Tag: Colin Castleton

Three keys to a Florida Gators victory against Boston College

The Gators can’t afford to phone in their performance on Thursday evening – here are three things that need to happen for a Florida win.

The Gators are squaring off against the Boston College Eagles in their second and final game at the Bubbleville event at Mohegan Sun Area. With their first win under their belt, the Florida squad will be on the hunt for another. Boston College won’t go down without a fight, though, and the Gators could find themselves in a shootout with their offensively gifted opponents.

Like the Army game on Wednesday, Florida is favored by oddsmakers in this matchup, although BetMGM has them ahead by only a slim 5.5 point margin. If the team is going to pull out another victory, they’ll need to be firing on all cylinders.

In light of the competitive nature that this game is likely to take, here are three keys to a successful game for the Florida Gators.

Gators men’s basketball transfer Colin Castleton immediately eligible to play

Forward Colin Castleton, who transferred to Florida this offseason, received a waiver from the NCAA making him eligible for this season.

Former Michigan forward Colin Castleton, who transferred to Florida via the transfer portal this offseason, received a waiver from the NCAA making him eligible for the 2020-2021 season.

The 6-foot-11-inch forward has earned a reputation for his versatility while in Ann Arbor, providing size and rim protection on the inside while also showing a nice touch on his shots from outside of the paint extending out to the midrange, with an occasional bomb from out deep to boot.

His arrival in Gainesville also represents a return back to his home state, as he played high school at Father Lopez Catholic High School in Daytona Beach where he was a four-star recruit and the No. 128 player in the country in 2018. He has two more seasons of eligibility to play out in Gainesville.

While the 20-year-old still has some room to fill out physically, he will provide some much-needed presence on the inside for a team dealing with a dearth of big men heading into the coming season. With Jason Jitoboh and Omar Payne likely playing large roles at the forward and center positions, Castleton’s presence will bring a great deal of relief to a team that lost Kerry Blackshear Jr. and Gorjok Gak from its forecourt to graduation and the transfer portal, respectively.

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Report: Michigan F in NCAA Transfer Portal

Per a report, the Wolverines forward will seek another college destination.

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That makes two this week.

Entering the offseason, there were a lot of questions about how Michigan basketball would get under the scholarships allotted. That question is much closer to being answered.

The Wolverines were only set to lose two players to graduation — seniors Zavier Simpson and Jon Teske — while bringing in anywhere between 5-6 prospects in 2020. Currently, there is one 2020 signee in Ohio guard Zeb Jackson and four verbal commitments with Isaiah Todd, Hunter Dickinson, Terrance Williams and Jace Howard — coach Juwan Howard’s son, who is reportedly going to walk-on, instead of being on scholarship — in the fold. Michigan is awaiting word from five-star guard Joshua Christopher, who is apparently making his announcement in less than a week on April 13, if cryptic tweets hold serve.

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But on Monday, junior point guard David DeJulius unexpectedly entered the NCAA transfer portal and early Thursday morning, another joined him, in junior forward Colin Castleton.

Castleton as a recruit was a four-star center, and in Ann Arbor in 2019-20, he played in 25 games for an average of 8 minutes and three points-per-game. But he wasn’t utilized as much down the stretch, with Brandon Johns and Austin Davis getting more favor off the bench.

Five takeaways: Michigan overcomes ‘The RAC’ in big road win

Five takeaways from Michigan basketball’s impressive 60-52 road win at “The RAC”, home of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

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Michigan took a three-game winning streak into “The RAC”, home of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and an arena had yielded no victories to road teams during the 2019-20 season.

But on Wednesday, the Wolverines kept their win-streak alive with a gritty 60-52 victory to ruin Rutgers’ unbeaten record at home.

Michigan got off to a strong start, jumping to a 16-8 lead early. However, the Scarlet Knights responded to the early surge by the Wolverines to take a 31-28 lead into halftime.

Rutgers came out of halftime looking to deliver a knock out punch, stretching their advantage to 37-28 in the opening two minutes of the second half. Michigan took the punch and clamped down defensively the rest of the way, limiting Rutgers to just 15 points in the final 17 and a half minutes of the game.

1. Who’s afraid of the big, Bad RAC?

The Scarlet Knights were 17-0 at home this season, but Michigan was unfazed by “The RAC” on Wednesday night. The Wolverines started hot, and survived two strong runs by Rutgers to close the first half and start the second half, to pull out a massive road victory. The opposing crowd was raucous throughout the game, but Michigan was not intimidated. After opening the season 0-5 in true road games, the Wolverines have now won three straight away from Crisler, a tell-tale sign of a maturing basketball team.

2. Simpson joins 1,000 Points club

Zavier Simpson added to what has already been an outstanding career by eclipsing 1,000 points at Michigan, scoring 16 against the Scarlet Knights. He’s the 55th Wolverine to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Simpson is already the all-time assists leader in school history, and together with fellow senior Jon Teske has the most career wins in school history. In addition to the scoring boost he gave the Wolverines, Simpson added 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.

3. DeJulius/Castleton good off the bench

The Wolverines got a boost off the bench in this one from a pair of players that have been quiet of late. David DeJulius provided some scoring punch with 10 points, and kept Michigan’s offense poised during stretches when Simpson left the game due to foul trouble. This was just the second time in the past nine games that DeJulius reached double figures in scoring. Meanwhile, Colin Castleton also provided strong minutes as a reserve with Brandon Johns Jr. suffering through foul trouble. Castleton contributed 5 points and 3 rebounds and a block. It was good to see the sophomore make an impact on Wednesday after his minutes have been cut back of late.

4. Big-shot Making

Michigan didn’t shoot well from three-point range, knocking down just 6-of-23 attempts from deep. However, the Wolverines knocked down some big ones at some crucial times. DeJulius hit a three with just over nine minutes to play to close out a 17-4 run to give the Wolverines the lead. With just over six minutes to play, Franz Wagner hit a corner three off a nice pass from Simpson to increase Michigan’s lead to six. But the biggest shot was provided by Eli Brooks, who shook off a tough shooting night to hit a dagger triple as the shot clock was winding down to give the Wolverines a 9-point lead with three and a half minutes to play. Michigan didn’t hit many deep shots on Wednesday, but the confidence never wavered and the team was rewarded in the biggest moments.

5. Surging up the standings

The Wolverines have now won four in a row, and six of their last seven in Big Ten Conference play. As a result, Michigan has leaped from 12th place in the league standings into sole possession of 8th place. The Wolverines are just one game back of a four-way tie for 3rd place in the conference. A stretch like this was unthinkable during the four-game losing streak at the end of January, but Michigan suddenly finds itself within striking distance of a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament.