AZ Wildcats Podcast

Bryce James Has COMMITTED To The UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Bryce James, son of NBA legend and Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James, has committed to the University of Arizona and Tommy Lloyd. The 6' 4" shooting guard out of Sierra Canyon is the latest to commit to the program. Become a PHNX Diehard for just $4 a month! http://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

Duration:: 27m
Broadcast on:: 01 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

America's oldest college football all-star game runs through the Lone Star State. Be a part of history in the making at the 100th East West Shrine Bowl. Thursday, January 30th, 2025 at AT&T Stadium. Visit Shrine Bowl.com for a chance to see the nation's top college football players ahead of the NFL draft. Tickets started just $20. Don't miss the historic 100th East West Shrine Bowl. Get your tickets today at Shrine Bowl.com. Today's All-Stars Tomorrow's Legends. Oh yeah. That's the AZ Wildcats Podcast. I'm your host, Damon Ferrell, and I'm with my man, Kevin Thomas, on a happy New Year's Kevin Thun. Very happy New Year, Damon. Could it be a happier New Year? I mean, I don't think so. We're literally starting off the New Year's with a LeBron Bear Down post. Can it be any better to start the New Year? I mean, it's just a crazy world. Arizona State getting whooped on in the Peach Bowl. LeBron's posting Bear Down. It's a New Year. It's a new dawn. It's a new day, and I'm ready, Damon. Turn me down. I love it. Kevin's fired up. Of course, we were talking about the commitment of three-star combo guard, Bryce James, who is the second eldest son of LeBron James. Committing to the University of Arizona. Bryce James here, you can see it. He's a shooting guard, 6'4", 190 pounds. Plays high school ball at Sierra Canyon, where Bronnie played. And he's, of course, in this 2025 class. You see here his ranking. He's the number 257 player in the country. You know, honestly, Kevin, maybe not what we've become accustomed to seeing at the University of Arizona when it comes to basketball commits. Like, that's not exactly, you know, we're not fishing around in the 250 range, typically, for a recruit. But obviously, this isn't your typical, you know, three-star combo guard that you find there in that 250 range. This is the son of LeBron James. And there's a pedigree that comes with that, obviously. And, you know, it's, well, this is obviously going to catch, you know, some flack from some people that don't like LeBron naturally. You know, this is a good thing for Arizona basketball long-term. Yeah, I think it's a great thing. I think it's a great indication of the health of the program, I think. Because there's a lot of talk about Tommy Lloyd Cameron crew. Tommy Lloyd can't do this. And I'm not saying let's keep it realistic here. Bryce James is a project player. We'll talk more about his skill set later. We have some highlights to show, but he's not going to, probably not, going to impact the team day one, or maybe even day two. And I think, but what it does signal is that a player of LeBron James's caliber, and more importantly, LeBron James's basketball IQ, he knows what it takes to have a winning team, winning program, winning attitude towards basketball. And I think he's trusting Tommy Lloyd with his son is a great indication of the respect that people have for Arizona as not only a program, but for Arizona led by Tommy Lloyd. And so I think it's a great indicator for the health of the program. While Bryce James might not exactly be the best prospect from a skill set point, it is an important prospect to land for Arizona. Because in this NIL era, you know, clicks and attention sometimes just have to battle when getting a recruits year sometimes. So absolutely. And, you know, Jason Sheer tweeted at friend of this program. He said that, you know, basically LeBron and his family and Bryce, they sat down with Tommy Lloyd and the coaching staff at Arizona, and they decided this was the best fit from a, you know, development standpoint, and where they thought Bryce was best suited to play basketball at the collegiate level. And, yeah, I mean, I think it's just interesting, because obviously, you know, this is, like I mentioned earlier, like, Bronnie caught so much hate while he was in college, right? And, you know, I think it was because of the pedigree that they treated him with, and the, you know, Erica puts in the chat here, like, no more ESPN 9PM games for tip-offs. Like USC was getting primetime tip-off games when they had Bronnie James, and that's exactly the type of stuff that, you know, a Bryce James commitment helps with. Even if he's not going to come in day one, like you said, or even day two, like you said, and be, you know, a guy who's really, like, contributing to winning at the highest level, he does project as a guy who could potentially reach that level, and he does help this program out. 1,000%, and we were talking about it, actually, with the great Jacob Franklin. We were discussing how this is a indicator of maybe other pieces to fall. But, you know, the Bronnie James and his relationship with Clutch, obviously, Bryce James having that similar relationship to that same company. Guess who else, Damon, can you guess who is a Clutch athlete that Arizona might also really, really, really want to go get? Co-opee, ever heard of him? Yes, indeed. Yes. Co-opee is a Clutch player, not just on the court, but with the agency as well. And so if Clutch is interested in Arizona, maybe that's a great sign that Co-opee might also be heading down to Tucson. Absolutely, and even I'll take it a step further. You have Braxton Burries who plays for the EYBL team, strive for greatness, which, of course, is LeBron's motto. And it's his EYBL team that, you know-- He's one of his modders. Yeah, Bryce, and all his buddies play for. Burries is a five-star recruit, so that's two connections right there with two of the top 10-rated players in this next class, where Bryce potentially helps you net those guys. Yeah, that's kind of what I was speaking to earlier when I said this isn't, you know, a prospect where you're mostly excited for his play. You're mostly excited for what it indicates for the health of your program. And that, you know, other recruits being interested is also, you know, a part of that health, and Saul Bookman brings it up. Clutch has several clients at UA, Caleb Love, Noah, TMac, et cetera. You know, Clutch, the Clutch Southwest, can we say we say that? Is that a thing we can say? But yeah, David, soon we should be getting to these highlights. Kind of talk about his skill set a little bit here. Yeah, let's do it. Give the people a quick view of, you know, what Bryce James brings to the table. You see here, he has a pretty good stroke from three. And I think in a lot of these highlights, you'll see him with some vertical ability, Kevin. What impresses you about Bryce James? Well, I think what impresses me about Bryce James is he makes winning plays. These highlights you're seeing, they're defensive highlights a lot of the time as well, which means you're getting a guy that wants to make winning plays out there. Now, I don't want to gaslight these folks to tell them what they're really watching here because we're not watching an elite NBA level athleticism. I don't know if you disagree with that, Damon, but his athleticism doesn't really jump off the page, but I think the fundamentals of his game do jump off the page in a real way. And that's how you impact winning with the fundamentals, the small things. Yeah, I'm with you there. I mean, I think Bronnie obviously looked a little bit more springy, right? Bronnie looked more like physicality was kind of his MO. And while Bryce is a little bit bigger than Bronnie, he definitely doesn't seem to have that take it to the basket slasher kind of athleticism that Bronnie had. But to me, personally, this is a very elementary look at it. And I haven't done a ton of research into Bryce James's game, but he seems as like he has a much better stroke than Bronnie to me. He seems like he can pretty much, his three-pointer, it looks fluid, it looks fundamental, and it looks consistent every time. And at a guy that's a senior in high school at his age, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, and I do agree with that evaluation of it. I think what excites me the most about Bryce James is that we see the fundamentals right now, and we know the pedigree is there. And we also know that the people that he's been surrounded with from a basketball standpoint are some of the best and brightest at the sport in general. And so I trust in his ability to be coachable. Like, obviously, I'm not there. I haven't seen his ability to be coachable, but he must be coachable, which is something that I'm sure Tommy Lloyd is really excited to get after. And we were talking about his player development yesterday, Damon. We're about to find out if he can turn Bryce James into an NBA quality guy, kudos to Tommy Lloyd, because right now, he does look every bit of a three-star. Yeah, no, and I'm with you, and that's honestly a great point, Kevin. We're freaking out about Tommy's ability to develop. Can he take these guys that we see some flashes from in their first year and turn them into the star caliber players that we need them to be in his second year? This is going to be pretty much the test for Tommy Lloyd when it comes down to developing players. Like, what is that look like? This is someone that, obviously, right now looks pretty raw, doesn't look like we mentioned, like a big-time contributor. Is Tommy Lloyd going to be able to really round out that defensive ability out of his game? Round out that basketball IQ that he obviously gets from his dad, who might be the smartest basketball player that's ever stepped on the floor. It's going to be a really, really interesting kind of mismatch of Tommy Lloyd's development, what the ability that Bryce James does have right now in that marriage. You know what I mean? No, totally. I tweeted it earlier today that I was feverishly daydreaming about LeBron and McHale. And I think, and I spoke to it earlier on this little emergency episode, that LeBron trusting Tommy Lloyd with his son is huge, because I think that a guy's as smart as LeBron James when it comes to basketball would want his son to play at a place that he feels is going to develop his son and make him a better, smarter basketball player, while also obviously developing him as a man, which is first and foremost, but we're talking basketball. And I think that Tommy Lloyd, this is a flex, I think, for Tommy Lloyd. You know, I think that I'm excited to see, my point is, I'm excited to see LeBron and Tommy link up eventually. I need that in my life. And I'm excited to see how it comes out like ideologically. I wonder, again, we were talking about yesterday, yesterday's show. You're dreaming of your celebration. I would love to be a fly on the wall to listen to LeBron and Tommy Lloyd talk about basketball. And I'm excited. I know those conversations are going to happen. And just the fact that that's happening somewhere in the universe makes me excited. And our universe that we live in right now. One thing I mean, I will kind of push back on the point you made right now is, LeBron did send his kid to Andy Enfield last, was it last year, two years ago, last year. So I mean, Andy Enfield, not exactly my thought process as like a basketball savant or whatever, like not going to not the best developer of talent, like a good recruiter, for sure. It seems like a cool guy, but doesn't, you know, not exactly a coach that inspires a ton of confidence. So that's the one thing where I'm like, you know, maybe let's walk back the war. You could argue they watched Andy Enfield firsthand and they said, get me a real coach. That's exactly what I was going to say. I'm going to push back on your pushback because they went through the Andy Enfield thing. They went with USC. Oh, we're in Southern California. We got Andy Enfield. No, we need a real basketball coach with a real blue blood program, like Arizona and Tommy Lloyd. That's what we need. Damon, we've been talking about how Bryce James isn't a one and done, two and done. He might be a three, four year player. Do you think that means for Arizona going forward recruiting wise, knowing that he likely will be here for multiple years? Do you think it affects the marketability of the team? It must, right? We were talking about how they're no more late tip-offs for ESPN. It's going to be prime time when he's on the squad. So yeah, what do you think it means for the overall direction of the team on the court? Yeah, I mean, I think it can only help you in recruiting, right? The basketball and football guy puts it here in the comments that this is going to get Tommy so many more recruits, which I think is not exactly quantifiable. It's not exactly something that we can put a number to. But it definitely is good exposure that only puts Tommy Lloyd in the Arizona Wildcats at the forefront of recruits' minds, especially those big-time recruits like Coa Pete and Burries, like we mentioned earlier. And on top of that, I think from an NIL perspective, this can only help. You got way more attention on Arizona now. You know Bryce James is going to have a big NIL deal because Bronnie was the highest earner in all of college at collegiate athletics. I think that this added exposure is only going to do positive for Arizona basketball. And if you're a killed love, and not that he's on the team next year, but I'm saying, if you're a guy at the caliber of a killed love and you're playing with Bryce James, so people are tuning in to see Bryce James and they watch you drop 33.7 rebounds, 7 assists, 0 turnovers like he did against TCU a couple of nights ago. Like, that's only going to, you know, 10-fold expand the NIL opportunities that a guy like killed loves sees. So, I think it really is just, it screams positivity to me. Yes, and Erica Day said in the chat, think of the NIL deals Bronnie was getting Google commercial that was played every 12 minutes going to get really good for the cats. I think that the brand placement, it's going to take, like Arizona is already a national brand. But when you have a player like Bryce James come to your school and then you have LeBron posting on Instagram, bear down, congratulations Maximus, so proud of you. This takes the brand to a whole nother level, right? And I think that, yes, it's not ultimately about the brand, but when you're trying to bring in recruits, having that name value, being a household name, everyone knowing Arizona, seeing Arizona logos all the time, it primes you to think about the school. And I think just being in front of people, being in front of these recruits is super important for Arizona, especially in the NIL era. And yeah, if you see, if you see people on commercials with the Wildcats logo, you might want a Wildcat logo on your chest as well. Yeah, I mean, you have to assume that you're going to see LeBron wearing U of A gear, you know, LeBron talking about the cats. And that's going to be a crazy new world. I mean, you're Jefferson Lincoln up talking cats. Yeah, I need it. I need it. That's it. I mean, that's a good point right there. I think, you know, this is this is going to be a new world for Arizona basketball fans. We were ready for this world when Sharifa Neil committed to the Arizona Wildcats. I don't exactly remember the year that it was. I do remember. I do remember. Yeah, I mean, it was right around the eight years, sometime around the FBI scandal. But that's why he got out of his, his, uh, NLI. But, you know, we were ready for it's legal now. We were ready for, we were ready to, you know, be the, the, kind of the, the show, I guess in town, for lack of a better word, where, you know, Shaquille O'Neal was going to be at McHale Center Shaquille O'Neal was going to be wearing U of A stuff Shaquille O'Neal was going to be talking about the Wildcats and it just didn't pan out that way, right? Now we, we get it, but we get it on steroids. Like this is an entirely different scope of, of importance. Yeah, I'm, I'm super excited to hear LeBron talk cat basketball. Excuse me. I think that I just, I just can't believe Damon. I know, I know it's, this is not great analysis, but I just can't believe that I woke up this morning and LeBron James is talking about the U of A in such glowing terms and his son is going to be here. And it's like, I can't believe this, I, I can't believe this in my life, Damon. I'm smiling through it all. I can't believe this is my life. Little LeBron call back there. Yeah. Yeah. Little verbal meme for you guys that don't get it. That's a LeBron meme, but yeah, absolutely incredible. Uh, you know, we're, we're, we're thrilled about this news. Um, I mean, it's, it really is the, the right way to start off the new year, right? Like that. This is, this is the perfect little appetizer. And, uh, hopefully we see a couple of big time commits come in, uh, and roll their way in in the next, you know, the ensuing months, the ensuing weeks here. Uh, and, and this is, this is kind of, you know, that jump start to that. 1000. I also, I will say though, that one downside I just thought of is like, good luck getting tickets to the games like in the, like, that's, you know what I mean? Like, it's going to be, the show is really going to be real. Uh, it's not going to be the big loser here. Michael going fans. Absolutely. It's like the big loser is like students who don't have the Zona Zoo that usually just buy one in the nosebleeds and then just walk down. It's over. Like that's your, it's, it's cooked. You're done. Like it's, it's no, it's not happening anymore. You better find your seat and stay there because that's he's going to be gone. So yeah, no, it's, but that's only a good thing. Sellouts are only a good thing. But, uh, yeah, I hope, I hope Cola Pete is next. I hope we're here on an emergency podcast soon talking about Cola Pete. Yeah, man. I do. Let's just keep doing emergency podcasts because I feel like emergency podcast, like 95% of the time, like good positive thing, right? 95% of the time. It's very, very infrequent that it's like a negative thing. It might. Yeah. Yeah, for every positive emergency pod though, but not in this case. Usually if it's like a trade or something, you know, you have like a free agency signing. Like if, if, uh, I don't know, but sometimes you have two edges of the, of the, of the sword there, so to speak. But yeah, no, I love, I love a good emergency pod. Nothing better to waking up to some good news and knowing you get to chop it up with your boy about it. It's, it's really good. It's really good. I'm excited. Um, yeah, I, I remember when Bryce James made that Instagram post Damon and I, I remember telling people like, yeah, he probably will never come here. But like, it's just cool that he wouldn't that be crazy. Yeah, like, yeah, would that be insane? Like LeBron and McHale nuts. And then now it's here. And I was, I was telling my girlfriend like not long ago, I was just saying like, there's like a non zero chance that like me and LeBron are in the same like physical, like small room at some point now in the next like four years, like that was like just a zero chance. Like yeah, I'll be in the same arena, whatever. But now it's like a non zero chance that I meet LeBron James at some point. And that, that's given me all the will to go through the rest of 2025 with a great big old smile on my face, Damon. Just lock in, Kevin. I think, you know, we got to really work on getting LeBron on the pod, right? Oh, yeah. You need it. We need to be able to say friend of the show, LeBron James. Hey, LeBron, trace by be committed to U of A and, you know, his dad, junior Spivy, professional athlete, he, you know, he wanted to talk about it. Just saying your move, balls in your court, King. Yeah, I mean, maybe, maybe we get a little junior Spivy, LeBron, you know, link up, you know, just really just double down on all the, all the former athletic greats. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Just crazy, crazy times to be an Arizona wild cat fan. We've really been riding the roller coaster this year, Damon, just riding the waves, because, what do you mean? This year? What do you mean? Yeah, no, I'm saying, like, because we, no, I'm saying we, well, true. It's a new year. Okay. Well, over the last, over the last 365 days, I'm eating good in 2025, Kevin. I'm eating good in 2025. We're well-fed. We're well-fed. We're well-fed. We just use losing. The, you know, the cats are eaten. This is, I mean, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. We just had, we just had to go through 2024 to get to 2025, you know? We didn't know what was on the other side of 2024, but now we know that it's the possibility of LeBron asking us to be on the show as the basketball guy says. Absolutely. One element of this, before we get out of here that I'll ask you real quick, Kevin. Lonnie in the chat here says Bryce James will play only one year and get drafted by the Lakers. Is there any, is there any concern about that in your opinion, or do you think that now that LeBron has reached that goal of playing with his son in the NBA, that with his second son, he will allow him to kind of stay in school a little bit more, develop and kind of, you know, slow cook that process? You know, I hadn't, obviously I thought about that, but I haven't, I hadn't really given it too much thought just because of where Bryce James is that skill to that wise. But we did see it with Bronnie. No, like I don't think many fans thought that he was NBA ready when he went. He wasn't, and he wasn't. No, I know. I'm just saying like we all kind of saw that. Yeah. And I think it was to an extent, a, you know, rushed situation to get him where he needed to be to make this achievement. So I could see, I could see it. I could see it in a way where they rush him through this process, just so that LeBron can be like, hey, I played with both of my sons. No one's even played with their own son. This is, you know what I mean? But no, I just don't think Bryce is, is, is nearly as ready. Because you know what really made Bronnie gave Bronnie any credence as a pro with that athleticism that you were talking about when you started the podcast that popped off the screen. Like he was a little more springy, had more NBA ready athleticism than Bryce does. You can buy it on the defense. Yes. You're like, Oh, well, maybe he can develop like heady player, you know, the whole thing. But I just think his athleticism isn't where it needs to be if his skill set isn't where it needs to be as well. So I don't think that's really the most likely possibility. But I wouldn't rule it out. Like I wouldn't rule it out just because of the LeBron of it all. And that is a huge achievement to be able to play with both of your sons. That's insane. So yeah, I'm sure he does. I'm sure I'm sure in the back of his head that he does understand that. But I don't think that's the most likely outcome at all. Yeah, no, I don't really see it happen. Personally, I saw here in the chat, he says zero chance that happened. He's putting his stamp on it. So I'll watch a little bit more of Bryce James than I think me or Kevin have to this point. But you know, I think, yeah, it feels like Bryce is, they're kind of going to let him slow cook, let him lock in on his college career. And in Tommy Lloyd is, you know, on paper, he's the perfect coach to get the job done there. I think we've neglected to bring something up here, Damon. And this is on us. We got to put our hand up here and say, Hey, that's on us. Because if we land or if Arizona lands, Elijah Arenas, son of Gilbert Arenas, and Bryce James, son of LeBron James, it's really going to be a show. Yeah, like it's really going to be up for Arizona if they secure both of those two prospects. And yeah, as Saul said, make sure to check out the full breakdown that that him and Corey did. Great stuff talking about Bryce James and his game, his ceiling, his floor, all that good stuff. So check that out. Also, Michaela Madness tomorrow at 7pm going live. So make sure not to miss that as well. Don't be a little bit of Bryce James talking in that show. I'm sure I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure that Corey is going to want to talk that up with Saul. You know, but yeah, I mean, I'm excited. I think that we just need, we just need more, we just need more good news, Damon, just bring us all the good news. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. This was a good way to start off our 2025. Thank you guys for being a part of it. We appreciate you guys all for watching. We will be available for any other emergency pods that need to happen. Like Kevin said, hopefully we have another emergency pod like in five minutes right after we close this guy out. Pete just sees this and is like, Oh, well, I gotta sign right now. I gotta screw my name down right now. Yeah. That's where we're out with it. We will be here. We will be back. We'll be back on Friday at noon, no pod on Thursday, but Michael madness at seven p.m. like Kevin noted earlier. Make sure you guys check that out. You'll get a full Bryce breakdown and check out the full Bryce breakdown that was already posted on Michael madness. That's going to be good stuff as well. Shout out everybody in the chat. June basketball football guy, self-made Erica saw JJ Tucson. All the games, all the games is here. Make sure you guys like this video. Make sure you guys subscribe to this channel if you haven't already. That does wonders in terms of helping us. Give me a follow at Damon Dog, that's D-A-W-G. Give Kevin a follow at Kevo posts. That's K-E-V-O posts on Twitter. And make sure you guys follow the beat account at PHNX underscore Wildcats on Twitter. Anything before we got out of here, Kevin? No, thank you all for watching. I know it's I know it's the holiday and we're all celebrating Bryce James. And so thanks for celebrating with me and Damon right now. But yeah, thankful for all y'all being in the chat. Happy new years. Come and die hard. Yes, become a die hard for sure. See more of me and Damon. Also, we're going to be popping into the discord more. We will be popping into the discord more. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's all I got for you, Damon. Definitely. We're going to get out of here. I have to paint my body burnt orange for this second half of this of the sugar bowl. So, yeah, that's going to take some time here. But got to get to that. Thank you guys for watching. We appreciate you and we will catch you next time on the easy wildcast podcast. Peace. America's oldest college football all-star game runs through the Lone Star State. Be a part of history in the making at the 100th East West Shrine Bowl. Thursday, January 30, 2025 at AT&T Stadium. Visit Shrine Bowl.com for a chance to see the nation's top college football players ahead of the NFL draft. Tickets started just $20. Don't miss the historic 100th East West Shrine Bowl. Get your tickets today at Shrine Bowl.com. Today's all-stars tomorrow's legends.