Just two weeks after winning the 2025 NCAA National Championship with the Florida Gators last April, senior guard Denzel Aberdeen transferred to Kentucky, seeking a more substantial role at a different contending program.
Fast forward to mid-February, Aberdeen made his long-awaited return to “The Swamp,” where his new No. 25 Kentucky team ended up falling to his former coach, Todd Golden, and the No. 14 Gators 92-83.
Aberdeen spent three seasons in Gainesville and grew into a fan-favorite over the course of time, steadily improving from an average of 1.6 points per game as a freshman to an average of 7.7 points per game as a junior.
While serving as one of Florida’s stronger defenders during the 2024-25 campaign, Aberdeen often checked in around the first media timeout and logged an average of 19.7 minutes per game through 39 games played.
Aberdeen did earn the starting nod in five of those 39 contests.
“This fanbase knows him,” Golden said. “Of course, our fanbase loves him so much, he’s a special player.”
While Aberdeen was loved – and may still be loved – by the Gator faithful, one couldn’t have expected that they would’ve welcomed him back with open arms, because at the end of the day, he did end up departing for another SEC school.
Right away, Aberdeen sat in a lone boat, getting booed by hungry Gators (fans) who were all waiting for a mistake so that they could feast on him.
On top of just boos, Aberdeen was also repeatedly hit with “Gator traitor” chants from Florida’s student section, which were all contributing in effort to throw off his game.
“Well, Florida fans know Denzel,” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said. “Denzel is the ultimate competitor. I never worry about the lights with him. I never worry about the moment. And I never worry about the distraction because he loves to compete.”
As Pope explained, Aberdeen is willing to leave it all on the court, and in a hostile environment, where he was the main source for lunch, he scored a team-high 19 points while also recording one rebound, four assists and one steal.
“It was a good matchup,” Florida forward Alex Condon said. “I knew Zel (Denzel) was going to be aggressive tonight and try to fuel off the crowd a little bit. Credit to him. He played a solid game and was aggressive. But our guys did a great job of making it tough, making him take tough 2s and running him off the 3-point line.”
While Aberdeen did lead UK in points scored, he did have to work extremely hard for the buckets that he was able to get, as Condon explained.
Aberdeen took a lengthy amount of shots, shooting 8-21 (38.1%) from the field and a grim 1-6 (16.7%) from beyond the 3-point arch, so if Florida backed up a little, and he got just a few more of those shots to fall, the outcome may have turned out differently.
Nonetheless, Aberdeen has now reached double-digit points in eight of his last 10 outings and has been contributing heavily to this Wildcat team that is still in contention for a double-bye in the 2026 SEC Tournament.
Aberdeen and the Wildcats take another step towards earning a strong SEC Tournament seed on Feb. 17 when they host the Georgia Bulldogs (17-8, 5-7 SEC) in Rupp Arena. Tipoff for that game is set for 9 p.m. ET and can be viewed on ESPN.
