Mike White contract: Florida Gators basketball coach gets two-year extension through 2027

By Adam Silverstein
June 1, 2021
Mike White contract: Florida Gators basketball coach gets two-year extension through 2027
Basketball

Image Credit: Courtney Culbreath, UAA Communications

Florida Gators head basketball coach Mike White received a two-year contract extension on Tuesday, though the annual terms of his deal are unchanged. White’s contract runs through the 2026-27 season and will pay him $3.2 million annually once he completes a $3.1 million salary for the 2021-22 campaign.

“Though he’s still relatively young by coaching standards, Mike has already established himself as a successful head coach,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said in a statement. “Because of his work ethic, intelligence and competitiveness his career has such a high ceiling, and it’s going to be fun watching what his Gator teams accomplish for years to come.”

The program looked to be headed in the right direction over White’s first two seasons, going 48-24 with an Elite Eight berth in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. However, the Gators have not advanced out of the second round of the tournament in any of the last three seasons the event was played and have a combined 34-22 record over the last two campaigns. Overall, White is 123-75 (63-43 SEC).

Though transfers have run rampant throughout college basketball over the last couple of years, Florida was struck hard this offseason. The Gators saw four players enter the transfer portal and three declare for the 2021 NBA Draft, two of which have signed agents. White also lost two of his three assistants to head coaching jobs at lower-tier programs. It is also still waiting to learn the status of star forward Keyontae Johnson, who is aiming for medical clearance after collapsing on the court minutes into a game at Florida State in December 2020.

Florida has added four impact transfers to fill in the open roster sports of the departed players, but White’s replacement assistant hires leave a lot to be desired from a fanbase that wanted more veteran names to help change the direction of the program. Still, there is some promise to the assistants White brought on board and only time will tell whether they will be successful.

Stricklin on Tuesday also announced an extension for women’s basketball coach Cameron Newbauer, who is now contracted through the 2024-25 season at $500,000 per year. Women’s hoops, which has floundered for years, went 12-14 last season and missed the NCAA Tournament. Newbauer has led the team to a 46-71 overall record with three losing seasons and a 15-15 campaign in the pandemic-shorted 2019-20 season. The women’s team has only had one winning record in the last seven seasons, none since the Gators fired Amanda Butler in 2017.

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