PHOENIX – In his freshman season at Alabama, Jaden Bradley was lost in a system not meant for him. His inability to shoot the 3-ball at a high clip and Jahvon Quinerly’s late surge in the 2022-23 season caused Bradley to lose his starting spot.
Coach Nate Oats and his super-speed offense were not the right fit. It was time for a change.
Bradley has been around Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd’s system for three years now, and the fit couldn’t be better. In this, his senior season, the Wildcats point guard is averaging 13.5 points per game on 50% shooting from the field and 42% from 3-point range. He leads the team with 4.5 assists per game and has been a major factor in Arizona’s 23-1 record.
“Jaden’s just a really good player,” Lloyd said in a press conference following a 37-point win against Oklahoma State. “He’s having a great year, and he seems to be making all the right decisions.”
Entering the transfer portal in hopes of a larger role, Bradley didn’t carve out a spot in the starting lineup in his sophomore season, but his efficiency shot up, proving that Lloyd’s system was more suited to his playing style.
In his junior year, he became a major player in Arizona’s run to the Sweet 16 last season. He started all 37 games, taking major leaps in many statistical categories. Bradley was the second-leading scorer, behind only Caleb Love, and he led the team in assists and steals, averaging 3.7 and 1.8, respectively.
With Love and much of that 2024-25 team moving on, Bradley knew it was his turn to lead the way. With a plethora of freshmen coming in, taking on a bigger leadership role was expected.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been in different situations, losing a lot of key pieces,” Bradley told TNT following a season-opening win against Florida. “Stepping in and knowing where to put my teammates in the right situation, and I want (my teammates) to be successful, and I feel like we have a great chance to do that.”
While Koa Peat, Brayden Burries and Ivan Kharchenkov get a lot of the attention as outstanding freshmen, Bradley’s ability to stay consistent night in and night out, along with his leadership role, make him arguably the most important player on the team.
Lloyd said Bradley’s role as a leader comes from his veteran presence and his personality; something a lot of the younger guys admire.
“Our guys love (Jaden),” Lloyd said. “They all look up to him as a person and a player.”
With his excellent shooting splits and improved assist-to-turnover ratio (2.65 to 1 this season), Bradley has excelled at consistency most of this season.
Offensive consistency didn’t follow him to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, Monday. He struggled to get going, shooting just 2 for 8 from the field and only scoring six points in Arizona’s first loss of the season against Kansas 82-78.
On the defensive side of the ball, he was effective, nabbing three steals. However, it wasn’t enough to stop a Darryn Peterson-less Kansas team that is on a roll.
With a difficult schedule that features five ranked teams in the Wildcats’ final seven games of the season, Bradley and the rest of the team know they’ll have to tap back into that consistency.
Lloyd isn’t worried.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Lloyd said in a news conference after the loss to Kansas. “I’m not mad we lost. I can’t wait to get on that plane, get back home, and I feel like our season just started.”
The Wildcats seem to go as Bradley does. When he has stretches of good play, the team excels. That has happened a lot this season, hence the 23-1 record. But Arizona has unfinished business.
Bradley has been a part of three Sweet 16 teams in his career, but he hasn’t made it over the hump, similar to the Wildcats in recent years.
To make a deep tournament run and continue this wildly successful season, Bradley has to be the engine driving the train.
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