UCLA Basketball Adds Aday Mara to Incoming Class
The 7'3" center recently led Spain to a second-place finish at the FIBA U18 European Championships
The UCLA Basketball program announced this morning that 7’ 3” center Aday Mara from Zaragoza, Spain has signed a grant-in-aid becoming a member of the Bruin men’s basketball team.
“We are excited to announce the addition of Aday to UCLA," UCLA basketball coach Mick Cronin said in a statement on the official UCLA website. "Throughout this process with Aday, he and his family have stood firm on one thing – that they want a great education for Aday, and to see him grow as a young man at UCLA. He has tremendous size and skill and has developed a great understanding of the game of basketball. He's a humble young man with great parents, and he's blessed to stand at 7-foot-3 with such talent and a strong work ethic. Aday has great FIBA experience, having played within the Spanish basketball federation program while winning awards and championships at different levels. We can't wait to have him here with us in Westwood."
Mara led Spain to a second-place finish at the FIBA U18 European Championships last month. During that tournament, he shot 61.3% from the field.
In 2022, Mara averaged 12.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.9 blocks for Spain in seven games at the FIBA U17 World Cup. He led that team with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and five blocks in the championship game, though Spain lost the game to the U.S., 79-67.
The addition of Mara makes him the seventh incoming player to join the UCLA program for the 2023-24 season. The incoming class now features six freshmen and one junior. UCLA signed Devin Williams from Riverside, Brandon Williams, who is no relation to Devin, from Queens, NY, and Sebastian Mack from Las Vegas during the early signing period last November. Since the 2022-23 season ended, UCLA has added incoming transfer and former Utah Ute Lazar Stefanovic along with incoming freshmen Ilane Fibleuil from France and Jan Vide from Slovenia.
Fans will get their first chance to see Mara and all these new Bruins on Halloween when the Bruins host an exhibition game against Cal State Dominguez Hills. The Bruins officially open the season on November 6th when they host Saint Francis. UCLA will also host Lafayette and Long Island University in November before heading to Hawai’i for the Maui Jim Invitational.
Go Bruins!!!
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Happy Summer, Might Bruins! Welcome to Westwood, Aday!
¡Beinvenidos a Westwood, Aday!
It's too bad he won't be enrolling until September because he won't be eligible to join the basketball team on their preseason trip/games in Spain later this month. Aday would give the Bruins a really nice "home" team advantage in Spain, and as it looks like Adem Bona is skipping the trip to give his shoulder longer to rehab and heal, he would have gotten a lot more playing time, as well. Oh well. I'll keep hanging on until October. Go Bruins!!
(also, the spellchecker on my laptop - when I'm repeatedly typing Aday and Adem in game threads next year - is probably gonna resign lol)