Options For Gators in Transfer Portal After Aberdeen Departure

The Florida Gators now have to look around for a new addition, but they have their quality options

The Gators should be able to fill the void | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With Denzel Aberdeen opting to play for Kentucky rather than the Florida Gators in 2025, head coach Todd Golden has to shop for another guard/wing this offseason. 

The timing of Aberdeen’s departure makes things relatively more difficult for Golden. Unlike last year, where Golden had nearly the entire summer to find the missing links for his National Championship winning team, he was lasered in on the postseason run, which meant less time talking to transfers. 

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t options. More names entered the portal before it closed this week and the Gators already had their names attached to some top options available. 

Arguably every fan's top target is former California guard Andrej Stojakovic. In this past season with California, the 6-foot-7, 205-pound wing averaged 17.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists a game on 42.7/31.8/81.8 shooting splits.  

The early word out there is that Illinois is near the top and he also visited the program two days ago. However, that doesn’t mean his recruitment is over. 247Sports’ Travis Branham posted on X that Florida, along with a number of other schools, have been showing interest in Stojakovic as of late. 

In addition to Stojakovic, another high ranking transfer option is former USC guard Desmond Claude. Claude is a 6-foot-6, 201-pound guard, who has played 102 games (67 starts) in his collegiate career with Xavier and USC. He averaged 15.8 points, 4.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds a season ago out west on 48.2/30.7/76.4 shooting splits. As of right now, it’s unclear who else is in contention for his talent’s, but there will no doubt be a long list of suitors for Claude. 

The other option, albeit not a transfer, who has been linked with the Gators is 20-year-old, 6-foot-5 Australian point guard Ben Henshall. Henshall is a former teammate of Gators big man Alex Condon and the feeling is that Florida is a real player to land him if he were to leave the Perth Wildcats. Henshall averaged 9.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.63 assists per game last season with the Wildcats and shot 40% from the field.