Thursday Headlines: Todd Golden sounds salty about losing Denzel Aberdeen to Kentucky

SB Nation

Denzel Aberdeen spent three seasons at the University of Florida. In his third season, Aberdeen played almost 20 minutes per game, a key piece to Florida’s national championship team.

After helping the

Gators hoist the trophy in San Antonio, Aberdeen took a big step… transferring to Kentucky.

Florida Head Coach Todd Golden has insinuated Aberdeen’s decision to leave Florida was based off money, but hasn’t said that directly. At SEC Tipoff, he made the same insinuation as well.

“We love Denzel,” Golden told Kentucky Sports Radio. “Incredibly grateful for the contributions he made to our program. He was a huge part of our national championship team. He was a guy that came with us right when we got the job. The reality is, we would have loved to have Denzel back, and there were other things that were more important to him than what we had to offer at this point.”

Golden told KSR everybody has different priorities.

“Every person — whether you’re a player or coach — has different things that are important to them when making decisions. Unfortunately, ours didn’t align. We would’ve loved to have him back.”

Aberdeen averaged just under 8 points per game coming off the bench for the Gators last season while shooting 35 percent from three. He’s going to be a key piece in Kentucky’s backcourt this season, as the Cats look to hoist the trophy in Indianapolis.