Braydon Hawthorne college offers: Top 3 schools in contention for 5-star prospect before Kentucky commitment

Braydon Hawthorne, the No. 64 recruit in the Class of 2025, according to On3's Industry Rankings, signed for the Kentucky Wildcats on May 22, after he changed his mind about the West Virginia Mountaineers.

The 6-foot-8 small forward had originally committed to West Virginia but decommitted from the program after coach Darian DeVries left for Indiana.

Furthermore, he also talked about the Kentucky coach, Mark Pope.

"Coach Pope bro, he's such a people person. You can call him and talk to him about anything. Me and him were on the phone, FaceTime, calls, texts, just talking about anything," Hawthorne said.

"I mean that means a lot too outside of basketball, when you're making a tough decision like that, you've got to look at everything, stuff off the court things like that what kind of people they are, and it was very business oriented too, so that meant a lot to me."

Three more programs were interested in Braydon Hawthorne's signature.

---

Three schools in contention for Braydon Hawthorne before Kentucky commitment

#3 Duke Blue Devils

After signing the twin sons of the two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, Cameron and Cayden, coach Jon Scheyer also wanted to add Hawthorne. The small forward took an official visit to the program on May 6, which marked his last visit, before signing for Michigan.

Duke was one of his five finalists, including Kentucky, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

#2 Pittsburgh Panthers

Another program that was interested in Hawthorne's signature, the Pittsburgh Panthers, hosted Hawthorne for an official visit on April 29. On3's recruitment prediction machine also gave the Panthers an 18.5% chance of landing the small forward.

However, it would mean that coach Jeff Capel would have had to start the new season with additions of three-star small forward Omari Witherspoon, combo guard Macari Moore and center Kieran Mullen.

#1 Virginia Tech

The Virginia Tech Hokies gave West Virginia a tough competition to land Braydon Hawthorne before the small forward chose the Mountaineers. He also took an official visit to the Hokies on Apr. 19 this year.

The program received a 29.7% probability of landing Hawthorne as they looked to add more depth to their roster. However, Braydon Hawthorne will now play for Kentucky next season, alongside four-star shooting guard Jasper Johnson and center Malachi Moreno, and an unranked guard from Zagreb, Andrija Jelavic, from the Class of 2025.