More than 1,000 players have entered the transfer portal since Monday, with several notable names among them. However, New Mexico Lobos junior guard Donovan Dent, the Mountain West Player of the Year, may be the biggest prize of them all.
Duke in the Running for Donovan Dent
The dynamic 6’2″, 185-pound Class of 2022 4-star recruit out of Centennial High School in Riverside, Calif., led the Lobos with 20.4 points and 6.4 assists. He shot 49% from the field and nearly 41% from beyond the arc.
With Dent and sophomore Tru Washington in the backcourt, New Mexico went 27-8, won the regular season Mountain West Conference title, and reached the NCAA Tournament’s second round. The Lobos reached the tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time in more than a decade, and Dent’s 224 assists this season were the second most in school history.
Now, he’s gone, as is coach Richard Pitino, who was just hired to replace Sean Miller at Xavier. Washington is also in the transfer portal. Dent has drawn a flurry of interest from blue-chip programs across the country. According to @LeagueRDY, he’s already heard from Kentucky, Louisville, UCLA, North Carolina, Gonzaga, USC, Tennessee, and Texas Tech.
Another major program sparking rumors of interest in the honorable mention All-American is Duke. The ACC-champion Blue Devils, now 33-3, are the top seed in the East Region and are set to face No. 4 seed Arizona tomorrow evening in the Sweet 16. Coach Jon Scheyer’s squad is the odds-on favorite to win the national championship in a couple of weeks.
But Scheyer, while focused on the task at hand, must also consider the future, as his team could potentially lose all five starters this offseason, either to graduation or the draft.
Freshmen Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach are all possible top-10 picks in this year’s NBA Draft, with Flagg projected to go first overall. Guard Sion James, a transfer from Tulane, has exhausted his eligibility. Fellow guard Tyrese Proctor, a junior from Australia, may have played his way back into the draft’s first round this season.
The Blue Devils’ 2025 recruiting class features another typical top-5 class, with four players ranked in the top 25 overall, according to On3. That includes point guard Cayden Boozer, son of former Duke standout and 13-year NBA veteran Carlos Boozer and twin brother of stud power forward Cameron Boozer, also a Duke recruit.
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That stacked class could also use an influx of veteran talent from the transfer portal. The Blue Devils don’t use the portal heavily, so they can be picky. It will take someone of Dent’s caliber—a career 1,400-point scorer, multiple All-MWC selection, and reigning conference player of the year—to raise their eyebrows.
Dent made his mark in Albuquerque. In addition to his 1,400 points, he has 493 career assists, seventh in school history, as well as 131 steals in 104 games. He averaged 17.5 points and six assists in two NCAA Tournament games this season.
Dent has had a standout career with the Lobos, but the final stats on his collegiate resume may just be recorded across the country in Durham with Scheyer and Duke.
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