The 2023 NCAA Tournament will always have a “what could have been” wistfulness attached to it for UCLA basketball fans. While UConn proved to be one of the most dominant forces that we have ever seen in the month of March, the Bruins could have been a tall hurdle to clear had Jaylen Clark not suffered a torn Achilles right before the Big Dance.

In any case, those past national title aspirations, along with multiple core players, are now gone and will have to be replaced with new grand ambitions for next season. Naturally, that starts on the recruiting battlefield. UCLA head coach Mick Cronin has quickly reloaded his arsenal of talent, largely by plucking from the international pool.

Spanish center Aday Mara is the biggest triumph yet, as he officially commits to the team for the upcoming 2023-24 campaign, per The Athletic. The monumental signing has been widely expected and anticipated for a few days, but now fans can properly visualize what a Bruins frontcourt will look like for the immediate future.

In a word, it will be imposing. Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and highly-valued rim protector Adem Bona remains on the roster and will now form an intriguing big-man duo with the 7-foot-3 Mara. Spacing could be an issue, but opposing teams should be concerned with how they are going to manufacture points inside against this sturdy wall of protection.

Mara, a potential lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, should be joined by Turkish forward Berke Buyuktuncel in the coming days. Cronin built UCLA basketball back into a powerhouse by relying heavily on chemistry, toughness and experience. He hopes this new team can catapult the Bruins into a future characterized by similar success and grit. Heck, maybe they can even finish what the last group started.