Depth will be key for the Wildcats this year. With the signing of Braydon Hawthorne last night, Kentucky basketball now boasts arguably the deepest roster in the nation. Hawthorne would start on half the teams in the SEC, but opted to learn under Mark Pope at Kentucky and complete a dream team in Lexington.
Obviously this problem is resolved if either superstar guard Otega Oweh or Pitt transfer Jaland Lowe declare for the NBA Draft. While at this point both seem unlikely, it would bring Kentucky’s roster total down to 13, meeting NCAA requirements.
What’s more likely is that one of the fourteen players on Kentucky’s roster takes a redshirt. But which player would opt for that?
Oweh and Lowe absolutely won’t if they return. Both will be key starters for the Wildcats if they do stay in Lexington this fall.
The same goes for new transfers Kam Williams (Tulane), Mo Dioubate (Alabama), and Denzel Aberdeen (Florida). They didn’t come to Lexington to not play, nor did Andrija Jelavic, who left professional basketball in Europe to play for the Wildcats.
Center Brandon Garrison and guard Collin Chandler are both back for the Wildcats. They’ll be key bench depth for Pope behind those starters.
The same likely goes for four-star combo guard Jasper Johnson, who is Kentucky’s most high-profile recruit in the 2025 class. He figures in as key depth alongside Garrison and Chandler.
Jayden Quaintance, a high-profile recruit from Arizona who could end up as a superstar with Kentucky, could opt for a medical redshirt as he comes off of a torn ACL. He just had surgery in March to repair the tear, so it is a possibility.
However, Pope has made it sound like Quaintance will be playing again at some point this year, saying:
“We’ll see. The one thing I know about him, he’s an incredible talent and we’re going to go as fast as we can with the absolute most caution that we can.”
Even if he misses time, Quaintance could figure in the same way that Micah Handlogten did for the Gators during their championship run after suffering a major leg injury the prior season.
That leaves returning guard Trent Noah, Miami (OH) transfer center Reece Potter, and recruits Hawthorne and Malachi Moreno. Out of that crop, each is unlikely to play major minutes this year, and if they do it will be in blowout situations.
Out of those four, each can also be considered developmental. They’re more likely to feature significant minutes when they’re upperclassmen and increase their workload year by year.
Any (and possibly all) of the four could be the one to take that redshirt this year, which would alleviate Kentucky’s roster problem.
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