Report: Florida head coach Mike White leaving for Georgia job

So, here’s an interesting one as Selection Sunday wages on.

The Georgia Bulldogs have found their new men’s basketball head coach. As it turns out, they didn’t have to reach too far to find their replacement for Tom Crean. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports is reporting that the Bulldogs intend to hire Florida Gators head coach Mike White for the same position.

When White was originally hired to replace Billy Donovan at Florida, he took over a program that was pretty ready-made. They were just two seasons removed from a Final Four berth. In his second season, he coached the Gators to a 27-9 record and an Elite Eight appearance. Since then however, there’s been a pretty precipitous drop. They decreased in win totals in four straight seasons, and while they climbed up to 19, an NCAA Tournament appearance isn’t likely.

This is an interesting hire for Georgia, I feel. The Bulldogs canned Tom Crean as they never quite raised the ceiling like they probably thought they could after ditching Mark Fox. And granted, Crean did get future No. 1 NBA Draft pick, Anthony Edwards, into UGA. UF did grab some top-quality recruits under White, but the results didn’t produce much outside of that Elite Eight run.

In turn, I do wonder about this hire for Georgia. They are playing in an increasingly competitive SEC men’s basketball league. It’s very apparent that a lot of the programs have realized that there’s something worth investing in. So Georgia going with someone in White, who went 142-88 with a 72-52 mark, and never finishing higher than second place in the SEC, feels like a move that doesn’t match the tone set by the rest of the conference.

This could turn out to be a good hire for Georgia. As of right now, personally, I’m a bit cautious about this one assuming this does come to fruition.