Gators coach Mike White and his father, Kevin, Duke's athletic director, look on as the Gators warm up at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/For UAA Communications)
Carter's Corner: 'Magical Moment' for White Family
Thursday, March 23, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Scott Carter
Gators coach Mike White and his family are in March Madness heaven this week.
They beamed the way only parents can.
"This is life-changing,'' Kevin White, who is Duke's athletic director, said then.
Kevin White watched his son address the media again on Thursday at Madison Square Garden, this time from the back of the room as Mike discussed Florida's matchup with Wisconsin in the Sweet 16 on Friday night and his team's journey to get here.
It's been quite a March Madness week for the hoops-lovin' White family.
"We were basketball junkies,'' Mike said.
While the Gators advanced to the Sweet 16 with wins over East Tennessee State and Virginia last weekend in Orlando, Kevin White was in Greenville, S.C., for Duke's first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils cruised past Troy in their opener but were upset by South Carolina on Sunday night in the biggest stunner of the tournament so far. Duke's loss erased a potential rematch from earlier this season at MSG against the Gators in the Elite Eight.
Meanwhile, after Duke's exit, Kevin was able to catch a UCF game this week with Knights Athletic Director Danny White – another of his sons and Mike's brother – as UCF advanced to the Final Four of the NIT for the first time on Wednesday with a home win over Illinois.
Asked to reflect on what it has been like to watch two of his sons succeed at their relatively new jobs this week, Kevin White paused for a moment, searching for the right words.
"It's surreal,'' he said. "It's a little emotional. It is clearly a magical moment."
Once Mike finished his press conference, he was joined courtside by his father while the Gators worked out on the floor. Jane White was in Gainesville, keeping an eye three of Mike and wife Kira's five children. They brought the two oldest with them to New York.
Mike is living in the moment.
"He stays so busy, I don't get a chance to see him enough,'' he said of his father. "Just like Danny, we're an hour and a half away … and we just don't get to see each other very often. For us to be a small part of [March Madness] is really neat. Because you forget – but it's reality – I'm a coach in this thing, he's an AD in this thing, and we're both still college basketball fans."
For another twist to White's run of March Madness, if UCF defeats TCU and CSU Bakersfield beats Georgia Tech in the NIT semifinals next week at MSG, the championship game will match UCF against Rod Barnes, the former Ole Miss coach who hired White as an assistant coach at his alma mater in 2004. Barnes is now head coach at CSU Bakersfield.
Oh, one more for the fun of it.
The Florida-Wisconsin Sweet 16 matchup has strong connection to White's past. Bruce Van De Velde, a senior associate athletic director at Wisconsin, is the former Louisiana Tech AD who hired White as a head coach in 2011.
"My guy, love him to death,'' White said.
Turned out pretty well. For Louisiana Tech and Florida.
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