Gators Set to Lift Lid on White Era With Exhibition Preview
Thursday, November 5, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- At some point early on in Thursday night's proceedings, everyone in the O'Connell Center will come to terms with the altogether different look about the Florida sidelines.
The head coach will still stalk the bench area, sans his suit coat, and be feverishly animated and vocal.
It just won't be Billy Donovan.
But it it will be the Gators.
Mike White's Gators.
An exhibition game against Division II Palm Beach Atlantic will double as a prelude to the 2015-16 season that opens Nov. 13 at Navy and a lid-lifting debut game for White, the 38-year-old former Ole Miss point guard who went 101-40 in four seasons at Louisiana Tech before being lured to UF following Donovan's high-profile exit to the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder after 19 seasons and a treasure trove of Southeastern Conference titles, NCAA Tournament berths, Final Fours and national championships.
The hype stops here. Things are about to get real.
“Yeah, it's exciting,” White said. “But the staff and I are a lot more excited for our players, especially the seniors. It's been a long preseason. We've put in a lot of work, time and energy. Our guys have been chomping at the bit now for two or three weeks to play someone else.”
Under White, the Gators went about the preseason differently than in the past. The NCAA allows teams 30 practices before the regular-season opening game, but teams cannot start practicing until six weeks before that first game. So 30 practices over 42 days. How a coach wants to use them? That his call.
Donovan used to hold off the first practice and get his players into a one-day-off-per-week routine. White convened his players on Oct. 3 -- yes, 42 days out, as early as possible -- and started the ball rolling. So they're ready to see a different uniform.
“Psyched,” said forward Alex Murphy, one of the two seniors -- along with leading scorer and rebounder Dorian Finney-Smith -- among the squad's five returning scholarship players. “Just looking forward to getting this going.” 
As fresh a face as White may be there will be eight Gators in uniform that did not suit up last season, with as many as three figuring into the starting lineup, including 6-foot-6 forward DeVon Walker (who missed last season following knee surgery), off-guard KeVaughn Allen (former Arkansas prep superstar) and 6-foot-11, 255-pound center John Egbunu (the transfer from South Florida, pictured right).
Egbunu was one of three players who had to bide their time on the scout team last season, but now to unleash a year of waiting.
“I came here with the understanding and the mindset that I was not going to play,” Egubunu said of his sit-out transfer season. “My goals last season were to change my body, work on my game and use the year to get better. It was stressful at times, yes, because I love playing. Sometimes I would get in little mental slumps because I wanted to play. But at the end of the day, it was very productive for me. It was a win-win situation.”
Now, it's time to go play.
And win-win.
“I think this team has more of an opportunity to grow during the season than most other teams because of this staff's transition and because of having seven new guys, plus DeVon Walker coming off a redshirt [year],” White said. “There will be things we can draw from Thursday night, perhaps the biggest being we have room for improvement in different areas. But potentially, this team has that scary look. We're definitely not there, and we're far from it, but we have the potential to get there and be competitive in this league.”
