In the season opener for the Kentucky Wildcats, one player who stood out was the young wing, Braydon Hawthorne. In his first season in Lexington, BBN didn't see Hawthorne take the floor, but on Tuesday night he finally got his first action, and he turned heads.

In the win over the Jaspers of Manhattan, Hawthorne scored eight points to go with five rebounds, four assists, and two blocks. One of the most impressive plays of the night for Hawthorne was a put-back dunk where he seemed to be levitating over the rim.

After the win over the Jaspers, Milan Momcilovic, who led the Wildcats with 24 points, was asked about Hawthorne. He had a lot of great things to say about the problems Hawthorne's length creates for shooters.

Here is what Momciloivc had to say about first seeing Hawthorne: “Yeah, I mean, my first impression of him was, I mean, we guard each other probably most practices or similar positions, and I think my first couple 3s got tipped by him when I came here in the summer. I was just like, he’s got a seven-five wingspan, so he honestly makes me a lot better in practice. Just because I got to find a way to get off quicker, get off around him because he’s so long. So, we have a lot of good matchups in practice, but I mean, he does a lot of good things for us out there."

This is a great quote from Momcilovic because it shows how the defensive length of Hawthorne can have an effect even on the best shooter in college basketball. After this, Momcilovic went on to compare Hawthorne to one of the best NBA players of all time, Kevin Durant.

Here is why Hawthorne reminds Momcilovic of Durant: "I mean, he just uses length very well. You know, tipped on his blocks. He had a couple nice mid posts, just, you know, kind of reminds me of Kevin Durant a little bit, so I mean, obviously he’s still working a lot, but he’s gonna be good for us.”

This is a big-time comparison for Hawthorne from the Wildcats superstar, Momcilovic, but if you watch the young wings game, you can see it. It would be huge for Pope's team if Hawthorne was able to tap into his potential, and it seems like he is already doing that early into the season.

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