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During Kentucky’s four-game Southeastern Conference win streak going into Saturday’s game against Mississippi, point guard Denzel Aberdeen has been on a roll.
Aberdeen has averaged 18.5 points per game during the streak while shooting 55.3 percent (21 of 38) from the field, 52.9 percent (nine of 17) from 3, and 85.2 percent (23 of 27) at the foul line.
“He’s a big, physical guy with the ball, and sometimes a guy who has that stature with the ball in the middle of the court, he can get the places that some other guys can’t. And I thought he did that tonight,” Texas coach Sean Miller said after Aberdeen scored 19 points against his team Wednesday.
Aberdeen is now UK’s No. 1 point guard with Jaland Lowe out for the season and he’s responded well to the responsibility.
“We’ve been putting a lot on his shoulders and a lot on Otega’s shoulders. Those guys are logging big minutes for us right now, and he just had great poise. I was so proud of Denzel,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “One of the things, Texas is one of the best teams at not giving up assists, and they’re also one of the best teams at forcing your 2’s to be longer. I think they’re in the top 20 in the country in forcing you to take long 2s.
“What that means is you’re taking shots from 9 and 8 and 7 feet instead of shots at 6 and 5 and 4 feet. Their whole defense is built around that. And so when you come off ball screens, especially – our guys really screened today – you come off ball screens and you’re free, and they’re just teasing you into that play. They’re bringing a lot of pressure on the retreating guard they’re teasing into taking that 10-foot shot.
“He took a couple early – he can make that shot, – but then later in the game, he got really, really stubborn, kept his dribble alive and actually kept driving long enough for the Gortat (screen) to come into play, and then actually got shots at the rim and got fouls. That’s mature, mature, elite-level, high-IQ basketball to combat guys that are showing you a drop defense.”
Pope called Aberdeen’s play “spectacular” for the third straight game.
“Defensively, he was really special. Coach McLean was trying to slow me down because I was so excited about his defensive effort. He was like, ‘Coach, let’s wait and watch the film.’ But from my vantage point during the game, I thought he was really good defensively,” Pope said after the game.
4 Responses
He will need help from Johnson.
Aberdeen is better than Lowe would have been.
I agree when Aberdeen is on and playing in control he's almost unstoppable. I would play Chandler Aberdeen Oweh Jelavic and Moreno and let em run. We will have mo coming in for whoever is tired out of the bigs and Jasper coming in for Aberdeen or Chandler. Noah needs to be ready because when Oweh needs a rest he needs to come in and move the needle with a couple of 3s or a steal. You have to earn your time by your performance in the game as well as practice. I think Noah might guard Perry. I think he could keep up with him. Perry will hit a couple of 3s. He almost has to because he left Kentucky for playing time. He's only averaging 5 ppg which is about the same as Trent Noah for us. So how much was it really about playing time?
We are a point guard away from being a great team. If everyone remembers we had one of the top point guards in the 2025 class Acaden Lewis. If he was on our team we would be unstoppable. Hes playing for Villanove averaging 12.5 ppg 5.5 assist per game as a true freshman. He would certainly make a difference on this team. When we signed Lowe out of the Portal he kinda backed off. Which I dont like but I also think he thought he wouldn't play a lot as a backup PG. Lowe was expected to play 26+ mins per game that doesn't leave a lot for a backup PG. I also think about Travis Perry who might be starting for us at the point to shakeup the lineup. We are a point guard away from being great but it's also a good thing we have 2 combo guards in Jasper Johnson and Denzel Aberdeen. We have to make it work with who we have which are very talented players. I'm just saying we were very close to not having this problem if the dominoes would have fallen a little different.
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