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On Wednesday night, Kentucky Basketball welcomed Johnny Dawkins’ UCF Knights to Rupp Arena for the third and final exhibition before the real thing gets started.
The contest against UCF brought us the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s talk about one piece of the good from this one.
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Braydon Hawthorne showed flashes of what he could turn into early in this one. He checked in during the first half and immediately got rolling, knocking down two difficult threes and going one for two from the line. In fact, he and Mason Williams led the team in scoring at halftime with seven apiece.
Back at Kentucky Pro Day, one of my takeaways was that Hawthorne hasn’t seen a shot he doesn’t like, but he shoots them with confidence, so that’s all you can ask. Now, we’re seeing it played out on the floor against opponents.
He would end the night with the seven points he had at the halftime break, but made his presence known on the defensive side as well. The 6-foot-8 forward also used every bit of his 7-foot-3 wingspan on the defensive side, deflecting passes and ending the game with three blocked shots. One of the blocked shots came with 2:11 remaining, coming up clutch with UCF driving on a fast break.
With Kam Williams and Trent Noah currently absent, Hawthorne stepping up would be big-time for this group to start the season. Pope even elected to draw up a set to get Hawthorne to ball on the final out-of-bounds play of the game for Kentucky, showing some confidence in the sophomore. Sadly, Hawthorne would miss both, leaving a sour taste in our mouths after seeing some good play from him throughout the game.
The rising sophomore showed some flashes early in this one, and hopefully he is another player we can rely on going forward.
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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/braydon-hawthorne-showed-off-potential-101500567.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-29 10:15:00
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