Will Bryce James Play This Season for Arizona After Not Playing in Blowout vs. Denver?

The Arizona men's basketball team has been on a tear to open its 2025 season.

The Wildcats started by taking down the defending champs in Florida, then blew out Utah Tech and Northern Arizona in back-to-back games before defeating UCLA and upsetting UConn on the road. The perfect 5-0 start vaulted them to No. 2 in the rankings.

Improving to 6-0 with a dominant 103-73 win over unranked Denver, where 14 players saw court time, Arizona has achieved all of this without freshman Bryce James, LeBron James' youngest son, stepping onto the floor.

The consensus three-star prospect, per 247Sports' composite rankings, wasn't expected to play in the opener against Florida, but fans had hoped to see him in the blowout wins over Utah Tech and NAU. Instead, Bryce has stayed in warmups.

Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd offered some insight into the decision, explaining he doesn't want to burn a potential redshirt with limited garbage-time minutes and waste a developmental year for the youngest James.

"No final decisions have been made… It's tough. It puts you in a tough situation. You play Bryce in a game like this for three minutes, it burns a year of eligibility. I wish it was easier,"  Lloyd told reporters after Arizona's win over NAU on Nov. 11. 

"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," Lloyd continued. "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."

Lloyd has not spoken on the topic of redshirting Bryce since the win over NAU, but after he didn't see the floor in the blowout over Denver, it appears to be the direction Arizona is taking.

The Wildcats will face Norfolk State on Saturday before back-to-back ranked matchups against No. 21 Auburn and No. 8 Alabama. They'll have a long stretch of unranked opponents after that, but as Lloyd noted earlier, he does not want to burn James' redshirt season in garbage minutes.

It's becoming increasingly likely that Wildcat fans will not see Bryce take the floor this season.