Mark Pope expects Reece Potter to redshirt this season, unsure of Braydon Hawthorne's status

You might have noticed that, near the end of Kentucky’s season-opening 77-51 win over Nicholls, Mark Pope didn’t send out a couple of scholarship players on the bench to serve as the victory cigars in the closing minute of action. That honor went to the walk-ons (Zach Tow and Walker Horn), as it usually does when Kentucky is on the verge of a blowout win.

But Pope could have sent out freshman wing Braydon Hawthorne and junior center Reece Potter for some garbage time minutes if he wanted to. The reason he didn’t? To preserve their redshirt years.

During his Thursday press conference with local media, Pope said the plan is to redshirt Potter for the 2025-26 season, while the same could happen with Hawthorne.

“Reece is committed right now to redshirt. So we’re expecting to redshirt Reece unless something changes, which always can happen,” Pope said. “With BH, we’re still trying to feel the waters a little bit. I’ll be cautious about him. I’m not gonna burn it. We’re having conversations regularly now about how we feel about that and what’s best for him. But it’s an ongoing conversation.”

As it currently stands, NCAA rules indicate that student-athletes will lose their redshirt season if they appear in any games. With football, a player can appear in a maximum of four games before losing out on their redshirt. For all other sports, appearing in just one game can rip up the redshirt entirely.

But even with that in mind, neither Potter nor Hawthorne was truly expected to play significant minutes this season for the Wildcats, which already goes 11-12 players deep without them.

Potter, a 7-foot-1 Lexington native, transferred to UK in the offseason after two seasons at Miami (OH), where he averaged 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per outing across 56 games played, including 11 starts. But now he’s playing behind the likes of Brandon Garrison, Malachi Moreno, and eventually Jayden Quaintance. His path to playing time this season was always going to be tough to see. And barring something unexpected, we won’t see Potter actually take the floor during a game this season.

Hawthorne is a bit more interesting, though. He was a late riser in the high school ranks and a late addition to Kentucky’s roster. He actually finished one spot ahead (No. 35) of fellow freshman Jasper Johnson (No. 36), who has been a key piece to the rotation thus far, in the final Rivals recruiting rankings for 2025. Hawthorne is clearly more of a long-term piece, though. He’s a bit too skinny at 6-foot-8, 190 pounds right now, but his future is a bright one.

“His head is spinning a little bit trying to learn all these concepts and trying to figure out some places,” Pope said of Hawthorne. “He’s a different body type. He’s got a different skillset. So he’s got to learn his own individual way to make things work. But he’s got a huge upside. The best thing about him is his joy is just incredible. And he brings it every single day and his laugh is contagious. And the guys love him and he loves the guys, but he’s going to be a big-time basketball player.”

Preserving the redshirts of both Potter and Hawthorne makes the most sense right now. They have five seasons to play four in college, so the Kentucky staff might as well take advantage of it, especially if they don’t truly need either player to step into a game this season. The ideal plan will be to have them develop within the system for a full year, then roll them out into being rotational pieces in 2026-27.

As Pope said, that plan can always change, but as of right now, this is where his mind is at.

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