Donovan Dent was the big transfer portal addition for UCLA this past offseason. The 2024 Mountain West Player of the Year for New Mexico was slated to come in and have a big season for the Bruins. His 2025 season has been a mixed bag of results showing what he is capable of but also struggling on other occasions. The Bruins who sit at 16-7 have nine games to determine their future fate for this season. That includes three straight games against top 10 opponents that will begin after their game tonight against Washington.
Dent will need to have his best nine games of the season to put UCLA in a position to head into March. There is no guarantee that UCLA makes the NCAA tournament right now. If they go 0-3 during that big stretch that will either put them at 17-10 or 16-11 depending on tonight’s result. Which would most likely put them on the bubble as possibly last four in or out. That would also put them near the bottom half of the Big Ten standings. Which would give them a gauntlet in the conference tournament.
The Big Ten is as good as it has ever been
The Big Ten is absolutely loaded this year. The Bruins will still have a matchup against a very good Nebraska team. They need to somehow try and get to at least 20 wins to put them in a comfortable position. There are multiple games this season that they should have not been on the losing end. But here we are sitting in a tough position. The Bruins will need Dent to shine. He is capable of doing it and has shown it. He will need to be their best player down the stretch dishing the ball and scoring.
Latest look at how things stack up in the @bigten đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/cVDbnLm6sX
— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) February 2, 2026
Dent doesn’t need to score 20 per night like he did at New Mexico. But a 16 point and 8 assists average per game would be huge. Tyler Bilodeau can lead the way in scoring just fine. While Trent Perry and the return of Skyy Clark can fill the scoring load as well. Mick Cronin will also need Dent to continue to buy in on the defensive end. The Bruins have been much better on defense, and they will need to continue that down the stretch. It starts and ends with Dent and it’s time to prove the transfer addition pays off in a big way.