A special day needed a big moment.
Leave it to the tallest Bruin to deliver a handful in his own tribute to Bill Walton.
With UCLA clinging to a narrow lead over Ohio State midway through the second half Sunday, Aday Mara took a pass from teammate Skyy Clark and pivoted for a dunk. The 7-foot-3 center followed with another move in which he finished through contact, converting a layup in which he was fouled.
UCLA’s lead was back up to eight points and the Bruins began to pull away for a 69-61 victory inside Pauley Pavilion on the day they honored the late Walton.
Mara added an emphatic block of Ohio State star Bruce Thornton’s driving layup, a steal and a jump hook in the final minutes, the crowd of 9,015 buzzing every time he touched the ball.
“I thought he changed us,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said after Mara helped him notch his 500th career victory. “He definitely infused us with energy and the crowd loves him, so that helped.”
Playing most of the second half after teammate Tyler Bilodeau picked up a quick foul and committed a bad turnover upon his return by throwing a pass into the backcourt, Mara finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
Clark’s step-back three-pointer with 38 seconds left ensured the Bruins (20-8 overall, 11-6 Big Ten) would bounce back from their collapse against Minnesota last week.
After contributing to the meltdown with epic inefficiency at the foul line, Cronin’s team made 15 of 20 free throws Sunday, helping him become the youngest active coach to reach the 500-win milestone. He’s also only the 18th active coach to have tallied at least that many wins at the NCAA Division I level.
Mara, Clark and forward Eric Dailey Jr. entered the postgame media conference wearing commemorative T-shirts featuring Cronin holding his hands in the fours-up position alongside “500” in giant numerals. Players resisted the urge to give their coach a celebratory shower in the locker room.
“We were thinking about drenching him,” Clark said, “but we saw family and everybody and they had cake out, so we didn’t want to mess that up.”
Dailey broke out of a three-week slump with 20 points on eight-for-15 shooting, including his team’s first nine points of the second half. Clark added 13 points, Sebastian Mack had 11 points off the bench and Kobe Johnson contributed 13 rebounds, four assists and three steals to go with his three points on a day his shot wasn’t falling.
Thornton scored 21 points in relatively inefficient fashion for the Buckeyes (15-13, 7-10), making seven of 17 shots on a day his team shot just 31.7%.
The tributes to Walton, who died in May at 71 after a lengthy battle with cancer, started well before tipoff. UCLA players wore warmups with a tie-dye design over Walton’s name and his No. 32. Grateful Dead songs blared over the sound system. Even several members of the CBS television production crew wore colorful tie-dye T-shirts.
Read more: Long after he dominated for his beloved Bruins, Bill Walton never stopped making UCLA feel special
During the timeouts, video footage of Walton highlights was shown alongside players’ favorite memories of the Big Redhead. Walton’s wife, Lori, was honored on the court midway through the first half and joined by family members during a halftime celebration. Several UCLA greats in attendance, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sidney Wicks, Jamaal Wilkes and Mike Warren, were shown on the video board.
Mara said he wanted to honor Walton, who had advised him to be patient because big men tend to develop slower than their smaller counterparts.
“He was an amazing person,” Mara said, “so for me, this game meant a lot.”
Towering over everyone who tried to match up with him, Mara pleased more than the crowd.
“It’s fun seeing him dunk, it’s like how I used to dunk on the little toddler hoop,” Clark said with a laugh. “We’re always rooting for Aday. He’s an amazing player, amazing human. I mean, whenever he’s getting pulled [by opponents] I’m telling him go score, go make a play, because he has so much game to him.”
Cronin said Mara’s continued emergence was made possible by increasing his lower-body strength so that he could hold his ground against contact, improving his conditioning and an intangible component.
“The third piece is corazon,” Cronin said, using a Spanish word while talking about the native of Zaragoza, Spain. “You’ve got to play with heart.”
Cronin went on to tell a story about how his father, Hep, would tell people who didn’t want to compete that they should get a six-pack of beer, sit on a dock and sing Michael Bolton songs while fishing.
Mara showed Cronin his toughness after the coach issued a challenge about offensive rebounding.
Read more: Elina Aarnisalo’s late free throws deliver UCLA a win at Iowa
“He went and got one as best as he went and got one all year,” Cronin said, “and he started playing harder than he’s ever played with his effort to go get the ball.”
Mara said his success was partially a function of playing the way Cronin and assistant coach Darren Savino, who works primarily with the big men, taught him.
“[Cronin] always told me to put my hands high so they don’t grab me,” Mara said. “Because I always have to push on, they grab my arm or something, so I got to catch it with one hand. Most of the time, I don’t catch it, so today I was doing it, trying to do the ways that Savino tells us, like every day, tried to do it and it worked, so next game I will try to go as hard as today.”
Coming up big when the Bruins needed it most, Mara would have pleased his legendary predecessor.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
