Kentucky doing ‘a fantastic job’ recruiting top available point guard in 2022 class
The basketball recruiting class of 2022 appears to be rich with talent at the all-important point guard position, and Kentucky’s coaches wasted no time reaching out to some of the best playmakers in the group.
One of those players — Charlotte-area standout Jaden Bradley — has continued to prove himself as one of the most gifted point guards in the country, and the Wildcats are making sure he knows he’s a major priority for the future of the program.
A couple of weeks ago, Bradley completed a dream season by scoring 27 points in the state championship game to lead Cannon School to a 27-6 record and its first title in 14 years. The 16-year-old was already regarded as one of the best points guards in the 2022 class going into his sophomore season, but Cannon head coach Che Roth said he continues to take his game to new levels.
“Jaden was the best player on the floor, night in and night out,” Roth told the Herald-Leader. “He plays with so much poise, so much feel — to be 16 and have command of what he wants to do. The biggest jump I think that he made this year was, instead of playing a position — playing on the ball, playing point guard, whatever you want to call it — he figured out how to run his team. On the floor, in the locker room, possession in, possession out — his feel and his maturity are so far advanced for a kid his age. And how he sees the game — he’s one or two steps ahead, if not three, on every possession. … He just impacts play and makes everybody around him better. And that shows up with wins, with banners, with rings, with trophies.
“His play, from start to finish, was off-the-charts good.”
Bradley averaged about 23 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals per game for the state champions, earning all-state honors and several other high-profile individual accolades. Roth said Bradley specifically worked on becoming a better outside shooter coming into this past season and concentrated on that aspect of his game throughout the campaign. The results: he made threes at a 48-percent clip.
“He’s invested a ton of time in the gym, and we’ve worked a lot on shooting the ball,” Roth said. “Because a kid like him — he can get to his spot, and he can get to the rim — but, at the end of his freshman year, teams were making him shoot the ball. So, getting him comfortable on the perimeter (was important).
“And the other part of it is — Jaden’s an elite defender. He wants the challenge of guarding the other team’s best perimeter player, night in and night out. Most guys, they don’t want to do that. He does. He wants to take away another team’s biggest strength, and that’s something that our team rallied around. Because, if they see him do it … now, the rest of the guys, they rise to the challenge.”
Jaden Bradley’s recruitment
A 6-foot-3 point guard that can score, shoot, pass, defend and has the maturity to lead a state title team at 16 years old catches the attention of college recruiters, and there are already plenty who would love to have Bradley as part of their program a couple of years down the line.
Nathan Bradley, the player’s father, told the Herald-Leader that the family has taken visits to Kentucky, North Carolina, Auburn, Tennessee, Wake Forest and Clemson over the past few months, noting that they were at nearby UNC for a second time Tuesday night.
Bradley, who is originally from Rochester, N.Y., and moved to Charlotte a few years ago with his family, still has two more years of high school ball, but he’s getting a good feel for the recruiting process early on. Roth, a former Division I assistant coach, said the plan has always been to get Bradley on some college campuses early in the process and noted that his family has done a terrific job of managing his recruitment.
“You know how it is — when you’re a high-level dude, you have high-level programs that are building a relationship with you. We’re in the information-gathering stage,” Roth said. “This was the plan: as a sophomore, let’s go out and see schools and build relationships and let’s see where we feel is a fit. They’ve been fantastic about doing just the right amount to where they kind of have a blueprint on things. There are a lot of schools that are making him a priority, and they should. He’s a hell of a player, and he’s a hell of a kid. He’s fantastic. So why wouldn’t you want to recruit him?”
Rivals.com ranks him as the No. 8 overall prospect in the 2022 class, a group that includes six point guards in the top 21 spots and 11 point guards in the top 31. Several of those players have already been linked to Kentucky, but Bradley is the top-ranked uncommitted recruit at the position, and he’s especially high on the Wildcats’ wish list.
UK assistant coach Joel Justus, a former high school coach in North Carolina, inquired about Bradley’s recruitment early in the process and has stayed in regular contact. Kentucky hosted the player and his family for the Blue-White Scrimmage back in the fall, and it’s likely that they’ll be back in Lexington at some point in the future.
“Joel has done a fantastic job of painting a vision of what Kentucky basketball is all about,” Roth said. “I love the transparency that they have. He’s been phenomenal. And I also like the authenticity for how they build the relationship with each kid. They allow it to happen organically, there’s no rush. They’ve done a fantastic job of doing that with Jaden and his family.”
Roth and Bradley’s father — who doubles as the point guard’s AAU coach — are handling the bulk of the recruitment so far, but college coaches will be permitted to reach out directly to Bradley starting this summer. Roth said he thinks that will be another positive step forward in the recruitment as the young player continues to build relationships with college coaches and get a better feel for the situations at each school.
Bradley, who told the Herald-Leader back in October that UK was one of the teams he liked to watch growing up, will surely be a main draw for Kentucky’s coaches once travel ball begins next month, even if he is two years away from setting foot on a college campus.
“The best part about it is he has not lost who he is in this whole process,” Roth said. “He’s still the best kid, the best teammate, the most coachable. I think he’s one of those guys that isn’t satisfied with any part of his game. He wants to work on everything. When I say he wants to be the best, the kid wants to be the best at everything.”
