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  Gene Frenette: Gators' best route to NCAA tourney is alleviating burden on Castleton Florida forward Colin Castleton (12) works against Alabama center Charles Bediako, while Alabama guard Jaden Bradley (0) watches during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt) As we hit the homestretch of college basketball season, Florida first-year basketball coach Todd Golden might feel compelled to put out a “Help Wanted” sign to alleviate the burden on his best player. Seriously, when is somebody in a Gators uniform going to consistently step up and throw 6-foot-11, do-everything Colin Castleton a life line? Golden knows it’s risky business to expect the senior forward from Daytona Beach-Lopez High to almost single-handedly push UF into the NCAA tournament. Still, the first-year Gators’ coach doesn’t seem to have much in the way of viable alternative options.

  This evening, however, Nate emerges from the forest  with no meat. At 39, he’s an energetic guy who doesn’t seem easily defeated—when he isn’t hunting or fishing or weaving palm fronds into roof panels, he’s in the woods carving a new canoe from a log . But when he finally sits down to eat his porridge from a metal bowl, he complains that it’s hard to get enough meat for his family: two wives (not uncommon in the tribe) and 12 children . Loggers are scaring away the animals. He can’t fish on the river because a storm washed away his canoe. The story is similar for each of the families I visit in Anachere, a community of about 90 members of the ancient Tsimane Indian tribe. It’s the rainy season, when it’s hardest to hunt or fish. More than 15,000 Tsimane live in about a hundred villages along two rivers in the Amazon Basin near the main market town of San Borja, 225 miles from La Paz. But Anachere is a two-day trip from San Borja by motorized dugout canoe, so the Tsimane li...