Report: Kentucky center Aaron Bradshaw suffered foot fracture, could miss start of 2023-24 season

It’s more bad news for Kentucky basketball. The latest sour development for the 2023-24 UK hoops team is an injury with their prized freshman big man, Aaron Bradshaw. According to NBA insider Shams Charania, Bradshaw has a foot fracture that could force him to miss games at the start of the season. Here was his report of the injury, which he tweeted out on Friday afternoon:

“College basketball news: Kentucky’s Aaron Bradshaw – a projected top pick in 2024 NBA draft – has suffered a fracture in his foot and could miss start of the 2023-24 season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The program is optimistic on full recovery for the 7-foot freshman.”

Bradshaw was likely to open the season as the team’s starting power forward, but now it sounds like he could be sidelined for a least a few of those November matchups, which is not good news for a Wildcat squad that is already starting a bunch of freshmen and begins the season in Chicago against Kansas.

Aaron Bradshaw comes in as the front-court anchor of one of John Calipari’s best recruiting classes since he’s taken the job at Kentucky — so yes, that’s some pretty high praise for this crop of rookies. The 7-foot-1 center out of Camden (NJ) High School is ranked as the No. 4 overall player in the 2023 recruiting class and the No. 1 center per the On3 Industry Rankings.

Despite playing center in high school, Bradshaw is likely to play power forward in college and has indicated his desire to try out some four. With Ugonna Onyenso returning at center, Bradshaw seemingly fits right next to him in the lineup. But now, the ‘Cats will have to look at other options for the four, which are pretty slim at the moment.

When Kentucky missed on one forward after the next in the transfer portal this summer, this is the consequence, because this Bradshaw news is now a major problem for a roster that isn’t finished and has very little depth, least of all with forwards. Frankly, Bradshaw would play center at pretty much every other school in the country, so you could argue even he’s out of position and so are the options to replace him.

There’s…Adou Thiero? A fun rotation piece with hight energy, but he sparingly played and spent more time at backup point guard than the four last season, so it’d be a stretch to plug him in that hole. Kentucky did just land a true forward in three-star freshman Jordan Burks, but he’s no where near ready for that kind of role yet.

The logical option is Justin Edwards, who was likely set to play the three but could be even more effective as a four at the college level given his size and athleticism plus the ability to shoot from outside, which would open up even more space to operate for those electric freshman guards and (hopefully) Antonio Reeves. For BBN members clamoring for more shooting and modern basketball, Cal sliding Edwards down the lineup is your dream. Perhaps this bit of bad news will allow such an expirement to start the year.

Either way, here’s to hoping for a speedy recovery for Bradshaw following the foot fracture.