Braydon Hawthorne grew up a Kentucky fan -- now he gets to wear the jersey: "It means everything."

Jason Hart was a day late back in the fall, hoping to find his next under-the-radar diamond in the rough prospect — his specialty as a talent evaluator. He can recruit the ‘Stevie Wonders,’ the ‘guys that everybody in the gym knows how good they are,’ as Cody Fueger put it, but the Kentucky assistant loves the sleepers no one sees coming.

The issue? Braydon Hawthorne was in too deep with West Virginia at that point, no longer the unknown prospect holding offers from Radford, Old Dominion, Ohio, UMBC, Florida Gulf Coast, Pepperdine and Mount St. Mary’s. He was going to stay home and suit up for the Mountaineers, loyal to the first high-major program to take a chance on him.

But Hart saw it and tried.

“He told me I had the potential to be — like, sky’s the limit. I just gotta stay in the gym, he’s gonna come back and watch me,” Hawthorne told KSR in an exclusive sit-down interview on Wednesday. “Actually, the first time I committed to West Virginia, right after I committed — like, the next day — he hit me trying to come watch practice, but I had already committed.”

Fast forward to March and head coach Darian DeVries ditched Morgantown for Bloomington, taking the job at Indiana. Hawthorne requested his release from the Mountaineers a few days later, forced to hit reset on the recruiting process — now with serious attention as the No. 35 prospect in the country. After taking visits and cutting his list to Kentucky, Duke, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech, he decided on Lexington as his next home.

Hart got a second chance, as did the rest of the coaching staff, and earned the win to put a bow on a title-contending roster in 2025-26.

How did the Wildcats pull it off?

“Just looking at it like — weighing out the pros and cons, just thinking about how much the staff just kept in touch with me. That was very important to me. I mean, that just stuck with me,” he told KSR. “… I’m super excited, and I feel great about it. I can’t wait to get there. It hit me last night, it really did.”

Other schools offered him the moon and stars, ‘telling me I have a better chance of playing’ elsewhere, Hawthorne says. Kentucky’s pitch was different and stood out from the rest, telling him he can come in and earn a role without guaranteeing a thing.

If he wanted to play, he’d have to fight for those minutes. That’s what he wants.

“I’m willing to better myself and work,” he said. “In practice, they’ve got the best players, so I’m only going to get better. That’s how I look at it.”

Nobody had any idea how serious things were with Kentucky, assuming his visits to Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech and West Virginia were indicators he preferred a locked-in role the Wildcats — or even Duke, for that matter — couldn’t offer.

Little did outsiders know, he was building a relationship with Mark Pope and the staff the entire time, one that made him comfortable picking UK. Hawthorne enjoyed keeping that a secret.

“I really just wanted to make sure my heart was in it, so I didn’t tell anybody, really. I just kept everything to myself, thought about it a lot and prayed about it a lot. I just didn’t really want to tell anybody. … (The first person I told was) my father. He was super excited. He just said he wants what’s best for me and said it was up to me what I wanted to do. He’s just gonna be there to support me no matter what.”

Maybe he had a soft spot for Kentucky — actually, there is no maybe about it. The Beckley, WV native actually grew up a fan of the Wildcats, traveling to Lexington each year for John Calipari’s Father/Son Camp at the basketball facilities.

He remembers asking Coach Cal why he wore the same Kentucky shirt two years in a row and talked with Willie Cauley-Stein about his shoes. Hawthorne never got to attend a game, but he certainly watched the Wildcats go to Final Fours and loved every second of it.

Now he gets to be a part of that push to hang banners as a player, his dreams becoming a reality.

“Being there (for camps), experiencing all of that with the players and being on campus, it’s just — I don’t know, it’s surreal,” he told KSR.

He’s not there to just wear the uniform and soak in life as a Wildcat, though. The four-star recruit is coming in with goals not only for himself as a player, but as a team. He wants to make the same history he got to witness as a fan way back when.

“The biggest thing for me is I’m not worried about individual success. I want to come in and contribute to winning that ninth one,” Hawthorne said, referring to Kentucky’s push for championship banner No. 9. “That’s my biggest goal, that’s our biggest goal. Individually, I just want to grow as a player and develop my game all around, just getting close with the guys in the locker room. That means a lot to me.”

There was chatter about a potential redshirt for Hawthorne in year one, using his freshman season as a development year as the 14th man at the very, very, very end of the bench. That’s news to the 6-9 wing, who has been given no indication from the staff he’ll be put on layaway until the Wildcats are ready to use him down the road.

He feels he has a chance to play now, and wants to earn that time. Again, it won’t be handed to him, but the coaches will give him the same opportunities to carve out a role as the rest of the team. The cream will rise to the top.

But if he’s not ready yet, he’ll be the ultimate teammate and support the guys on the floor as he prepares for next season. One way or another, he’s going to be putting in the work.

“They’re telling me to come in with the mindset to play. Don’t come in thinking I’m not gonna play,” Hawthorne said. “If I come in and do what I have to do and keep getting better, I feel like I have a chance. If not, I’m gonna keep supporting my team, put my head down, keep working and preparing myself for the next year.”

What will be his path to early playing time? It starts in the weight room, Hawthorne needing to add muscle while increasing food intake. He’s actually added ten pounds already, now up to 185 by ‘eating protein and lifting’ while adding snacks to his diet — plus post-workout meals.

“I really need to put on a little bit of weight and get stronger,” he said. “I hope I can get to — I’m never going to be the biggest guy, but I just need to add weight to myself with a little more mass. I want to get 205 (pounds), I feel like that’ll be a scary weight for me.”

In terms of his abilities, he believes his versatility can add something different and help him earn some early run.

“I just have a competitive edge. I play defense, I can shoot the ball, I can pass the ball. I just feel like my energy will get me there,” Hawthorne continued.

Either way, it’s all to push toward one common goal: winning at the highest level. He wants to help the program win games by competing, and if he can’t be on the floor for that, he wants to help his teammates get better in practice so they can stack wins.

Being part of a winning culture is what sold him on being at Kentucky.

“That was very important, that stood out to me,” he told KSR. “I love to win and hate to lose. I just got that winning mentality, I got the scrap about me. That right there stuck out to me and I think we’re capable of doing it. … (I want to) just meet everybody and be positive, get to work. I’m excited to grow as an individual and then grow as a team player, help out my team.”

More than anything, he wants to give Big Blue Nation the same feeling the players gave him as a kid. Hawthorne was in their shoes growing up rooting for the Wildcats, and now, he can make his own impact on the program as Kentucky fights to win another title.

Nothing matters more than banner No. 9.

“I’m very excited because I was a part of that fan base growing up,” Hawthorne said. “It means everything to me to wear that Kentucky on my chest and represent them. I’m ready to win No. 9 and speak it into existence. That’s the biggest thing for me, I believe.”