Just two months after retiring from professional basketball, Donovan Dent stepped back into the limelight Friday, entering the transfer portal with a do not contact tag.
The decision comes just hours after United States District Court of Colorado Judge Charlotte Sweeney granted a preliminary injunction that gave college athletes from the recruiting class of 2022 who have exhausted four years of eligibility an additional year. The ruling came in response to a challenge of the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility rule that previously ended the class of 2022’s eligibility this past spring.
The former UCLA point guard was part of a group of 25 other NCAA athletes, including former backcourt teammate Skyy Clark, that filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking eligibility for the 2026-27 season in California.
[Related: UCLA men’s basketball loses key guard as Skyy Clark enters transfer portal]
Dent initially declared his retirement from the sport in late May, citing conversations with his family and intentions of focusing on providing basketball training services in the New Mexico community, where he played his first three seasons of college basketball.
In his sole season in Westwood, Dent helped guide the Bruins to a 24-12 record, falling in the Big Ten tournament semifinals to Purdue before subsequently losing in the NCAA tournament second round to UConn.
Dent initially transferred to UCLA after three seasons with New Mexico, having won the 2025 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year award after posting 20.4 points, 6.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game with the Lobos in the 2024-25 season. However, the former five-star transfer recruit saw a dip in production in his single season with the Bruins, shooting a career-low 40.8% from the field while also dropping from 40.9% to 25.4% from the perimeter.
However, the Riverside local still managed to post the nation’s third-most assists per game with 7.9 in his senior campaign, alongside 13.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals.
Dent’s do-not-contact tag indicates that other teams and coaches cannot initiate conversations with him, which typically affords players more autonomy over their recruitment efforts. Historically, such a designation means that a transfer already has a select few programs in mind from which they can choose.
While Dent’s potential return to UCLA has not been ruled out entirely, it may be unlikely with the do-not-contact tag. The Bruins already brought in rising sophomore guard Jaylen Petty from Texas Tech in the transfer portal, who is projected to start alongside rising junior Trent Perry.
