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The SEC dominated college basketball this season, culminating in an NCAA Tournament record of 14 out of 16 teams making the tournament. Florida won a thriller against the Houston Cougars in the National Championship and won their third championship ever as a program. Denzel Aberdeen was a key piece for the Gators off the bench, but he recently transferred to a fellow SEC rival, the Kentucky Wildcats.
The Gators were juggernauts, and Aberdeen was a massive glue guy who helped them get things settled when they needed it, but he could not jump to starting in Florida, so he transferred to Kentucky. He spoke with Daniel Hager of On3 about his decision to transfer from Gainesville and join the Kentucky basketball team. He mentioned how it was an easy decision and that it did not take much time to decide on heading to Lexington.
“It was pretty quick,” Aberdeen responded about Kentucky and the transfer portal. “They called and I told my dad, ‘This is the school I want to be at.’ I just saw all the people who came in and out of this school and all the great players. My main goal is to make it to the NBA, and just seeing how this school has shown transfer guys how to be great men on and off the court is something I want to achieve. When they called, I was like ‘man, I gotta go here.’
Kentucky is one of the best programs in college basketball, and there was not much of a fall-off between John Calipari leaving for Arkansas and Mark Pope taking over as head coach of his alma mater.
Calipari created an NBA factory in Lexington with players like Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, John Wall, and Karl-Anthony Towns, to name a few. Still, Pope got two players drafted this year: Koby Brea and Amari Williams. Brea also said he was the best shooter in the draft before it even started.
Aberdeen elaborated more, “Playing for coach [Mark] Pope, obviously another National Champion, and just the school itself and the people and the atmosphere here… It’s wild. I’ve been watching on TV, and we played against them last year here, and it was wild. When they called, it was pretty much a no-brainer for me. I was like Man, I gotta do it. I’m ready.”
Aberdeen is the perfect guard to embody Kentucky basketball. The Mark Pope style of offense is fast and run-and-gun, with a lot of focus on shooting, and as long as Aberdeen polishes his shot, he should succeed for the Wildcats.
