Denzel Aberdeen had four 3-pointers against South Carolina. (UK Athletics Photo)
If there’s one Kentucky player who probably does not get the credit he deserves this season it is senior Denzel Aberdeen.
He transferred from Florida to Kentucky to become a productive shooting guard and have a bigger role than he did on Florida’s national championship team last season. Instead, he’s had to transition into UK’s starting point guard because of a season-ending injury to Jaland Lowe.
He is the team’s second leading scorer at 12.9 points per game and now leads the team with 92 assists — 3.5 per game. He’s also second on the team with 46 3-pointers and has been a 79 percent shooter at the foul line, 37 percent from 3 and 43.6 percent overall from the field.
The senior guard delivered one of his best performances at South Carolina Tuesday in a must-win game for Kentucky. He hit three straight 3-pointers in less than two minutes in the first half to turn a 15-13 South Carolina lead into a 22-15 UK lead as part of a 13-0 Kentucky run.
“We needed a game from him,” UK coach Mark Pope said after the game. “He’s been a little quieter the last few games, and I thought he carried us tonight, which we needed. We needed him to do it, and he rose up and got the job done.”
Aberdeen finished the game 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting that included four 3-pointers. He also had four rebounds, all in the first half, to help UK dominate the backboards.
If that wasn’t enough, his defense was probably as good as it has been all season. He also did not have a turnover in 37 minutes — a huge plus since his teammates committed 15 turnovers. He led the team with five assists.
“For him to be a five-zero in a little bit of a messy game — a little bit of a different energy game — it was important,” Pope said. “His line is just really, really impressive, and he continues to grow into this point guard role. And we’re proud of him. We need him.”
Aberdeen hopes it is the start of a big finish for Kentucky.
“We just gotta get back to what Kentucky basketball was,” he said. “We had to make sure and get a win. As a matter of fact, the rest of these games, we have to make sure and win. So we just wanted to come in, secure the win and just keep going from here.”
7 Responses
Oweh and Aberdeen playing hero ball have won some games for us, but they have also lost some games for us and not just on the offensive side but their defense runs at 80% effort at times.
Saturday shaping up to be another Unwatchable!
Boy you two guys are sure full of sunshine and rainbows. I guess each to his own but you guys sound like you are just plain miserable.
Not miserable Oldgoat, just honest.
Well Barry, I'm an optimist and with losing 3 starters what did you think was gonna happen, this team will have struggles with some of the better teams in this league I'm surprised they have won as many as they have. What team in any league would be able to flourish losing 3 starters, our very short bench is definitely not lighting up the stat sheets… I have faith in Pope and our team and I believe he will turn this program around and, get us on the right track. So can you think of a team this season that could handle losing 3 starters?????
Oldgoat, JQ NEVER was healthy enough to play this season. The 4 games he did appear in have caused him to fall out of being a lottery pick in the draft and only one appearance was decent enough for us to get a win (St. John's). Pope NEVER should have recruited JQ; so his injury doesn't count. If Pope had signed a healthy big, this season might have been different.
Lowe was a shoot first ball hog that wasn't sturdy enough to play in the SEC. Everyone knew he was such. We needed a PASS FIRST point guard who could play defense; Pope blew that call. He NEVER played more than a couple of halves in the regular season. Again, a bad recruiting decision.
Williams only had 2 decent games all season before getting hurt and both helped us get wins, but he was a non factor in the rest of the games he appeared in. Most figured it would take a year or two for him to adjust to the higher level of competition, so to say his injury two thirds of the way through the season is a reason for this sucky season is laughable.
Every team experiences injuries, but 2 of our injured players were predictable, the other wasn't ready to play. Using them as an EXCUSE for such a sucky season is ludicrous. Some would call them unfortunate; most would say they were self-inflicted from a recruiting standpoint.
Pope gave in to letting Oweh, Aberdeen, Dioubate, and Garrison play hero ball which will get you wins 60 to 65% of the time, with the remaining third going down as losses. Pope has wasted the talents of Jelavic and Noah, and severely limited the talent of Moreno with this hero ball decision.
Will Pope do a complete 180 and start being a real coach again next season? Most, including me, doubt it very seriously. Rah Rahs like you just don't have the knowledge or honesty to call this experiment a failure. Pope understands the assignment, he just doesn't have a clue as how to accomplish it. I like Pope, but he should go back to medical school and do something he can be good at. He was never cut out to be a blueblood program head basketball coach. The ONLY reason he got the job was because NOBODY else would take it. Pope's cheerleader approach failed miserably. He has took us back to the Billy Clyde days of mediocrity. We need to find a coach who can lead us back to being a top blueblood program. Rah Rah Rah!!!
Well you are the only laying out excuses I simply asked you to tell me what team could flourish if they lost three starters and I didn't see where you answered my question…and didn't you know mm is playing through an ankle sprain… Anyhow I appreciate the back and forth, I see you are passionate about UKBB, fans almost never agree on who does what better pertaining to the players so nice chatting with you GO BIG BLUE… But Pope ain't nowhere billy G territory… Lol