Florida basketball: Colin Castleton willed the Gators a victory over UGA

Florida basketball got a much-needed win yesterday over Georgia, which was made extra sweet by beating former coach Mike White. Add on to that a 13-point comeback in what feels like a turning point in Florida’s season, and yesterday was a massive day for the Gators.

As much as yesterday was a tremendous team effort, we need to give Colin Castleton the credit he deserves after what he did yesterday.

His 12 points aren’t that impressive alone, but add on to that his eight rebounds, five assists, and seven blocks, and you’ve got a historic performance.

Castleton became the first Gator to put up at least ten points, seven rebounds, five assists, and five blocks since Joakim Noah did it in 2006.

It wasn’t just Castleton who had a great game, even though he stood out more than the rest.

Kyle Lofton scored 18 points, Will Richard scored 14 and grabbed nine rebounds, and Myreon Jones had his best game of the season with 13 points on 3-4 from three-point range.

None of these performances mean much though if it wasn’t for Castleton’s hustle and game-changing plays.

Seven blocks is a ridiculous number of blocks, especially against an SEC team. To put it further into context, the Gators only had two blocks by guys not named Colin, and UGA had two as a team. There was just no getting by Castleton in the paint yesterday.

Not to toot our own horn here, but in our preview for this game, we talked about how Castleton was in a good spot to have a huge game against Braelen Bridges, who doesn’t have the same play-making ability as Castleton.

That read was the most correct read I’ve ever made in my life. Colin held Bridges to 10 points, but more impressively he only got five rebounds.

Castleton had both the paint and the glass on lock all game, which propelled the Gators to a huge win.

Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail.