University of Georgia Athletics
White: ‘It Is Going To Happen Here At Georgia’
March 15, 2022 | Men's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
As the whistles chirped Tuesday afternoon on the Georgia football practice fields, where the national champion Bulldogs were conducting their first practice of the spring, a new era of Georgia men's basketball was beginning across the street inside Stegeman Coliseum.
Inside the Steg, in front of a spirited crowd of Bulldog fans, students and staff, new coach Mike White was introduced by UGA President Jere W. Morehead and J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Josh Brooks. White, 45, the head coach at Florida for the past seven seasons, said he is well-acquainted with Athens and the coliseum, but some things will take getting used to.
"I'm new to this bark," he said with a grin after being greeted with plenty of them as he made his way to the microphone. "Can I hear a couple more of those barks?"
White said the decision to leave Florida for Georgia, uprooting his five children and his wife, Kira, was "very, very hard." He said he believed in the commitment that Morehead and Brooks have made in the men's basketball program and that Georgia is capable of doing great things.
"The upside, the ceiling, the potential, and it is going to happen," he said. "It is going to happen here at Georgia, and I'm committed to helping them make that happen."
When Brooks went looking for a new coach to lead the men's basketball program after parting ways with Tom Crean last week, White's name immediately came to mind. The 2017 SEC Coach of the Year, White went 142-88 (and 72-52 in the conference) during his seven seasons with the Gators. Before that, he went 101-40 during his four seasons at Louisiana Tech, including a 79-71 win over Georgia in the 2014 NIT Invitational.
Brooks said he was looking for "a proven winner" and someone that has had postseason success. White took Florida to the 2017 Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament and made it to the second round three other times. But it's all of the other intangible characteristics that you're looking for, Brooks said.
"First and foremost, we're going to do things the right way at the University of Georgia. Someone who's going to mentor and mold young men and help them grow," Brooks said. "Of course, we want to win championships, we want kids to graduate and do well in school, but we want them as they matriculate through the University of Georgia to feel good about their time here, that we made them better."
It was during that NIT win over the Bulldogs, Morehead said, that White, then a young, up-and-coming coach, first got his attention.
"I will enjoy his winning ways much more now that he's our coach," Morehead said.
White, who played at Ole Miss in the late 1990s, went 11-3 against Georgia as Florida's head coach, including a sweep of the Bulldogs this season. Georgia sophomore Jabri Abdur-Rahim said he was recruited by White out of high school and then faced the Gators twice this season.
"I remember how good defensively they were," he said. "They were really physical. They played really hard and had a lot of really good players. I felt like they ran really good stuff and were very competitive.
"We played them twice, and both times it was a really physical game. They beat us both times. I think we made it competitive in the first meeting, but down the stretch they made some really tough plays. I just remember how hard they competed and played defensively."
Florida ranked fourth in the SEC, one of college basketball's toughest conferences, in points allowed, giving up just 66.1 points per game. The Gators' 5.2 blocked shots ranked second and their 8.1 steals a game ranked fifth. The Gators also ranked sixth with a plus-2.16 turnover margin while going 19-13 overall and 9-9 in a conference that sent six teams to the NCAA tournament, with a pair of No. 2 seeds and a No. 3 seed.
White, Brooks and Morehead talked Sunday and the deal came together very quickly. The chance to come to Georgia and turn around a program that has always had a ton of potential, "I jumped at it," White said.
"Just to be blunt with you, I just jumped at the opportunity," he said, "and before you know it, six, eight hours later, Kira and I were sitting these kids down telling them that we're moving to Athens, Ga.
"Anybody got a seven-bedroom (house)?"
Finding the perfect home might take a little longer than it took Georgia and White to find in each other the perfect fit. And turning around a Bulldog program that struggled to a 6-26 record this season will also take some time. White has the experience, energy and enthusiasm to make it happen.
"It's a new chapter for us, a new challenge, a unique challenge," White said. "One that I cannot express in words how excited I am to attack. Go Dawgs. Let's go, baby!"
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
