There are a lot of question marks surrounding Kentucky basketball going into next season, but one of the biggest is Braydon Hawthorne.

Not if Hawthorne will be on the roster, the redshirt freshman has already signed his NIL contract and announced he is returning, but how talented is he, and how impactful will he be?

The former Top-35 prospect was a late addition for the Wildcats last offseason, a cherry on top of what many believed was a Final Four-contending roster. That roster, suffering multiple injuries, didn’t reach the heights set for them, and Hawthorne elected to redshirt.

That didn’t stop Hawthorne from receiving rave practice reports, confirmed by the likes of Jack “Goose” Givens, or from Mark Pope comparing him to a Kentucky basketball legend.

“This Braydon Hawthorne, he is one of the most unique kids I’ve ever coached,” Pope said last summer. “I don’t know what his ceiling is, but if I were going to compare him to a player right now, and I’m doing this in incredible humility, there is so much of some type of Tayshaun Prince vibe in him.”

“This kid, I don’t know how soon it’s going to happen, but I think this kid has a chance to be special. He just might have the goods, man. Like, it’s very cool to watch it.”

After a season in the program and adding nearly 20 pounds to his frame, Hawthorne is ready to capitalize on his opportunity and prove he has the goods.

“Get ready,” his father, Walter, told Kentucky fans over the weekend on the Heavy Pour Sports Podcast. Of course, a father has the utmost confidence in his son, but he is confident because of the work Braydon has put in.

Braydon was often the first one on the court pregame, getting a workout in with one of the team’s graduate assistants. However, that work ethic was there behind the scenes as well, from the weight room to the practice court. It is also beneficial when an All-SEC player like Otega Oweh takes you under his wing.

“Oweh took Braydon underneath his wing,” Walter explained. “I really appreciate that a lot. Braydon learned a lot from a lot of him.”

Oweh not only provided an example of how to be a leader and how to conduct yourself as a player at Kentucky, but the two also played 1v1 every day in practice. Playing against a player who relies on their physicality, like Oweh, is a great way to prepare you for SEC play. With the work he has put in, multiple people have expressed their confidence in Braydon’s ability to handle the physicality of the SEC next season.

The staff is high on the impact Hawthorne can have for this team, and fans are intrigued by his potential. For Braydon himself, he just wants to win and prove himself.

“He’s trying to win,” Walter said. “He wants to make everyone proud. Kentucky was his favorite basketball team growing up, and for him to win a championship for Kentucky would mean the world to him.”

“He’s going to show everybody he’s got something to prove.”

Check out the full podcast here.

There has been plenty of debate about Kentucky basketball potentially hiring a general manager.

While Mark Pope has not made that hire yet, soon after the end of last season, he hired Keegan Brown in a front office role as Kentucky’s Director of Roster Management.

Brown most recently spent two years with the Wisconsin Herd, the NBA G League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks, as video coordinator. There, he was involved with coaching operations, player personnel, player scouting, roster evaluation, and trade-related analysis, and even contributed to the Bucks’ pre-draft processes.

Before that, Brown spent five seasons alongside Pope at BYU, rising from video coordinator to Director of Player Personnel, eventually assigned to handle scouting coordination, roster construction planning, NIL strategy and allocation, and integrating analytics into personnel decision-making.

“In today’s game, roster management is everything, and Keegan is as good as it gets in that space,” Pope said.

Per Kentucky’s press release, Brown is involved in many of the responsibilities he had with Pope at BYU. Working closely with Pope and the staff, he will be involved in transfer portal evaluation and acquisition strategy, roster planning, scholarship allocation, resource optimization, player personnel scouting, evaluation and decision support, and coordinating information across staff, agents, and key external relationships.

Over the weekend, Brown himself took some time to provide more details of his role.

“The analytics is just the foundation for me,” Brown said. “Every day I’m talking to agents, building player projection models, running cap models with Nick, managing contracts start to finish, grinding film, and building the systems that power our front office. Blessed to be doing it at Kentucky.”

With the hire of Brown, there is still no hire of an official general manager, leaving the door open for that in the future.

For now, Mark Pope is okay with having a ‘GM team’ which he detailed last week, including Brown, the team also consists of Nick Robinson (salary cap management), Kevin Sergent (compliance), and Kim Shelton (JMI/NIL).

Across the nation, and now for some time, multiple A-list programs have utilized general managers to oversee NIL affairs, roster construction and agent relations.

Kentucky, while fans have been curiously watching other programs with a head honcho build championship-capable rosters, has a different system running in its front office.

During his marathon of answering questions from the Big Blue Nation, Mark Pope was asked by a fan: “Why have you and the staff not hired an actual GM?”

Fair question to ask, and Pope answered with complete transparency in response.

“In this ever changing, dynamic college basketball environment, everyone is trying a different solution,” said Pope. “For us, instead of hiring a singular GM, we’ve gone with a more comprehensive general management team approach.”

Keegan Brown is mentioned first, labeled as Kentucky’s roster analyst. Nick Robinson handles salary cap situations, Kevin Sergent deals with the legal language of contracts as the compliance officer and Kim Shelton is tasked with NIL duties, JMI and corporate sponsorship.

Brown spoke out on social media to further expand on his role, sharing how grateful he is for his position and opportunity to work with Pope once again.

“The analytics is just the foundation for me,” said Brown. “Every day I’m talking to agents, building player projection models, running cap models with Nick (Robinson), managing contracts start to finish, grinding film, and building the systems that power our front office.”

This is quite a different approach, and with integrity this new team is very open on where they have their hands busy, but a true experienced agent regulator would still be a nice addition when considering any future positions for this team.

Dealing with players and recruiting is quite difficult, and having one position to utilize one’s former experience and make it their sole focus would help the Wildcats future more than it would hurt it.

It’s to note that two of these hires would be there without Pope (Sergent and Shelton), but regardless, we have an answer to the long-awaited “where’s our GM question?”

This is a one of a kind team in the current field of college ball, and as time goes on, it’ll be interesting to see if it remains successful for the team.