Why Todd Golden Re-Recruited Denzel Aberdeen to Florida Out of the Transfer Portal

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Don't let the boos from inside Exactech Arena on Feb. 14 fool you. While the Florida Gators' fanbase may have taken Denzel Aberdeen's transfer to Kentucky personally, Todd Golden did not.

And, it allowed him to re-recruit Aberdeen back to Florida.

Aberdeen, while waiting on a waiver from the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility, departed from the Wildcats after one season by entering the NCAA Transfer Portal. Nearly a year after leaving Florida, he returned, announcing his commitment on April 10.

Golden addressed Aberdeen's return to Florida on Tuesday.

"Listen, we missed him last year, and he missed us," Golden said. "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."

Aberdeen's divorce from Florida, albeit amicable in Golden's eyes, was one of the more notable NIL-related roster moves in recent memory. After three seasons on the bench and fresh off helping the Gators win a national title with the expectation that he would start the following season, Aberdeen left Florida over NIL discrepancies.

Kentucky ultimately stepped in and won Aberdeen's services. In his lone season with the Wildcats, Aberdeen averaged a career-high 13.5 points per game while shooting over 36 precent from deep.

"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," Golden said. "... That was a big jump for Zel from the year before, where he came off the bench for us. So, impressed with the consistency that he displayed."

That improvement and his familiarity with Golden's program made it an easy sell for Florida to bring Aberdeen back to the fold. Golden said Aberdeen has "a really good sense of what we do and how we operate." The 3-point shooting is an added benefit. It also helps that Aberdeen rejoins a roster filled with familiar faces.

Florida successfully retained stars Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh while returning bench contributors Urban Klavzar and Isaiah Brown, who were also teammates with Aberdeen for one season. Like Golden, the players who were at Florida when Aberdeen left did not take his departure personally.

"Denzel loves the guys on the team. I think he really appreciates our staff and our program and what we have going on here. There were no hard feelings," Golden said. "There was no animosity that way between him and I.

"And 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.'"

Aberdeen is not fully cleared to join Florida, even though he has the coaches' and players' support. Despite playing a total of 40.8 minutes across 12 appearances as a true freshman, Aberdeen technically does not have a year of eligibility left, hence the waiver request from the NCAA. Golden, however, is confident Aberdeen will be cleared to play and called the request a "common-sense situation."

Golden also pointed to an expected rule change within the NCAA allowing for student-athletes to play five seasons in five years rather than the current four seasons in five years and the discrepancy with NCAA football's current four-game plus postseason redshirt rule and basketball's no-game redshirt rule.

"This isn't a 27-year-old trying to play his eighth year in college at his sixth different school," Golden said. "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."

It remains to be seen when the NCAA's decision will come down, and Golden mentioned turning to a judge will be a "last resort."

"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," Golden said.

For now, Aberdeen is back and expected to join a starting lineup that includes guard Boogie Fland, Haugh, Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, should he ultimately exit the NBA Draft and return to Florida. There is also the sharp-shooter Klavzar and rising sophomore Alex Lloyd, who Golden expects to make a big jump next season, to round out the guard rotation.

"I feel like we have a lot of pieces back there that all of them, I think, will make a big jump," Golden said. "Zel coming back in our program, Urb obviously had a great year. We know we're going to get out of him. And both Boog and Lloyd are really young. I think they'll take an incremental jump this year going into this next season."

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/florida as Why Todd Golden Re-Recruited Denzel Aberdeen to Florida Out of the Transfer Portal.

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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 5:00 AM.