Justin Edwards threw first pitch for Kentucky-Alabama series finale

Justin Edwards has likely played his final game as a member of the Kentucky men’s basketball team, but he’s not done just yet enjoying his freshman year of college.

Ahead of Sunday’s series finale at Kentucky Proud Park between No. 17 Kentucky and No. 13 Alabama, Edwards threw out the ceremonial first pitch at noon on a beautiful day in Lexington. The Bat ‘Cats are on the verge of sweeping the Crimson Tide after taking down Alabama by a combined score of 13-2 on Friday and Saturday.

To Edwards’ credit, he didn’t throw a bad pitch at all. It was a little low, but made it to the plate — that’s better than most of us would like to think we could do. And considering Edwards had the breakout game of his season against Alabama (28 points on a perfect 10-10 shooting on Feb. 24), this is just the perfect amount of petty from UK.

Kentucky baseball is 24-6 on the season with a 10-1 mark in SEC play for the first time in program history.

Justin Edwards threw out the Ceremonial First Pitch at today’s Kentucky/Alabama series finale. pic.twitter.com/HCjiThoWzi

— Daniel Hager (@DanielHagerKSR) April 7, 2024

Justin Edwards is throwing out the first pitch at Kentucky Proud Park this afternoon for @UKBaseball and he went live as he was getting prepared to go out to the mound.

I think the crowd might’ve overwhelmed him

“Oh hellll nah. There’s a lot of people.” 😂 pic.twitter.com/X9wLYNRk8L

— Tres Terrell (@TerrellTres) April 7, 2024

Edwards had an up-and-down freshman season in 2023-24 for Kentucky. A five-star recruit out of high school with NBA Draft lottery potential, things didn’t go according to plan for the 6-foot-8 wing. For the season, he averaged 8.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per contest, but we could effectively split his season into two — the good and the bad.

Through his first 19 games played, Edwards averaged 7.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in 22 minutes per game. He shot 44.6 percent from the field, 28.9 percent from deep, and 70.8 percent from the line. A far cry from preseason expectations.

But over his final 13 games? Edwards found his confidence and got on a roll. He averaged 10.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and one steal in 21 minutes per contest while shooting 54.5 percent overall, 45 percent from long range, and 84 percent from the charity stripe. It might have been enough to sneak him into the first round of the NBA Draft too, which is where he’ll likely head off to in the summer.

On Thursday, Edwards publicly announced his plans to enter the 2024 NBA Draft. He did not mention a return to Kentucky or a possible transfer.