{"id":165962,"date":"2025-08-22T07:55:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T07:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165962\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T07:55:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T07:55:18","slug":"i-just-want-like-a-real-college-experience-bryce-james-reveals-why-the-arizona-wildcats-were-the-right-fit-despite-family-ties-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165962\/","title":{"rendered":"“I just want like a real college experience” – Bryce James reveals why the Arizona Wildcats were the right fit despite family ties elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James’ youngest son, Bryce James<\/a>, had the interest of three college basketball programs during his senior year, specifically Duquesne University, Ohio State and Arizona University.<\/p>\n

As a three-star recruit guard at Sierra Canyon High School, James eventually opted to take his talents to Arizona, not because it’s closest to Los Angeles, where his family resides, but because he believed it was the best program for him at the moment.<\/p>\n

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“For me personally, I probably say the environment because I know the fans, they really enjoy coming to the Arizona games. I know they like to get rowdy, get loud, So for me personally, I just want a real college experience and for me, I think Arizona was definitely one of those colleges,” said<\/a> James in his first interview as a Wildcat.<\/p>\n

Development and the right role<\/p>\n

James is coming off a productive senior year at Sierra Canyon, where he averaged 8 points and 4 rebounds a game. The 18-year-old guard played an integral role in helping his high school win the CIF State Division 1 championship this year. He also showed flashes of his potential, such as his ability to score at all three levels, athleticism, and basketball IQ.<\/p>\n

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The Wildcats coaching staff appreciated that about Bryce and felt their program was the best place for him to further hone his skills. According to Bryce, committing to Arizona was a no-brainer, given that he’ll be able to develop his skills and play in a competitive conference.<\/p>\n

“Me personally, Tommy [Lloyd] said he’s all about player development so he doesn’t really care if you come in here and you maybe not doing good in your first couple of years. You know, basically, he’s all about development. So you know, just getting better in practice every day, getting stronger in the weight room. So you know, for me, that’s probably what I’m looking forward to,” added<\/a> James.<\/p>\n

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The Wildcats placed fourth in the Big-12 standings last year with an overall record of 24-13. They made it as far as the Sweet Sixteen in the 2025 NCAA Tournament after defeating the Oregon Ducks, but unfortunately, they couldn’t get past Duke University, which kicked them out of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Related: Michael Jordan destroyed a teammate so bad the Bulls traded him away: “One of the saddest things I ever saw”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tommy Lloyd’s plan for Bryce<\/p>\n

James’ quote about coach Lloyd isn’t a shocker, given that the Wildcats’ head coach has an impressive reputation for developing his players’ talent. Lloyd, who spent 22 years as an assistant coach for Gonzaga University, has been Arizona’s head coach for four years now.<\/p>\n

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This season, his plan is to lead the team deeper into the tournament while honing NBA-worthy talents, including Bryce. Lloyd’s approach with James is to treat the 6’6″ guard like any other player on the team.<\/p>\n

The coach did say that he expects James to get used to the college environment, which is significantly different from the high school basketball scene. Under Lloyd’s leadership, James said he’s looking forward to working as hard as he can and getting stronger and better on and off the court every day.<\/p>\n

Related: Bryce James reveals LeBron’s advice about playing college basketball: “Push through, stay positive”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Aug 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the College<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James’ youngest son, Bryce James, had the interest of three college basketball programs during his senior year,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[95463,1339,85192,95464,3363,1317,1337,1338,22240,95465,62,95466,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-165962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-arizona-university","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bryce-james","11":"tag-duquesne-university","12":"tag-lebron-james","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-basketball","15":"tag-ncaabasketball","16":"tag-ohio-state","17":"tag-sierra-canyon-high-school","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-tommy-lloyd","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115071347879107704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}