If at first you don’t succeed, circle back to the point guard you passed over.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin has landed Donovan Dent, the transfer from New Mexico agreeing to join the Bruins several years after Cronin opted not to recruit him out of Corona Centennial High because the coach already had a commitment from another point guard.
That other point guard, Dylan Andrews, is in the transfer portal after a bumpy final season at UCLA, opening the door for the player he beat out to become a Bruin.
People close to the UCLA program with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly confirmed Dent’s decision.
Widely considered the top player in the transfer portal, Dent gives UCLA a dynamic playmaker and could be a critical component on a championship-caliber team. UCLA will bring back guards Skyy Clark and Trent Perry as well as forwards Tyler Bilodeau and Eric Dailey Jr., who have all announced their intentions to return next season. The Bruins are also working to secure the return of center Aday Mara.
The 6-foot-2 Dent could be the player who ties it all together, an efficient scorer who also can distribute the ball as well as any point guard in the country. As a junior at New Mexico, Dent averaged 20.4 points and 6.5 assists while making 40.9% of his three-pointers on the way to becoming the Mountain West Conference player of the year.
The Bruins saw for themselves the kinds of plays Dent could make in November when he tallied 17 points and eight assists to help the Lobos beat UCLA. Dent also had nine turnovers and averaged 3.1 per game last season, a deficiency he must correct under a turnover-averse coach.
Cronin said in November that he had encouraged then-New Mexico coach Richard Pitino to recruit Dent after Andrews already agreed to come on board with the Bruins.
“Dylan had committed to us,” Cronin said, “and I told Richard — not that he needed me to tell him, his staff was on this — that this guy is going to be tremendous; we already had Dylan Andrews coming in in the same class. I saw Donny play a million times whether it was AAU or with Centennial.”
Dent’s coach at Centennial, Josh Giles, said Dent would have been more widely recruited out of high school had he not begun to blossom at a time when on-campus recruiting was limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But he’s a Bruin now, the team landing what likely will be the biggest piece of a transfer class that also is expected to include a wing player and a backup big man.
