Florida Basketball: 8 candidates to replace Mike White as head coach

Dennis Gates

If we’re getting more realistic now, there’s still a whole host of potential coaches for the Gators that doesn’t involve spending millions of dollars to pry a legend from another power conference school. The next coach we’re looking at even has years of experience coaching and recruiting in the state of Florida, not to mention the South as a whole.

Gates bounced around on a number of coaching staffs before an 8-year stint on Leonard Hamilton’s bench with Florida State. After all that experience, he got his first head coaching job three seasons ago, taking over a Cleveland State program in rough shape. Gates got to work and led the Vikings to an NCAA Tournament in just his second season; adding a second straight regular-season title this past year as well.

In three seasons, Gates fixed a broken Cleveland State program and proved that he can certainly succeed as a head coach. He’s still pretty young and familiar with Florida, having coached against the Gators several times while on staff at Florida State. While it may make some uneasy that he only has three years of head coaching experience, he’s certainly proven that he’s capable of recruiting at a high level and could bring new energy to Gainesville.