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Florida's Top Storyline Has Everything to do With Denzel Aberdeen
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- Florida's Top Storyline Has Everything to do With Denzel Aberdeen
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
The University of Florida will have one of the more intriguing games of the opening night in college basketball, taking on a No. 14-ranked Miami team that many believe has a chance to be one of the best squads in not just the ACC, but all of the country, with national championship expectations.
As for Florida, there's a strong argument to be made that this is the best team in the country by a somewhat wide margin.
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All Florida has done throughout the past couple of years is win at a high level, and with all the guys returning, as well as some transfer additions, there's no reason why the Gators can't be among the best teams in college basketball.
Perhaps the biggest storyline, however, is Denzel Aberdeen.
Aberdeen, now a fifth-year senior, started his career at the University of Florida. He played three seasons for the Gators, starting in just five games throughout that span.
The young man took a chance by going to the University of Kentucky last season and really showed why he's one of the better players in college basketball.
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He ended up averaging 13.5 points per game, shooting 36.3% from three-point range on 4.8 attempts per game. Throughout the offseason, there were plenty of questions about whether he was going to be eligible or not. Florida got some good news in October that he was going to be good to play, and as of now, it seems like he's in a good spot to play for the rest of the season.
The Athletic recently named him one of the more interesting players in the country, however, and a lot of it is because of everything that happened throughout the offseason.
"Few better represent the state of college athletics than Aberdeen, who transferred to Florida from rival Kentucky a year after transferring to Kentucky from rival Florida, and whose participation was made possible by a temporary injunction.
"It's still possible another judge could take that eligibility away at some point. For now, Aberdeen is a crucial cog for a Florida team with a bountiful frontcourt and a need for better guard play than a year ago," Joe Rexrode of The Athletic wrote .
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Florida has to be mindful that it could lose an eligibility case throughout the year with Aberdeen, though this is something that's going to happen to others in college basketball, not just Florida.
It remains uncertain right now what the NCAA plans to do with all of this, but it certainly does lead to some intrigue about how teams are going to look in March compared to November, when a lot of these guys are playing.
There are also a lot of players around the country not playing to start the season, so to put things as nicely as possible, this college basketball season is going to be absolutely ridiculous with all of the things that pop up over the next couple of weeks to months.
