UCLA Basketball: ESPN Ranks 2 New Bruins Among Highest-Impact Freshmen

This is great to see so early on.

In a year with a lot more uncertainty than the past few for your UCLA Bruins, two freshmen are being looked at as potential big-time difference makers for Mick Cronin's squad. 

Jeff Borzello of ESPN writes in a new piece that new international additions Aday Mara and Berke Buyuktuncel have the potential to be the faces of a solid Bruins team. 

Mara, "the best international prospect entering college basketball this season," is a 7'2" center that should complement Pac-12 First-Team Defensive selection Adem Bona quite well. 

With incredible size, length, and defensive instincts, expect Mara to eventually develop into a dangerous two-way big man. For the time being, however, he's been battling injuries, and played just 16 combined minutes in UCLA's first two games, neither of which he started. 

Berke Buyuktuncel is one of the most intriguing prospects in the world, as the 6'9" wing is a "potential one-and-done international prospect due to his potential talent and his ability to play and contribute right away for the Bruins." 

Buyuktuncel has yet to be cleared by the NCAA to play due to eligibility issues, but once that situation is sorted out, which, per Borzello, should be "sooner rather than later," he should fill a void that wing left by Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Jaylen Clark – a top-tier Bruins duo, now in the NBA, that will be hard to replace for quite some time. 

At 2-0, UCLA is in a nice spot even without its two fresh difference makers impacting the team's output. 

As we enter conference play and games against programs like Marquette and Villanova, however, Cronin gaining confidence in Mara and Buyuktuncel gaining eligibility can undoubtedly swing games – and thus, the Bruins season. 

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