weekend were Jud Fabian (4-8, 2 HR, 1 3B, 7 RBI) and Wyatt Langford (7-12, 2 HR, 7 RBI). Hunter Barco (3-1) and Brandon Sproat (3-1) got the two wins. The Gators play Florida State Tuesday (6 p.m., SEC Network+) at the Florida Ballpark. The Gators open SEC play on the road next weekend at Alabama (12-5). UF SOFTBALL: GATORS, MISSISSIPPI STATE ONE WIN APIECE Florida’s bats took a powder Sunday as the No. 3 Gators (22-2, 1-1 SEC) dropped the second game of their 3-game series with Mississippi State (16-10, 1-1 SEC), 1-0, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Saturday, the Gators opened the series with an 8-4 win over the Bulldogs. Mississippi State managed only five hits off Natalie Lugo (5-1) Sunday, but three of them came in the third inning when the Bulldogs scored their only run. The Gators had runners on first and third with one out in the second inning and had a runner gunned down at the plate for the final out in the fourth. The final game of the series will be tonight at KSP (7 p.m., SEC Network). Other UF sports: The No. 15 Florida women’s tennis team (9-4, 2-2 SEC) split two matches over the weekend. The Gators lost to No. 23 Georgia (7-2, 4-0 SEC) 4-1, on Friday but rebounded Sunday with a 4-1 win over No. 16 Tennessee (8-4, 2-2 SEC) … The 12th-ranked women’s lacrosse team (2-4) dropped a 12-9 decision to Loyola. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Remember that old joke I’ve referenced before, the one that goes there are 14 schools in the Big Ten and 19 of them will play in the NCAA Tournament? Well, it wasn’t 19 when the Tournament Selection Committee announced the brackets Sunday night, but it was nine. One of them was Michigan, the same Michigan that is 17-14 without a single decent out of conference win. The same Michigan whose thug of a head coach started a brawl after his team was poleaxed by Wisconsin when he punched a Wisconsin assistant. Among Michigan’s out of conference losses was a blowout to UCF. The other eight Big Ten teams to get into the tournament are Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue, Iowa, Ohio State, Rutgers, Michigan State and Indiana. Basically, it came down to every team that had a winning record got into the NCAA Tournament. I would argue there are maybe six that actually deserve to be in and the NCAA Tournament will prove it. Every single year, the NCAA rewards the Big Ten with more teams than anyone else and every single year Big Ten basketball teams do a remarkable impersonation of Big Ten football teams. Quick now: How many Big Ten teams have won national championships in basketball since 1990? Answer: Michigan State 2000. How many SEC teams have won national championships in basketball since 1990? Answer: Arkansas 1994; Kentucky 1996, 1998 and 2012; and Florida 2006-07. How many Big Ten teams have won national championships in football since 1990? Answer: Michigan 1997, Ohio State 2002 and Ohio State 2014. How many SEC teams have won national championships in football since 1990? Answer: Alabama 1992, 2009, 2011-12, 2015, 2017, 2020; Florida 1996, 2006, 2008; LSU 2003, 2007, 2019; Tennessee 1998; Auburn 2010; and Georgia 2020. Meanwhile the SEC got six teams in this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament: No. 2 Auburn (Midwest), No. 2 (East) Kentucky, No. 3 (South) Tennessee, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 4 (West), No. 6 (West) Alabama and No. 6 (Midwest) LSU. The only SEC team that should have gotten in but didn’t was Texas A&M, which made a great run to get to the SEC Tournament championship game by whacking Florida, No. 4 Auburn (a No. 2 seed) and No. 15 Arkansas (a no. 4 seed) on consecutive days. Even with a spotty non-conference schedule and an 8-game losing streak midseason, the Aggies did win 23 games. I’m not a math major but that’s six more wins than Michigan and Buzz Williams (Aggie coach) never got suspended for punching another coach.

Skating With Old Glory: Erin Jackson realized it wasn't a dream. (U.S. Olympic photo) She was a history maker. A gold medal winner. A world champion. Thousands of hours of practice had finally paid off. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Bennett Solomon secured a one-on-one interview with the gold medal-winning Jackson for this story.) By BENNETT SOLOMON GatorBait Intern When Erin Jackson crossed the finish line in her final heat of the 500-meter speed skating race, she knew there was a good chance. A good chance to become the first African American woman to ever win gold in speed skating. With a time of 37.04, she knew she had at least secured a medal. In the second to last pairing, she beat the second-place time of 37.12, set by Japan’s Takagi Miho. But now, the waiting began. Olga Fatkulina and Andzelika Wojcik raced last. In just under 45 seconds, Jackson would find out if she had made history. The two crossed the finish line with times of 37.76 and 37.78, securing a gold medal for Jackson. When she looked at the times and realized the result, she hugged her coach, Renee Henderson, and quickly fell to the ice with her hands covering her face, emotional and stunned at what had just happened. She was a history maker. A gold medal winner. A world champion. Thousands of hours of practice had finally paid off. However, Jackson was and wasn’t supposed to be competing in the 500m event. She wasn’t supposed to compete because she placed third at the U.S. Olympic trials, leaving her without a spot in Beijing. But her teammate and Ocala training partner Brittany Bowe, decided to give up her spot in the event to let Jackson skate. “There’s no way,” Brittany had said of the chances that Jackson wouldn’t be on the U.S. team. She was supposed to compete in Beijing because Jackson is a perfectionist. Growing up, Jackson said she was always competitive. In the classroom, she was always looking to improve her academics. On the ice, she spent hours perfecting her skills and said she even noticed imperfection in Beijing despite coming home a gold medalist. “I don’t really know where that came from,” she said. “I’ve always been self-motivated and competitive with myself. When I was younger, it was always about trying to get the best grades. My parents had a lot to do with that. When it came to sports, my coach Renee really instilled that self-motivation in us from a young age.” Jackson began her speedskating career when she was 10 years old, but her main focus growing up was always school. Jackson went to Forest High School in Ocala, and always had a dream of going to the University of Florida. She would eventually graduate from UF in 2015 with a honors degree in materials science and engineering. She said her favorite part about UF was the whole experience, especially knowing she was getting one of the best education’s in the country. During her time at UF, Jackson was competing in inline speedskating and roller derby. She didn’t transition to the ice until 2017 but still juggled her school work along with the travel for inline speedskating events. When she graduated, she fully committed to transitioning to the ice and joined the U.S. team in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2017. She said the transition was tough and felt she had to make up for a lot of lost time, so she went to the rink to practice as much as she could. She would practice every day, even sometimes twice a day when the rink was open Monday-Saturday. “When I first joined the team out in Salt Lake, I was really bad at it,” she said. “But I spent a lot of time on the ice to try and build that comfort and I went to the rink as often as I could. If my team had one training session on ice a day, then I would go to an additional one on my own.” Now, Jackson isn’t so bad on the ice after all. When the final race ended Feb. 13, she took a victory lap around the Olympic rink. She held her two arms high, carrying the American flag, smiling and waving at the crowd. A possibility turned into a dream come true. When she stood on the Olympic podium receiving her gold medal, she broke down with tears of joy. “I didn’t really see this happening this quickly,” she said. “ It’s still hard to believe that it actually happened. It’s still hard to put it into words, but it’s an amazing feeling. Just being there surrounded by my teammates, being able to look at them out in the crowd while I’m getting my medal, I felt a lot of happiness, a lot of pride and a lot of relief.” With the closing ceremonies commencing Feb. 20, Jackson still hopes to build off her success and add to her already impressive resume. Now an olympic gold medalist and 47 time inline National Champion, Jackson is confident she can utilize her perfectionist mindset to improve her small mistakes and make another gold medal run in her third Olympic games to come. “My main goal is to keep training and keep improving on things,” she said. “I saw a lot of imperfection in the way I’ve been skating, but I’m looking forward to cleaning all that up and getting even faster.” It’s tough to improve on a gold medal, but the competitive speed skater will no doubt be trying to skate even faster.

Bill Napier is starting strong, but we'll all have to wait and see. (Chris Spears photo), "Truth be told, all but one of the last 11 Gator head football coaches have met a dastardly fate -- not always fired, but fired, run off or promoted upstairs." Some years it feels like Florida football coaches are fighting the enemy within. Like Pogo once said in the comic strip, “I have met the enemy – and it is us!” When you skin it back like a piece of gator tail, it almost seems cannibalistic. When it comes to football coaches, a little more than most places, do Gator fans chew up and spit out coaches? Eleven in 62 years, which means every 5.6 years there’s a new Gator coach. Barely lasting one recruiting cycle. This is part of the challenge facing Billy Napier: Don’t get consumed by the job or the critics. He knows, because he mentioned it obliquely in one of his early pressers. Napier saw how Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney survived and will construct his own buffer zone, just as he did on a smaller scale at UL-L. Probably already has. As a reminder, though, Billy needs to strap it on. No doubt he’s already grounded, because metaphorically, he already has both feet planted right there on the west sideline of Steve Spurrier Field, where he will soon take his stand. Daily, he mounts up with spiritual armor. When asked, Napier confirmed in an interview that he starts his day with a private bible study. So he has a daily scouting report on the enemy from within. However, he knows he must do more than survive. He must excel. Of course, it’s not only Florida where the pariahs are lurking. It just feels that way because of escalating salaries and escalating expectations -- plus UF’s record for devouring coaches. And in today’s game, they look more like man-eating whales. Truth be told, all but one of the last 11 Gator head football coaches have met a dastardly fate -- not always fired, but fired, run off or promoted upstairs. The guy who named it “The Swamp,” was the only one to get out alive. (Technically Ray Graves was promoted to AD and Urban Meyer resigned.) Together they have all the championships. The HBC is the gold standard. (Chris Spears Photo) The other day I asked the HBC if Florida fans were unreasonable and, if so, why? “Sometimes our fans think we’re supposed to win the championship every year,” Steve Spurrier said, “and historically that’s not possible.” In this case, he was referring to the basketball program, but the same applies to football, and to many of the other sports as well. I put it right to the guy who started it all with Florida’s first national championship and first six SEC football titles. Why are the Gator fans so ruthless? “Oh, I don’t know,” Spurrier pondered. “Sometimes I think our fans are not as well acquainted with our history as they might should be.” And then he proceeded to tick off the championship success of almost every sport at Florida. Frankly, the HBC thinks Gator fans need to do a better job of educating themselves about how far the Florida athletic programs have come – something Spurrier has done himself. He can tell you the number of titles won by almost every sport. So the Ambassador has done his homework. (If you count everything, it’s 42.) With the fleeting years, Spurrier’s value as the gold standard for Florida sports looks incomparable and untouchable. That’s a good thing for obvious reasons. He beat the brakes off all his SEC rivals. But it’s not so good for the guy chasing the HBC’s ghost because that standard will never be even close to equaled, as Urban Meyer found out. Not even by winning two national titles. The specter of Spurrier gold hung over Florida’s football program the entire time Meyer was winning all those titles and amassing those 65 wins. And as tough as it was, Meyer conceded that the ghost of the HBC should always loom there because of his imposing accomplishments and credentials. Although it had no bearing on Urban’s decision to leave for an ESPN job, there is no doubt the burden of that HBC’s ghost will always be heard in the echoes. Will Muschamp, one of the 'M' itinerants. (UAA Photo) Quickly, the line of “M” itinerant coaches who followed Urban began to feel it – from Muschamp to McElwain to Mullen. And now it’s time to see what The New Guy can do as Billy Napier prepares to put his 2022 team through its first spring practice. In recent weeks I’ve drilled down on the subject of Napier through his pressers, my interviews with numerous current players, coaches and former coaches, media outside and inside the program and the perusing of many stories. It comes up sparkling. And yet I really don’t know – despite the fact that he’s an “N” and not an “M” -- if he’s going to break that chain. When asked, I always confess that while I am cautiously optimistic and feel Napier’s stock is rising, I will have to wait and see like the rest of us. But it is with eager anticipation. On Wall Street, I’m buying his stock with my senior discount. What strikes me these days is how rare it is to find prolonged sustained success among coaches, with exception of “The Man In The Straw Hat,” as Saban is sometimes referred to by Napier. As I watched the final game coached by 75-year-old Mike Krzyzewski, it occurred to me how quickly some of the giants were aging out in all of college sports. Next in line for the gold watch is Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who at 77 is already the eldest D1 hoops coach in history. Tom Izzo of Michigan State is 71. Saban is 70. Bill Belichick 69. Billy Napier will be 43 on July 21. Will he age out, or be consumed by jackals? Hopefully it’ll be the former. If so, the Spurrier Gold Standard will have to be his goal. And the enemy within will have been muted. Time for Napier to turn things around. Can he? The stock buy looks good. (UAA Photo)