"I decomitted after that": Mark Pope's Kentucky recruit Braydon Hawthorne opens up about why he flipped from West Virginia

Braydon Hawthorne sat down to discuss his high school, college offers and more in a YouTube video uploaded by "Wired to the game" on Tuesday. During the conversation, the interviewer asked the 6-foot-8 small forward about his decision to decommit from the West Virginia Mountaineers.

The Kentucky Wildcats commit said that it was because head coach Darian DeVries had left for Indiana.

"The coaching staff changed, coach Dere had left, and then I just left. I decommitted after that. So yeah, that's the reason," said Hawthorne. (Timestamp: 13:16 onwards)

He then talked about why he chose Kentucky and what made the program stand out from the rest.

"The coaching staff bro meant a lot to me, and one of the assistant coaches, (Jason) Hart, I had a relationship prior to last year. He was recruiting me, I ended up committing to West Virginia before he even came back and watched me, so that," said Braydon Hawthorne. (Timestamp: 13:31 onwards)

He also talked about 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. 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."

Hawthorne, who ranks 64th nationally, 16th in the small forward position, and first in West Virginia, also received offers from the Virginia Tech Hokies, Duke Blue Devils, Pittsburgh Panthers, and more.

However, he announced his commitment to Kentucky on May 20 after an official visit on April 17 this year.

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Braydon Hawthorne earns praise from head coach Mark Pope

Hawthorne became Mark Pope's fourth addition from the Class of 2025. The small forward averaged 23.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game at Huntington Prep in his senior year. He was also a McDonald's All-American nominee and won the MVP Award at the Dr. Pepper Classic.

Pope commended Hawthorne's trajectory and skills in a conversation with Sports Illustrated.

“Braydon Hawthorne probably has the steepest trajectory of anybody in the class of 2025,” head coach Mark Pope said. “He is a great learner, a 4.0 student and highly skilled."

Braydon Hawthorne will be joined by Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno and Andrija Jelavic next season.