REPORT: UCLA Transfer's Success Story Example of Transfer Portal Benefit

An analyst recently referred to Donovan Dent's commitment to UCLA as an example of why the transfer portal can be a very good thing.

Mar 23, 2025; Cleveland, OH, USA; New Mexico Lobos guard Donovan Dent (2) shoots the ball over Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) in the second half during the NCAA Tournament Second Round at Rocket Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

There's a lot of criticism surrounding the transfer portal, which, quite frankly, has essentially become the end-all-be-all for college athletics.

We're seeing now that many programs are able to thrive solely because of the portal, i.e., UCLA men's basketball, whose top two scorers this season were transfers.

There's a lot of knocks that have been against the concept, though -- hurts recruiting for high school prospects, makes athletes more privileged, athletes now run college athletics, players can now transfer during the postseason.

But there's a benefit to the portal, too, especially from the athletes' point of view.

CBS Sports analyst Gary Parrish recently referred to the Bruins' landing of former New Mexico guard Donovan Dent as an example of why.

"I'll just tell you a story about Donovan Dent," Parrish said on CBS Sports Network this past week. "He's a young man who went to New Mexico out of high school. He's from Riverside, California. Grew up about 70 miles from the UCLA campus.

"Now, I don't want to speak for Donovan, specifically, but when you grow up in Southern California, about an hour or so from UCLA, I doubt that you dream of going to school in New Mexico or playing in the Mountain West Conference. You probably dream of, at the time, Pac-12 and UCLA.

"But maybe you're not good enough to do that coming out of high school. They're not even really looking at you, paying you any other attention. So, you go to the best place you can go and you do the best you can do.

"And you develop into the Mountain West Conference West Player of the Year. And then, when that happens, guess what happens? A phone call comes from UCLA and says, 'Hey, maybe it was your dream to be here at some point, and we might've missed on you when you were coming out of high school, but we see you now, and if you want to be a Bruin, we can make that happen.'

"How is that not a great story? How is that not a dream come true for a young man to have to start somewhere you probably didn't think you wanted to start and then end up at a place like UCLA. These are the types of stories that are also happening all over the country, and if you focus on it from that perspective, you can find the good in it."

Dent just wrapped up a terrific 2025 campaign in which he averaged a league-best 20.4 points while also averaging 6.4 assists and 1.4 steals.

He committed to UCLA on Friday.

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