Aaron Bradshaw will not play vs. Miami, back in "like a week"

Aaron Bradshaw‘s debut is coming for the Kentucky Wildcats sooner rather than later. In fact, we have our first target return date from the man himself — or a specific timeline, at minimum.

First off, don’t expect the 7-foot-1, 226-pound forward out of Roselle, N.J. to suit up in Kentucky’s battle vs. No. 10 Miami (FL) on Tuesday inside Rupp Arena. Bradshaw went live on Instagram to confirm he would not play against the Hurricanes in the ACC/SEC Challenge. He did, however note that he was “like a week” away from making his debut for the Wildcats.

“I’m not allowed to say it, but I’ll give you weeks — like a week,” Bradshaw said late Sunday evening. “‘Are you playing Tuesday?’ No. I’ve been working out with the team, though.”

Hear it from the five-star freshman himself:

Aaron Bradshaw confirms that he will not make his season debut against Miami.

However, he says he will be back in “like a week”.
pic.twitter.com/Y3hdS8Ndiu

— Phoenix Stevens (@PStevensKSR) November 27, 2023

John Calipari confirmed last week Bradshaw had returned to practice and the ramp-up process had begun regarding a return to game action.

“Just not live,” Calipari said following Kentucky’s win over Marshall on Friday. “He’s been with us five-on-zero, drill work, all of that kind of stuff. He is just not in competitive man-on-man, body-to-body yet. We just haven’t started with him on that.”

The former No. 4 overall recruit and No. 1 center in the 2023 On3 Industry Ranking broke his foot back in the spring and underwent surgery in June, forcing him to miss the team’s trip to Toronto for the GLOBL JAM, along with all summer and preseason workouts. He then missed all of Kentucky’s exhibition matchups followed by the first six regular season games, then Miami (FL) will be seven.

From there, the Wildcats will host UNC Wilmington inside Rupp Arena on Sat. Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. ET before traveling to Philadelphia on Sat. Dec. 9 for a battle vs. Penn at 12 p.m. ET. The latter matchup is an interesting one, as it’s a homecoming of sorts for three of Kentucky’s blue-chip freshmen. Justin Edwards is a native of Philadelphia, while DJ Wagner grew up in Camden, NJ — just ten minutes away. Bradshaw’s hometown of Roselle is about 80 miles away, but he went to high school in Camden with Wagner.

Could Bradshaw’s debut come in the homecoming game for the trio of Wildcats? The timeline adds up.

What could that look like for Kentucky?

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s definitely crazy,” fellow freshman Rob Dillingham told KSR. “You see them, but when they’re actually playing and we have all of our players, it’s kind of like, dang. It’s going to be really hard to stop, man.

“Especially if we learn how to play together and gel together, it’ll be an amazing team, for sure.”

The countdown begins.