Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center | Gainesville, Fla.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2022/12/7/2186452.PDF> | Season Stats<https://floridagators.com/documents/2022/11/7/2022-23_UFstats.pdf>
Records: Florida 6-4 | #5 UConn 10-0
Next up: vs. Ohio (Tampa Tip-Off), Wednesday, Dec. 14, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Notable
* Florida battled a tough shooting night, going 16-for-53 from the field (.302) while facing a nonconference AP top-five opponent in Gainesville for the first time since 2010 (L, 75-93 vs. #4 Ohio State, 11/16/10).
* Florida is now 22-62 all-time vs. AP top-five opponents, including 5-18 in regular season nonconference play.
* Riley Kugel and Alex Fudge co-led the Gators with 13 points, which marked a career high for the freshman Kugel and the third straight game in double figures for Fudge.
* Colin Castleton added 12 points and crossed the 1,000-point scoring mark for his collegiate career (1,010 total; 911 at Florida, 99 at Michigan). Castleton led the Gators with eight rebounds and added two blocked shots, two assists and two steals.
* Castleton joins other recent transfers who crossed the 1,000-point career scoring mark after coming to UF, including Myreon Jones (2021-present), Egor Kouelchov (2017-18) and Canyon Barry (2016-17).
Head Coach Todd Golden
On the loss…
“This obviously is a really good opponent. This is at the level, honestly at a higher level than Xavier and West Virginia. These guys have been playing like a top five team all year. I don’t think they have a game inside of 10 points on their schedule. They played some really good teams. So, we knew it was going to be a challenge going into it. I thought we competed, for the most part, really well. Defensively in the first half we did a good job, kept us in the game that way. Second half, I thought we came out with some juice and just couldn’t get over the hump. They were able to keep us at 10 when we had some chances. In terms of our competitiveness, and we talked about this last time, that was better against a good team. But at the end of the day, against a team like UConn, you just got to make some shots to give yourself a chance and multiple guys on our team didn’t. Obviously, we shot 30% for the game. I don’t think it’s too complicated. Our competitiveness is getting better, it’s improving ,especially against a team like this. I think it is better than it was in Portland. But we just got a lot of work to do and a lot of work on the offensive end to get comfortable and confident to win a game like this we need to step up and make some shots.”
On the defense…
“I thought until about the 10-minute mark in the second half our defense was good enough and then we just got loose when we had to start gambling a little bit and trying to get some turnovers so we could get some easier baskets. But it’s really difficult when they do that. The offense is sticking with me a little bit just because we were not really good that way tonight.”
On Will Richard…
“They did a good job on him. Will [Richard] has been a guy that’s been really good about picking his spots and not necessarily needing the ball to be effective. But obviously coach Hurley is a good coach and they’re going to be on the scout. They did a good job of limiting his opportunities, so we need to do a better job of getting him looks. But at the same time, you got to tip your cap because they obviously did a good job locking him.”
5th Year F Colin Castleton
On UConn’s length…
“They did a good job of protecting the rim, their two big men they do a really good job of moving their feet, even their backup, Donovan [Clingan], for his size, he’s able to be nimble on his feet and block shots, kind of like what I try to do. I just didn’t make as many shots as I should have. I got a bunch of good looks, I was getting to every spot I needed to, they just weren’t falling so I got to get back in the gym, keep working on my craft, as a team we need to keep working on our craft, being able to knock down open shots and for me personally I just got to be able to knock down more shots. I personally feel like I was getting to my spots, but they just weren’t falling.”
On his reaction to loss….
“It definitely sucks, losing basketball games obviously hurts. It doesn’t matter who you play or when you play, if you’re a competitor you don’t like losing, and if you don’t care about losing then there’s a problem. We got to make sure that we just get in the gym, take the off day tomorrow, it was a very physical game. We just got to come with the right approach. Super-long season like Coach Golden was telling us. We got to make some adjustments, as players, and just like everybody has to make adjustments. Got to be able to come in with the right mindset and move on from it. Keep moving forward, keep being positive even though it’s a loss, it sucks, it hurts but you know we got to keep pushing forward. It’s a long season.”
Sophomore F Alex Fudge
On attacking the rim vs. UConn…
“It was challenging, knowing that you got to go down and you have an elite shot blocker down there. I would say we didn’t listen, on me, we knew he was going to go try and block everything. Playing off two was really supposed to be the plan. We’ve seen Kowacie [Reeves] execute it, Trey [Bonham] execute it, got him up and they fouled, but we just got to stick to the basics and what we know and we let that slide. Like Colin said we’re getting back into the gym, we just got to get it back.”
On where they can improve…
“I would say it’s our ability to adapt to change. It was a lot of situations on the court, where as a basketball player you should know like, we need to change something. And we weren’t quick enough to do that. That gave UConn the get up that they had. Like I said as a basketball player, we just have to work on that. It’s really nothing to work on we just got to do it.”
