Next up for Florida: Home vs. #23 Arkansas, Tuesday, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Notable
* Florida recorded the highest-ranked win on its home floor in program history, topping the second-ranked Tigers behind 26 points from Tyree Appleby who scored 20 in the second half.
* Highest-ranked regular season wins in Florida history:
* 11/29/02 vs. #2 Kansas, 83-73, at New York City
* 11/27/09 vs. #2 Michigan State, 77-74, at Atlantic City
* 2/19/22 vs. #2 Auburn, 63-62, Gainesville
* Today’s win also matched the highest-ranked regular season win in UF history and marked the third all-time victory vs. a #2 team (both of UF’s wins vs. #1 have come in the NCAA Tournament).
* Florida has posted a top-10 win in four consecutive seasons and in six of seven seasons under Mike White. Four straight matches the second-longest streak of seasons with a top-10 win in program history (5, 2002-2007; 4, 1997-2001).
* It marked the Gators’ 14th straight home win against Auburn (4-0 under White). Florida hasn’t lost to Auburn in Gainesville since 1996, including two straight wins over top-4 Auburn teams.
* Colin Castleton turned in another big performance with 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
* Florida limited Auburn to 21 first-half points, the Tigers’ lowest total in a half this season.
* The Gators rallied from nine down to win, their sixth win this season after trailing by at least nine points.
* It was a game with three distinct momentum shifts, with the Gators’ defense holding strong on the final possession to stave off Auburn’s rally attempt:
* Florida built a 22-14 lead with 6:20 to go in the first half.
* Auburn followed that with a 21-4 stretch to take a 35-26 lead with 15:22 left in the game.
* The UF offense caught fire and went on an extended 35-18 run to go up 61-53 with 2:16 to play.
* Auburn rallied and finished the game on a 9-2 run before the Florida defense closed the door.
Head Coach Mike White
On trying not to get too high or too low with two recent one-point games…
“You’re going to get low, we’re human. Our guys were as dejected in the locker room in College Station the other night as I’ve ever seen them in probably any locker room in a couple, if not a few, years in a regular season game. It’s different when you lose in the NCAA tournament – it’s over. It was that type of feeling. But then you’ve got to bounce back, you’ve got to bounce back quickly. This is a resilient group. Now, if we don’t find a way to hold on to this one, it’d have been even harder to bounce back of course. Didn’t finish it strong, we didn’t. That said, what an incredible, physical, intensity level effort for 40 minutes led by Colin and Tyree. Auburn has a chance to win the whole thing and we just beat them. So, great win for us obviously.”
On refocusing in last minute…
“We did a pretty good job. I didn’t love our body language as the officials were looking at the replay. As a staff, we said it’s going to be their ball, we have to get a stop. Let’s not plan on it being our ball. The last couple minutes, they’re over with. There is nothing we can do. I didn’t love the aura there. When the ball was thrown in, I thought we were in stance. I thought we were locked in, we communicated. Colin yelled under, we got under, high flat ball screen. We swarmed the ball. They set a middle ball screen for Wendell, who is one of the better playmakers in our league and got stopped when we needed it. It was a little bit fitting for us to win it the hard way. Maybe that helps us take the next step, helps us even more.”
On significance of this win and the environment…
“Hopefully it gives our guys some added confidence down the stretch — more reason to continue to stay the course and do a lot of the things we are doing on a daily basis for growth. For our fans, we are very appreciative. The place was rocking from the tip. From the tip it was electric in there. Without that, we may have been a point short, or 5 or 10. They were a factor for sure. We forced 17 turnovers. That’s not happening without that environment so appreciative to our fans, led by our student section. They were incredible and happy for them that they got to have that moment post game. It was pretty special.”
Tyree Appleby, Senior Guard
On falling down by nine…
“In the huddle we just preach to stay in the moment because we know how loud the crowd was going to get today. There was going to be some adversity. They were going to go on a run then we were going to go on a run. Every huddle we just told ourselves to stay the course and stay in the moment. Don’t overthink things and make simple plays.”
On his performance…
“It felt good just seeing the ball and just going down the hole. My teammates just kept feeding me. We were getting stops. In the moment it felt great. I still try to get us into the offense or try to get the best. Bad shots lead to their transition offense, so we try to take the best shot available.”
Colin Castleton, Senior Forward
On final possession…
“It happened so fast to be honest. I knew our defense. I knew there was going to be a teammate behind there and there was. I forgot who was guarding him, but he rolled to the basket and somebody took him. We got each other’s backs. Our main focus was whoever got the rock was going to try to get downhill and make a play or shoot a three or get a layup. All I saw was Kessler setting a screen and he went around me. I saw Wendell Green just coming 100 miles an hour downhill. I’m not going to let him get that much leverage on me. Most guys would just back up, but I had to stay up there because I knew my teammates had my back behind me.”
On what Coach White told the team…
“We just met with each other. Coach White got on us. He got pretty mad because we were just making careless plays. We weren’t being ourselves. I know I turned a ball over off a rebound when I should have outletted it. He told us to play the way we are supposed to and stop going backwards, making negative plays. That’s what they want. They want you to make careless plays and be careless with the ball. We just said for everybody to lock in and do what we are supposed to do. We did that down the stretch which put us in a really good spot and we won the game.”
