Aberdeen's Dad Shades Florida Staff on Way to Kentucky

In the final minute of the Florida Gators' national championship, backup guard Denzel Aberdeen was on the floor for Todd Golden in a one-score game.

A former three-star recruit from Orlando, Aberdeen stuck with Golden and Florida through the turnover from Mike White, and Golden stuck with Aberdeen while building a roster, culminating in the guard scoring the final point of the biggest win in both of their careers.

Now, Aberdeen leaves for Kentucky as one of his family members seemingly shades Golden on the way out.

“He hasn’t really shown what he can do. You could see spurts of it at Florida and even previously,” Ian Aberdeen, Denzel’s father, told Kentucky KSR+ reporter Jacob Polacheck. “He wants a coach that believes in him.”

While some have reported a large pay increase as the reason for Aberdeen leaving Florida, the mention of belief from his family comes out of left field.

Aberdeen’s minutes per game grew consistently in his time with the program, moving from 3.4 as a freshman to 9.8 as a sophomore to 19.8 as a national champion in year three, during which he made multiple starts while seniors Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin battled injuries.

With all three of Florida's starting guards from last year in Clayton Jr., Martin and Will Richard leaving, it looked as if Golden had enough belief in the guard to prepare to start him full-time next season alongside incoming transfer Xaivian Lee.

“He’s earned a starting role for us next year in our program as these three seniors move on,” Golden said about Aberdeen ahead of the Sweet 16. “He has a chance to be one of the better guards in the SEC next year.”

On top of seemingly earning a starting role from Golden, the Gators' head coach shared lots of praise for Aberdeen and his career path.

“He’s amazing. He is what everyone would hope college athletics could still be…When I got the job…we were kinda prepared to sell our vision…and he’s like ‘no I am good. I’m coming to Florida. I want to be there.’ and I’m like ‘Hell yeah, this is our type of guy.” Golden said. “Tough freshman year, didn’t play a lot…Instead of pouting and blaming everyone else was like ‘I'll stick it out’...Came back last year, same deal…but kept working and just got better and better and better.”

While Golden clearly seemed to have high respect and belief in his three-year player, the new era of college athletics seemingly caused a breach in their relationship.

“To be honest, we had no intention of going anywhere,” Ian said. “We really wanted to stay here at Florida, but negotiations went south a little bit.”

Now preparing to spend his final season at an SEC rival, Aberdeen looks to win back-to-back championships, but in different shade of blue with rival Kentucky.

“Once he said… ‘We're trying to get championship No. 9.’ it was a no-brainer,” Denzel said about his recruitment to Kentucky. “Obviously, I want to go back-to-back.”

Since Aberdeen's departure, Florida has added transfer guard AJ Brown to the roster and is reportedly in contact with USC transfer Desmond Claude while returning bench pieces Urban Klavzar and Isaiah Brown.

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