UK basketball plans to redshirt a player for the 2025-26 season
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball coach Mark Pope says Reece Potter will redshirt 2025-26 season.
- Potter previously played two college seasons at Miami (Ohio).
- Potter is a former local high school basketball star at Lexington Catholic.
Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope said Thursday afternoon that UK junior forward Reece Potter is planning to redshirt the 2025-26 season.
Potter, who transferred this offseason to Kentucky, previously played two college seasons at Miami (Ohio). Potter is a Lexington native who was a prep basketball star at Lexington Catholic High School.
“Reece is committed right now to redshirt,” Pope said. “So we’re expecting to redshirt Reece, unless something changes, which always can happen.”
This would drop Kentucky’s number of contributing players to 13 for this season. UK’s 16-player roster also includes two walk-ons in Walker Horn and Zach Tow.
Potter wasn’t available to play in Kentucky’s first exhibition game against Purdue due to illness. He didn’t play in UK’s final exhibition contest against Georgetown University. Potter didn’t dress for UK’s season-opening win over Nicholls on Tuesday night.
Listed at 7-foot-1 on UK’s roster, Potter played in 56 games over the last two seasons for the RedHawks. Across his two seasons at Miami, Potter averaged 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game, while shooting 45.4% from the field and 39.8% from 3-point range.
His standout prep career at LexCath included being named the 11th Region’s player of the year as a high school senior during the 2022-23 campaign. Potter was also the 2023 Lexington Player of the Year, as named by the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com, after averaging 17.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game as a senior.
Whenever Potter does take the floor for the Wildcats, he will become the 88th UK basketball player from Lexington. Potter will also become the first recruited, scholarship player from Lexington to play for UK in the 21st century. (UK freshman guard Jasper Johnson is a Lexington native who lists the city as his hometown, but he played his high school basketball at Woodford County in Versailles before transferring out of state.)
“Kentucky’s the top place for basketball. So that was always the dream, to be able to compete at this level, be able to be at the top school,” Potter told the Herald-Leader last month. “... Growing up, it was never really, like, a set thing. I was never really like, ‘I have to play at Kentucky.’ But now that I’m here, it’s awesome being able to live this dream of mine.”
In total, Potter is one of four recruited, scholarship players from the commonwealth on Kentucky’s roster, along with Johnson, freshman center Malachi Moreno and sophomore forward Trent Noah. It’s the first time in 20 years that a UK squad features four recruited, scholarship players from Kentucky.
“Reece Potter, guys, is a big-time basketball player, and we’re really blessed to have Reece Potter here,” Pope said last month at UK’s media day. “In this time of (revenue) share and NIL being such a huge part of this, Reece Potter was a guy that said ‘You know what, I’m coming to be a part of Kentucky.’ He has given us so much. Like, he’s really special. He’s a big-time player. He’s going to have a great future in this game.”
UK basketball may also redshirt Braydon Hawthorne this season
Pope said Potter was set to redshirt this season in response to a question from the Herald-Leader about the potential of a redshirt season for freshman forward Braydon Hawthorne, who also didn’t feature in UK’s season opener.
Pope said “we don’t know yet” in response to the potential of Hawthorne — a late-rising recruit who committed to UK in May — redshirting this season.
“With BH, we’re still trying to feel the waters a little bit,” Pope added about Hawthorne. “I’ll be cautious about him. I’m not going to burn (a season of eligibility). We’re having conversations right now about how we feel about that and what’s best for him. It’s an ongoing conversation.”
Hawthorne was a four-star recruit in this year’s recruiting class. He was ranked as the No. 114 overall prospect in the class by the 247Sports Composite.
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 12:51 PM.
