Zyon Hawthorne isn't expecting to play as a freshman, but he's eager to suit up for his favorite childhood team

Zyon Hawthorne was a surprise commitment to Kentucky earlier in the week. The younger brother of rising redshirt freshman Braydon Hawthorne, Zyon provides backcourt depth for head coach Mark Pope, which last season’s team famously lacked. But Zyon also realizes that his true freshman season with the Wildcats might mirror what his brother went through in 2025-26.

By his own admission, the younger Hawthorne doesn’t see himself playing real minutes throughout the 2026-27 season. In an interview on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk, Zyon said he and Pope talked about what his role will look like come the fall. Everyone is on the same page. Zyon is coming to Kentucky to help make himself and everyone around him better.

“I’m aware that there’s probably no minutes for me my first year,” Hawthorne said. “But I work very hard and I feel like one day I’ll be able to carve out some minutes for myself.”

“He’s going to be there to help the team in practice,” Hawthorne’s father, Walter, added of his son. “He’s going in there to be a team player, anything that he can do…whatever coaches need, he’s going to do it. He’s going to come in there, he’s going to work hard, he’s going to give them 100 percent.”

A 6-foot-2 combo guard, Hawthorne wasn’t a highly-ranked recruit out of Huntington Prep (WV). He averaged 11.2 points per game, seven assists, and three rebounds per game as a senior last season. The likes of Wichita State, Arkansas State, Radford, LaSalle, and Bethune-Cookman were after his services, but the allure of playing for the school that he and his brother cheered for growing up was too much to pass on.

“I just feel like everything lined up correctly,” Hawthorne said of his decision to choose UK. “My brother is there, it’s the school I always rooted for growing up. I feel like, me being a basketball player and wanting to be the best version of myself, I feel like that’s just the choice that was right for me.”

If Zyon does end up redshirting his freshman season, he’ll at least have the perfect person to talk to about the trials and tribulations that come with it. Braydon didn’t play a second last season for Kentucky, but he’s back for year two with expectations of being a real rotational piece for Pope in 2026-27. The hope is that Zyon will follow in his brother’s footsteps.