The 7-foot-3 center from Michigan hit the first two 3-pointers of his college career Sunday during the The second-ranked Wolverines’ 82-61 victory over Ohio State.
Advertisement
Mara, a young Spaniard, did not attempt a shot from beyond the arc in his first two years at UCLA. He missed his first four long-range shots in Michigan’s first 22 games before finally connecting.
“I’ve been practicing. I don’t want to rush or make bad shots,” said Mara, who scored a career-high 24 points. “I saw it was open and I just shot it.”
Mara joins Purdue’s Daniel Jacobsen and Missouri’s Trent Burns as players at least 7-foot-3 to make a 3-pointer in a Division I game this season, according to Sportradar.
However, Mara is only the fourth Division I player at that point since 2002-03 to have at least two in a game. Connor Vanover was the last to do so, with two for Oral Roberts against San Diego State on February 25, 2023.
Advertisement
Vanover, who also played at California, Arkansas and Missouri, hit multiple 3-pointers 28 times throughout his career. Bol Bol did it four times at Oregon and Matt Haarms twice with Purdue.
Mara missed his first three-point shot less than five minutes into the game, but then made one. from the right with 6:14 left in the first half to give Michigan a 29-24 lead when Christoph Tilly defended too late.
“All the NBA scouts just took note of that. Holy cow,” CBS Sports analyst Bruce Pearl said after Mara’s shot.
mara extended Michigan’s lead to 38-28 two minutes later with a 3-point jumper from the top of the key.
“We’ve spent a lot of time with him working on his 3-point shooting. We want that to be part of his game moving forward,” coach Dusty May said. “Sometimes if you give a guy some ice cream, he’ll eat the broccoli and the protein to get to that point.”
Advertisement
May noted that there were times when Mara might have practiced too much. Before home games, May looked at a monitor in the locker room and saw Mara practicing only three-pointers.
“I wish there was a little more variety in his pregame routine, but that’s his moment and it was worth it for us. Those threes were big today,” May said.
Mara was 11 of 16 from the field in 26 minutes and had six rebounds and two blocked shots.
If Mara continues to show some long-range shooting touch, Michigan could become a bigger threat in the postseason.
“He does a lot of things well. We want them (to shoot 3-pointers) at the right time, and each game dictates something different,” May said. “I was most impressed with his rim protection and the way he ran down the court and put pressure on the rim. The big guy has come a long way.”