The former Florida Gator is now a current Florida Gator and his new (and old) head coach expects him to finish his career playing as a Florida Gator. Life is weird right now for Denzel Aberdeen as a Marfo transfer without any remaining eligibility, but Todd Golden believes things will normalize right on time for him going into their last ride together.

Aberdeen won a national championship with Florida in 2025 before unexpectedly hitting the portal that offseason and making the intraconference move to Kentucky. It was a polarizing decision to leave — one financially driven and the role that came with that pay bump — but nothing personal for either party.

Then when the opportunity to reunite presented itself this offseason, both sides were ready to go.

“I think it was one of those things where we’re constantly evolving in this new world, trying to sort out through the rev shares, through the NILs, and it’s not always going to be a perfect discussion. And we each kind of went our separate ways last year, and that’s the nature of this business right now,” Golden said of Aberdeen’s departure and return. “… There were no hard feelings. There was animosity that way between him and I. And it was a very quick conversation. It’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to come back?’ He’s like, ‘Yes, I do.’ I was like, ‘All right, great. Let’s go.’”

Both sides learned from their time apart this past season, Aberdeen growing as a starting-caliber player away from the comfort of his home in Florida. He got to be under the spotlight at Kentucky while taking and growing from criticism and closing out the year as a major bright spot for the program.

“He’s a very good offensive player. I thought he did a great job for Kentucky. They obviously dealt with a lot of injuries and some inconsistency with their lineups, but he was always very consistent and he delivered for them every night,” Golden continued. “I think him and (Otega) Oweh were clearly their two best players and the guys that delivered consistently. That was a big jump for ‘Zel from the year before, where he came off the bench for us. So, impressed with the consistency that he displayed.”

All of that is great, but there is an obvious elephant in the room: Will Aberdeen even get to play in 2026-27? On paper, he’s out of eligibility, playing four seasons in four years. The NCAA is considering a move to five years of eligibility in five years, but will departing seniors be grandfathered in? If not, will those players fight for another season in court?

For Aberdeen specifically, Golden believes his case is ‘common sense’ for the NCAA and is confident he’ll get cleared. The Gators are claiming that the freshman season, in which he played just 41 minutes — three percent of the team’s total in 33 games — should not be held against him. If a college football player can play four games out of 12 and maintain a redshirt, why can’t a college basketball player have the same flexibility, especially if we’re moving toward five in five anyway?

“This isn’t a 27-year-old trying to play his eighth year in college at his sixth different school. This is a 22-year-old within his five-year clock coming back to get his degree, and I think it would be a really weird stance to try to fight him from playing,” Golden said. “Now, if he had played 30 games and played 15 minutes a night, we wouldn’t be going down this path. But to me there’s a common sense approach on Denzel that I think should be solved pretty quickly. …

“Listen, we missed him last year and he missed us. I think he had a good experience at Kentucky, but obviously we’re going to fight to get his additional year and allow him to be a part of our team and play again.”

Fans joked about Aberdeen hitting the portal without eligibility and returning to Florida, but the Gators are clearly serious about this move. It’s not just for show — D.A. is back in the blue and orange to play (and win). He joins an absolutely loaded roster that also includes Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Boogie Fland and, likely, Rueben Chinyelu.

Kentucky has some work to do this offseason if it wants to compete with Florida in the SEC this go-round.