Scott Stricklin reacts to Mike White's exit, which didn't worry Todd Golden

Mike White walked out on his team after this year’s SEC Tournament, opening the door for Todd Golden to take over the Florida men’s basketball program Wednesday.

White’s future at UF was in doubt after the Gators suffered their first second-round loss in the conference tournament since the 2008-09 season and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.

Although Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin wasn’t ready to fire White yet, the seventh-year coach reportedly wanted out of Gainesville because he feared the toxicity of the fanbase would impact his family.

But instead of stepping down or mutually parting ways with the school, White bolted for another job on March 13 when Georgia hired him to replace Tom Crean after four seasons and a 47-75 record.

Gators Online asked Stricklin on Wednesday if he anticipated White’s departure.

“I was surprised, but I guess in this world of college athletics these days, you learn not to be surprised by much,” Stricklin said. “I obviously respect Mike and want what’s best for he and his family. In a way I was surprised, but in a way I wasn’t.”

Ole Miss was also rumored to be considering a run at White, who played and coached for the Rebels, but decided to keep coach Kermit Davis for a fifth season.

Despite being somewhat surprised by White’s decision, Stricklin wasn’t caught off guard given the six SEC job openings this offseason and his coach reportedly looking for a fresh start.

“You’re always ready. You always feel like you need to be prepared (for a coaching search),” Stricklin said. “If you’re an athletic director, especially in the sports of football and men’s basketball, you need to have the in-case-of-emergency-break-glass-kit ready to go at any moment. And make sure that it’s properly stocked.”

Gators hire Todd Golden

As soon as White delivered the news, Stricklin said his search process “hit high gear.” Stricklin spoke with several candidates for the job, but after interviewing Todd Golden, he and his staff knew “this is the guy.”

At the end of introductory press conference Wednesday, Golden was asked if he had any trepidation about White leaving for a lesser job and if he thought that expectations could be too high at a program like UF.

“Not at all,” Golden responded bluntly. “When this opportunity became available, this was where Megan and I wanted to be. Not saying that we thought or knew that we could be here. But just from my time here (in the SEC), loving and following college sports for nearly 30 years, whether it’s the orange and blue, whether it was the great success Coach [Billy] Donovan had, this is just an incredibly special place that I’ve always held in extremely high regard.

“Coach White leaving, it didn’t mean anything to me, to be honest. And I don’t know what he was going through or what led him to that, but it didn’t change the way I felt about this place at all. Honestly, at a place like this they should have high expectations. There’s everything you need here to be really, really good, and if they didn’t have those championship aspirations and expectations, that would concern me.”

Golden gave his early thoughts on the roster he’s inhering at Florida, which will bring back at least six players barring attrition and could lose up to seven seniors.

“I think the two areas that we’re going to really strive to be better at next year is shooting the ball,” Golden said. “The team I think was around 30.5 percent from the year on 3, and the way that I like to play, that’s simply not going to be good enough. We’re going to have to go out and shoot the ball better to achieve the goals we want to achieve.

“Also defensively, rebounding. That was an area that was surprising to me when evaluating the team and the roster that they didn’t have a lot of success in because I think the pieces are there, and I think the talent is there in terms of being able to get on the glass. I think if we can lift those two areas up a couple of pegs and stay consistent and get better in other areas, we should be back in the tournament next year.”