Eighteen days had passed since Florida's men's basketball team last took the court before its SEC opener at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tennessee.
Basketball wasn't the biggest priority for UF head coach Mike White during that two-and-a-half week period, but you wouldn't know that by the way his team performed against Vanderbilt on Wednesday night.
With the team's best player in Keyontae Johnson sidelined, UF shined through the adversity to outplay the Commodores in all facets, picking up its fifth win in a row in the series, 91-72.
"Our guys showed a lot of heart, a ton of heart," White said. "I don't know of another situation in college basketball whose team has dealt with as much as our guys have. I couldn't be more proud. It was just a really good culture that I happened to be a part of tonight."
Any sign of a slow start was non-existent from the Gators from the tip. The team played inspired and boasted the same fast-paced and aggressive style of play that those who follow the program had become accustomed too after the team's first four contests.
Anthony Duruji took Johnson's place in the starting lineup and turned in the best performance he's had as a Gator. The high flyer dropped in 11 points on an efficient 4-of-5 shooting while grabbing five rebounds and rejecting three Vandy defenders in 27 minutes of play.
It definitely feels good," Duruji said of his performance. "I think it's a confidence booster. I was battling a lot of adversity at the beginning of the season with myself coming back from COVID. I'm glad we picked up this win as a collective group, and it felt good to kind of be back to myself."
the 19-point win was a complete team effort with nine UF players scoring a basket, but the player who truly made a name for himself on Wednesday was Colin Castleton.
The Michigan transfer earned a career-high 23 points to lead the team after shooting 11-of-13 from the floor in 30 minutes. Castleton has shown spurts of high-level play during his short time in Gainesville, but this could be the breakout game for him that makes him the clear cut go-to guy down in the paint.
"I think I did pretty well in my first conference game," Castleton said. "Whatever the coaches need me to do, whether that's rebound, block shots, it's not just points. Just whenever they need me to do the dirty work, I'm all here for it."
In a night overshadowed by the 91-point blitz from the offense, the defense sparked many of those scoring opportunities.
Florida terrorized Vandy's offense for most of the contest by causing 16 turnovers, nine steals and nine blocks. Vanderbilt's leading scorer, Scottie Pippen Jr., scored 18 but was an inefficient 6-of-16 from the floor, including 0-of-4 from beyond the arc. It was just the second game this season that he scored under 20 points.
It's a good way to begin conference play for the Gators (4-1), but they'll need to put this one behind them quickly with LSU (6-1) coming to Exactech Arena on Saturday afternoon.
It's a quick turnaround for a group still trying to get back into full basketball shape after missing multiple games and practices this month, but a decisive victory in Nashville has put Florida back on the right track.
Stay tuned to GatorsTerritory.
