Florida Gators Basketball Forced To Embrace New Roles As They Move To 2-0 In SEC Play
- Buddy Martin
- Jan 3, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 3, 2021
Early in the second half of what would eventually be the Florida Gators (5-1, 2-0) close 83-79 win over the LSU Tigers (6-2,1-1) on Saturday, Colin Castleton came to the bench “riled up” by his own words.
After nabbing two quick fouls in the first two minutes of the first half, Castleton had sat as a precaution. But in the second half, he returned to the game a man on fire. The Michigan transfer scored 15 straight points over the first six minutes of the second half, in route to 21 total points, 19 in the second half alone.
His hot streak led LSU to call a timeout and Castleton was feeling himself by the time he got to the bench. There, Keyontae Johnson—“Coach Key” for the time being—calmed down the man who has taken over his spot in the starting lineup.
“He was like just stay composed,” Castleton told reporters after the game of Johnson’s message.
“Don’t get too overboard, don't get too hyped, just like be composed. Just keep doing what you’re doing, it’s gonna come to you. And he was just helping me out, just relax and try not to get too, you know, overwhelmed with the situation. Just keep playing the game, doing what you’re doing. So that helped me relax a little bit and keep playing.”
The moment was an encapsulation of changing roles for the Florida Gators; how two stars are adjusting to their place on this team and what they will need to do in order to provide success.
For Johnson, the preseason SEC Player of the Year, the game looks different than it did a month ago. After a terrifying collapse on the court versus the Florida State Seminoles, Johnson spent a week in the hospital and several days at home over Christmas recovering. The man who was supposed to be the nucleus of the team, the one to lead them to the postseason, now has to grasp doing that in a completely different capacity. And to the team, he’s no longer their forward, best scorer and best rebounder. He’s “Coach Key.”
And Coach Key can still change the game for the Gators.
“It felt great. I feel a lot better, I know, I know our staff does and I'm sure our guys to do too with him being right there,” said White of Johnson’s presence on the bench after the win.
“He’s a leader, you know. He’s charismatic, he loves his teammates. And so when he says something at timeouts or in huddles, it holds a lot of weight. He's got ultimate respect from his teammates, and there's no doubt he was a factor today.”
“Keyontae was just telling me play with confidence. Confidence, confidence, confidence. When you have no fear and you’re confident, good things happen,” added forward Anthony Duruji who finished with 16 points (6-12, 2-2) and seven total rebounds.
“Key is such a smart player, individual. Really a student of the game. He was coaching us up a lot on the bench, kinda coaching me up as well. Trying to pick his brain and he really was just giving us a lot of good commands so I was thankful for him.”
Johnson’s game was always predicated on his ability to outsmart whatever defense lay before him, and pure hustle on the other end of the floor. Now, he’s using that same mindset just in a different capacity.
Explained Castleton, “He was helping us with the scout, you know he was going over certain players and what they're good at, what they're not good at, what we need to do in this game. He’s in the locker room, he’s talking to us in timeout.
“He’s just another coach right now basically because he’s been through the three years. He's our guy, he's our leader, and everybody looks up to him, listens to him so it’s helping us out a lot.”
Johnson helping Castleton especially looked like a passing of the baton on Saturday against the Tigers. As mentioned Castleton sat for much of the first half after picking up two quick fouls in the first two minutes. From the moment he returned to the court in the second half, everything changed.
Credit to the Gators who scrapped during a first half where the game never got out of two possessions but never seemed to be, frankly, in their possession. Tied at 40 going to halftime though, Florida needed a spark. Colin Castleton lit the match then threw it in the gasoline himself.
Less than five minutes into the half, Castleton—posted up underneath the basket—received the pass and fought through four defenders to dump in the basket that made him 4-4 on field goals and 3-3 on free throws in the second half alone. LSU sending the house to defend him was indicative of just how quickly and impactfully he was changing the game.
“He’s a talented guy,” said White of his new star.
“He’s really skilled, he’s got big, strong hands, length. We’ve gotten better at finding him and Omar (Payne) offensively in their spots. Their confidence level and skill level are both improving. Great to see [Castleton] get going, really gave us a huge spark early second half…we’ve gotta get him some more minutes.”
One of the biggest reasons Castleton was able to shred the Tigers defense so effortlessly was by-product of his time on the bench during the first half. In true Keyontae Johnson fashion, he took advantage of the time in (pardon the pun) quarantine to study his opponent from a new perspective.
By the time he reentered the game, Castleton told reporters he had a new game plan to attack LSU.
“I saw that they were really trying to take advantage of the mismatch on the post, especially with Trendon Watford. You know, he’s a big guy, a versatile player… I saw that they were really trying to exploit that so in the second half we were just trying to help our guys out, whoever was guarding him one-on-one, try to help out a little bit more and when he got a shot up, we made everybody box out because as everybody knows, LSU is a really aggressive team and they get a lot of offensive rebounds. Just walling up, playing good defense and defend the rebound was a big emphasis.”
Three clutch free throws from Scottie Lewis in the final 16 seconds sealed the win and the Gators remain undefeated in league play.
Florida will next travel to Tuscaloosa where they will take on the Alabama Crimson Tide (7-3, 2-0) Tuesday night. The fabric of this team will continue to look different then it did a month ago as the Florida Gators piece together a new team, born from unimaginable circumstances and a commitment to leaning on each other in whatever way needed.
Comments