Colin Castleton reveals Todd Golden's message to rally team from early deficit vs Georgia

The Mike White Bowl was full of fireworks. White, the former Florida coach who left unceremoniously for Georgia this past offseason, brought his Bulldogs into Gainesville on Saturday and jumped out to an early 13-point lead. However, Florida battled back to take the lead even before half before eventually closing out the home victory in the second half.

After the game, the SEC Network crew caught up with Gator star center Colin Castleton, who finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, five assists and seven blocks in the win. He detailed exactly how Florida turned the ship around in the first half:

“Just having fight. We came out slow and we just can’t do that. We can’t do that vs. a good team. They’re obviously well-coached, I know their staff very well, but just being able to come out with that right mindset and attitude. We were able to flip that switch today. But a lot of times you might not be able to. Coach Golden rallied us together and said…’Look, we’re down 13 and we’ve played horribly, so if we just fix the little things, keep running inn transition, take good shots and play good defense.’ The biggest thing was defense and I had to anchor down to help out.”

Castleton and the Florida players love that passion Golden has, even when the times are tough.

“He just has that grit about him that I love. I love having a coach that comes out there and you can see it in his face and his eyes, he wants to win just as bad as me and all the guys on the team.”

Lastly, Castleton was asked about his role as a distributor. He’s not your typical floor general as a 6-foot-11 center, but since he serves as the offensive nucleus of this team, everything runs through him, which works because he’s an excellent passer for a big man.

Here’s him explaining that role:

“You know, just looking for the open teammate. I attract a lot of attention and that’s something I’m perfectly fine with. I’ve been able to just learn how to read the defense and be best team player to my abilities. And I got some good shooters around me. So I just got to keep instilling confidence in them. That’s the biggest thing I’ve working on, is just telling them every single day…if you miss shots, just keep finding them. I’m gonna find them every time and that’s the biggest thing. So, they’re just getting confident and that’s all I can ask out of my teammates.”

Big win for Florida and a massive game for Colin Castleton. Also pretty sweet to get it over former coach Mike White.