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From Ben Bolch: Nearly every time Aday Mara touched the ball over the season’s final months, a murmur of anticipation filled Pauley Pavilion.
Would the 7-foot-3 center show off his extraordinary passing skills, flinging the ball to a teammate for a backdoor layup? Would he pivot around his defender for a dunk? Would he use his mythical size to get off an unblockable sky hook?
Almost everything the UCLA sophomore did after becoming a regular part of the rotation in late January wowed fans who equally delighted him with their deafening cheers.
That support was among the reasons why Mara did not want to go quietly on his way to Michigan. For one of his final acts before leaving campus, Mara reached out to The Times to discuss the rationale behind his transfer and set the record straight about a report stating that he had made outrageous demands as a requirement for him to remain a Bruin.
The smile that never seems to leave Mara’s face vanished when it came to his departure from a place that he loved.
“It was a hard decision to leave UCLA,” Mara said Friday night via FaceTime, “because you saw every game — I was enjoying it, I was super happy because I saw all the crowd cheering for me, helping me a lot. Los Angeles is like a really, really good place, Westwood, so I’m going to miss that and I wanted to say that because it was a hard decision because it’s just after two years it feels like I spent a lot more time than two years, you know?”
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From Ben Bolch: College football’s highest-profile transfer is coming home.
After a falling out with Tennessee, Nico Iamaleava has agreed to play for UCLA next season in a move that will generate significant buzz for the Bruins after they added a qua...
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