While we are wrapping up a frustrating 2025-2026 Kentucky basketball season, the first domino for 2026-2027 has fallen with news that Braydon Hawthorne will be back. Now, the redshirt makes a ton of sense.
Braydon Hawthorne's redshirt was a major story
When it was announced that Braydon Hawthorne would be redshirting, most fans were totally okay with it. He was a late bloomer; he got all the way to a 4-star recruit, decommitted from West Virginia, and decided to spend his college career in Lexington.
At 6'8 and 175 coming into college, a year would allow his body to mature and get stronger before jumping into SEC play. Then the injuries started happening, and the losses piled up, and fans began to question whether or not it would be worth it to burn the redshirt. But for Hawthorne, the redshirt year has allowed him to put on nearly 20 pounds of muscle.
"I feel like physicality has been really big for me here recently." That is a huge difference for a guy who will be battling for rebounds and having to hold position without getting knocked off the ball.
"I feel like I can initiate contact way better than I could when I got here...And I can take contact, as well. I can feel the difference in my body, as well. People are telling me that I look like I’m filling out a little bit more...Now I’m starting to realize it."
Unlike in college football, one single second of gametime means you can no longer redshirt. And while we have got to change that rule, it is what it is for now. The redshirt has really helped Hawthorne, and fans should expect to see a much stronger version next year.
But with Kentucky struggling, Pope was asked about Hawthorne's status almost weekly.
Mark Pope reaffirms that the staff is always looking at options
When asked, Pope would just say that everything is on the table and the staff is always engaged in conversations about whether to play him or not. But a late injury to his ankle made it seem like the redshirt was written in the stars.
But in today's NIL-fueled Transfer Portal era, a redshirt often means the kid will use your program as a development year and then transfer over to another school. Essentially, BBN was worried that Hawthorne would get paid, take a year to get his body ready, and then never step foot on the court in Rupp Arena.
That is completely fair, but with Braydon Hawthorne telling the Lexington Herald-Leader that he will be back next year, any doubt of the redshirt should be gone.
"I wouldn’t say it’s been difficult...But there are times where you think about, ‘Man, I was a top-50 recruit last year, and I haven’t played in a year.’ But that’s when you just gotta be mentally strong and just keep your mind straight on what the goal is."Braydon Hawthorne
A confident Braydon Hawthorne doesn't think anyone can stop him
When asked who was the toughest player to defend, Hawthorne just smiled and said, "Nobody." And if you were worried about his offense, he was asked who the toughest defender was. He said Otega Oweh, “He challenges me,” Hawthorne said, “But I tell him every day, he still can’t stop me.”
When you are a freshman, and you have that sort of confidence in your game going up against one of the best on-ball defenders in the SEC, that speaks volumes about where you are mentally.
And now Kentucky will get that version of Braydon, one that has been through a year of practice, a year in the weight room, and a year of proving he can do it at the top level. And he still has 4 years to play.
The redshirt may not be as popular as it once was, but in a case like this, it will pay dividends seen in the next few years.
Now the question is who will join Hawthorne in Lexington?