Braydon Hawthorne knows he needs to add weight and get stronger and believes once he can get to maybe 205 pounds he will be physically able to compete not only with his talented teammates at Kentucky but also UK opponents.

“I am going to compete regardless of what I weigh. My goal this summer is to work and put on pounds,” the 6-foot-7 UK freshman said. “I had a big leap in my game over a little amount of time last season. This summer I want to work as hard as I can just like I did last summer and just stay in love with the process.”

Hawthorne was a West Virginia men’s basketball commit who saw his game blossom during his senior season at Huntington (W.Va.) Prep. He decommitted when West Virginia coach Darian DeVries took the head job at Indiana. Kentucky assistant coach Jason Hart had reached out to Hawthorne before he originally committed to West Virginia and the UK staff wasted no time contacting him again when he reopened his recruitment.

Kentucky already had 13 players on the roster when Hawthorne, who lives in Beckley, West Virginia, decided he wanted to play for Pope.

“I just wanted to be part of the Kentucky culture. I feel like if I work hard everything will take care of itself,” Hawthorne said. “I was the final piece of the roster, but they are telling me I am one of the most talented players on the squad on paper because of my versatility. I feel being able to do everything at my size is my best attribute.”

Hawthorne had no trouble quickly picking out Pope’s best attribute.

“His personality and how much of a people person he is,” Hawthorne said about Pope’s best qualities. “He’s still the same way now as when he was recruiting me. I talk to him a lot. He was not relentless when he recruited me, but we developed a great relationship.

“He said he really liked my potential. I really couldn’t tell you why, but they watched me my junior year and against my senior year. I guess my versatility and length impressed them. I have that 7-foot-3 wingspan. Growing up I always had long arms, but I was not the tallest kid. I grew about two inches each year in high school.”

Growing up in Beckley, Hawthorne played soccer, football and baseball along with basketball. He played running back and quarterback mainly in football and some receiver. He was a second baseman in baseball.

“Basketball was always my main sport. I did those other sports to keep myself busy,” the UK freshman said.

Now he doesn’t do a lot outside basketball, but knows when he does venture out in Lexington that BBN will know who he is.

“The fans here are great. I embrace things like that. I don’t let little stuff bother me and if people recognize me and want to talk or get an autograph or picture, that will be OK with me,” he said.

Hawthorne’s father brought him and his younger brother Zyon, a high school senior with Division I offers, to the UK Father-Son Camp hosted by then UK coach John Calipari when they were younger. They came two years in a row and that turned Braydon Hawthorne into a UK fan.

He didn’t have one particular UK player that specifically turned him into a UK fan but he did like former All-American Willie Cauley-Stein, the 2015 national defensive player of the year. He admitted getting to meet Cauley-Stein would be “something special” for him.

“I just remember talking to Willie and not really a whole lot more about coming to the camps, but after that I grew up loving watching Kentucky play,” Hawthorne said.

Cauley-Stein will be playing for LaFamilia, Kentucky’s alumni team competing in The Basketball Tournament (TBA) in July. He’s already reached out to Hawthorne about meeting him this summer.

“Everything here is going to be a new experience, but a great experience,” Hawthorne said. “I almost wish the season was starting now.”

•••

Jager Burton has played in 38 games at Kentucky and started 34 of those games, including 10 in 2024. He was a four-star recruit coming out of Frederick Douglass High School in 2021 and considered one of the nation’s top 10 offensive guard prospects in his recruiting class by ESPN.

Burton knows last year’s 4-8 season was disappointing to UK fans, but says it was even more disappointing to players who went through it.

“My growth from last season as a player to now has been huge and a lot of that is just changing how you think as a person,” Burton said. “You get to a point where you have a lot of self doubt. You hear people talking, even in the (football) facility, when things are not going well.

“There is a lot of pressure when you come here. I am not complaining. That is what I wanted. I just lost my confidence for a while going through the ups and down of being a college athlete. Now I’ve got it back – it feels so much better playing with confidence.

“Thankfully the coaches never lost confidence in me. Now I feel the best I have ever felt mentally and physically. I am ready to go.”

Burton chose Kentucky over Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oregon and others. He says he has no regrets about staying home to play for the Cats.

“I wouldn’t change anything, not even the ups and downs,” Burton said. “Everything coach (Mark) Stoops and (coach Vince) Marrow and other guys here were telling me about what it would be like has been true. A lot of places that is not how it is. There are truly some of the best coaches and best dudes I have ever been around, so I love being here.”

•••

Mo Dioubate was a big part of three Alabama wins over coach Mark Pope’s first Kentucky team, one reason Pope recruited the 6-foot-7 forward once he entered the transfer portal.

Dioubate has 13 points and eight rebounds in Alabama’s SEC Tournament romp over UK. He also was the main reason Alabama stopped Otega Oweh’s 26-game double figure scoring streak in Alabama’s second win over UK. Oweh went 1-for-9 from the field in the second game against the Tide and 1-for-6 in the SEC Tournament loss when he again failed to reach double figures.

Oweh said last week it would be “lovely” to have Dioubate on his team this season.

“I know what he brings, and I didn’t like playing against him, if I’m being honest. I know he’s gonna have that same effect on other people on other teams. It’s gonna be great. And he’s a great guy too,” Oweh said.

“He plays defense like me, but he’s a four/five and he’s big and he can move his feet. It don’t matter who he’s guarding. He could guard a 5-8 guard, a 6-10 big, it doesn’t matter. He’s gonna go out there and just be a dog.”

Dioubate averaged 7.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 16 minutes per game last season. He shot 61.7% from the field.

Kentucky center Brandon Garrison certainly remembers going against him last season, too.

“Physicality, great defender, fast, mobile, but I say really, just his physicality is gonna help this team out. Everybody seen that, that’s a part of this game,” Garrison said. “But we talked about a couple games because they beat us and stuff. So we talk about that, just playing around.

“I feel like me and him are gonna connect real well. We’ve already been chopping up a lot, we’ve been on the game a lot, talking outside of the facility.”

•••

Receiver Prince Jean of Valdosta, Georgia, worked to add about 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason to where he was up to 190 pounds when summer workouts/camps started.

“I actually felt like I got faster even with the added weight,” Jean said. “Adding the weight did not mess with my speed at all. That was important because my route running ability is my biggest strength. I consider myself fast and quick and cannot let that change because I love to make plays by making guys miss (tackles).

“Coaches love my playmaking ability, physicalness and grit. I will be a great leader you can count on to pick up the team. Coaches love that and everybody loves my personality. I am a person that you can understand and talk to.”

The 6-foot Jean verbally committed to Kentucky last week in large part because of his connection with receivers coach L’Damian Washington. He had offers from Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Kansas State, Mississippi State, Virginia and others after making 45 catches for 622 yards and seven scores last season.

“Before I committed on my visit he was texting me all the time. He has been recruiting me since he was at USF (South Florida). He has a great vibe about him, but the person he is helped draw me to him. The wisdom he has from all he’s been through will help me reach my goals and that’s why I thought he was the perfect fit for me. He’s a great family man and took me into his family.”

Georgia has pursued Jean the last two seasons and he may still take an official visit there.

“I am locked in with Kentucky. I love the program,” Jean said. “But you never know what can happen in the future. I just wanted to be prepared, but I love Kentucky.”

•••

Former Kentucky star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player and led Oklahoma City to the NBA Finals where he put his name into the record books.

His 72 points in the first two career Finals games against Indiana were the most in NBA history. The only other player to hit 70 was Allen Iverson, who needed 70 shots compared to Gilgeous-Alexander’s 51 in two games.

Gilgeous-Alexander also joined LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Rick Barry to have 30 or more points and three or more steals in consecutive games in the Finals — the other three all won Finals MVP.

“While he was here (at UK), you could see he was a special talent,” former UK All-American Jack Givens said. “However, you never thought he was going to explode this much. He’s been knocking on the door to this kind of recognition for the last few years and now it is happening.

“You have to feel good about it not just because he’s from Kentucky, but it is so refreshing to see someone other than the usual NBA stars doing it at playoff time like he is and letting casual fans who maybe only watch the NBA Finals see him.

“’It’s great to be talking about a fresh name. You’re not talking about LeBron (James), and the names that you hear every year. Now you’re talking about a guy doing what he is doing and people are thinking,’ Who is SGA?’ It’s pretty cool to see.”

•••

Quote of the Week: “We had been talking all summer, but he was just keeping it just to him and his family. I was just hoping he could come back, but if he didn’t then I was gonna be proud of him either way. But when he told me he was coming back I was just excited to be able to play another year with him,” UK junior Brandon Garrison, on teammate Otega Oweh withdrawing from the NBA Draft.

Quote of the Week 2: “He is so impressive because he is so big and strong and has so much physicality to his game. He also played linebacker for us because when we play a fast, mobile quarterback we can use him to spy (on the quarterback) and close the gap (if the quarterback runs),” Cornerstone Christian (Texas) coach Clayton Guillory, on UK receiver commit Davis McCray.

Quote of the Week 3: “I’m being myself. I don’t think I tried to reinvent the wheel or step up to the plate with a different mindset. Just try to attack the game the right way. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that so far,” Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a former UK star, on his play in the NBA Finals.