Braydon Hawthorne’s redshirt season is over. He’s ready to help UK basketball

There wasn’t much excitement inside Kentucky’s locker room on Sunday evening at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. A frustrating 2025-26 season for Mark Pope’s Cats had just ended in embarrassing fashion. UK was run off the court in an NCAA Tournament second-round game, with Iowa State handing Kentucky a comprehensive 82-63 defeat despite the absence of Cyclones star forward Joshua Jefferson.

All around the room, UK players reminisced about the season that was, an activity accompanied by solemn tones and forlorn stares. Except for one player. Freshman Braydon Hawthorne spoke to the Herald-Leader with excitement in the moments following the end of this UK season.

There was good reason for that. Hawthorne — the 6-foot-8 forward who was a late addition to UK’s 2025 high school recruiting group — is now officially done with his redshirt year. The next time Kentucky fans see Hawthorne, he’ll be logging real game minutes for Pope’s program.

“It has been special,” Hawthorne said of his redshirt season. “… At first, kind of frustrating, but then you realize you can make it positive with changing your mindset. Just thinking about it as a way to get better… A lot of people complain, but I feel like that’s what I did better than other people.

Just trying to stay positive and do everything to the best of my ability to just get ready for this next year.” During this developmental year, Hawthorne said he made strides in all aspects of his game, from rebounding to shooting and every basketball skill in between. Hawthorne credited his teammates with making him better as the result of practice sessions during this redshirt year. Hawthorne began his freshman season among UK’s regular rotation players in practice before making an early move to UK’s scout team, where he mimicked the playing style of top players Kentucky faced during its 36-game season.

“I feel like I picked up a lot of tendencies and stuff from the different coverages they’ll throw in on practice and stuff like that,” Hawthorne said. Hawthorne’s body has been another example of tangible change for the 20-year-old. He said this transformation included going from 173 points to 192 pounds as a result of working with UK’s strength and conditioning staff. “I’ve got a great relationship with everyone in the locker room, all the coaches and things like that,” Hawthorne said. “I feel like that’s a big thing. Like as my relationship grew, the more I opened up and felt more confident in myself to play good in practice… and just be a good teammate.”

Precious little is set in stone about next season’s Kentucky basketball roster. At this juncture — and in this college basketball landscape — educated guesses are the best anyone can muster about who will or won’t be a Cat next season. But Hawthorne is close to a sure bet to be back in Lexington. And on Sunday, Hawthorne spoke extensively about what he hopes to provide next season, which is shaping up to be a critical one for Pope as Kentucky’s coach.

“This summer is going to be extremely big for me. I’m expecting to grow my game even more,” Hawthorne said. “I want to come next year and be unstoppable. That’s my goal. I don’t want nobody to get in my way.” What will Hawthorne’s summer look like? “Just working on small details and stuff,” he said. “I feel like I’m growing into myself more, but I just need to polish up little things and obviously continue to grow my body.

That’s really it.” Hawthorne took a winding path to spending a redshirt season at UK. The childhood UK fan who used to attend the program’s summer camps in Lexington was a late-rising high school recruit in West Virginia. His initial college commitment to his home state Mountaineers fell apart following a coaching change, and Hawthorne found himself in the market for a new school last spring.

That’s when Kentucky came calling, with Pope securing Hawthorne’s commitment over the likes of Duke, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech and West Virginia’s new coaching staff. Hawthorne — who finished the 2025 recruiting cycle as the No. 115 overall prospect in the class per the 247Sports Composite — referred to his college basketball journey thus far as “nothing but a blessing.” Pope and others have showered Hawthorne with praise in recent months, talking up his playmaking ability and long-term potential. Hawthorne didn’t shy away from those expectations Sunday.

“I don’t think people know what I can do, because they didn’t get to see this year. But it’s gonna be really fun next year,” Hawthorne said. Hawthorne stuck to an individualized plan during his redshirt season, with the goal of putting himself in the best possible spot to make an impact next season.

But this also meant Hawthorne spent an entire season at Kentucky without the gratification of any in-game payoff. Now, he’s only months away from playing his first game for the Cats. He said he hadn’t spent much time fantasizing about the moment when his name is finally announced to Rupp Arena crowd, or when he finally gets to ditch the shooting shirt and make his UK debut.

But just a moment later, it dawned on Hawthorne that his college basketball dream is now on the horizon. “It’s starting to hit me, like, this redshirt season is over,” Hawthorne said. “It’s gonna be fun, to go out there and just do what I can do and help the team win.”