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Todd Golden expects Florida fans to 'let him have it' during Denzel Aberdeen's return to Gainesville

Barkley-Truaxby: Barkley Truax02/14/26BarkleyTruax

No. 25 Kentucky travels to No. 14 Florida on Saturday afternoon for a matchup between two ranked teams in the SEC. It also marks the return of Kentucky standout Denzel Aberdeen to Gainesville, who won a national championship under Todd Golden last season.

Golden joined ESPN College GameDay on Saturday ahead of the matchup. The Florida Gators head coach said that he appreciated everything Aberdeen had done for the Gators during three seasons in Gainesville.

“He’s a great kid,” Golden told GameDay host Jay Williams. “Obviously, he made a decision that he thought was best for him. I’m pretty confident that the people here in the O-Dome today a little bit. Hopefully, respectfully, of course, but I imagine every time he touches the ball, they’re going to be let him have it a little bit. And my hope is our guys don’t allow him to get comfortable at his old stomping grounds, either.”

It’s become customary fans to boo players who transfer away, then return to their previous team’s home court while donning their new team’s logo. Golden expects the same out of Gators faithful on Saturday.

Aberdeen has one of the driving forces to Kentucky’s surge over the past several weeks. He’s the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer with 12.3 points per game. Aberdeen is also UK’s leading passes with 3.2 assists per game for Mark Pope’s squad.

These are career-high numbers for Aberdeen, who played 83 games for the Gators over three seasons. However, he made just five starts over that span after failing to crack the starting lineup during his first two seasons. Still, he finished his Florida career on top of the college basketball world with a national championship.

“He’s going to come in here, he’s gonna be trying to get some baskets and trying to play well,” Golden continued. “We’re gonna have our five on the floor, 11,000 inside the O-Dome, doing our best to make it hard on him today.”

Tip-off between the Gators and Wildcats is set for 3 p.m. ET and will air live on ABC. Notably, Kentucky has won the last six games its played in Gaineville.