UCLA Basketball: Surprise Starter Speaks Sparingly About Bruins' Chemistry

LA obliterated Saint Francis on Monday night.

Monday night marked the debut of your UCLA Bruins' most highly-touted NBA prospect in quite some time.

He scored two points in six minutes off the bench.

That's because fifth-year senior Kenneth Nwuba, not 7'3" freshman Aday Mara, got the plum role of UCLA starting center in the club's seasoner opener, a 75-44 massacre over the visiting Saint Francis Red Flash.

The 6'10" Nwuba showed off a well-versed two-man passing game with 2023 Pac-12 All-Defensive Team power forward Adem Bona, also 6'10". 

In 24 minutes yesterday, he scored 10 points on 4-of-4 field goal shooting and 2-of-3 free throw shooting, while also pulling down one rebound, dishing out one assist, swiping one steal, and blocking a shot for good measure. Though not the NBA prospect Mara is, Nwuba is more familiar with head coach Mick Cronin's system right now.

Early in the game, each player dished the rock to the other for easy dunks, a reality that Nwuba acknowledged, as Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times writes.

“Big-to-big connection,” Nwuba joked.

Nwuba, who like Bona is a native of Nigeria, has been a staple on the benches for several of Cronin's successful Bruins clubs. Prior to yesterday, he had only started in six games from among his 90 total with the program. He holds career averages of one points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.4 blocks across 8.2 minutes per contest.

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