Kentucky basketball's Braydon Hawthorne redshirt a thorny issue

2 hours ago 1

LEXINGTON — The zero-sum game for Kentucky basketball and coach Mark Pope is what occurs on the court. Did the Wildcats win or lose? Simple.

Yet a fascinating scenario continues to transpire off the court, centered around the player who might be the team's best NBA prospect this side of Jayden Quaintance.

A lanky, 6-foot-8 freshman forward from West Virginia, Braydon Hawthorne has yet to play in a game for UK. But that possibility is discussed in Kentucky's coaching offices daily.

"All the decisions that reach my desk, very rational people could make opposing arguments," Pope said Dec. 12. "BH is getting so much better every day. And there's space — there's certainly space where he could help us. You never know how guys are going to be when the lights are on and when they're in limited minutes and all the things."

The primary complicating factor is obvious: The second he steps foot on the floor in a live game, Hawthorne's redshirt is gone. An entire season down the drain. Aside from injury waivers — and said injury must meet specific criteria to have a chance of a player winning such an appeal — that grant another season, there is no wiggle room in this area.

"There's that fear of, you put him out on the court for three minutes and he never plays again (this season)," Pope said. "And you're like, 'Man, coach, you just burned (my redshirt).' … I feel the responsibility. (Like), 'I just burned his year and there wasn't a ton of payoff.' I'm very sensitive. I want to make sure that we take care of him.

"He's a special talent. He's got a huge future. So, we've got to do it right."

Compare Pope's current quandary to that of his football counterparts. In college football, players can appear in up to four games before a redshirt is off the table. Always an advocate for more — he's beat the drum for college basketball to expand the regular season to 40 games from nearly the moment he took over his alma mater — Pope wishes the NCAA would offer more clarity on the eligibility front. Pope said he'd be fine with players having four seasons of eligibility, exhausting it in four years. He's also on board with athletes owning five seasons of eligibility, playing five straight years — a move ex-Kentucky coach John Calipari has grown increasingly vocal in championing.

Pope just wants to get rid of exemptions that keep players on campus beyond five years.

"Once we get in the exceptions game, it just gets so crazy complicated, and everybody's making an argument about every single thing," he said. "And I just think that the five-for-five space would feel good to me, four-for-four space. But in the meantime, we'll just do what we have (to do) and do the best with it."

Ironically, Hawthorne seems one of the least-likely candidates on the Wildcats' roster to stay in college that long.

His upside is immense.

Pope, as is his custom, didn't downplay expectations for Hawthorne. The coach frequently has compared Hawthorne with Tayshaun Prince, an all-time great at UK who went on to have a decorated NBA career, winning a title with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 and earning NBA All-Defensive second-team honors four times.

"Build, body, skill set, there's a whole bunch of Tayshaun Prince in this kid," Pope said July 21. "And I know those are big words. Tayshaun Prince is one of the best players to ever play here and had an incredible NBA career also. A championship NBA career."

It wasn't the first time Hawthorne had heard those words. His high school coach mentioned it to him well before Hawthorne was a member of the Wildcats.

"I can see some similarities," Hawthorne said in July. "Just the length defensively, shooting the ball — just being able to do really everything."

Despite his lack of game action, Hawthorne's progress has been pronounced from Pope's vantage point. Hawthorne, he said, is like "a sponge." He picks up concepts so quickly, it's hard to fathom. At the same time, Pope conceded Hawthorne still has "got so much learning and growing to do."

Emphasis on the latter.

Despite putting on approximately 15 pounds — Hawthorne was 175 during his senior season at Huntington High in Huntington, West Virginia; he's listed at 190 on UK's official roster — he's still rail thin.

His body merely needs to catch up with his tantalizing ability.

"He is so far away — but he's so close, actually," Pope said Nov. 6, just days after Kentucky's 2025-26 season tipped off. "Like, I think his progression is gonna be lightning speed, and we might not see it on the court for a while, but all of a sudden, he's going to step on the court and everyone's gonna be like, 'Where did he come from? And like, how is this happening?'"

How soon he'll finally suit up for the Wildcats is up in the air.

Until then, he's enjoying the ride.

"It means everything. ... As a little kid, I had (a) picture from (Kentucky's) father/son camp with me, my brother and my dad, just looking at that every day," Hawthorne said. "Now being here, it's an honor, to be honest with you."

That feeling is mutual in Pope's eyes.

As gifted as Hawthorne may be with a basketball in his hands, he's every bit as magnetic as a person.

"The best thing about him is his joy is just incredible, and he brings it every single day," Pope said. "And his laugh is contagious. And the guys love him. He loves the guys.

"He's gonna be a big-time basketball player."

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball debates whether to redshirt Braydon Hawthorne

Read Entire Article