Florida's Todd Golden hinted Boogie Fland would replace departing guard Denzel Abderdeen

The Florida Gators just cut down the nets a month ago, but that doesn’t mean they’re done building for the upcoming season. With the potential return of Alex Condon, the Gators could feature one of the tallest lineups in all of college basketball next year. Head coach Todd Golden has his sights set on Florida cutting down the nets once again.

However, the Gators lost one of their most exciting prospects for next season in Denzel Aberdeen. Aberdeen was expected to form a dynamic one-two punch at the guard position, but he chose to transfer to SEC rival Kentucky. Florida was also pursuing Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland while he was going through the NBA Draft process.

“If the star point guard decides to return to college, Florida may already have sunk their claws into him. And the price tag, according to Bo Mattingly of The Chuck & Bo Show, could top out at around $7 million,” Austin Farmer wrote.

Fland visited Florida on Monday and Tuesday.

“Florida coach Todd Golden and his staff will host Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland tomorrow and Tuesday. Gators are the clear favorites to land the scoring guard,” Jeff Goodman wrote.

The visit went so well on the first day that Fland committed on Tuesday morning.

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“Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland has committed to the defending NCAA champion University of Florida and head coach Todd Golden, Fland told ESPN. Fland, the 6-foot-3, former McDonald’s All-American, finds a new home in Golden’s uptempo system,” Shams Charania reported.

Interestingly, Golden seemed to hint at Fland’s eventual commitment when he commented on replacing Aberdeen.

“Losing Denzel Aberdeen was tough, but we wish him nothing but the best. I'm pretty confident we can find somebody to take that spot. The Gators are gonna have a really good group again next year,” Golden said.

Golden clearly had something up his sleeve when he made that comment earlier in the month. No one anticipated a splash as big as Fland, but Golden gave a subtle warning: someone big was on the way.