Notable
* The Gators came up short against a top-five Kansas State team on the road, as Colin Castleton led Florida with 13 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots, including two blocks of former teammate Keyontae Johnson.
* Florida is 2-31 all-time vs. top-five opponents on the road, last earning such a win in 1988.
* This is only the third season in program history the Gators have faced multiple top-five nonconference opponents (1995-96, 2011-12).
* Florida’s defense continues to be the backbone of the team, limiting KSU to .377 from the field and .235 from 3-point range. The Gators have had 12 of their last 14 opponents under 40% from the field.
* Myreon Jones and Will Richard each chipped in 11 points, while Riley Kugel dished a career-high six assists.
* Kyle Lofton played his 5,000th career minute during Saturday’s game, just the eighth player in the nation over the last 25 years to reach that milestone.
Head Coach Todd Golden
On dealing with Kansas State’s zone defense…
“I think it slowed us down a little bit, but I thought they did a good job disguising it. They ended up going to man, really, anytime we got the ball in the middle. I’m going to have to go back and watch because I thought we got some looks. I thought we got some looks, you know. I thought we should’ve shot the ball a little better than we did. It’s been a little bit of an Achilles heel for us on the road, whether it be Auburn, [Texas] A&M, tonight, against these good teams on the road, if you want to have a chance to beat them, you’ve got to step up and make some shots, especially from the perimeter. We just weren’t able to do that tonight.”
On combatting scoring droughts…
“Gotta make shots. We’re doing a better job taking care of the ball on the road. They’re obviously a very good team. They’ve won a lot of games. Just maybe a little more toughness around the rim and when you get an opportunity, you’ve got to step up and knock it down.”
On whether the players could aside the emotions of competing against Keyontae Johnson…
“I thought so, to the best of their abilities. Obviously, a very unique situation, someone that they care a lot about and spent a lot of time with. It was unavoidable for us, in terms of having this matchup. With all of those variables in the mix, I thought our group did a good job just not allowing it to affect them too much from a mental perspective
Grad F Colin Castleton
On the game…
“The first half, we just let them get to us. Transition points, something Coach Golden keyed on while we were scouting them. They got 24 transition points or something, and that was something that we had to key in on and didn’t do a good enough job of picking up (Markquis) Nowell, one of the fastest if not the fastest player in the country. He’s got so many skills, his size, his speed, his agility and being able to push the ball quickly. If you don’t sort out when they run, they have a lot of athletes and really was a deal breaker in the first half and we just had to crawl back when possible.”
On the team’s shooting…
“Being able to hit shots is the thing, and you don’t win basketball games when you miss shots, and that feels like something that has happened throughout the year, but we have to make shots. When it comes down to it, when you get open looks you have to be confident and believe in yourself, and that’s what we have to do as a team, we have to be confident and know when we are open to let it fly and just knock it down. I think it was affecting our defense. We were missing some open shots and weren’t running back as hard as we should’ve and weren’t talking as much as we should’ve and that was something that we needed to key on.”
