Rip City Throngs: Elite Stars Finally Shine!
Mar 13, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Donovan Dent (2) gestures a after making a three point basket against the Michigan State Spartans during the first half at United Center. CHICAGO — Donovan Dent was relaxed as he sat at his locker. He gripped his phone as he lounged back in a fold-up chair, briefly opening Instagram as a group of reporters moved to swarm him.
There, he couldn’t escape clips of him knocking down stepback 3-pointers or acrobatically twisting his body midair to finish layups amid crowds of defenders, though he didn’t seem to want to. Dent had just scored 23 points as No. 6-seeded UCLA dismantled No.
3-seeded Michigan State in an 88-84 Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal victory. Meanwhile, the senior guard had just dished out 12 assists to add to a total of 77 in the past seven games to just six turnovers When Dent is asked about his remarkable assist-to-turnover ratio, he says it’s “cool. ” He saw on social media the previous night that his 65 assists-to-turnovers ratio hadn’t been matched by any Division I or NBA player in the last 30 years, per OptaStats.
That same evening, which he also recorded the first triple-double in Big Ten Tournament history in a 72-59 win against No. 17-seeded Rutgers, he shifted the credit to his teammates. They made the “game a lot easier” for him, he said, amid a 5-1 run for UCLA.
Perhaps, it was just easier for senior forward Tyler Bilodeau to shower him with praise. “It's just fun to see (Dent) slither around,” Bilodeau said, “get open, get in the paint (and) make great passes. “Also, he's a great teammate.
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