{"id":543948,"date":"2026-01-18T02:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T02:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/543948\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T02:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T02:08:12","slug":"denzel-aberdeen-made-every-right-decision-down-the-stretch-against-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/543948\/","title":{"rendered":"Denzel Aberdeen ‘made every right decision’ down the stretch against Tennessee"},"content":{"rendered":"

In back-to-back road games, Denzel Aberdeen<\/a> has saved Kentucky down the stretch.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re just a few days removed from the Florida transfer helping the Wildcats overcome an 18-point second-half hole against LSU in Baton Rouge. Aberdeen dropped all 17 of his points after halftime in the win over the Tigers. And yet, he was somehow even better on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville. <\/p>\n

Down by as many as 17 in the first half and as many as 13 in the second half, Aberdeen helped fuel Kentucky to a massive comeback victory, 80-78, over No. 24 Tennessee. The 6-foot-5 guard registered 18 of his 22 points after the intermission, once again serving as the steadying point guard force that head coach Mark Pope<\/a> needed \u2014 even more so now that lead guard Jaland Lowe<\/a> is out for the season due to injury. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Denzel Aberdeen was ridiculous tonight. He was so good,\u201d Pope said postgame. \u201cReally it came down to just putting the ball in his hands and saying, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s just extend this thing out and let\u2019s try and you go attack space.\u2019 And he made every right decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis ball protection \u2014 I mean, the ball was in his hands. I mean, it must have been his hands for six minutes in the second half, which is crazy, right? And just made great decision after a great decision. I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s anybody playing better than him over the last game and a half, he was incredible. So he was a huge part of taking care of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar to what he did against LSU, Aberdeen took control of the offense against Tennessee. He was navigating ballscreens with precision, carefully weaving through the lane to get to his spots. He shot 3-5 from deep and 4-5 on two-pointers in the second half while playing all 20 minutes. Aberdeen only racked up a pair of assists, but he did so without turning the ball over once. He even recorded a couple of steals along the way. <\/p>\n

After picking up two early fouls to open the game, Aberdeen spent most of his first half on the bench, but he responded in a way that someone who has won a national championship would know how to. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Aberdeen was terrific in the second half,\u201d Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes<\/a> said<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cIt didn\u2019t matter who was guarding them. He got it where he wanted to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t always been a productive season for Aberdeen \u2014 or for Kentucky as a whole, for that matter \u2014 but he\u2019s coming alive at the perfect time for this team. That\u2019s now two straight games the Wildcats have looked dead in the water in the first half on the road, only to find enough courage down the stretch to pull off seemingly miraculous wins, in large part due to Aberdeen\u2019s impressive production.<\/p>\n

You can say what you want about this group, but you can\u2019t say they lack a willingness to respond. Having a player like Aberdeen help spark that mindset certainly helps. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what situation we\u2019re in, we never put our heads down,\u201d Aberdeen said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In back-to-back road games, Denzel Aberdeen has saved Kentucky down the stretch. We\u2019re just a few days removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,14352],"class_list":{"0":"post-543948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denzel-aberdeen-22-dr-phillips"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115913669455217587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}