The Florida Gators didn’t need to apply a full-court press in the transfer portal this offseason, thanks to an incredible effort in retaining their roster—including All-American forward Thomas Haugh and All-SEC forward Alex Condon.
Their one addition so far, former Gator turned Wildcat Denzel Aberdeen, was a seamless move.
“It was a very quick conversation. It’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to come back?’ He’s like, ‘Yes, I do.’ I was like, ‘All right, great. Let’s go.’,” head coach Todd Golden said.
While it’s happened before, there aren’t many cases of athletes transferring back to a school they originally left—especially after jumping to its biggest rival. But in the NIL era of college athletics, anything is possible.
“We missed him last year, and he missed us. And I think it was one of those things where we’re constantly evolving in this new world, trying to sort out through the rev shares, through the NILs and it’s not always going to be a perfect discussion. And we each kind of went our separate ways last year, and that’s the nature of this business right now,” Golden said.
“Denzel loves the guys on the team,” Golden added. “I think he really appreciates our staff and our program and what we have going on here. There were no hard feelings. There was no animosity that way between him and I.”
Adding to the uniqueness of this situation, Aberdeen needs a waiver to gain a fifth year of eligibility, which he has not yet received. As a freshman at Florida in 2022–23, he played just 40 minutes across 12 games, which the staff believes justifies granting him a fifth year.
“It’s just a common sense situation, in my opinion,” Golden said. “He played I think somewhere between 35 and 41 game minutes that whole season. Nine came in our NIT game against Central Florida, which was hard to call it a game, to be honest. We were in the middle of flipping to the next year and he was out there just because he was excited to play and a good competitor. So, he did not play very many minutes. I think that’s a big part of that.”
In college basketball, the moment you step on the court, you lose your redshirt year—unless you receive a waiver. That’s not the case in college football, where players can appear in up to four games, excluding the postseason, and still preserve their redshirt. Golden believes the inconsistency in the rule across sports will help Aberdeen’s case.
“There’s some really inconsistent redshirt rules in regards to men’s basketball and using football as an example. You can play a certain amount of games all throughout the season in football and you can play in the postseason and it doesn’t count against your clock or your percentage in football. And why are those two sports not equitable in regards to their rules? So we have a bunch of different things,” Golden said.
Another factor is Aberdeen’s plan to finish his degree at the University of Florida. The Gators are confident this will be resolved in a timely manner.
“He came back here with the goal of graduating. He already has his academic plan mapped out. He already worked with our advisor on his visit to how he would get there by the end of next spring. So, he would graduate in his time on campus,” Golden said. “This isn’t a 27-year-old trying to play his eighth year in college at his sixth different school. This is a 22-year-old within his fifth-year clock coming back to get his degree. And I think it would be a really weird stance to try to fight him from playing. Now if he had played 30 games and played 15 minutes a night, we wouldn’t be going down this path. But to me there’s a common sense approach on Denzel that I think should be solved pretty quickly.”
Worst case? Florida takes it to a judge, which we’ve seen a few times in recent months over eligibility issues.
Last resort, yeah,” Golden said. “I don’t anticipate us having to get there, but again, from a common sense perspective, a lot of people will be on his side.”
So where does Aberdeen help on the court? He’s been in Golden’s system for three years and won a national championship alongside many players on next year’s roster, so the relationship and continuity are already in place.
“Just another guy that has a really good understanding of what we do,” Golden said. “I know it’s weird because he played at Kentucky for a year, but it’s continuity. He was in our program for a long time, and has a really good sense of what we do and how we operate.”
In addition, Aberdeen shot 36.3% from three-point range last season and 35% in both his sophomore and junior seasons at Florida. It’s no secret the Gators struggled from beyond the arc last season, shooting just 31.2% overall. Aberdeen also averaged 13.5 points per game while adding 3.4 assists.
“He’s a very good offensive player. I thought he did a great job for Kentucky,” Golden said. “They obviously dealt with a lot of injuries and some inconsistency with their lineups, but he was always very consistent and he delivered for them every night. I think him and Oweh were clearly their two best players and the guys that delivered consistently. That was a big jump for Zell from the year before, where he came off the bench for us. So, impressed with the consistency that he displayed. Yeah, he’ll help us with the shooting.”
If Aberdeen’s waiver is granted, he’ll join former teammates Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Isaiah Brown, Urban Klavzar, Viktor Mikic, and potentially Rueben Chinyelu back on the court in Gainesville.