Braydon Hawthorne returns to Kentucky: His brother Zyon commits

Kentucky retains their fourth player, as it was announced that Braydon Hawthorne will return to the Kentucky for the 2026-27 season. He joins Kam Williams, Reece Potter, and Trent Noah as players confirmed to return to Kentucky for another season. Malachi Moreno is testing the NBA Draft waters, but is believed to be back in Lexington next season

Braydon Hawthorne was a fast riser in the recruiting class of 2025. He rose from the 71st-best player to the 33rd-best player in a span of nearly three months. According to the rankings of 247Sports. As a consensus 4-star recruit, he officially committed to Mark Pope and the Wildcats on May 20th: expected to be a developmental piece.

After seeing a total of 4 seconds in a preseason exhibition matchup against Purdue, Braydon Hawthorne did not see any action the rest of the season.

With multiple injuries to Kentucky in the meat of the SEC schedule, including an injury to Kam Williams that would sideline him for an extended amount of time, Mark Pope had internal discussions about potentially burning Hawthorne’s redshirt. Instead, he said he wouldn’t because Hawthorne wasn’t healthy enough to play.

Before the SEC Tournament kicked off, Hawthorne said in an interview with Ben Roberts of the Herald Leader that he planned on returning to Lexington for the 26-27 season. However, nothing was signed, or set in stone to make the news official. On the final day of the transfer portal, Hawthorne has now made his intentions clear, and will enter his redshirt freshman season this upcoming fall, and will maintain his 4 years of eligibility.

Hawthorne is 6-8 with a 7-3 wingspan, giving him the potential to be a pesky defender and get into passing lanes. The Beckley, West Virginia native also has shown an ability to finish at the rim, and has decent shooting mechanics to make defenders respect that aspect of his game. He will need to get stronger physically and develop as a passer to really be a major threat for Kentucky this upcoming season.

Along with transfer portal commitments Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins, Hawthorne will be a player that intrigues the Big Blue Nation, and he will have a lot of eyes on him when he officially gets playing time. With top schools around the country retaining talent to compete, it was essential for Mark Pope to retain a player with this much untapped potential.

Additionally, his brother, Zyon recently committed and attended Huntington Prep in West Virginia this past year as a senior in high school:

The timing of the commitment isn’t ideal, but depth is always nice to have– especially with the injuries Kentucky has had the last two years,