One of the top available college basketball class of 2025 prospects was Braydon Hawthorne, a 6’8 combo forward prospect from Huntington, West Virginia. He was one of the top rising prospects from the past few months, going from a three-star to a consensus top-40 player.
Hawthorne was an original local commit to the Mountaineers under the previous coaching staff. However, once Coach Darian DeVries decided to leave for the Indiana Hoosiers job, Hawthorne de-committed, seeing interest in him rise. In fact, a couple of blue bloods (Duke and Kentucky) got into the mix, along with Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, and WVU and its new staff.
In the end, the big name won out in another top recruitment.
On the surface, it looks as if Hawthorne picked an option that doesn’t have a lot of playing time to offer. The team landed Tulane transfer forward Kam Wiiliams, who’ll likely start at the three-spot for the team. However, paths to Hawthorne are suddenly becoming important.
Otega Oweh, last season’s leading scorer, is still in the NBA Draft process. If he were to stay, that’s one rotation player that would be out of the mix. Plus. Jayden Quaintance, the star center pickup, could miss the start of the season due to an ACL injury. That could very well cause a domino effect in the frontcourt rotation, putting Hawthorne in the mix for minutes.
But even if he’s back in the rotation, landing Hawthorne is another big pickup for the 2025 class. He joins fellow top-40 commits, Malachi Moreno, and Jasper Johnson. The big loser of this recruitment has to be West Virginia, which lost the top prospect in the state for a regional foe, hurting their chances at competing in the Big 12 next season.
The Wildcats have been one of the biggest winners of the offseason, mainly due to their work in the transfer portal. Now, Coach Mark Pope can claim another win on the recruiting trail, via the high school ranks.