Rochester native leads Arizona into men’s Final Four

Jaden Bradley, the Big 12 player of the year, has Arizona two wins from its first national title since 1997.

Hear from Arizona basketball players ahead of Final Four

Hear from Arizona men’s basketball players Anthony Dell’Orso and Jaden Bradley ahead of the Wildcats’ Final Four matchup against Michigan.

• Arizona Wildcats point guard Jaden Bradley lived in Rochester through his fifth-grade year in elementary school.
• Bradley, a senior on the Arizona men’s basketball team, returns to Rochester to train in the off-season and visit relatives.
• Bradley is the Big 12 Conference men’s basketball player of the year.

It is time for another athlete with strong ties to Rochester to play on one of the biggest stages in American sports.

Led by point guard Jaden Bradley, the Arizona Wildcats have made it to the Final Four of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Bradley, one of the best players in college basketball, lived in Rochester until his family moved to the Charlotte-area in North Carolina as he reached the sixth grade. He has relatives who call Rochester home and continues to return to the city to train.

The Arizona Wildcats take on Michigan in the second of the two NCAA semifinals tonight at 8:49 in Indianapolis. Brighton High graduate Ernie Clement, an infielder with Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays, was one of the top performers in the World Series.

Bradley arguably is the leading man in the Arizona Wildcats’ attempt to return to the very top of men’s college basketball.

Brayden Burries is Arizona’s leading scorer with 16.1 points per game, but Bradley, third on the team with a 13.3 scoring average, is the Big 12 Conference player of the year.

A senior who wears No. 0, Bradley also averages 4.4 assists per game. He also leads the Wildcats in average minutes played (30.7) and the Big 12 All-Defensive Team member is second in steals (1.4). Burries steals 1.5 balls per game. Bradley’s 80.8 free-throw percentage is only behind guard Anthony Dell’Orso (83.1) among the Wildcats who play 20 or more minutes each game.

Arizona won 29 of its 31 regular season games and was the top seed in the Big 12 Conference Tournament, with Bradley emerging as a finalist to win the Bob Cousy Award as the top point guard in the nation. Bradley made a game-winning shot, a fallaway jumper, against Iowa State during the Big 12 tournament semifinals.

The Wildcats, who defeated Houston 79-74 in the Big 12 tournament final, were designated one of the four region No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

Bradley was Arizona’s leading scorer in the second round with 18 points against Utah State. He then scored 14 points with five assists, as the Wildcats crushed Arkansas, 109-88, in the Sweet 16 round. Arizona moved past Purdue, 79-64, as Bradley scored 14 points with six assists in 39 minutes.

That victory over the Boilermakers with point guard and NCAA all-time assist leader Braden Smith, put Arizona among the men’s final four for the first time since 2001. The Wildcats are now two wins away again from winning a national championship for the first time since 1997.

Bradley certainly played a big part to put the 2025-26 title within reach of the Arizona Wildcats.

James Johnson, who grew up in the city of Rochester, has worked as a full-time journalist covering high school sports for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1996. His career began as an intern during the summer of 1990, before the start of his senior year at Edison in the Rochester City School District. He has become a two-time winner of the Rochester Press-Radio Club’s Sports Media Excellence Award. Follow him @jjDandC on X (Twitter). Please contact him at [email protected]