Piecing together media accounts, Foley went into the process with three primary candidates in mind, Miller, Mack and White. The first two never had direct contact with the Florida AD because they were "not sold" on Florida (make of that what you will) or because Foley felt they commanded too much money. In the case of Mack, probably $3.25-3.5 million per season and for Miller probably ~ $3 million. We were paying Donovan, what, $3.5? Was neither candidate worth a closer look-see, as in a telephone call, at slightly under that? Apparently the budget at the UAA dictated no.
So Foley turned his attention to White, a bright up-and-comer from Dunedin, FL, who naturally said hell yeah, let's boogie, and he proceeded to wow Foley over the phone. He comes in at $2.5 million, so we save up to $1 million for badminton rackets. That's the only direct contact Foley ever made, and maybe it's the only one he needed to. He's young, energetic, recruits well and runs an uptempo brand of basketball. Most of all, he wants to be here, bad. Many in the media are calling it an intelligent hire. Here come those three words: Time will tell.
Just one last thought. We won back to back national titles a few years ago and made the Elite Eight three of the last four years. The outdated spaceship known as the O'Dome is about to get a long overdue $60 million makeover. You'd think we'd have more hoops cred than this search has pointed to. I guess we're a football power after all.
