Aaron Bradshaw has returned to Kentucky practice. His debut could be coming soon.
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Game day: No. 16 Kentucky 118, Marshall 82
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Marshall in Rupp Arena.
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More than two hours before Friday’s tipoff, Kentucky freshman Aaron Bradshaw was on the Rupp Arena court with UK assistant coach John Welch, going through a full pregame workout for the first time this season.
He’s clearly getting closer to his college basketball debut.
Bradshaw — a 7-1 post player from Roselle, New Jersey — was one of the top recruits in the 2023 class but has been sidelined since suffering a foot injury in late March. He underwent surgery in June and missed all of the Wildcats’ on-court activities during the summer, preseason and the first few weeks of the regular season.
He returned to the practice court for the first time earlier this week.
“It’s nice to have Aaron in the practices,” UK coach John Calipari said during his pregame interview Friday night. Calipari did clarify that Bradshaw has not gone through full-contact workouts yet.
Bradshaw was moving well and making shots at a high rate during his individual workout with Welch prior to Kentucky’s game against Marshall on Friday night. After the workout was finished, Bradshaw jogged through the tunnel toward the UK locker room, showing no signs of a setback with his injured foot.
Kentucky has been without all three of its 7-footers this season. Bradshaw and 7-0 center Ugonna Onyenso both suffered injuries during the offseason. Late addition Zvonimir Ivisic — a 7-2 recruit from Croatia — did not arrive on campus until Oct. 12 and is still waiting to be cleared as an amateur by the NCAA. Ivisic previously played for a professional team in Europe. He was not in Rupp Arena on Friday night due to an illness, the second game he’s missed this season for that reason.
Calipari has said multiple times that Onyenso is a couple of weeks behind Bradshaw with his recovery timeline.
Bradshaw arguably has as much upside as any player in college basketball.
The highly versatile 7-footer projects as an instant-impact defender — especially as a rim-protector — and has an offensive game that extends beyond the perimeter, with the ability to shoot and create for himself away from the basket. Bradshaw has been mentioned as a possible NBA lottery pick after this season, but the uncertainty around his injury has led some draft analysts to lower his standing in recent months. ESPN has him at No. 36 on its most recent list of the top NBA draft prospects for 2024.
His return to the court has been much anticipated by those around UK’s program.
“He’s going to have a great impact,” said D.J. Wagner, one of Bradshaw’s high school teammates, during the preseason. “Just on how good of a player — a great player — he is, and a great teammate he is. He’s still making an impact, just being a great teammate, supporting all of us. So we’re definitely excited for him to come back.”
Kentucky’s next game is Tuesday night against No. 10-ranked Miami, but Bradshaw is unlikely to be back in time for that matchup. After that, the Wildcats will play UNC Wilmington on Dec. 2.
This story was originally published November 24, 2023 at 6:36 PM.
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