Todd Golden Discusses Colin Castleton's Injury, Impact on Gators

Florida head coach Todd Golden discusses center Colin Castleton's injury and how the Gators will attempt to move forward without him.

Photo: Colin Castleton; Credit: Zach Goodall

Todd Golden made clear on Thursday just how significant the loss of Colin Castleton is to Florida basketball (14-12, 7-6 SEC).

Not only will Castleton's 31 minutes per game be difficult to fill, much like his 16 points and 7.7 boards per matchup that won't be easily replaced. His on-court presence as a leader, which played a large part in establishing Golden's culture during his first season as the Gators head coach, will be sorely missed as well.

“He was a good part of our team on both sides of the ball. Senior leader, a guy that we played through offensively, a guy that did a great job protecting us on the backside of our defense," Golden said on Friday, after it was revealed that Florida's starting center broke his hand against Ole Miss on Wednesday evening. 

"So, it’s not necessarily one thing more than just his presence not being there and having to fill 35 minutes, you know, at the five spot."

Florida doesn't exactly possess an ideal reserve situation for this particular situation. A lack of proven depth will force the Gators into small-ball lineups and to rely on the combination of backup fives, Jason Jitoboh and freshman Aleks Szymczyk, when they need a true center on the court.

Jitoboh, a 6-foot-11, 300-pound senior, has averaged just nine minutes per game this season in rotation with Castleton. Szymczyk, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound developmental prospect from Germany, has just six points in 15 career minutes with the Gators.

Golden has utilized small-ball in the recent past to varying levels of success. Forward Alex Fudge, listed at 6-foot-9, is bound to see an uptick in minutes at the five-spot to keep Jitoboh and Szymczyk fresh and without too many responsibilities on their plates.

The offense will also have to pivot from running through its center. A prime candidate to take on Castleton's role, in that respect, is freshman combo guard Riley Kugel, who has averaged 15 points on a 57.6% clip over his last three games.

"It’ll be a little bit of a hit for us. We’re 26 games into the season and we’ve been pretty consistent with our style of play and how we’ve gone about it," Golden explained, addressing the team's confidence in moving forward without Castleton. 

"But you can’t control that variable we’re dealing with, so we’re not going to spend a lot of time thinking about it. We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves."

Instead, Golden is looking forward to seeing what the reserves can do with expanded playing time. The first test comes against Arkansas at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, a team that won 11 of its first 12 games this season but has fallen from grace in league play, now 17-9 (6-7 SEC) and riding a two-game losing streak.

"It’s a difficult thing to have to overcome this point in the season, but at the same time it’s an opportunity for a lot of guys to step up; guys who haven’t had the same opportunity earlier in the year," said Golden. "We’re going to see what they’ve got.”

Golden was unable to offer specifics regarding Castleton's injury and a possible need for surgery. He doesn't expect the Deland, Fla. native to be cleared to play soon, though, and Florida's regular season will come to an end on March 4.

Castleton has made it clear, however, that he intends to stick around as the Gators hope to make a run in the upcoming SEC Tournament and perhaps clinch a postseason tournament berth.  Golden noted that Castleton returned to the facility 12 hours after the injury and asked to make the trip to Fayetteville with his teammates this weekend.

"He doesn’t need to rush back. He’s given a lot to this program. You know, him coming back for a fifth year was really unselfish and something that I was grateful for, being a first-year head coach here in terms of trying to make sure we were competitive in year one." 

"And, I was also really proud and excited of how sincere he was about still wanting to be around even with his injury. I think that speaks about where our program’s at from a culture standpoint and how he’s grown as a leader over the course of the year.”

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