UCLA's Aday Mara plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal

UCLA’s Aday Mara, at seven-foot-three, is one of the more unique players in all of college basketball. Now, he’s planning to be available for a program in this portal.

Per ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Mara plans to enter his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal. With that, Givony noted he could also end up testing for the 2025 NBA Draft. This comes after news last night out of Los Angeles that Mara would not be returning to the Bruins after his sophomore season.

“NEWS: UCLA’s Aday Mara will enter the transfer portal, a source told ESPN. The 7-foot-3, 19-year old Spanish center had a breakout sophomore season and will be one of the most coveted big men in the portal,” Givony tweeted on Tuesday morning. “TBD on testing NBA draft waters.”

Mara spent two seasons as an underclassman at UCLA, as the school’s tallest player in over three decades, after coming from overseas in Spain. After getting him to the states and being cleared by the NCAA, Mara has gone on to average 5.0 points (53.5% FG), 3.1 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game in 61 appearances with the Bruins. That includes doubling most of that production in his second season by posting 6.4 points (59% FG), 4.0 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, and 1.0 assists over 33 games played in ’24-’25, which had him first in blocks while being second in field-goal percentage and third in rebounds.

That’s after Mara played internationally for his home country. He competed for Basket Zaragoza as his club team while attending IES El Picarral in his hometown of Zaragoza, Spain. He also represented Team Spain in several events for FIBA like the U17 World Cup, U18 World Championships, and U18 European Championships.

With that, the On3 Ranking rated Mara at No. 21 overall as a four-star recruit and as the No. 3 C in the 2023 Top Basketball Recruits. That made him the highest-rated addition out of five total in the 2023 class for UCLA just per that specific ranking at On3.

Mara will now be the fifth loss during this portal cycle for the Bruins. Sebastian Mack, Dylan Andrews, William Kyle, and then Devin Williams (No. 139, No. 39 PF per the latest in On3’s 2025 Top Transfer Portal Players) have already entered their names in the portal since the end of the season just over a week ago. In turn, though, UCLA has made one addition, a major one at that, in New Mexico’s Donovan Dent, the No. 2 player and the No. 2 PG in the portal per the current ranking at On3.

Mara is a versatile big at his size who looks to just be developing into what he could be as a player and prospect. That just won’t come to completion at UCLA with his reported plans to enter the portal as of today.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.