Kentucky’s Aaron Bradshaw had foot surgery, won’t play exhibition in Toronto:

Kentucky freshman Aaron Bradshaw, a five-star prospect ranked as the No. 4 overall recruit and No. 1 center in the 2023 class, has already had surgery to repair a foot injury, coach John Calipari confirmed when speaking to local reporters Friday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Multiple team sources tell The Athletic that the McDonald’s All-American 7-footer elected to have surgery just a few days after The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on June 16 that Bradshaw had suffered a foot fracture.
• Calipari said Friday, “He had a choice to make: Do you let it heal or do you do an operation? He waited for a minute to say, ‘Let me see this,’ but at the end of the day, he said, ‘I want an operation because I want to play.’ ”
• Bradshaw will return to Kentucky’s campus this weekend, his coach said, and will be in a protective walking boot. Calipari added that the center will not travel with the team to Toronto for a series of exhibition games in mid-July.
• Asked if Bradshaw could miss the start of the 2023-24 season in November, Calipari offered some good news for Kentucky: “Not from what the doctors are telling me, but we will not rush him back.”

What does this news mean for the Wildcats?

Although it means UK will play in Canada with just two available big men, sophomore Ugonna Onyenso and super senior West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell, it is probably the most positive Bradshaw update since rumor of an injury started circulating several weeks ago. There had previously been major buzz that Bradshaw’s agency, Klutch Sports Group, might encourage him to flip to Southern California to play with Bronny James — and then fuzzy details about an (until now) unconfirmed mystery injury just days after he arrived on UK’s campus. That led to substantial concern about whether Bradshaw would ever actually suit up for Kentucky.

In what sounded a lot like a direct response to that chatter, Calipari mentioned (unprompted) multiple times Friday that Bradshaw is eager to play for the Wildcats. “He could’ve waited it out, but he said, ‘I don’t want to take a chance. I want to play,’ ” Calipari said. “It’s unfortunate for him (to miss the summer exhibitions) but we’ve had guys who couldn’t be there in the summer and came back and played great. All I can tell you is every time he grabs me, he says, ‘I love you, Coach.’ This kid is so excited about being here and wants to help us win.”

Is any more roster news coming for Kentucky?

Calipari said Monday he does not expect to add any more players for the upcoming season — he has seven freshmen, two sophomores, returning super senior Antonio Reeves and Mitchell, UK’s lone transfer portal addition — with a significant caveat. “But,” Calipari said, “what if this happens and that happens? Maybe we would.”

Moments earlier, he had predicted that 10-plus new players will still enter the transfer portal in August after graduating from their current…