Aaron Bradshaw's anticipated return allows Kentucky to dream big

It’s no longer a matter of if, but rather when with Aaron Bradshaw. The 7-foot-1, 226-pound forward out of Roselle, N.J. has returned to practice and the ramp-up process has begun regarding his impending game debut.

“Just not live,” John 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.”

Coach Cal couldn’t give a specific timeline for return — “If I give something, then everybody will say I’m lying, so I don’t know” — but it’s coming regardless. And it’s probably time to start talking about what that looks like.

On one end, Kentucky is averaging 94.3 points per contest on 50.6% shooting and 42.5% from three through six games with a 22-8 assist-to-turnover ratio. The Wildcats are an offensive juggernaut to open the season. On the other, though, they’re just No. 177 overall in rebound margin (+1) and No. 200 in scoring defense (72.2 points allowed per game). They’ve been terrific to open the season, but they could undoubtedly be better.

Insert Bradshaw, the former No. 4 overall recruit and No. 1 center in the 2023 On3 Industry Ranking. He’s got the lob-catching and rim protection of a traditional big, but the shot-making and versatility of a modern one. Oh, and he’s 7-1, pushing 7-2.

It’s why Calipari is not only flirting with the idea of Bradshaw as Kentucky’s go-to four man, but leaning toward it alongside Tre Mitchell.

“There are some things we will probably have to do with him that’s different. Like, right now, we cannot post up our four man,” Calipari said. “Do we want to make Tre a four instead of the five? Why? Tre’s really good at what he is doing. Why screw him up? Let him keep playing and now your four ends up being 7-2. He can shoot it. We can post him. Instead of mush-mouth, you can run the stuff we’re running and run them into post-ups. You can do all of that stuff, you know, ball screens with him or (Zvonimir Ivisic).”

Ivisic remains TBD until he’s cleared by the NCAA. He also dealt with a 104-degree fever following the Thanksgiving holiday, yet another setback in his on-court development. “I worry that if Z is cleared, he’s physically not — he has just gotten sick or hurt and goes 4 or 5 days and how ready will he be? I don’t know yet.” Calipari added that Ugonna Onyenso is “now jumping and running.” What does that mean regarding his anticipated return? “I don’t know.”

Reading between the lines, it’s pretty clear Bradshaw will be the first big to contribute of the trio.

“Even without him, I’m liking what we’re seeing,” Calipari said. “And now you get one big and he floats into what we are doing. Pretty good stuff.”

No one knows how Bradshaw plays and what he brings to the table better than DJ Wagner, his former high school and grassroots teammate at Camden and with the New Jersey Scholars, respectively. Like Calipari, he’s excited to see his longtime friend and on-court sidekick show off what he can do.

“He brings a lot to the floor,” Wagner said. “He can play — shoot, rebound, all of those things. He’s going to open the floor up for us even more. I’m very excited for him to get back, everybody is going to see the great player that he is. … It’s been good seeing how hard he’s been working every day. That’s another person who has been working at it every day, no matter what.

“He’s been fighting and I’m excited to finally be able to play with him again. I feel like we’re all going to be excited to see it, just how much work he’s been putting in. We’re all happy for him.”

As for the idea of Bradshaw playing the four, Wagner says he wouldn’t look too far into that — this is a positionless program, after all. He’ll be playing all over the floor, just as Mitchell is right now.

Either way, he’s looking forward to it.

“Coach says there isn’t really a specific position on our team, the way we’ve been running and the way everybody can play,” Wagner added. “That’ll be good, letting him play that position, but there aren’t really any specific positions on the team.”

Fellow five-star freshman Rob Dillingham is downright giddy. Seeing what Kentucky is doing on the court now and knowing there is more to come with Bradshaw, Ivisic and Onyenso combined? Yeah, that’s a scary thought for the rest of the college basketball world.

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s definitely crazy,” 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.”