White Revisits His Rebel Roots

OXFORD, Miss. -- Michael White is the first to admit it's going to be weird.

"I haven't experienced anything like this," the Florida basketball coach said.

Twenty years ago, White was a freshman at the University of Mississippi and several games into winning the starting point guard job. He'd hold the position for four seasons and along the way helped the Rebels double their all-time NCAA Tournament berths -- from one to two -- and was the floor general of record the first time Ole Miss won in the big dance during his 1999 senior season.

Hotty-toddy, Gosh Almighty, Who the Hell are We?

They were some of the best times of his life.

And that's why Saturday night will be a little different.

White, now 38, has Rebel roots that run deep. He married an Ole Miss volleyball player. He returned to be an assistant there. The same coach who retained him on a second UM staff is still there. Four of his five children were born in Oxford.

"I'll always be a big fan of Ole Miss," White said. "Outside of one game of the year."

This one.

Hereeeeeee come the Gators (10-6, 2-2), with White leading them against the Rebels (12-4, 2-2) in a Saturday night game that will put some separation between the two programs relative to the Southeastern Conference standings.

In his time at UM, White was a fixture at the Tad Smith Coliseum, the rickety old facility where the Rebels practiced and played for 50 years. Last week, the school cut the ribbon on the new, $96 million Pavilion at Ole Miss, so for White this homecoming game will be in completely different surroundings. To keep things in context -- and White would not disagree -- this isn't exactly Archie Manning coming back. White averaged 5.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists over his 117 games, but he was certainly a key building block in what at the time was the best era of Ole Miss basketball in program history.

They're not bad now, by the way, which is why White won't spend much of time immersing himself in nostalgia.

Or as he put it, "I have a Stefan Moody headache, right now."

Moody, the Rebels' 5-foot-11 point guard, is giving everybody headaches this season. The senior is averaging 24.4 points per game, tops in the SEC, has an utter green light to go get one from anywhere and is shooting 37 percent from 3-point range. In Wednesday night's loss at LSU, Moody went for a career-high 33 points.

"I didn't see that game," UF center John Egbunu said. "But I remember him."

All Gators do. It was Moody who drilled a 26-footer with 2.7 seconds left to beat UF 62-61 last year at the O'Connell Center. Finding a way to limit his productivity -- both shooting the ball and getting shots for others -- was the focus of White and his staff since falling Tuesday night at No. 21 Texas A&M.

The Rebels are coached by Andy Kennedy, who 10 years ago took over the program after Rod Barnes was fired. On that Barnes staff was White, who the administration retained on an interim basis to hold the program together during the search for a new coach. When Kennedy was hired in 2006, by way of Cincinnati, he choose to keep White on board.

Obviously, both know each other (and how their basketball minds tick) very well.

"There's so much that I learned just being around him," White said. "A lot of times things rub off without you even knowing it. There's a lot of things I'm sure I do or say or certain ways that I teach or act that probably came from A.K. without me even knowing it."

After four years at his side, Kennedy knew White was ready for his first head-coaching job and did a big-time sales pitch to Louisiana Tech officials when that post came open in 2011.

White, of course, got LA Tech job and went 101-40 over four seasons before UF came calling last May when Billy Donovan bolted for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

"I remember the process by which we were all pushing to try to help him get Louisiana Tech," Kennedy, who has guided the Rebels to two NCAA berths the last three seasons, said on the SEC teleconference earlier this week. "I remember talking to the powers that be there and singing his praises and I was not surprised to find my words being so prophetic because I knew that he would go and do great things as he did at LA Tech and I think he's going to do great things at Florida."

White would like to do some of those great things away from Florida. The Gators are 1-4 on the road to date, with their lone win the season opener at Navy.

The Midshipmen didn't have anyone like Moody.

Hence the headache.

"Boy, he's arguably the best scorer in college basketball. Pound-for-pound, I know he's the best scorer," White said. "For a little guy, he's phenomenal and it's going to take a great effort, not from whoever's on him, but from whoever gets in the game to always know exactly where he is and what our responsibilities are just to slow him down a little bit."

On that point, White ain't just whistling "Dixie" ... which he no doubt did once or twice back in the day.

Maybe he'll do it Saturday, for old times' sake.

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White Revisits His Rebel Roots

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