Back in Burque: Former Lobo Donovan Dent is done playing and ready to teach the game he loves

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.