Arizona guard Bryce James, the son of NBA celebrity LeBron James, has but to play in his workforce’s first three video games of the 2025-26 season, together with the Wildcats’ 84-49 win over Northern Arizona on Tuesday. Whereas it’s frequent for gamers not within the common rotation to play in nonconfrence video games in rubbish time, James has but to make an look, creating hypothesis on when or if he’ll play this season.
After the sport, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd stated that redshirting James and his teammate, Mabil Mawut, is “on the table.”
“No final decisions have been made,” Lloyd stated. “It’s robust. It places you in a troublesome state of affairs. You play Bryce in a recreation like this [against Northern Arizona] for 3 minutes, it burns a yr of eligibility. I want it was simpler.
“I wish there was a set number of games you could play a guy like they have in football. I think that would make sense for some of these kids, but we don’t. I want Bryce to have the best college basketball career and the most options in his college basketball career long-term, whatever that looks like. Throwing a kid with a lot of potential that’s developing, he or Mabil, a few garbage minutes — it might feel good now, but potentially down the line it could be something you regret.”
James, a three-star recruit out of Sierra Canyon Excessive Faculty in Chatsworth, California, dedicated to Arizona earlier this calendar yr after receiving provides from Duquesne and Ohio State. James was not anticipated to play a major position for the Wildcats this season as a result of depth of the roster, which is why a redshirt yr may make sense for his long-term growth as a school participant.
Why redshirting James is the best transfer for Arizona
Arizona completed with the No. 2-ranked recruiting class within the 2025 cycle within the 247Sports workforce rankings. The Wildcats landed five-star recruits Brayden Burries and Koa Peat and signed 5 extra gamers: Dwayne Aristode, Sidi Gueye, Ivan Kharchenkov, Mawut and James.
The Wildcats additionally returned key gamers from final yr’s workforce like Jaden Bradley, Anthony Dell’Orso, Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas. The quantity of expertise returning and the blue-chip recruits coming into this system created an uphill climb for James to log important minutes as a freshman.
Throughout Arizona’s first three video games, Lloyd has been using an eight-man rotation. And it’s labored. The Wildcats recorded an upset win over reigning nationwide champion Florida in the course of the opening evening of the season, largely due to the play of Peat, who completed with 30 factors in opposition to a stout opposing frontcourt.
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Peat and Burries have been within the beginning lineup in every of the primary three video games, whereas Gueye, Kharchenkov and Aristode have all performed in at the very least two video games — which suggests all of these gamers have hypothetically burned their redshirts. Within the case of Peat and Burries, that received’t matter a lot as a result of each venture as first-round picks within the 2026 NBA Draft.
Close to the top of Arizona’s win over Utah Tech final week, followers began chanting “We want Bryce!” And though it could be logical (on the floor) to get James some minutes this season, using a redshirt yr whereas Arizona has a Ultimate 4-caliber roster will profit all events in the long run.
“I have been very direct — redshirting is on the table for him,” Lloyd stated. “That’s why he hasn’t played in a game yet. Otherwise he would be playing some minutes in some of these games, especially at the end. We have had multiple conversations with Bryce about it. I think we are on the same page. No final decision has been made. The decision as of now is to protect his opportunity to redshirt. That’s the decision that’s being made.”
So, in case you’re anticipating James to play a recreation this season, you could have to attend one other yr.
