{"id":702662,"date":"2026-04-07T05:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/702662\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T05:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:08:14","slug":"kentucky-guard-denzel-aberdeen-enters-ncaa-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/702662\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky guard Denzel Aberdeen enters NCAA transfer portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to On3\u2019s Pete Nakos<\/a>, Kentucky<\/a> guard Denzel Aberdeen<\/a> has entered the NCAA transfer portal<\/a>. Aberdeen spent just one season in Lexington after winning a national championship with the Florida Gators<\/a>. Just around a year later, Aberdeen is once again on the move. A big-time name to hit the open market.<\/p>\n

Aberdeen is a native of Orlando, FL, and committed to play for the in-state Gators out of high school. Three seasons were spent there, seeing his role increasingly grow. By the time he was firmly part of the rotation for head coach Todd Golden<\/a>, Florida was worthy of cutting down the nets. Aberdeen averaged 7.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.4 assists over 39 games played \u2014 only five of which were starts.<\/p>\n

Entering the transfer portal turned into a controversial decision. Especially when his destination was revealed, choosing to play for an SEC rival. Kentucky welcomed the guard with open arms, though. Mark Pope<\/a> was putting together a roster many thought was capable of doing what Aberdeen had just done at Florida. To say there were rave reviews about the guard would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenzel is awesome, man,\u201d Pope said of Aberdeen early in the season<\/a>. \u201cHe is. He\u2019s pretty good about not carrying emotional weight around with him\u00a0because you can during the course of a game.\u00a0You can just start to pile on emotional weight, good and bad and sideways and all the things. He\u2019s pretty good about not carrying a bunch of emotional weight. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a pretty\u00a0special competitor\u2019s heart\u00a0where he just is \u2014 he\u2019s a good model for our guys in the sense of he\u2019s just on to the next thing. He\u2019s not carrying a ton of baggage with him, and I think that\u2019s one of the reasons why he functioned at a pretty high level in this game on the road. He\u2019s pretty used to just\u00a0moving on to the next play, next play, next play. That\u2019s something our team will get really good at, but we\u2019re not great\u00a0at yet in a tough environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it does not appear as if a second year will take place for Aberdeen and Kentucky. He has also played in four seasons of college basketball, meaning eligibility questions will come up as well. But for now, Aberdeen finds himself in the transfer portal. Finding a third school for a fifth season in the sport is the goal moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to On3\u2019s Pete Nakos, Kentucky guard Denzel Aberdeen has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Aberdeen spent just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,14352],"class_list":{"0":"post-702662","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\/116361698300564531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702662","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=702662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}