UF Offers 2022 PG Jaden Bradley
One of the latest players to pick up an offer from Florida is class of 2022 Cannon School (Charlotte, NC) point guard Jaden Bradley. GatorsTerritory.com spoke with Bradley’s father, Nathan, about the offer and to get an update of where things stand with the younger Bradley’s recruitment.
A 6-foot-3, 170-pounder, who was only three games into his freshman season, when we spoke with his father, Bradley already holds a handful of high major offers.
“Auburn, Wake Forest, Georgetown and Florida right now,” said Bradley when listing his son’s offers. “We’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of different teams. With Tennessee, [and] we’ve had some contact with North Carolina, Kansas, Washington, Louisville, N.C. State, USC, LSU, Oklahoma State and Syracuse. So he’s doing some big things right now.”
Normally, per NCAA rules, Division I coaches would not be allowed to have contact with the parent of a member of the 2022 class. In Jaden Bradley’s case, his father is actually an assistant coach for the B. Maze 16U team so coaches are allowed to call and text him. Jaden, who just turned 15 in September, “played up” two age groups with the B. Maze Elite 16U team during the spring and summer.
“We were a little timid when we decided to go with B. Maze and play two grades up,” said Bradley. “Especially being 14. Some kids are a little older than their grade, but we felt like his game was mature enough for him to play effectively at that level of competition.”
Since most college coaches don’t typically watch 15U games, having his son play 16U gave him just enough exposure to land on the radar of several high major programs.
“A lot of coaches didn’t know who he was,” Bradley said of his son. “People kind of rant and rave about his composure, how he runs the team, doesn’t turn the ball over and gets people the ball where they need to score from and [his] defense. We really kind of wanted to show people that he has a nice offensive game. He can get to the basket, his first step is pretty fast but we wanted to show people that he has a nice pull-up game and can get to the basket effectively.”
The Bradley family has educated themselves about college recruiting and clearly had a plan in place for Jaden’s recruitment.
“What we wanted to do was get exposure on the circuit and we wanted to do that early,” said Bradley. But I think that was definitely a positive move for us. We got a chance to actually do some unofficial visits last year prior to them changing the rules now for freshmen. I think it’s been great exposure for him and kind of keeping him hungry because he’s seen where he wants to be, so now it’s time to work towards those goals.
Have the offers affected the young point guard’s focus on the here and now?
“He’s a quiet kid,” said Bradley. “He stays grounded through his big brother being hard on him. Mentorships from Isaiah Stewart and Wendell Moore, service work and his parents, coaches and teachers making him accountable daily.”
“Coach Nichols came to our Friday game,” Bradley said. “Jaden had a pretty good game. They ended up losing the game but he scored 21 points, a bunch of assists, played some really good defense. So Coach said he was impressed with him and he offered him. Jaden was pretty excited.”
It will be a while before members of the 2022 class even think about verbally committing, but it is always important to identify prospects early and the Gators have done that with Jaden Bradley.