Let’s Speculate! Potential Florida head basketball coach candidates

Welcome to Let’s Speculate! on Coaches Database, where we go through programs that are or may soon be looking for a new head coach and speculate who they may hire next.

Today’s program is Florida, coached by Mike White for the last seven seasons (left for Georgia job).

• Matt McMahon – Murray State head coach
  • McMahon has been at the helm at Murray State since 2015 and recently completed a perfect OVC season. He’s won four Ohio Valley titles, has been to three (technically four) NCAA Tournaments and recruited/coached Ja Morant. It’s only a matter of time before McMahon joins the list of former Murray State head coaches to land bigger jobs.
• Dennis Gates – Cleveland State head coach
  • The buzziest name on last year’s carousel was Gates, who instead signed an extension at Cleveland State and proceeded to win the Horizon League for a second-straight year. Prior to his 2019 hiring at CSU, the now 42-year-old was an assistant for eight seasons at Florida State.
• Anthony Grant – Dayton head coach
  • The Miami-native spent ten seasons on Billy Donovan‘s staff at UF before becoming a head coach. He was part of both the 2000 NCAA Runner-ups and the 2006 National Champions so he provides a link to the Gators’ glory days. After stints at VCU and Alabama, Grant is now coaching at alma mater Dayton, leading one of the hottest teams in the country during the 2019-20 season cut short by COVID (Dayton finished #3 in the AP and Grant was named National COY).
• Andy Kennedy – UAB head coach
  • The 2007 SEC Coach of the Year had a good run at Ole Miss despite his 2018 resignation, taking Rebels to the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT six times. Now at alma mater UAB, Kennedy is 46-14 overall and headed into the C-USA Tournament with a real shot at getting back to the Big Dance.
• Kelvin Sampson – Houston head coach
  • Sampson’s redemption is complete, leading Houston to the Final Four last year and winning three AAC titles in the last four years. The college basketball world is far different than it was in 2008 when Sampson was fired by Indiana and hit with a variety of penalties for things that largely aren’t even NCAA violations anymore. He’s 66 but could easily make one more big career move to a place where he would have an even better shot to finally with the whole thing.
• Sean Miller – former Arizona head coach
  • Miller is a great coach and his resume is incredibly impressive. A fresh start in Gainesville (or with any of these other high-major openings) could be all it takes to recapture the magic and get back to his winning ways.