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UCLA Men's Basketball: Pundit Includes 3 Baby Bruins On List Of Pac-12 Impact Freshmen

Which first-year Bruin will emerge as a big-time player?
Jason Fray|
UCLA Men's Basketball: Pundit Includes 3 Baby Bruins On List Of Pac-12 Impact Freshmen
UCLA Men's Basketball: Pundit Includes 3 Baby Bruins On List Of Pac-12 Impact Freshmen

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UCLA Bruins

Gone are the days of Jaquez, Clark, Campbell, and Singleton. 

The roster of your UCLA Bruins men's basketball program underwent a massive overhaul in the 2023 offseason, with eight of the club's 12 scholarship roster members being new to the team. Among those eight newbies, seven of them are true freshmen. 

Mick Cronin will undoubtedly be relying upon a plethora of first-year players. It's not necessarily ideal -- though it's a group chock-full of talent. 

Ryan Hammer -- a pundit/college basketball scout -- made a list featuring 15 incoming freshmen to the Pac-12 conference. He ranked the first ten in order and followed that up with five honorable mentions. As one can see, UCLA has plenty of representation within the graphic. 

7-foot-3 center Aday Mara -- universally known as the team's highest-rated recruit in the 2023 class -- was ranked as the No. 2 impact freshman in the conference (only behind USC incoming guard Isaiah Collier). The Spanish center is projected to be a potential NBA prospect likely after one or two years of college. 

Earning honorable mention honors include Slovenian guard Jan Vide and Turkish forward Berke Buyuktuncel. 

Ironically enough, of the three, the potential best bet to start is Buyuktuncel. The 6-foot-9 forward is quite versatile, and he projects to be a perfect fit in the vacated spot left by current Miami Heat player Jaime Jaquez. 

Mara is still working on his conditioning/strength, and most likely figures to get heavy minutes off the bench behind returning center Adem Bona. 

Vide likely will be the backup point guard by default when Dylan Andrews is off the floor. With that said, Vide is also heavily in the mix to start at the two-spot -- where he's likely in a head-to-head tussle with fellow freshman guard Sebastian Mack. 

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Jason Fray
JASON FRAY

Jason Fray is a proud native of Los Angeles. After graduating from UCLA in 2011, he's written for a number of publications -- including Bleacher Report, FOX Sports, Saturday Down South, and New Arena. In his downtime, he enjoys writing scripts, going to shows, weekly pub trivia with the boys, trying the best hole-in-the-wall food spots around town, and traveling (22 countries & counting). 

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