Aaron Bradshaw not a lock to follow John Calipari to Arkansas, per Jeff Borzello

Kentucky Wildcats star Aaron Bradshaw entered the Transfer Portal shortly following the news that head coach John Calipari would be leaving for the Arkansas Razorbacks. However, that doesn’t mean he’s following Calipari to Arkansas.

According to a report by Jeff Borzello, Bradshaw is not a lock to follow Calipari, and that there was a chance that he could have entered the portal even without a coaching change.

“I don’t think he’s a lock to follow Cal,” Jeff Borzello said. “There have been whispers the past couple of weeks and even the past couple of months that he was going to consider transferring.”

Aaron Bradshaw is a 7-foot-1 big man and native of New Jersey. He was a five-star recruit in the Class of 2023, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. A McDonald’s All-American, he was also the top-ranked center in that cycle and the fourth-ranked player overall.

Despite the high expectations that came with Bradshaw, he struggled to consistently get on the court for Kentucky. In 26 games, Bradshaw had 10 starts and averaged 13.7 minutes per game. He averaged 4.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game as a freshman.

“He had a pretty up-and-down freshman season. Barely played the final two months of the year. Had a foot injury that kind of delayed his debut. So, I don’t think he’s a lock to Arkansas. I think he’s going to have a pretty open recruitment.”

Those issues with consistency as a freshman at Kentucky were real. However, Aaron Bradshaw did flash what makes him special at times throughout the season. At one point, he was even named the SEC Freshman of the Week.

Jeff Borzello mentioned the chance to go home and play for a New Jersey school like Rutgers as a possibility. He also brought up Indiana while saying he does expect Arkansas to be interested in bringing in Bradshaw.

“I think he’s going to have his choice of suitors,” Borzello said.

Jeff Borzello explains how John Calipari’s relationship with Kentucky fell apart

The situation at Kentucky with John Calipari is a surprising one. However, there was a growing tension between the two, especially over struggles in the NCAA Tournament, as Jeff Borzello explained.

“He would’ve entered next season on the hot seat. Another season without multiple NCAA Tournament wins and he probably would’ve been fired at this point next season. The 33 million that they owed him after this past season was probably enough to give him another year. But once you get to the point where your athletic director has to release a statement saying you’re coming back as the coach, it’s kind of hard to come back from that. And he had lost the appreciation of the fan base, I guess I’d say, and like you said it was more than just the Oakland loss. It was more than the Saint Peter’s loss. He had essentially refused to adapt to the changes in college basketball roster construction. He was still going heavy on freshmen, he was going into the portal to get one or two guys,” Borzello said.

“But he was still saying, ‘Okay, we’re gonna win young, we’re gonna win with freshmen, we’re gonna win with McDonald’s All Americans.’ And that hadn’t really worked. And like I said, he was still putting guys in the NBA, but the fan base was saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to consider a player good when he gets $100 million contract. We want him to win championships at Kentucky.’ And I just think that the final straw for most of the fan base was the Oakland loss… But the loss to Oakland and the press conference after where he said we might go into the portal, we might not, we might be young. I just think some of the faith, or whatever remaining faith, the fan base had in Cal was kind of eroded by that point.”