The UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team, coming off a 23-11 season and an appearance in the NCAA tournament, have been busy making changes for the 2025-2026 season since their season ended with a loss to Tennessee in the NCAA tournament a few weeks ago. The Bruins announced one of those changes on Tuesday with the addition of transfer point guard Donovan Dent from the University of New Mexico.
UCLA head coach Mick Cronin announced that Dent had signed a grant-in-aid agreement with the University and will be a member of the 2025-2026 UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team. Dent, a 6-foot-2 guard from Riverside, California will enter UCLA as a senior in 2025-26. He spent the past three seasons at the University of New Mexico, earning Mountain West Conference Player of the Year honors as a junior in 2024-25.
Dent led the Mountain West in scoring this season, averaging 20.4 points per game and was second in the conference with 6.4 assists per game. New Mexico reached the NCAA tournament during the 2023-24 season and this season they beat Memphis in the first round before losing in the second round to Maryland at the buzzer.
Dent played his high school basketball at Centennial high school in Corona, one of the top high school basketball programs in California. Centennial won the open division state championship in 2021-2022. Dent averaged 16.6 points per game on that team, where he was teammates with Jared McCain, who is currently a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, and Eric Freeny and Devin Williams, both current members of the 2024-2025 UCLA basketball team.
“We’re excited to welcome Donnie to Westwood,” Cronin said. “I have known him since he led Corona Centennial to a state championship. He has established himself as one of the premier guards in all of college basketball. Donnie is a great young man, tremendously creative with the basketball, and he makes everyone on his team better. We are continuing to build out our roster for next season, but signing Donnie is a huge piece for our program.”
The news has not been entirely good for UCLA. Center Aday Mara and center William Kyle III entered the transfer portal, along with guards Dylan Andrews and Sebastian Mack. Dent is a better fit at point guard than Andrews was, and Mack is leaving a crowded backcourt for a starting role with another team. Other players that have entered the transfer portal include guard Dominick Harris and forward Devin Williams.
The returning players for next season are guard Skyy Clark, forward Eric Dailey, Jr., forward Tyler Bilodeau, guard Trent Perry, guard Eric Freeny, forward Brandon Williams, guard Christian Horry, guard Jack Seidler, and forward Evan Manjikian.
The Bruins are loaded in the backcourt for next season without Andrews and Mack. They will have Clark, Dent, Perry, and Freeny. UCLA will need to replace Mara and Kyle and will also need to replace wingmen Kobe Johnson and guard Lazar Stefanovic, who have run out of eligibility. The loss of Mara was kind of shocking and disappointing given his potential. The 7-foot-3 Mara needed to get stronger and grow into his body, but with his size, basketball skills, and intelligence, the ceiling seemed high for Mara.
Andrews has already committed to Boise State for 2025-2026, while Kyle III has committed to Syracuse. The Bruins have been in contact with several players, but at this point the only transfer to commit is Dent. That will almost certainly change in the next few weeks.