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Todd Golden 'going to be a realist' on Colin Castleton injury

On3 imageby:Andrew Graham•02/16/23•

AndrewEdGraham

Vanderbilt v Florida
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 11: Colin Castleton #12 of the Florida Gators shoots the ball against Liam Robbins #21 of the Vanderbilt Commodores during the first half of a game at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on February 11, 2023 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Florida may be without big man Colin Castleton for an extended period after the big man went down with an injury in the second half against Ole Miss on Wednesday. Speaking with reporters after the game, head coach Todd Golden said he’s not going to be overly hopeful about getting Castleton back.

Golden remarked that getting forward CJ Felder back helps, as does the play of Florida’s other bigs: Jason Jitoboh and Alex Szymczyk. But without Castleton, their leading scorer, things still won’t be easy for the Gators.

“Obviously didn’t look great. We’re still kind of waiting to hear final word on what happened,” Golden said. “Obviously we have a game on Saturday no matter what, so we’re going to have to — if he’s going to be out for an extended period of time, it’s next man up.”

Castleton got an X-ray after the game, Golden said, but the results haven’t been relayed beyond the team so far.

And when Castleton did go out in the second half, Golden was initially worried that Jitoboh wouldn’t last the final 12 minutes of the contest without a rest.

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“And really proud of Jason tonight. A guy that’s been playing three, four, five minutes a game. Comes out and I think he played — I’m not sure when Colin went out. Injured around 12 minutes, or something like that. He played 12 straight minutes to end the game. Incredible effort,” Golden said. “To be honest, I didn’t know that he was going to be able to do that. I thought we were going to have to get him a rest around eight, try to stretch him out, but he looked great out there. I thought he did he a wonderful job defensively. Did a decent job on the defensive glass. He was +6 and did a great job of stepping up in that moment.”

Along with Jitoboh, if Castleton can’t play, Florida will need to lean on the array of forwards and bigs left healthy.

“So, keeping my fingers crossed but I’m also going to be a realist on the Colin situation,” Golden said. “If we don’t have him, Jason, Szymy, obviously CJ being back will be beneficial. And we’ll have to have a lot of guys step up.”