Michigan head coach Dusty May has been on a tear in the transfer portal so far this offseason, bringing in the No. 1 transfer class so far and it all started with one player. Aday Mara made the choice to transfer from Big Ten foe UCLA to Michigan, and while he admits it was a tough choice, he knew it was one he needed to make.
In this age of college basketball, players change schools almost as much as they change their clothes. Sometimes players will play at a different school each year they are in college, and fans never really get an explanation as to why they have left. However, Mara gave some insight on why he felt he needed to leave the Bruins. Mara shared his thoughts and feelings on the choice in a Los Angeles Times interview with Ben Bolch.
"I feel that I had to change, but I didn't want to," Mara said in his interview.
Aday Mara knew he needed a change and Michigan was the place to grow
Mara only averaged about 13 minutes on the court for the Bruins in the 2024-2025 season and only had one start in place of an injured teammate. When he stepped on the UCLA campus two years ago, Mara had a vision of the type of player he would be, and two year later, he feels he should be farther along.
"I had expectations when I came here that I didn't achieve," Mara said.
UCLA head coach Mick Cronin would only play Mara six to eight minutes a game, and in those minutes, Mara gave everything he had. However, Cronin said that Mara's sporadic play was due to matchups, conditioning, and illness, but a 22-point breakout performance against Wisconsin changed a lot for Mara.
After his performance against Wisconsin, Mara averaged roughly 17 minutes a night for the rest of the season. He finished the season averaging 6.4 points per game, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks. Coming in at 7-foot-3, Mara is a huge, literally, presence in the paint, and May has shown he knows how to handle big guys in the paint like he did with Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf this past season.
With Goldin out of eligibility and Wolf heading to the NBA Draft, Mara's transfer came at the perfect time. May will be able to pair with fellow big man transfer Morez Johnson Jr. out of Illinois.
While Mara is grateful for his time at UCLA and all that the program did for him, he is excited to show what he can do without the limitations he felt he had with the Bruins. Mara also knows that transferring to another Big Ten team means he will get to face his old squad.
"I’m super excited to go to Michigan to try to show everyone that I can play at a good level," Mara said. "That I can keep getting better, and I know it’s a Big Ten team, so excited to play against UCLA."
Mara will make his Michigan debut next season, and he is a part of one of the most expensive transfer classes in college basketball.