Kentucky announces signing of Denzel Aberdeen, "a winner, in every sense of the word."

The final piece to Kentucky’s title-contention puzzle has put pen to paper, Denzel Aberdeen (pronounced AB-err-dean) officially signing with the Wildcats, Mark Pope announced Tuesday.

The rising senior spent three seasons at Florida and is coming off a national championship in 2024-25. Now, he’s going to help the Gators’ conference rival compete at the highest level in Lexington in 2025-26.

“Denzel is a winner, in every sense of the word.” Pope said. “He has won at every level of basketball and that’s all that he talks about. Zel is a great young man who works for everything he earns. He’s a three-level scorer and a rangy defender who has tremendous length.”

Aberdeen was the sixth man of Florida’s ’25 title squad, averaging 7.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 41.8% from the field, 35.0% from three and 70.8% from the free-throw line. Over three seasons in Gainesville, the newest Wildcat has averaged 5.1 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists per contest in 83 career games.

He appeared in all 39 games for the Gators this past season and made five starts, averaging 14.4 points while shooting 41.4% from three (12 for 29) in those starts. He also charted a 3.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. During the team’s NCAA Tournament run, the 6-5 guard averaged 6.0 points and 1.8 rebounds in 18.2 minutes per game while connecting on 50.0% of his field goals and 40.0% of his 3-pointers. His biggest performance came in the comeback win over Maryland, finishing with 12 points and a pair of 3-pointers to survive and advance to the Elite Eight.

As for other individual performances, he went for 13 points in his first career start while playing a career-high 35 minutes without committing a single turnover against Vanderbilt. In Florida’s upset win at No. 1 Auburn, he finished with 10 points, followed by a team-high 20 points in the win at No. 22 Mississippi State. From there, he added a career-high 22 points vs. South Carolina.

Aberdeen announced he would be exploring his options on April 18 and officially entered the portal on April 20, leading to immediate contact and interest from Kentucky. It was a school the 6-5 guard had his eye on from the beginning.

“That has been Denzel’s dream school from day one when he started basketball,” Aberdeen’s father, Ian, told KSR+ on Tuesday.

He was committed just a day later, and now, he’s signed.