Florida basketball: Colin Castleton joins elite company in UF history

Colin Castleton is in his third year with Florida basketball and has been the heart and soul of the team ever since he stepped foot on campus.

After transferring from Michigan, he’s been the Gators’ best big man and the centerpiece to just about every offensive set. More impressive than his offense, however, is what he’d done defensively. And tonight, he joined some elite company.

Colin Castleton entered the top 5 in career blocks at the University of Florida. With the game against South Carolina still going on, Colin currently has 178 career blocks in the Orange and Blue.

He’s behind Joakim Noah, who has 184, and Al Horford who’s got 189. He’ll almost certainly pass those two numbers this season and make his way into the top 3.

At 6’11”, Castleton has always been a problem around the rim for opposing offenses. Ever since he got to Florida and saw consistent minutes, he’s never averaged less than two blocks per game in any season.

In 2020 he was rejecting 2.3 shots per game, and in 2021 that number was 2.2. He’s gone nuclear this season, as he is currently sending back 3.1 shots per game.

He’s been even outperforming that impressive average as of late. Against Georgia, he blocked seven shots, followed it up with a five-block performance in Baton Rouge, and had six against Texas A&M last week.

Watching Colin’s defense develop alongside his offensive skillset has been fun to watch. Having a guy who can give you 20 on the offensive side of the floor, and send back ten points worth of layups is invaluable to a basketball team.

Like I said earlier, he’ll likely move into the top three before this season is over, and could make a run at taking Kevarrius Hayes’ spot at #2. Hayes racked up 214 blocks in his career. If Colin keeps up his pace of three per game, he won’t have a problem getting to that number.

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