Jan 31, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Indiana Hoosiers guard Nick Dorn (7) defends UCLA Bruins guard Donovan Dent (2) as he drives to the basket in the first half at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

UCLA's Dent Explains New-Found Confidence

Originally posted on UCLA Bruins on SI | By Justin Backer | Last updated Feb 3, 2026 4:00 PM ET

UCLA is coming off a tough double overtime loss at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers, but nonetheless, they’ve been much better of late.

After slumping out of the gate in Big Ten play, the Bruins have improved to 15-7 overall, and 7-4 in Big Ten play this season. They earned a particularly big win over Purdue last month, and have otherwise taken care of business against the lower tier teams in the conference.

Despite falling to Indiana, and snapping their winning streak, UCLA was able to come back from a large deficit in the final minutes to send the game to overtime, where they would fight tooth and nail to steal a win, but ultimately came up short. Guard Donovan Dent — who finished with 24 points, 11 assists, and 6 rebounds — talked about the team’s resiliency of late.

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Dent’s thoughts

“It builds our confidence as a team,” Dent said. “We know we can fight back and win any game we really want to get into. It just gives you confidence going into the next one, sucks to be on the bad side of this.”

Dent has been one of the key reasons for UCLA’s turnaround of late. After a very sluggish start to the season, the five-star transfer from New Mexico has really found his groove of late. He has scored in double-digits in each of his last 5 games, and has notched a 20-point double-double in two of those games.
He’s now up to 13.6 points and 6.8 assists per game on the season.

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Dent is still shooting career-lows from the field (41 percent) and from three-point range (19 percent) but his play of late is still a step in the right direction.

For a team that already has talent in the form of Tyler Bilodeau, and Trent Perry, Dent’s recent turnaround could be a sign of things to come, which would make UCLA that much more dangerous if they can get into the NCAA Tournament.

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UCLA has also survived the absence of Skyy Clark so far this season, who has been out for about a month due to a hamstring injury. Clark is averaging over 13 points per game this season, leaving behind a huge hole in production.