The beauty of the transfer portal for college coaches that is if you miss the first time around you will have a chance to make up for it again later. Tommy Lloyd, Steve Robinson and the Arizona staff built a strong relationship with former top-35 prospect Jaden Bradley throughout the recruiting process.
Ultimately, the Wildcats lost out on the North Carolina native to Alabama, but Lloyd and his program won't miss a second time. Bradley, now ranked as the 54th-best player in the NCAA Transfer Portal by Rivals, committed and signed with Arizona on Wednesday giving the program its first big offseason addition.
"We are excited to have Jaden and his family join our program," Lloyd said in a statement Wednesday after UA announced the signing. "He had an outstanding freshman season for one of the top teams in the country. We know that as he continues to grow his game, he can really make an impact on our program to help make everyone around him better."
Arizona made a strong push for Bradley shortly after Lloyd arrived in Tucson back in 2021, but Alabama eventually won out despite the Wildcats' best efforts. Still, Robinson has had a long-standing relationship with Bradley going back to his time at North Carolina and the program's connection to the former four-star guard helped eventually bring him to UA on Wednesday.
Bradley put together an impressive first season with the Crimson Tide, which was good enough to land him a spot on the nine-man SEC All-Freshman team earlier this spring. He averaged at least 8 points for most of the season but watched his minutes dwindle by the end of the year.
Ultimately, as a freshman, he averaged 6.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and was second on the team with 3.1 assists per game. Bradley had at least 5 assists in eight different games as a freshman.
His best game on offense came against Gonzaga with Bradley scoring 18 points and 4 assists against the West Coast powerhouse. He had 14 points and 4 assists against Tennessee late in the season in another standout performance with 10 of his points coming from the free-throw line.
Bradley finished the year third on the team with 118 free-throw attempts.
In addition to his work on the offensive end of the floor, Bradley also had 18 steals on the season and led the team in that category in seven games.
Bradley played in all 37 games for Nate Oats' team and that included 22 starts over the course of the season.
Arizona's latest addition will help provide some more stability to the guard position alongside Kylan Boswell, who is in line to take on a larger role in the starting unit for the Wildcats in his second season.
The team lost starting point guard Kerr Kriisa to a West Virginia on a transfer this offseason and have been looking to replace his production in recent weeks. Arizona was a finalist for Creighton guard Ryan Nembhard before he eventually decided to transfer to Gonzaga.
UA returns veteran wing Pelle Larsson on the perimeter this season and will welcome freshman guard KJ Lewis to the team this summer as well.
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