Donovan’s shadow doesn’t scare White

Skeptical players stayed, played their way into Sweet 16.

GAINESVILLE, FLA. — Mike White sees Billy Donovan every day on his way to work, just one reminder of the former Florida coach’s lasting legacy.

A 10-foot, black-and-white picture of Donovan takes up the better part of one wall in the foyer of Florida’s basketball facility, and all of the hardware the Gators claimed during Donovan’s nearly two decades in Gainesville covers another. White passes two national championship trophies and six Southeastern Conference titles on the way to his upstairs office every morning.

For some, it would be a daunting commute.

For White, it’s a motivational journey.

White embraced Donovan from Day 1. After leading the Gators to the Sweet 16 in his second season, he’s just as open — maybe even more honest — about the dubious task of replacing Donovan in Gainesville. No. 4 seed Florida (26-8) plays eighthseeded Wisconsin (27-9) in New York on Friday night.

“Someone had to follow him,” White said Tuesday. “Again, he made it a better job. It’s the University of Florida. I’m not competing with Coach Donovan. I’m just trying to do the best job I can do, and my staff is doing the same, and we try to keep it that simple.”

It would be hard to question the job White has done with a program Donovan built before he finally took an NBA job with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 40-year-old White has Florida two wins away from the Final Four, and he’s done it with little NBA talent.

He took a mediocre team that missed the NCAA Tournament in Donovan’s final year, re-recruited highly touted guard KeVaughn Allen, who is now the team’s leading scorer, added a couple of key transfers in guard Canyon Barry and forward Justin Leon, and got the entire group to buy into his defense-first approach.

“Mike has them playing through his eyes now,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. “Last year, he was trying to get guys to see what he sees. Mike’s got those guys playing through his eyes. As an opponent, it’s fun to watch. It’s not fun to play against, but it’s fun to watch.”

White’s philosophy wasn’t much different than Donovan’s — both believe in playing solid defense, being unselfish on the other end and letting everything else fall into place — which made the transition considerably easier.

“I’m sure that helped, that we didn’t come in here and just say, ‘We’re going to do everything completely different,’” White said. “In fact, we tried to learn as much as possible about the way he was doing things.”

Florida players and recruits were admittedly unsure about White when they heard he was hired as Florida’s coach in May 2015. White hadn’t been a big-time player in college and had failed to make the NCAA Tournament in four years as head coach at Louisiana Tech.

“Should I stay? What should I do?” guard Chris Chiozza said.

“We decided to wait to see who the coach was going to be. When we learned it was Coach White, we did a little research on him and saw he had a lot of similarities to Coach Donovan, the way he coached and the way he liked to play.

“So we figured if Coach Donovan recruited us to play this way, and this guy was going to do the same thing, we might as well stay.”

Florida coach Mike White is 27-8 in his second season and has the Gators in the Sweet 16 against Wisconsin on Friday night.