GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — When Denzel Aberdeen toured the Florida basketball facility in April, he nonetheless had the locker room code.
It hadn’t modified. Little had, actually.
Aberdeen’s return to the Gators has been largely clean regardless of ready 5 months to get cleared to play. Circuit court docket decide George Wright n this week that offered him a fifth yr of school eligibility.
“I all the time thought I ought to get (cleared) as a result of I performed towards fifth years, sixth years, seventh years my entire life,” Aberdeen mentioned Thursday. “Simply considering that rule applies for us as properly. … Really feel prefer it was truthful.”
The choice ought to make Florida a well-liked — presumably unanimous — alternative as preseason No. 1.
“No different staff within the nation has what we obtained occurring proper now,” Florida ahead Thomas Haugh mentioned.
Aberdeen was the ultimate piece — and an essential one.
The 6-foot-5 guard performed three seasons at Florida earlier than transferring to Kentucky final yr. He re-enrolled at Florida following an official go to — a mere formality — and began working towards ending his undergraduate diploma this summer season.
He has labored out and practiced with the Gators since, seamlessly rejoining teammates in practically each facet of their day by day lives. The potential for lacking one other yr of school hoops, although, loomed.
“He trusted us and sort of the plan we laid out for him,” coach Todd Golden mentioned. “Guys in our program, I feel, would say the identical factor. You wouldn’t know that this man was sort of hanging within the stability of whether or not he’s going to go to play an extra yr or not.
“I feel it speaks to his maturity and his belief in us. I feel he’s relieved now, however he does a great job of conserving his feelings inside. And it was by no means one thing that we had been involved about.”
Aberdeen expressed reduction in regards to the decide’s choice. He mentioned ready within the courtroom was extra nerve-wracking than something that occurred within the 2025 nationwide championship sport towards Houston.
He initially tried to persuade the NCAA that his freshman yr in Gainesville needs to be thought-about a redshirt season. The Orlando native performed solely 12 video games in 2022-23, scoring 19 factors in 41 whole minutes, and sought a waiver for an additional yr of eligibility.
However the NCAA denied that request and has since adopted an eligibility mannequin that may permit gamers in each sport 5 years of eligibility, with the clock beginning once they flip 19 or graduate from highschool, whichever is earlier.
That change led to lawsuits from four-year gamers in the highschool class of 2022, like Aberdeen.
“We felt like he had a really compelling case,” Golden mentioned. “He’s an excellent instance of a student-athlete who’s in progress in the direction of a level and obtained within the portal when he was purported to. And the NCAA has made it fairly clear they suppose 5 years is an efficient timeframe for student-athletes to graduate in, so we felt good about it.”
Now, the Gators really feel even higher about their probabilities on the court docket than they did within the court docket.
Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu turned down NBA riches to return for his or her senior seasons. Level guard Boogie Fland and 7 function gamers, together with Southeastern Convention sixth man of the yr City Klavzar, additionally stayed in Gainesville for an additional title run.
The defending nationwide champion Gators beat Aberdeen thrice final season earlier than shedding to Iowa within the second spherical of the NCAA Event. That sport gutted many Florida gamers, most notably Haugh, and helped hold the core intact.
Aberdeen watched from afar and knew he wished to rejoin Florida. He began 35 video games for the Wildcats final season, averaging 13.5 factors, 3.4 assists and a pair of.5 rebounds. He got here off the bench the earlier two years at Florida and averaged 7.7 factors as a junior in 2024-25.
“He’s again in his consolation zone,” Golden mentioned. “He’s enjoying actually, rather well. We’ve challenged him to defend actually exhausting. He’s put numerous pleasure into that. He’s rebounded properly. I feel he’s going to have an excellent yr for us.”
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