The player UCLA fans couldn’t get enough of last season might be everywhere Saturday.
Annoyingly so.
If trends hold up, Aday Mara could make life miserable for his former team.
Having finally become a full-time starter, Michigan’s 7-foot-3 center might be a gigantic headache for the Bruins after leaving them last spring.
His growth since a contentious departure transcends a new mustache and goatee. Mara has become the shot-blocking, rebounding and dunking force many had envisioned.
Only now he’s doing it in maize and blue instead of blue and gold.
Alongside 6-9 forwards Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg, Mara is the centerpiece of a supersized front line that has vaulted the second-ranked Wolverines into contention for their first national championship since 1989.
What might it be like to face the player UCLA coach Mick Cronin least wanted to lose?
“Another game, buddy,” Cronin said. “That’s life in the portal.”
Mara’s emergence has reminded Bruins fans of what might have been this season for a team that’s struggled to replace him. Three months into the season, UCLA is still seeking adequate rim protection and rebounding from new big men Xavier Booker and Steven Jamerson II, not to mention the passing and scoring punch that Mara provided.
“We’ve got to get production out of the 5 spot, whether it’s defense and rebounding or Book gives us shot-making that stretches the floor,” Cronin said. “We can’t come up empty there, not when you’re playing at the highest level.”
Mara has given the Wolverines (23-1, 13-1 Big Ten) everything they’ve needed going into their game against the Bruins (17-7, 9-4) at the Crisler Center. His averages of 11.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.8 blocks are nearly twice his production from his sophomore season at UCLA and have led some to project him as a first-round NBA draft pick.
It’s certainly helped that the Spanish native’s playing time is on the rise, up to 22.8 minutes per game after he averaged 13.1 minutes last season. Mara’s usage was one of the biggest curiosities of his final season as a Bruin.
Having played sparingly over the season’s first 2 ½ months, Mara enjoyed a 22-point, five-rebound, two-block breakthrough against Wisconsin. He played a season-high 30 minutes the next game after forward Tyler Bilodeau suffered an ankle injury. Three days later, as an injury replacement for Bilodeau, Mara started his only game of the season and logged a double-double during a victory over USC.
But his playing time fluctuated wildly the rest of the season, Cronin explaining that there were times it was limited by conditioning, matchups and illness. There was also Cronin’s insistence on playing the 6-9 Bilodeau as an undersized center, further limiting Mara’s opportunities.
Mara’s final game, against Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament, epitomized his season. After a strong start in which he was perhaps the most dominant player on the court, he got only a handful of minutes in the second half of the Bruins’ season-ending loss.
Mara said he enjoyed his two seasons in Westwood and didn’t want to leave but believed he had to for his basketball future.
“I felt like I came here with a lot of expectations that after two years haven’t been achieved,” Mara said last spring. “So I took the decision to go to Michigan to try to meet all the expectations.”
His leaving altered the trajectory of UCLA’s season before it started. The plan had been to pair Mara with transfer point guard Donovan Dent, giving the Bruins sturdy backline defense and plenty of pick-and-roll possibilities.
While Cronin didn’t say much about Mara this week, he seemed to take a subtle jab at his departed center last spring when asked about the evolving conversation with Dent about who else would be on the roster.
“I think Donny’s more concerned with our best players, and our best players were Tyler Bilodeau, Eric Dailey and Skyy Clark,” Cronin told Bruin Report Online. “ … Fortunately for us, they are extremely loyal kids, they value the UCLA degree and they value the experience here and I think with those guys, they felt their career was being enhanced playing with the coaching staff we have, playing with each other and playing at UCLA.”
Among other possible Mara replacements, the Bruins pursued Hannes Steinbach. But Cronin said the German star “got out of our price range” and went to Washington. UCLA pivoted to Booker, who had played power forward at Michigan State, and Jamerson, who had never played at the Power Four level before his arrival on campus.
Perhaps the Bruins’ best hope Saturday is for Booker to draw Mara out of the paint with his ability to make 3-pointers, opening the interior for others.
Cronin seemed open to creative solutions when it comes to countering massive Big Ten lineups like Michigan’s. The coach joked that he had dispatched assistant Nemanja “Yogi” Jovanovic to schmooze agents at the NBA All-Star Game this weekend in search of the next great big man.
“Just find some guy that used to like wrestle bears in Lithuania or something,” Cronin cracked.
Funny enough, it turned out that the Bruins already had their next great big man. Now he plays for Michigan.
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