Mark Story: Put in a tough situation, Denzel Aberdeen is proving a lot of people wrong

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jan 17, 2026

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — When Kentucky went into the locker room at halftime Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena down 42-31 to No. 24 Tennessee, Denzel Aberdeen had the Volunteers right where he wanted them.

For the second-straight game, Aberdeen turned in a stellar second half and led the Wildcats to their second-straight improbable road comeback win.

On Wednesday night at LSU, Aberdeen scored all 17 of his points in the second half as UK roared back from a 48-32 halftime deficit to take a 76-75 victory on Malachi Moreno’s buzzer beater.

On Saturday, the 6-foot-5, 195-pound Aberdeen controlled the second half with his decision-making and scored 18 of his 22 points after halftime as Kentucky (12-6, 3-2 SEC) rallied past Tennessee 80-78 before a shocked Volunteers’ home crowd of 21,678.

“Coming back (on) a team like (Tennessee) and a fan base like this and a tough crowd, this is amazing,” Aberdeen said.

Aberdeen left behind a likely starting role in the backcourt of defending national champion Florida to cast his lost with Kentucky via the transfer portal. Expected to start on the wing for UK, he instead became Kentucky’s accidental point guard due to the shoulder injury to Jaland Lowe and the recruiting defection of Acaden Lewis.

Forced into an unexpected role, Aberdeen’s play at the point early this season drew some harsh reviews. Well, don’t look now, but he has played back-to-back second halves like one of the better lead guards in men’s college basketball.

In the aftermath of UK’s fifth win over Tennessee in the past six meetings between the teams at Thompson-Boling, both coaches extolled the play of Aberdeen.

“I thought Denzel Aberdeen was ridiculous,” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said. “He was so good, really, (the game) came down to just putting the ball in his hands and saying, ‘Hey, let’s just extend this thing out and let’s try and you go attack space.’

“And he made every right decision, his ball protection. I mean, the ball was in his hands, it must have been in his hands for six minutes in the second half, which is crazy, right? And just made great decision after great decision.”

Said Tennessee coach Rick Barnes: “I thought Aberdeen was terrific in the second half. Didn’t matter where, he always got (the ball) where he wanted to go.”

Aberdeen sent the Volunteers a message that the second half Saturday was going to be different from the first by scoring UK’s first seven points after halftime.

As the half progressed, UT fought desperately to hold Kentucky off, yet Aberdeen refused to blink. His last five field goals of the second half either kept UK within at least four points of the Vols — or, in the case of his final bucket, gave UK a three-point lead.

Inside the final minute of the game, the Wildcats at last gained their first lead of the contest, 78-77, after a Collin Chandler steal led to an Otega Oweh layup with 34 seconds left.

Fouled, Oweh missed the free throw, but Kentucky’s Mo Dioubate dug out the offensive rebound. With the game in the balance, the Cats put the ball into Aberdeen’s hands.

A guy who scored seven points for Florida in its two-point win over Houston in last season’s NCAA championship game knows something about making shots under heightened game pressure.

With almost everyone in Thompson-Boling Arena on their feet, Aberdeen got downhill and into the lane. He went up amid bodies and made a contested six-footer that put UK up 80-77 with 16 seconds left.

That was the clinching bucket in what is easily the best win of the Kentucky season to date.

“We got to start off our first halves better,” Aberdeen said afterward with a smile. “But I’m just proud of the guys. We never put our head down, second half. We know (what) we have to do (to come back). We come together, we talk, we don’t complain or anything like that. It is just us putting our head down and creating plays for each other and still battling.”

From the wide view, we’re still in the middle of January, yet the 2025-26 Kentucky men’s hoops campaign has already been a wild ride.

What began as a season of high fan expectations instead got off to a rugged start. As things went awry with losses at Louisville and to Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga, Aberdeen took a good bit of incoming criticism for his play at the point.

While the “quarterback” and the coach always take the most fire when things go wrong, the harsh reviews of Aberdeen were a bit unfair.

It was circumstances, not Pope’s recruiting plan, that made the transfer wing from Florida into UK’s primary point guard.

Yet Aberdeen has persevered. Now, based on his play in the second half of Kentucky’s past two comeback victories, he is becoming a difference-making lead guard.

Said Pope: “I don’t know if there’s anybody playing better than him. Over the last game and a half, he was incredible.”

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