Aaron Bradshaw nears his Kentucky basketball debut. What are the realistic expectations?

There hasn’t been a more energetic cheerleader on the Kentucky bench this season than Aaron Bradshaw.

“He’s a really good teammate,” said fellow McDonald’s All-American freshman Justin Edwards. “He supports all of us (through) highs and lows. He’s always one of those people that you can talk to when you’re not feeling good or things aren’t going right with basketball, or just life in general.”

Bradshaw should be out there with his UK basketball teammates on the court soon.

The 7-foot-1 big man from Roselle, New Jersey, finally joined his Kentucky teammates on the practice floor Wednesday, and he was on the Rupp Arena court more than two hours prior to Friday’s win over Marshall going through an individual workout with UK assistant coach John Welch.

Bradshaw hit jump shots at a high rate — his range extends beyond the 3-point line — and showed no signs of pain related to the foot injury that has kept him sidelined since late March. The UK newcomer did look a little fatigued toward the end of the workout — he asked Welch if he could sit down after putting up dozens of shots to finish the exercise — but he jogged back to the locker room with a pep in his step once he was finished.

It was the first time this season that Bradshaw has gone through such a pregame routine, the latest sign that his college debut is near. A little more than two hours later, Bradshaw was back on the Kentucky bench cheering on his teammates.

And after the game — a 118-82 victory over Marshall — there was plenty of talk about what’s next for the 19-year-old.

“He brings a lot to the floor,” said D.J. Wagner, another freshman. “He can play. He can shoot. … He opens the floor up for us even more. I’m very excited for him to get back, and everyone’s going to see what a great player he is. …

“I got a lot of confidence in him. I support him a lot, and I know he’s going to do a lot of great things.”

Wagner and Bradshaw were teammates at Camden High School in New Jersey and played for the same program on the Nike EYBL circuit. Wagner knows Bradshaw better than anyone on the UK team, and he was happy to get him back in practice last week. He’ll be even more excited to get him back on the court on game days.

“I’m happy for him,” Wagner said. “And I’m going to be excited to finally be able to play with him again.”

Last month, Bradshaw addressed the rumors that he’d never play a minute for Kentucky before heading off to next year’s NBA draft. He was clearly bothered by that narrative and vowed to get on the court as soon as he was physically able. The highly versatile prospect suffered a foot injury in late March and underwent surgery in June. He’s slowly been working his way back, and last week — with that return to practice — was the biggest milestone yet.

When might he actually make his debut in a Kentucky uniform? John Calipari refused to put an exact date on that Friday night, following a series of timetables that didn’t pan out, a portion of the UK fanbase growing more skeptical with each missed deadline.

“I don’t know,” Calipari said. “You know, if I give something, then everybody will say, ‘He’s lying.’ And I don’t know.”

Barring another setback, however, that time is getting close.

Calipari didn’t shut the door on a debut Tuesday night against No. 8-ranked Miami in Rupp Arena, but that sounds highly unlikely. The UK coach noted Bradshaw had — as of Friday — not yet gone through any kind of “body-to-body” workouts in practice. Throwing him in against a team the caliber of the Hurricanes doesn’t fit with how UK has handled his recovery process.

The next game could be a more suitable target: a Dec. 2 date with UNC Wilmington in Rupp Arena. And after that comes a Dec. 9 game against Penn in Philadelphia, not far from Bradshaw’s hometown. The extra time off between games coming up — the Cats play just five times in December — will also be beneficial as Bradshaw tries to get into game shape and learn how to integrate his skill set with these Wildcats.

UK associate coach Orlando Antigua talked to the Herald-Leader about Bradshaw this month, and he acknowledged that the talented freshman wouldn’t be expected to come in and play 25-30 minutes per game right off the bat.

“That’s going to be a process,” he said. “It’s going to be gradual. And everybody’s gotta be able to understand that.”

What Bradshaw brings to UK

What will Kentucky be getting with the addition of Aaron Bradshaw?

He’s a 7-1 center who will add an element of rim-protection to a team that clearly needs it. He should help the Wildcats on the boards. And his offensive skills — for his size — are a big part of what makes Bradshaw one of the highest-upside players in all of amateur basketball. He has that shooting range, but he can also create for himself, run the floor and possesses the athleticism to crash the offensive boards from anywhere on the court plus catch lobs at the rim.

“He doesn’t play like a 7-footer,” Edwards said.

He should know. He played against Bradshaw in high school and on the Nike circuit. He smiled at the memory of competing against him last season.

“He was blocking all our shots,” Edwards said. “... It makes us a lot better. He’s a 7-footer that can space the floor for us and open up the lane for everybody else.”

Calipari has been going with 6-9 forward Tre Mitchell at the 5 spot out of sheer necessity with Bradshaw and fellow 7-footers Zvonimir Ivisic and Ugonna Onyenso still sidelined, but that fit has turned this Wildcats’ team into a fun bunch, leading to an entertaining style of “modern” basketball with Mitchell keeping the offense moving with his passing ability and other scorers and playmakers coming up big in the space that’s created.

And Calipari has said numerous times in the past few weeks that he intends to keep that same style whenever his sidelined bigs get back, specifically saying that Bradshaw and Ivisic — a 7-2 freshman with shooting range and playmaking abilities — can slot in at the 4 or the 5 and hold the status quo on the court. And his presence on defense should be a deterrent when opponents get by the Wildcats on the perimeter, a common occurrence this season.

“It will be nice to have one more big body that we can throw in instead of them getting layups,” Calipari said. “Those are all blocks if you have got a big guy in there.”

Bradshaw’s potential is immense. He went into his sophomore year ranked No. 44 nationally by 247Sports. By the start of his junior year, he was at No. 24. At the beginning of last season, Bradshaw was ranked No. 4 in his class, and he made it all the way to No. 2 before ending up fifth in the final rankings.

Kentucky’s coaches saw him plenty early on while watching Wagner, one of Calipari’s top targets since he was in middle school.

“You could just see his ceiling,” Antigua said. “Every game, he was getting more comfortable. You realized that he was just starting to really get serious about it. And if he’s loving the game the way he loves it, it’s only a matter of time. And that’s what we’ve seen.

“We saw it early on. You could see the dexterity. The hands and the feet, the movement, the ability to run. He wasn’t yet 7 feet, but he was 6-8, 6-9, long and could move. And then you put it together and you’re saying, ‘Yeah, if this kid keeps it going …’”

Antigua then made a motion like an airplane taking off. That was not an uncommon gesticulation when discussing Bradshaw during his high school career. The talent was so clearly there. It was just a matter of when, not if, it would all come together and explode onto the court.

That’s still the question. The missed developmental time these past several months can’t be overlooked. Instead of growing his game at the time of his arrival in Lexington in early June, he’s been relegated to the sidelines — not the place you want your still-learning 7-footer to be. His minutes will almost certainly be limited when he does make his debut, and what he does with that time will dictate what he’s relied upon to do when league play begins Jan. 6.

“We have to be patient,” Antigua said. “He’s a kid that has an unbelievable skill set for a 7-1, 7-2 player. He’s continued to grow. But he’s a basketball player. He can handle the ball, and he can shoot the ball. Obviously, he defends the rim. He can rebound. He plays with his back to the basket. He can face you up. So there are a lot of things there that we can utilize to help this team. But it’s just going to mean being patient and bringing him along to get him to a point where he can be fully utilized for the team.”

At the very least, Bradshaw will be another unique weapon on a roster already filled with them, even if his best basketball is still years away. Speaking of that, what is this young man’s ceiling, say, five or six years down the road?

Antigua paused at the question, then sighed.

“The sky,” he said. “The sky, honestly. Being able to, God willing, stay healthy, he’ll have an opportunity to be really special.”

Tuesday

No. 8 Miami (Fla.) at No. 12 Kentucky

What: SEC/ACC Challenge

When: 7:30 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Miami 5-0 (0-0 ACC), Kentucky 5-1 (0-0 SEC)

Series: Kentucky leads 3-1

Last meeting: Miami won 73-67 on Dec. 6, 2008, in Lexington

How No. 12 Kentucky and No. 8 Miami match up — with a game prediction

John Calipari brings Kentucky basketball into the ‘modern time’ with a record night

Kentucky basketball sets scoring records in 118-82 victory over Marshall

What exactly is the NCAA doing in the case of Kentucky basketball player Zvonimir Ivisic?

Justin Edwards is off to a slow start at Kentucky. What comes next for the star recruit?

Kentucky is thankful for Tre Mitchell. The feeling is mutual. ‘I’m unbelievably blessed.’