INTEL: Ranking the contenders for 5-star Aaron Bradshaw
Aaron Bradshaw is the 2023 On3 Consensus No. 7 player. The Camden (NJ) High senior ranks as the No. 2 center in the 2023 class.
Listed at 7-foot-1, the five-star played this summer with the NJ Scholars program on Nike’s EYBL Circuit. He averaged 11.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game.
Bradshaw’s recruitment has been an interesting one. He announced to the media at NBPA Top 100 Camp he had made a decision and an announcement was coming soon.
A couple of weeks later, he backed off that. “I wanted to explore my options a little bit more,” Bradshaw said to On3 at Peach Jam. “There’s always something new, and there is always a different opportunity for me, so I can’t just key in on one thing. I gotta explore my options.”
On September 26, Bradshaw posted on Instagram he would make his decision on November 16. He was down to Oklahoma State, Louisville, UCLA, Kentucky, G-League, Michigan, and Maryland.
Read previous intel piece on Aaron Bradshaw
With an announced decision date coming soon and a list of schools named, I’m going to go through all the intel and rank the contenders to land five-star Aaron Bradshaw.
1. Kentucky
Kentucky has made Bradshaw their top priority at center. Coach Cal has made it a point to stop by Camden High multiple times to see Bradshaw and teammate DJ Wagner since the Fall live recruiting period opened up. Cal could also be seen at multiple Bradshaw games during the July Live Period.
Kentucky has been strong here for a while, and it appears the situation has been ironed out behind the scenes.
Kentucky’s chances: 85 percent
2. G-League
While Kentucky has been the presumed leader for a few months, the G-League has been looming. While NIL has evened the playing field, as long as the G-League continues to put guys in the lottery, they will be an option with the elite high school players.
G-League’s chances: 10 percent
3. Louisville
Bradshaw took his official visit to Louisville on June 14, which was the last official visit he took. Louisville has been able to hang around in the conversation, given Bradshaw’s relationship with the Wagners, and they have pursued him hard.
Louisville’s chances: 5 percent
Final thoughts
Sources close to the situation tell me that when Aaron Bradshaw announced to the media at the NBPA Top 100 Camp, he made up his mind that was to go to Kentucky. In the weeks after that announcement, intel says that both sides wanted to get to know one another a little more.
The G-League has always been an option for Bradshaw; in fact, sources close to the situation say that Bradshaw wanted an offer from the organization. This, according to intel I have been told, was part of the reason Kentucky pumped the brakes some. Calipari did not want someone to commit to them and then de-commit only to go the pro route.
When the two parties took a step back from one another, sources say this is when other schools became more of an option for Bradshaw. Over the last couple months, we are told that both the Bradshaw side and the Kentucky side feel good about the situation.
Bradshaw is set to visit Kentucky with teammate DJ Wagner during Big Blue Madness.
As things stand, this one is looking like Kentucky is trending in this recruitment. There has been some fluidity involved along the way, and there might still be more of that to come (most notably with the G-League). But with the intel gathered, when pressing ‘publish’ on this article, John Calipari and Big Blue Nation are trending to land the No. 2 center in the 2023 class.
On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine
I have placed my expert pick in On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM) for Aaron Bradshaw to choose Kentucky. I set my pick with a 75 confidence level.
The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. Starting from the ground up, On3 built an entirely new product that utilizes data, human expertise, and machine learning.