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Donovan Dent is home.
Yes, California is also home for the former Mountain West Player of the Year who played his final college basketball season at UCLA, but the three-year Lobo is now a New Mexican, too.
Not just in the student sense, but in the residence sense — having moved back to his adoptive home, where he now lives with his girlfriend, Albuquerque native and UNM med school student Katelyn Estrada.
As for the hoops — the path may not be what you expected. You see, what's next for Dent is what's already going on.
And it doesn't involve more playing.
"I'm done with pro basketball," said Dent, who certainly has plenty of high-end, albeit maybe not NBA-level, basketball playing opportunities on the table, but is choosing instead to pursue what he wants to do long-term in the industry as a basketball trainer.
"That's why I came back here. I want to give back to the youth and I want to start training. I want to start working in individual training, group sessions, things like that and I want to get started on that out here (in Albuquerque) — young kids, older kids, just help them with their game and I wanted to start it here because Albuquerque gave me so much.
"I feel like this is the perfect place for me to start training the youth and give back to them."
Not that the 22-year-old would even know the line from the 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally”, but it essentially boils down to when you realize what you want to do the rest of your life, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Dent loves the game, and wants to share what he's learned. And with the financial reality of what going to UCLA this past year afforded him, he has the opportunity to start on his future now — not later.
Monday, he's hosting a "pop-up" skills clinic for kids in third through 12th grades from 9 a.m. to noon at the ABC Prep gym in Old Town (501 Main St. NW) for $25. Albuquerque's own Bella Hines, the recent LSU to TCU transfer, will be helping at the clinic, as will several of the ABC Prep coaches, many of whom are former Lobo players.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Donovan Dent (@donovandent2)
Signing up for the clinic can be done Monday at ABC Prep (cash or PayPal) or ahead of time (PayPal) by scanning the QR code on the event flyer posted on Dent's Instagram page.
Dent, who was always an eager participant in the Richard Pitino summer basketball camps at UNM and always helps run the clinics run by his former high school coach and longtime personal trainer, will also be holding a longer, more in-depth Donovan Dent Basketball Camp in mid-July in Albuquerque (likely at UNM's practice facility).
After that, Dent will take on the captain's duties of leading "The Enchantment" team in this summer's TBT — the $2 million, 16-team, winner-take-all basketball tournament — where he'll be a part of a team primarily composed of former UNM Lobos. There will also be several NM State Aggies and other pro players with New Mexico ties on the roster.
That team takes on defending TBT champion the AfterShocks, a Wichita State alumni team, in a three-game opening round series July 20-24 at Koch Arena in Kansas.
Why did Dent choose to play in the TBT?
"Brandon (Mason) wouldn't stop calling me," joked Dent, referring to former Aggie player/UNM assistant and current President at ABC Prep who is again coordinating the the roster for the TBT alumni team.
"For real, though, it's just going to be fun to play again in a New Mexico jersey. I know it's not the Lobos' jersey, but that 'Enchantment' jersey represents the past Lobos and that will be fun to play with the guys."
As for Monday's camp, Dent knows this one won't be as heavily attended as the one in July, so he hopes to walk around the camp and spend as much time helping individual players as possible while they run through drills.
"The main thing we're gonna work on is ball handling, making reads, and then we're gonna get up and down," Dent said. "And when they're playing up and down, I want to help the kids out and talk with them and help fix the little things we see them doing while they're actually playing."
Dent, who wasn't the highest-recruited player out of high school despite winning California's Player of the Year Award as a senior and being the unquestioned leader of a national powerhouse high school team, said he feels he has a unique opportunity to connect to some players who might be in a similar place with trying to figure out how to gain an advantage on the court.
"Not every kid's gonna be the biggest, tallest. Some kids are gonna be smaller. I'm on the smaller side," Dent said. "It doesn't really matter about that. It's all about how you control your body when you're in the air and when you're going through (the game). It's really just body control and balance, and that's all that's the main thing I want to teach them.
"That's the biggest thing I used. I was very good at getting downhill (running fast breaks). You just have great balance and great body control."
The Eck Effect?
So, while Dent genuinely loves Albuquerque, and living here now with his former UNM dance-team star girlfriend while she attends medical school is reason enough, is it possible there was a little bit of an Eck-effect that brought Donnie Dimes back to Burque?
In the days leading up to last fall's Sept. 21 UNM Lobo football game in the Rose Bowl against Dent's UCLA Bruins, the Journal reached out to Dent and Estrada and asked if they had a friendly wager on the game.
Estrada, the born and bred Lobo diehard, was quick to say if the Lobos win, Dent had to transfer back to UNM.
Well, with Estrada and Dent in attendance at the Rose Bowl, the Lobos upset the UCLA Bruins 35-10.
"She told me I had to come back if the Lobos won, so this is me transferring back, I guess," Dent joked.
Reach Geoff Grammer at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
Continue reading...
Yes, California is also home for the former Mountain West Player of the Year who played his final college basketball season at UCLA, but the three-year Lobo is now a New Mexican, too.
Not just in the student sense, but in the residence sense — having moved back to his adoptive home, where he now lives with his girlfriend, Albuquerque native and UNM med school student Katelyn Estrada.
As for the hoops — the path may not be what you expected. You see, what's next for Dent is what's already going on.
And it doesn't involve more playing.
"I'm done with pro basketball," said Dent, who certainly has plenty of high-end, albeit maybe not NBA-level, basketball playing opportunities on the table, but is choosing instead to pursue what he wants to do long-term in the industry as a basketball trainer.
"That's why I came back here. I want to give back to the youth and I want to start training. I want to start working in individual training, group sessions, things like that and I want to get started on that out here (in Albuquerque) — young kids, older kids, just help them with their game and I wanted to start it here because Albuquerque gave me so much.
"I feel like this is the perfect place for me to start training the youth and give back to them."
Not that the 22-year-old would even know the line from the 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally”, but it essentially boils down to when you realize what you want to do the rest of your life, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Dent loves the game, and wants to share what he's learned. And with the financial reality of what going to UCLA this past year afforded him, he has the opportunity to start on his future now — not later.
Monday, he's hosting a "pop-up" skills clinic for kids in third through 12th grades from 9 a.m. to noon at the ABC Prep gym in Old Town (501 Main St. NW) for $25. Albuquerque's own Bella Hines, the recent LSU to TCU transfer, will be helping at the clinic, as will several of the ABC Prep coaches, many of whom are former Lobo players.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Donovan Dent (@donovandent2)
Signing up for the clinic can be done Monday at ABC Prep (cash or PayPal) or ahead of time (PayPal) by scanning the QR code on the event flyer posted on Dent's Instagram page.
Dent, who was always an eager participant in the Richard Pitino summer basketball camps at UNM and always helps run the clinics run by his former high school coach and longtime personal trainer, will also be holding a longer, more in-depth Donovan Dent Basketball Camp in mid-July in Albuquerque (likely at UNM's practice facility).
After that, Dent will take on the captain's duties of leading "The Enchantment" team in this summer's TBT — the $2 million, 16-team, winner-take-all basketball tournament — where he'll be a part of a team primarily composed of former UNM Lobos. There will also be several NM State Aggies and other pro players with New Mexico ties on the roster.
That team takes on defending TBT champion the AfterShocks, a Wichita State alumni team, in a three-game opening round series July 20-24 at Koch Arena in Kansas.
Why did Dent choose to play in the TBT?
"Brandon (Mason) wouldn't stop calling me," joked Dent, referring to former Aggie player/UNM assistant and current President at ABC Prep who is again coordinating the the roster for the TBT alumni team.
"For real, though, it's just going to be fun to play again in a New Mexico jersey. I know it's not the Lobos' jersey, but that 'Enchantment' jersey represents the past Lobos and that will be fun to play with the guys."
As for Monday's camp, Dent knows this one won't be as heavily attended as the one in July, so he hopes to walk around the camp and spend as much time helping individual players as possible while they run through drills.
"The main thing we're gonna work on is ball handling, making reads, and then we're gonna get up and down," Dent said. "And when they're playing up and down, I want to help the kids out and talk with them and help fix the little things we see them doing while they're actually playing."
Dent, who wasn't the highest-recruited player out of high school despite winning California's Player of the Year Award as a senior and being the unquestioned leader of a national powerhouse high school team, said he feels he has a unique opportunity to connect to some players who might be in a similar place with trying to figure out how to gain an advantage on the court.
"Not every kid's gonna be the biggest, tallest. Some kids are gonna be smaller. I'm on the smaller side," Dent said. "It doesn't really matter about that. It's all about how you control your body when you're in the air and when you're going through (the game). It's really just body control and balance, and that's all that's the main thing I want to teach them.
"That's the biggest thing I used. I was very good at getting downhill (running fast breaks). You just have great balance and great body control."
The Eck Effect?
So, while Dent genuinely loves Albuquerque, and living here now with his former UNM dance-team star girlfriend while she attends medical school is reason enough, is it possible there was a little bit of an Eck-effect that brought Donnie Dimes back to Burque?
In the days leading up to last fall's Sept. 21 UNM Lobo football game in the Rose Bowl against Dent's UCLA Bruins, the Journal reached out to Dent and Estrada and asked if they had a friendly wager on the game.
Estrada, the born and bred Lobo diehard, was quick to say if the Lobos win, Dent had to transfer back to UNM.
Well, with Estrada and Dent in attendance at the Rose Bowl, the Lobos upset the UCLA Bruins 35-10.
"She told me I had to come back if the Lobos won, so this is me transferring back, I guess," Dent joked.
Reach Geoff Grammer at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
Continue reading...
