Mike White is 2-2 as a head coach vs SEC teams, but Saturday's league opener against Georgia will be his first SEC game as an SEC head coach.
New Year, New Start for Gators in SEC Play
Saturday, January 2, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
UF opens its Southeastern Conference schedule at home Saturday night against Georgia.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Devin Robinson came off the practice floor New Year's Eve morning and was handed the customary protein shake that followed both a tough lifting session and brisk of individual instruction workout.
"Clean slate, starting over," the sophomore forward said. "Everybody is 0-0."
For 2016, yes.
But the reference was to the pending Southeastern Conference season, which the Gators (8-4) open Saturday night against Georgia (7-3) at the O'Connell Center.
Four days removed from a last-second knee-capping by Florida State, UF and Coach Mike White are still looking for a quality win to hang their hats on. The Gators have lost all three games against ranked opponents (Purdue, Miami and Michigan State, all three currently in the Top 12 among the KenPom.com advance metrics rankings) and couldn't come up with the defensive stop needed to defeat the Seminoles (No. 39).
To date, Florida's best wins have come against Richmond (66th) and Oklahoma State (84th). The Gators, by the way, are No. 24, based mostly on their defensive efficiency and schedule ranked the 40th-toughest.
Enter the Bulldogs, who check in as KenPom's No. 58 team, but more importantly they are Game 1 of the SEC slate and a "W" on that side of the conference ledger is something the Gators need.
White, once a starting SEC point guard for four years at Ole Miss, coached four games against his former league during his four seasons at Louisiana Tech, going 2-2 (with wins at Georgia and Texas A&M, losses at A&M and Arkansas). Now comes his first SEC game as an SEC head coach.
"It's an awesome league to be a part of, with the student-athletes, the coaches, fans, the crowds and storied traditions," White said. "You want to start SEC play on a positive note, play well and continue to improve."
He saw some growth -- anybody watching did -- against FSU in the eruption of freshman guard KeVaughn Allen, who put on a show by scoring a career-high 32 points after totalling just 82 in his first 11 collegiate games.
"We knew he could score, so we were all just happy the ball finally was going in for him," senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. "He can score in bunches and that's just a glimpse of how good he can be."
The UF coaches will encourage Allen to maintain that aggressiveness, but ideally he will do so -- obviously not a 32-point nightly clip -- with wire-to-wire team defense the likes of which White demands from his players. Through the season's first dozen games, they've shown it too often in spurts. And in the games against the best teams they've faced, the Gators have displayed lapses in spurts.
It's be nice, also, if Allen could show his array of offensive weapons in conjunction with a solid, across-the-board effort from Finney-Smith, Robinson and center John Egbunu, who makeup the UF frontcourt that carried the Gators during the non-conference schedule, but did not perform to standards (rebounding, defending, effort) against FSU.
A really good game against a really good team is out there. Time will tell if Georgia is that game and team.
Either way: clean slate, starting over, everybody is 0-0.
"Clean slate, starting over," the sophomore forward said. "Everybody is 0-0."
For 2016, yes.
But the reference was to the pending Southeastern Conference season, which the Gators (8-4) open Saturday night against Georgia (7-3) at the O'Connell Center.
Four days removed from a last-second knee-capping by Florida State, UF and Coach Mike White are still looking for a quality win to hang their hats on. The Gators have lost all three games against ranked opponents (Purdue, Miami and Michigan State, all three currently in the Top 12 among the KenPom.com advance metrics rankings) and couldn't come up with the defensive stop needed to defeat the Seminoles (No. 39).
To date, Florida's best wins have come against Richmond (66th) and Oklahoma State (84th). The Gators, by the way, are No. 24, based mostly on their defensive efficiency and schedule ranked the 40th-toughest.
Enter the Bulldogs, who check in as KenPom's No. 58 team, but more importantly they are Game 1 of the SEC slate and a "W" on that side of the conference ledger is something the Gators need.
White, once a starting SEC point guard for four years at Ole Miss, coached four games against his former league during his four seasons at Louisiana Tech, going 2-2 (with wins at Georgia and Texas A&M, losses at A&M and Arkansas). Now comes his first SEC game as an SEC head coach.
"It's an awesome league to be a part of, with the student-athletes, the coaches, fans, the crowds and storied traditions," White said. "You want to start SEC play on a positive note, play well and continue to improve."
He saw some growth -- anybody watching did -- against FSU in the eruption of freshman guard KeVaughn Allen, who put on a show by scoring a career-high 32 points after totalling just 82 in his first 11 collegiate games.
"We knew he could score, so we were all just happy the ball finally was going in for him," senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. "He can score in bunches and that's just a glimpse of how good he can be."
The UF coaches will encourage Allen to maintain that aggressiveness, but ideally he will do so -- obviously not a 32-point nightly clip -- with wire-to-wire team defense the likes of which White demands from his players. Through the season's first dozen games, they've shown it too often in spurts. And in the games against the best teams they've faced, the Gators have displayed lapses in spurts.
It's be nice, also, if Allen could show his array of offensive weapons in conjunction with a solid, across-the-board effort from Finney-Smith, Robinson and center John Egbunu, who makeup the UF frontcourt that carried the Gators during the non-conference schedule, but did not perform to standards (rebounding, defending, effort) against FSU.
A really good game against a really good team is out there. Time will tell if Georgia is that game and team.
Either way: clean slate, starting over, everybody is 0-0.
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