ATHENS — Mike White is headed back to Florida where he coached for seven years, and this time the Georgia fans will take note.

At least, they should.

White’s Bulldogs (14-5, 4-2 SEC) are battling to get onto the NCAA tournament bubble and into the Big Dance for what would be the first time in nine years.

A road win over the Gators (13-6, 3-3) would be White’s biggest in his two years at Georgia and represent the highest-rated win of the season.

It would not be a shock-the-world moment -- the Bulldogs have shown they are capable of beating Florida or any other team in the league.

The game tips off at the O’Connell Center at noon on Saturday (TV: ESPN2), and Florida has announced it is a sellout.

It will be a hostile arena for White on Saturday, just as it was near the end of his Florida tenure.

Florida Betrayed White

“Coach’s (family) was over it, even when they won a game it was ‘Fire Mike White’ on Twitter,” per one source close to the program. “Hindsight is 20-20. The whole Keyontae Johnson situation, that team (2020-21) could have been pretty good. He didn’t get his just due, he’s probably right if he felt betrayed.”

Indeed, Florida-based Associated Press writer Mark Long once posted on social media that, “It had become really toxic with a vocal segment of the fanbase, and White didn’t want his young kids affected by it at school and via social media.”

White’s final two seasons with the Gators were essentially derailed by the well-documented situation with Johnson, the 2020-21 Preseason SEC Player of the Year and UF leading scorer.

Johnson, a projected first-round pick, collapsed during a game at Florida State and was rushed to nearby Tallahassee Memorial, where he was held two nights in a medially induced coma before being airlifted back to Gainesville.

Johnson stayed with the program the next season, White’s final in Gainesville, working to get clearance to return to the court before ultimately transferring to Kansas State.

Gators dropped off without White

The Gators’ win total dropped off last season, from 20-14 under White’s leadership to 16-17 under first-year coach Tad Golden.

Florida hasn’t been ranked in the Top 25 since White was head coach in December of 2021, and the Gators need this win just as much as Georgia with a trip to Kentucky on deck.

Florida is currently projected among the “Next Four Out” of ESPN’s 68-team NCAA tournament bracket, a rung up the ladder from UGA, which isn’t even mentioned.

The SEC schedule makers slipped in White’s first return trip to Gainesville last season.

Georgia and a majority of the SEC’s football-mad fans were still focused on watching UGA represent the league with a second-straight CFP Championship when the teams met on Jan. 7.

Florida won last season’s game in Gainesville, 82-75, holding off Georgia after White’s team led early and closed within three points in the final minute.

New lineups

It’s a whole new game this year, with the Bulldogs featuring five new starters, and the Gators expected to start four different players than last year’s meeting in Florida.

Both teams enter with momentum, UGA coming off a 68-66 last-second home win over LSU, while the Gators followed up a road win at Missouri last Saturday (79-67) with a 79-70 home win over Mississippi State on Wednesday night.

Florida has won eight in a row over Georgia, dating back to the 2019-20 season, and the school keeps a side note of how the Gators are 4-1 against former coaches since 2000, including 2-0 against White.

White kept his pregame comments simple and to the point, complimenting Florida as an NCAA “tournament team,” while talking about the great job Golden is doing coaching defense and creating space on offense.

Georgia defense

Georgia’s defense has been its calling card, and that will need to be the case against a Florida team that has turned the ball over just 15 times in the past two games combined.

Golden was confident when meeting with the Gators’ media on Friday.

“We’ve, been knock on wood, pretty good in our gym all year,” Golden said. “So coming back home again, after Wednesday’s game, we feel pretty good.

“Understand we respect Georgia, they’re a really good team. But we’re feeling confident in ourselves as well right now.”