Florida duo, Houston’s White juggle tasks as Final Four assistants set to lead their own programs

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Florida assistant coaches John Andrzejek and Kevin Hovde are racking up the hours before the Final Four. So is Houston assistant Quannas White ahead of Saturday’s national semifinals at the Alamodome.

Yet all three are doing more than fine-tuning scouting reports or breaking down video of their opponents. There’s also work — fit carefully into an already-stuffed schedule — to get started on running their own programs.

Andrzejek is headed to Campbell, Hovde to Columbia and White to Louisiana-Lafayette in hirings that have already been announced. That means taking calls to interview staff or talk to recruits while riding out the rest of their current teams’ title pushes, including taking the practice court in the Alamodome on Friday ahead of the Florida-Auburn and Houston-Duke semifinals on Saturday.

“I didn’t second-guess this at all,” White said. “There was no thought in my mind that said now that you’ve become a head coach, you need to get down there immediately. This is a family to me and families stick together and see things through.”

The programs where they’ve spent multiple seasons are two wins from winning a national championship, which would be the first for Florida since the 2006 and 2007 repeat, and the first ever for Houston — the program best known for the “Phi Slama Jama” glory days of the 1980s that twice brought the program to the title game. There’s the emotional pull to stay with their teams to the end, bitter or glorious.

Awkward timing

The thrill of this week’s Final Four conflicts with a key time for the programs the coaches are taking over. The transfer portal is open, with players already jumping in to move on from their current schools. So it’s a fertile time for coaches looking to reshape rosters for next season, meaning any time away from those new programs is time lost.

Another team in the Final Four, Duke, had a staffer face that same conundrum. Jai Lucas, who was the team’s defensive coordinator, left the Blue Devils after the regular-season finale at North Carolina to take over at Miami.

That’s meant the Blue Devils having to shuffle responsibilities, with assistant Emanuel Dildy noting that coach Jon Scheyer — who called the timing “not ideal” — has been diving even more into some of the scouting work.

“It’s really been the same as always: just next man up,” Duke guard Sion James said. “Same as when players get hurt. ... And our coaches are the exact same way, we’ve got coaches who are ready to step up whenever their number is called since then.”

For the holdovers still with their teams in San Antonio, there’s a bit more room to wait by going to a mid-major that can only benefit from the promotion that will come with Saturday’s games and maybe a trip to the title game Monday night.

“The further we go, the better our sales pitch gets, the better our brand is for Campbell,” Andrzejek said. “I think kids are already really excited to play for a coach who has coached in the Final Four. And I know they’d be even more excited to play for a coach who’s a national champion.”

The new jobs

White, 44, is the only one of the three who has already had an introductory news conference at his new school. He’s taking over a Sun Belt program that reached March Madness just two years ago.

The 32-year-old Andrzejek and the 36-year-old Hovde will be introduced next week. Andrzejek is taking over a Coastal Athletic Association program in North Carolina with a single NCAA Tournament bid in its history (1992).

Hovde, 36, is taking over the New York City-based Ivy League program with three NCAA bids but none since 1968.

The key for Andrzejek, Hovde and White has been simple: adaptability.

“I just spent a lot of time on the phone, to be honest,” said Hovde, who at least has two assistant coaches in the hiring process at Columbia.

Calls, visits and recruiting

Hovde jumped at the chance after the Gators beat two-time reigning national champion UConn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to catch a flight for a daylong visit to Columbia. He had individual meetings with current players to build rapport with them, then rejoined Florida ahead of its trip to San Francisco for West Region games.

“They’re awesome,” Hovde said of the Columbia players. “They’re Florida Gator fans now, text me after every game.”

Andrzejek hasn’t been able to do official visits because he’s otherwise been with the Gators in Gainesville. He’s hired Landry Kosmalski, a former coach at Division III Swarthmore, to give him another set of hands in Buies Creek.

“I won’t lie to you: it’s a lot of nights going on four hours’ sleep, trying to do both,” Andrzejek said. “It’s not neatly compartmentalized. It’d be nice to say, ‘All right, from 9 to 4, I work on Florida. From 4 to 10, I work on Campbell.’ It doesn’t really work that way.”

As for White, he has hired three assistants and even managed to sneak away for a quick visit to Louisiana for recruiting this week.

“Had a kid on a visit who committed, thank God,” White said. “So right after the visit was over, I flew back (Wednesday), got with the team, practiced and drove up here and started preparing.”

Still, his work with the Cougars takes priority for a few more days, at least.

“Even when I was down at Lafayette,” White said, “I was watching film on Duke.”

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