A building block for Kentucky basketball? This freshman could be a future star
Kentucky fans might not see too much of Braydon Hawthorne on the basketball court this season.
But talk to those who have been regulars in the Joe Craft Center over the past several weeks, and his name is bound to come up relatively quickly in the conversation.
No matter the observer’s expectations or areas of focus going into these UK summer practice sessions, the long, lanky teenager from West Virginia always seems to stick out.
Officially listed at 6-8 and 175 pounds with a 7-3 wingspan, Hawthorne, according to those who have seen him up close this summer, is a tempest of arms and legs on the court — a whirlwind of basketball activity with a can-do-a-little-bit-of-everything skill set to back it up.
Who’s typically been the first Wildcat in the gym this summer?
That would be Hawthorne.
“He’s in here at like 7:45, shooting,” teammate Kam Williams said. “And then after (morning practice), he shoots again.”
Who’s been the most impressive Wildcat this summer?
That would be Hawthorne, too, according to fellow freshman Jasper Johnson.
“He’s an elite player on both ends of the floor,” Johnson declared.
Where exactly on the court has Hawthorne been showing off these skills?
The answer there can be found in a question posed to the player himself. Who’s been the most difficult Wildcat to go up against in practice this summer, Hawthorne was asked.
Otega Oweh, Mouhamed Dioubate and Brandon Garrison, he replied.
That trio of UK players runs the positional spectrum. And that means Hawthorne has been playing …
“Everywhere,” he confirmed.
Asked to lay out some “realistic expectations” for the upcoming season, Kentucky coach Mark Pope offered a reminder that he doesn’t care for realistic expectations. He then immediately teased a longer-term vision. A whopper of one, in fact.
“He is a unique player. I can’t wait till you guys get to watch him and see him on the court,” Pope started. “I was with Tayshaun Prince for quite a while, maybe a week ago, and he just — build, body, skill set — there’s a whole bunch of Tayshaun Prince in this kid.”
Eyebrows were raised.
“I know those are big words,” Pope acknowledged. “Tayshaun Prince is one of the best players to ever play here and had an incredible NBA career — a championship NBA career.”
Turns out, it wasn’t an original thought. Hawthorne’s high school coach made the exact same comparison years ago.
Like with Prince, first impressions of Hawthorne can be deceiving.
That first look is all limbs. Take the time to actually soak in his game, however, and you see it.
“He’s one of those types of players that you just have to watch a lot — and watch very closely — to really, fully appreciate who he is as a player,” 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham said. “Because when you see him for the first time — when you see his frame and just how skinny he is — it kind of scares you a little bit.”
Braydon Hawthorne finds Kentucky
Branham has seen Hawthorne play far beyond that first impression.
The Kentucky-based recruiting analyst estimated that he watched the UK newcomer in person around a dozen times this past high school season, which Hawthorne spent at Huntington Prep, just a few miles across the state line into West Virginia.
“The frame does scare you,” Branham said of that lanky body and the way Hawthorne uses it on the court. Often with reckless abandon, that is.
“People see his frame, and they’ll question his toughness and start saying he’s soft. And it’s like, ‘No. He’s just not very strong right now.’ But you watch him, there’s an edge and a competitiveness about the kid,” Branham continued. “He’s really smart and instinctive on the court. He defends multiple positions. He covers a ton of ground with his size and length to block shots. He contests shots on the perimeter and also contests to block shots on the inside. And he has a ton of skill. He’s very comfortable putting the ball on the ground, can create his own shot, make shots off the catch and pull, and is also a very good passer for the position.”
So, just about everything.
As Branham watched Hawthorne more closely over the course of last season, all of those things stood out. Huntington Prep played a national schedule, and that helped solidify Hawthorne’s status as a player to pay attention to in the 2025 recruiting class.
When the new year began — just a few weeks into his senior season of high school — he was slotted at No. 150 nationally in the 247Sports rankings. By the time that list was finalized a couple of months ago, he was ranked No. 33 in the country.
Of those dozen or so instances in which Branham watched him play, there were no duds. He delivered every time.
“For kids with that type of build, that’s always something you’re looking for, is just how consistent they are on a nightly basis. And he was always very consistent,” Branham said. “I always came away with him being one of my top performers in these national events that he was playing in.”
Hawthorne is a West Virginia kid, through and through. He’s from Beckley, and that’s where his family still resides. (The move to Huntington was purely for basketball reasons, an opportunity to play tougher competition before college.)
He committed to play for West Virginia last October, as soon as the home-state school came through with a scholarship offer. He signed with the Mountaineers a few weeks later.
“Braydon has tremendous upside …,” WVU coach Darian DeVries said then. “His skill, shooting and length — as well as being a 4.0 student and West Virginia native — are things we valued in his recruitment.”
A few months after that, DeVries took the Indiana job. Hawthorne reopened his recruitment, and his newfound status as a coveted recruit with a national profile led to all kinds of opportunities.
Duke offered. Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech made his final list. West Virginia’s new coaching staff tried to keep him in the fold. Kentucky was ultimately the landing spot.
Hawthorne admits that he didn’t watch much college basketball as a kid — “I wish I did,” he says now — and so he didn’t have quite the attachment to the Wildcats as so many of his peers who watched John Calipari’s star-studded, one-and-done rosters use Lexington as a springboard to nine-figure contracts in the NBA.
But Hawthorne did attend a couple of father-son basketball camps on Calipari’s watch, his dad loading him up in the car for the nearly 250-mile trek from Beckley to UK’s campus. He was 7 or 8 years old at the time, he said.
“I met Willie Cauley-Stein,” the now-19-year-old recalled last week. “And that’s all I can really remember.”
He added later that he did remember the sense of importance around the sport of basketball in these parts. That obviously stuck with him. And now he’s right in the middle of it.
More recently, Pope’s plan for him stood out, too. His outlook for the short term? Hard to say. For the long term? Pope has made it clear that he sees Hawthorne as a future pro.
“Just to come in with the mindset of getting better every day and just working on myself and then being there for my teammates and trying to win a championship,” the player said. “… And if I can get minutes — just keep earning what I can get.”
A future with UK basketball
Earning meaningful playing time as a freshman is likely to be a heavy lift.
Kentucky’s 2025-26 roster is deep. So deep, in fact, that it’s difficult to come up with a scenario — based on general expectations at the moment — that includes Hawthorne in the top 10, as far as projected playing time.
Lots can change between now and November, of course. And even more can change between November and March. Maybe there are injuries. Maybe Hawthorne is better than predicted right off the bat. Maybe something else leads to immediate opportunities.
But playing time in year one is background noise right now.
Hawthorne — and Pope, and everyone else paying attention — knows that for him to get to where he ultimately wants to go, he’ll need to take it more slowly than he’d probably prefer.
The first order of business will be getting his body ready for the grind of big-boy basketball.
“I’ve gained 10 pounds so far,” he said proudly. “Trying to gain like five more pounds before the summer is over.”
Hawthorne is in the weight room all the time. He’s staying on top of his meals, which means no long gaps between eating. The plan this summer has been four meals per day, ideally with a hearty snack in between each one.
“I don’t have a calorie count,” he said. “I just really eat everything I see, to be honest.”
Pope, a former medical school student who still nerds out over kinesiology-related topics, got that familiar look on his face while discussing Hawthorne last week.
“You rarely talk about a guy’s ankle mobility, but that was the first thing that my performance team said,” Pope said excitedly. “They were like, ‘His ankle mobility is insane.’ And when you see him cut and move, that’s the way it feels. Like he’s kind of all arms and legs, but he can change direction. He can get downhill. And he’s got impressive length. He’s gonna be really fun.”
It’ll just take some time.
The original plan when Hawthorne committed to West Virginia called for him to largely watch and learn in year one, perhaps even redshirt.
That was before his breakout senior season — 23.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game against that national schedule — and Hawthorne might be past such talk now. His teammates are already seeing the flashes.
“What stands out about him is, like, he can really shoot the ball. And his arms are long. So even if you get him with a move, he’s still there,” Williams said. “You get three steps ahead of him, he’s still there. And he can jump, too. That’s like an underrated thing in his game that no one really talks about, but he can jump.”
And he continues to improve at a relatively rapid rate.
“He’s been learning — adjusting to the physicality,” Johnson said. “He’s an elite player on both ends of the floor. He uses athleticism and his length to contest shots. I know everything’s coming to him fast, just like the rest of us, but he’s definitely progressing.”
Barring the unforeseen, a redshirt seems unlikely. But don’t expect him to be a star either. Or even a regular role player. Not yet, at least.
So far, Hawthorne is saying all the right things.
How much does he expect to play? However much Pope sees fit, he said.
What did he think about his coach’s “ankle mobility” excitement? “I guess I can move really well for my size,” he said humbly.
And back to those Tayshaun Prince comparisons … might he one day hit five 3-pointers to start off a game against North Carolina, as Prince did 24 years ago? Hawthorne laughed loudly. “I don’t know about that,” he replied.
Temper the expectations for now. And see what happens down the line.
“I don’t expect that we’re going to see too much of him this season,” Branham said. “And I do not say that as a slight on Braydon, but more of that speaks to the depth of this roster. And that’s a good thing for Braydon. There’s no pressure for him to have to come in and try to fight it out in the SEC every single night. He can really take his time.”
The analyst went on to say that he got to know Hawthorne very well over the course of last season. And he found a player who’s “comfortable” with not playing much at all this season as long as that development stays on track.
That means a focus on improving his game, developing his body, staying ready if his number is called and preparing himself for bigger things in the future.
“And that’s a special trait you don’t find often in players these days,” Branham said. “So he’s one that I’m really excited about. And based on what I’ve been hearing out of the preseason, it sounds like he’s already turning a lot of heads down in the Joe Craft Center. So there’s a chance we see a little bit more of him than I think. It’s just that body — it’s going to need some time before he’s really able to play some extended minutes.
“But, again, I think he’s one that Kentucky fans should be pretty excited about in the years ahead.”
