UCLA Basketball: Freshman Bruin Discusses Return To Madrid For Exhibition Tour

It'll be our first chance to see him play in the Blue and Gold.

Your UCLA Bruins made a flurry of big recruiting moves over the summer in adding some very intriguing international prospects. 7'3" Spanish freshman center Aday Mara is expected to be a top-10 pick in next summer's draft by Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer. O'Connor projects Turkish forward Berke Buyuktuncel to be selected in the top-30, should he declare.

Another new addition, Slovenian 6'6" swingman Jan Vide, was the third-highest scorer (at 17.9 points per contest) in the FIBA U19 competition this summer. Though he hasn't as of yet cracked the top-30 of the 2024 NBA draft in pundits' eyes, he still has a bright future with the Bruins.

A UCLA presser reflects on Vide's journey from Slovenia to Madrid to play at the SEK-El Castillo International as a 14-year-old and now will play his first games with the Bruins right back there. UCLA traveled to Madrid earlier this week kick off a stretch of preseason exhibition matchups across the country.

"I left Slovenia when I was 14, but this was a long process," Vide said. "When I was 13, I already knew that this would be an option. And so my family and I, we had prepared mentally for that jump when I was like 13. Then when I was 14, it was just a big jump."

Vide then proceeded to unpack, in minute detail, some of the fine dining in town.

"Dining in Madrid, and really in all of Spain, you've got everything – seafood, meat," Vide says. "The most typical food you'll find in Madrid is probably jamon, jamon Iberico. This is one of the best things that Spain created. You've got some food called tapas. It's not really a food, but it's smaller portions. When you go out to a dinner, you'll take tapas, many different foods in smaller portions and you can mix things, like some seafood with the meat. One of my favorites is the gambas al ahilo, shrimp with garlic. And when we go over to Valencia, we should try the paella valenciana, which is one of their most typical foods."