Mike White updates status of Colin Castleton, Jason Jitoboh

Florida men’s basketball coach Mike White provided an update Friday on the status of centers Colin Castleton (shoulder) and Jason Jitoboh, who’s out with a season-ending eye injury. 

Castleton has missed six straight games since suffering a “significant” shoulder injury in practice Jan. 18, a day before the Mississippi State matchup. 

Castleton is expected to miss the Ole Miss game Saturday, but White revealed that his star player has returned to practice in a limited capacity. 

“Yeah, I think he’s getting closer to a potential return. He did more [Friday] than he’s done. Did an individual this morning. Did a little bit in practice,” White said. “He hasn’t done much against physical contact, but we’ll see. I know he’s eager to try to help these guys. He’s close with these guys. It’s a tight-knit group and Colin’s competitive and he’s dying to be out there.”

White also shared the latest on Jitoboh, who had eye surgery last Friday and received a hospital visit from his teammates the following morning. Jitoboh returned to the basketball facility Friday for the first time since his surgery, boosting morale in the building. 

“It was after film and we’re getting ready to go through walkthrough and here comes big fella. You can’t miss him when he walks through those doors, of course,” White said of Jitoboh. “The guys, we had to beg them for their attention back after a couple minutes because everyone wanted to go over and talk to him and everyone was excited to see him.”

Welcome back, ⁦@JasonJitoboh⁩! #Gators pic.twitter.com/0mauTQ4gHv

— Chris Harry (@GatorsChris) February 4, 2022

White said Jitoboh’s return was similar to the situation his team experienced last year when Keyontae Johnson first came back to the facility following his collapse. Johnson’s teammates also visited him in the hospital, like this year’s group did with Jitoboh.

White took a moment Friday to reflect on the adversity his program has faced the past two seasons with Johnson and Jitoboh, as well as losing Castleton.

“It’s been nuts,” White said. “Probably as much as anything, it gives you opportunities, you know. Why are we doing what we do? We love the game. As a staff, I always talk about we, right? We’re all in this thing together and I’m in the foxhole with the guys I work with and the women that I work with, Tracy [Pfaff] and Julie [Plank]. We’re all in this thing together. We love hoops. We want to compete. We love the Gators. We want to win. But, we’re trying to help these guys grow up too as human beings and be examples to them and mentors to them. And try to develop them to a certain extent into leaders, on the court, off the court, in life.

“And it gives you a bunch of opportunities to have real-life conversations. We’ve talked about adversity and all the things these guys will go through later in life that are a little bit more harsh than a rolled ankle. Obviously, we’ve had a couple of major situations and one major, major one that put a lot in perspective and gave you opportunities to come closer together and to grow as people, to learn from one another, to talk about it. It puts the game in perspective, and I also think that it gives you the opportunity to be tougher and grow with your resilience. And I can go on and on. I’ll ramble for an hour on this one.

“But yeah, some days I really feel for these guys and some days I’m really, really proud of them. And sometimes those feelings go back and forth within an hour, you know. And as a staff, we gotta snap ourselves out of it at times. Like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ We had a guy roll his ankle today in practice. Hopefully it’s not major. I’m not going to name his name. And you’re like, ‘My goodness. Can we just get through a couple days here?’ But, it’s part of the game. No one is going to feel sorry for you. And these guys have continued to grow as people. I’m proud of the young men that I work with on a daily basis. And the adversity, we’re all better as people for it and we’re going to keep swinging away, man.”