Florida’s 79-64 home win over Ole Miss last night was a bittersweet victory. The Gators’ star center Colin Castleton sustained a broken right hand five minutes into the second half, and his career at UF might be over.
Castleton leads the Gators in scoring (16.0 points per game), rebounding (7.7 RPG) and blocked shots (3.0 BPG), and the two-time All-SEC selection is second in assists (2.7 APG). He’s ranked first in the SEC in blocks, fifth in both scoring and field-goal percentage and sixth in rebounding.
Castleton is third in program history in blocked shots (190) behind only Dwayne Schintzius (272) and Kevarruis Hayes (214). He passed Al Horford (189) on the all-time list in this past Saturday’s home loss to Vanderbilt.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie’s sources, Castleton will “miss the rest of the regular season. There is a glimmer of hope that he could return for postseason play, but it would be dependent upon how his recovery progresses over the next three weeks.”
Todd Golden’s team ended a three-game losing streak both straight up and against the spread with the win over the Rebels, who were 10-point road underdogs. Myreon Jones led five double-figure scorers with 15 points, eight rebounds and two steals. The transfer from Penn St. hit 5-of-7 launches from 3-point range.
Kowacie Reeves and Will Richard added 13 points apiece for the Gators, who buried 10-of-17 attempts from downtown after going a miserable 2-of-20 from beyond the arc vs. Vandy.
Florida improved to 14-12 SU and 13-13 ATS. Golden’s squad is currently No. 48 at KenPom and No. 51 in the NET rankings. The Gators had been in the “First Four Out” or the “Next Four Out” of the NCAA Tournament field forecasted by most ‘Bracketologists’ in recent weeks, but the loss to Vandy — UF’s first loss to a Quad-3 opponent — pushed them below those final eight teams on the wrong side of the cut line.
Last night’s win over Ole Miss doesn’t help the cause, either. UF has five games remaining: at Arkansas, vs. Kentucky, at Vanderbilt, at Georgia and vs. LSU.
Without Castleton, the Gators might be underdogs in 3-4 of those five remaining contests. They would need to go 4-1 in their last five games and get a couple of wins at the SEC Tournament to feel confident about their chances of garnering an at-large berth on Selection Sunday.
Hell, at this point, UF can’t feel overly confident about making the field of the NIT. In fact, Florida fans don’t have anything to feel good about these days.
If my alma mater is looking for a solution to its plethora of current issues, I have one bit of advice: Fire AD Scott Stricklin.
IMMEDIATELY!