Nate Oats on Arizona G Jaden Bradley: 'I Think He Left on Good Terms'
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Late Wednesday night, Alabama Basketball will play its third straight game against a top-10 opponent away from home.
Fresh off back-to-back losses against then-No. 4 Purdue in Toronto and then-No. 8 Creighton in Omaha, the Crimson Tide travels to Phoenix to take on No. 4 Arizona.
Former Alabama guard Jaden Bradley now plays for the Wildcats, a season after helping lead the Crimson Tide to the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.
"When he left, he anticipated [Jahvon] Quinerly staying," Oats said. "I think he wanted a bigger role. He’s a really good player. Shoot, some people had him as the number one point guard in a country in his class in high school. I’m good with Jaden. I think he left on good terms."
"He just wanted a bigger role. Nobody had anticipated Quinerly even coming back that year when Jaden had committed to us. Quinerly blew out his knee and had to come back, and then when all the NIL stuff came out and everything, all of a sudden it made sense Quinerly was going to stay in college even another year. That was kind of what went into that thought process."
Oddly enough, Bradley's role has actually decreased at Arizona — so far.
In 36 games with Alabama last year, Bradley averaged 6.5 points and 3.1 assists with 19.9 minutes per game. This season, in nine games played, Bradley is averaging just 4.4 points and 1.7 assists in 18.4 minutes per game.
"He’s playing a pretty big role here [at Arizona] on one of the best teams in the country again," Oats said. "We were number one in the country last year. Arizona has been number one [this year]. So he’s had a significant role on two of the best teams in the country in his two years in college basketball. He’s a tough, gritty, smart, hard-nosed, high-IQ guy, and looking forward to playing against him."
