Jaden Bradley's top stat? Maybe that Arizona finished nonconference play 13-0

Because point guard Jaden Bradley led Arizona to a perfect nonconference season, the Wildcats might owe some thanks to voters for the Naismith positional awards.

Those are the folks who left him off a preseason watch list of the 20 top point guards in college basketball. A week after they did so, Bradley poured in 27 points to help Arizona knock off defending national champion Florida on college basketball’s opening night.

Since then, he’s continued to make his case for the award while helping the Wildcats rise to the No. 1 ranking, though often in more understated ways: A few game-changing drives to the basket against UCLA and UConn. Seven assists while freshman Brayden Burries broke out with 28 points against Alabama. Perfect 10-for-10 free throw shooting — and no field goals — against Abilene Christian.

In the Wildcats’ final nonconference game Monday, Bradley made it a little more obvious: He dished 10 assists to only one turnover along with 13 points in Arizona’s 99-71 win over South Dakota State, giving him the first double-double of his career.

It was the first time the Wildcats have had a player record double-digit assists since Kerr Kriisa, now playing for Cincinnati, had 11 against Oregon State in January 2023.

But afterward, typically, Bradley shrugged.

More understatement.

“The numbers are numbers,” Bradley said. “I like getting my teammates involved and the rest just takes care of itself.”

Yet sometimes the numbers don’t take care of themselves. Not in Tommy Lloyd’s offense, and not with Bradley’s mentality, anyway.

South Dakota State tried to fill gaps and pack the paint, prompting Bradley to make simple passes to perimeter shooters or post players, passes that sometimes resulted in direct shots to the basket — and assists for Bradley.

“We knew coming in that they were a very gappy defensive team," Bradley said. “So I was just telling my shooters, 'stay ready,' and my bigs, just (make) simple pocket passes, and they do the rest.”

On the season, Bradley still averages less than half of 10 assists. That's in part because he's usually one of several players spreading the ball around in Lloyd’s motion offense, often with a pass that might lead to another pass and maybe even another after that before somebody finally shoots.

It’s the “old hockey assist deal,” Lloyd said, explaining Bradley's value.

“The great thing about JB is that everything he does just equates to winning, not necessarily stats,” Lloyd said. “He's just not a stat-driven guy. He’s a really good passer, but he's a guy that just kind of plays the right way and gets off the ball. And when you get off the ball and make a simple pass, it's probably not going to always lead to a scoring opportunity.

“I just appreciate that he plays the right way. Never gets caught up in stats. I really appreciate how consistent he is on a night in and night out basis.”

So far this season, Bradley has scored in double figures in 10 of 13 games and is Arizona’s third leading scorer at 13.4 points. He’s put up a 3-1 assist-turnover ratio while averaging 4.5 assists a game, and who knows how many “hockey” assists on top of that.

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His most consistently notable stat might be his 82.6% free-throw shooting, which is especially valuable to the Wildcats because he picks up 5.2 fouls per 40 minutes.

Bradley's stats on Monday jumped more than that. Bradley had four assists while scoring nine points in the first half to help Arizona take a 51-39 lead, and then added another six assists in the second half to make sure the Wildcats never really had trouble against a South Dakota State team that managed to hit 10 of 22 3-pointers.

It also helped the Wildcats that Bradley wasn’t the only focal point, with both forward Koa Peat (19 points and 14 rebounds) and center Motiejus Krivas (13 and 11) also collecting double-doubles.

Notably, too, Krivas did his work despite having tape wrapped around his right wrist and index finger, after appearing to tweak that area against San Diego State on Dec. 20.

“I don't know what's going on there,” Lloyd said. “I see Mo wince once in a while, and then I see him gritting his teeth and getting back out there.”

While rebounding machine Tobe Awaka missed becoming a fourth double-doubler with 10 points and seven rebounds, he and two other Wildcats also scored in double figures.

“There's a strength in having significant contributors across the board. It's hard to key on one guy,” Lloyd said. “We have really talented individual players who value playing team basketball and hopefully prioritize making the right play. When you do that, the scoring distribution will get spread out a little bit.”

The Wildcats’ top scorer, Peat, complemented his scoring with the sort of rebounding effort Lloyd said he had been pushing him for. The freshman forward, who poured in 30 points against Florida and now leads the Wildcats in scoring with an average of 14.2 points, wound up setting a new career-high in rebounding.

“Koa had a good rhythm and energy to him,” Lloyd said. “He probably was a little too aggressive on a few plays, but that's good. He's got to learn where that line is.”

After the game Monday, Lloyd said he hadn’t looked too close at the stats, but when he saw the number “14” in rebounding, he said he “made sure it wasn’t Tobe’s name.”

“So I'm really proud of Koa, because I'm sure he's gotten a little annoyed with me making some comments here and there about his rebounding,” Lloyd said.

While Peat’s college career high in scoring so far remains the 30 points he scored against Florida in his college debut on Nov. 3, his previous high in rebounding was 12 at UConn on Nov. 19. He entered Monday's game in a distant third place among UA rebounders at 4.9, well behind Awaka (10.4) and Krivas (8.1), prompting that fire that Lloyd lit under him. 

“Coach always tells us to play with that energy and playing with the edge, so it's something I've been trying to put in my game more,” Peat said. “Just screaming at the crowd, little stuff like that gets the crowd in it, and it's special here in McKale.”

With their rebounding and defense, the Wildcats kept in control on Monday. The Jackrabbits were the strongest mid- or low-major team Arizona has faced this season, but the Wildcats held them to 40.6% shooting overall while shooting 53.2% themselves, and outrebounded South Dakota State 45-30.

“I was just really impressed with their physicality and the effort they played with,” Lloyd said of the Jackrabbits. “We weren't able to just push them out of the way. They fought back, and there was a really physical game, and that was great. It's exactly what we needed.

“We welcome that and we know that's going to be the norm night in and night out going forward as we head into conference play.”