American fellow and graduate stealing uni books (5)

'american fellow' is the definition.
'bubba' can be an answer for 'fellow' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'american' bit.

'graduate stealing uni books' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'graduate' could be 'ba' (someone with a Bachelor of Arts degree) and 'ba' is found within the answer.
'uni' could be 'u' (U is an abbreviation for university) and 'u' is found within the answer.
'books' could be 'bb' (an abbreviation for book written twice) and 'bb' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'and' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?