New Mississippi State coach Ben Howland, when asked about the in-flux of experienced SEC basketball coaches a few minutes ago, gave the expected praise to Rick Barnes and Avery Johnson but was quick to turn the conversation to a new coach with a lot less mileage: Michael White.
The former Ole Miss player and assistant coach was named the new coach at Florida when Billy Donovan left after 19 years to become coach of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.
“He’s one of the rising stars in this business. He turned down other high major jobs prior to taking the Florida job,” Howland said.