Florida Gators

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — When Colin Castleton bumped hands with Ole Miss forward Jaemyn Brakfeield during a routine, completely inadvertent and benign sequence five minutes into the second half Wednesday night, the Florida Gators not only lost 23 percent of their points, 22 percent of their rebounds and 52 percent of their blocked shots, but also the heart of their team and voice in the locker room. A case can be made that no player in the Southeastern Conference was as valuable to his respective club as Castleton was to Florida. Now he's gone. Out for the season with a broken right hand. 

"I felt horrible for him," senior center Jason Jitoboh said. "He was playing great basketball. He had big things coming. No one guy can fill Colin's shoes, we know that." 

The season, however, goes on. And while there is no player on the UF roster that can come close to replicating what Castleton did for his team, the Gators (14-12, 7-6) have a dozen other warm bodies — Jitoboh figuring prominently in the mix — and they're going to need several of them (maybe all) to pick up their level of play and productivity starting with Saturday's matinee SEC date against Arkansas (17-8, 6-7) at always-bombastic Bud Walton Arena. 

No one knows for certain how UF's final five regular-season games will play out, but don't rule out CJ Felder, Niels Lane or even freshman Aleks Szymczyk making cameos of meaningful minutes. 

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]

"Obviously, we're going to be a little different. Colin was a huge part of our team on both sides of the ball," UF coach Todd Golden said Friday. "It's harder changing a whole lot at this time of the year, but we're going to have to do things a little differently, trying to capitalize on the personnel that are going to be playing more. Obviously, 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. We're going to see what they've got." From the outside, the external buzz may be UF's season ended with Castleton's season, but that's not the internal vibe. Nor, frankly, should it be. 

"It's definitely devastating for us, but it's about that next-man mentality and stepping up to the challenge," sophomore guard Will Richard said. "It's a big loss, everybody knows that, but we have guys on our team who can take on bigger roles. I mean, we don't have a choice. Everyone has to do more than what they've been doing and it starts with Jason." 

Jitoboh, the 6-foot-11, 300-pound senior, has been in this situation before. Sort of. 

Last season, when Castleton was sidelined for six games with a shoulder injury, Jitoboh moved into the starting lineup and performed admirably. He had 10 rebounds in a win over Vanderbilt, then 12 points and five rebounds in a loss at Ole Miss. Jitoboh was averaging 9.3 points and 5.6 rebounds over the first four games in his new role when he suffered a season-ending (and also a career-threatening) eye injury at Tennessee. 

After undergoing four surgeries and an offseason of rehab, Jitoboh was cleared and returned in '22-23 to play minimal minutes (8.7 per game) behind Castleton, averaging just 2.3 points and 1.3 rebounds. At the 15:05 mark against the Rebels, everything changed.

After a stoppage of play to allow Castleton to leave the floor, Jitoboh's battlefield promotion was official. 

On Saturday, he'll enter Walton Arena not wondering how many minutes he might get or if a mistake or foul trouble will get him yanked, but rather knowing the Gators need him on the court for extended periods of time; like the nearly 14 straight minutes (all but the final 44 seconds) he played to help UF close out Mississippi. 

Mentally, his role basically is the same as it was when front-line duty called last season. 
 

"It definitely helps you get in a rhythm and staying confident because you get a feel for the game versus spurts of the game and trying to do what you can with a few minutes," said Jitoboh, whose greatest charge could be staying out of foul trouble (his 48 fouls rank third on the team, despite playing the 10th-most minutes). "Having the trust of the coaches and knowing you're going to be out there goes a long way with your confidence."

As Golden said, the Gators are definitely going to be different. The offense over the first 26 games was designed to play through Castleton, who had the freedom to make basketball plays in the high and low post, and had become adept at passing out of double teams. His 71 assists are second on the team and only 10 fewer than point guard Kyle Lofton. 

But Jitoboh is not the kind of skilled "big" an offense plays through. He is, however, a high IQ player and knows how to make basketball plays. Against Ole Miss, for example, he was defended in the post on the right side of the block and had the wherewithal to spot Kowacie Reeves on the far side of the floor. His cross-court skip past was perfect and Reeves bombed a 3-pointer. 

"Just have to be smart. Work smarter not harder. Pick my spots. Stay vertical," Jitoboh said of his plan to remain on the floor for however long his coach needs him. "I'm in better shape now. I didn't feel tired out there at all [last game]. It all felt normal to me, which I think is a testament to the work I've put in."

It was a crushing development for Castleton, whose college career is over, and a seismic all-around hit to the Gators. But what's done is done.

It sounds callous , maybe even cold, but it's a mantra — and reality — that teams in every sport every day invoke: Next guy. 

'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, but you can't control the 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," Golden said. "Again, 'opportunity' is the word I'll continue to use for guys who maybe haven't played a lot. We've got five games down the stretch here for maybe people who haven't played a lot to get a chance to step up and see what they're capable of."