‘It just changes things’: Donovan Dent’s arrival quickens UCLA’s pace

With a sudden burst, Donovan Dent accelerated to the basket for a lay-up while absorbing the ignition which sent him to fall to the basic line.

With a outstretched hand, Dent blocked a shot to trigger a quick break which he finished with his own long jumper.

With a wrist, tooth made almost all three points he took.

Everything that the UCLA leader did Tuesday during a summer training of around 80 minutes open to journalists showed his ability to raise his new team.

“It just changes things,” said coach Mick Cronin about the transfer of the veteran of the New Mexico, “and it makes life easier for his teammates.”

This could also speed up the pace of Bruins basketball.

The UCLA Donovan tooth leader says of his ability to make the teammates without look: “Everyone is starting to recognize it.”

(Jan Kim Lim / Ucla Athletics)

Dent said that part of the Cronin recruitment field after entering the transfer portal was faster, helping the team converting turnover to transition points.

“He had the impression of being able to integrate me directly into this system and he just needed someone in whom he could trust with the ball in his hand,” said Dent, “and I have the impression that it was what I could bring to the table. So we talked about this, we talked about playing a lot of choices, and he did this in practice. So I am excited to see what we are going to go during the season.”

One of the main beneficiaries to play alongside Dent on Tuesday was the little striker Eric Dailey Jr., who regularly found himself receiving passes which he transformed into points. Almost everyone on the list had the joy of being set up for easy baskets depending on the way the team is divided a given day.

“I don’t have to work much on the attack,” said Dailey about playing with tooth. “I can just cut, I can spot, in transition, I can run and be his finisher.”

Dent said that his high performance had been preceded by a frustrating session on Monday which attracted Cronin’s anger, something that was again exposed a day later when the coach said to the striker Tyler Bilodeau that he would play in Uruguay if he had not learned to define a satisfactory screen.

“I shouted enough,” said tooth, “because I would make silly games, sloppy reversals. So I wanted to answer the right way and I think I did it today. So, seeing it from the first hand, being part, I think that is only better the players.”

The reduction in errors will be the accent put by the senior 6-foot 2 inches which collected on average 20.4 points, 6.4 assists and 3.1 reversals last season on the way to become the player of the year of the Mountain West Conference and an honorable mention All-American. Dent said his new teammates always learn that they should be ready to receive a pass at any time.

“I may not be looking at you,” said tooth, “but it could still come, so everyone is starting to recognize it.”

Cronin said that the tooth shooting – the reason why he was recruited by schools from the PAC -12 conference out of Corona Centennial High – continued to improve after 40.9% of his three points last season in New Mexico.

A faster offense is only an early change with the opening of the season against Eastern Washington on November 3 to just over two months. Bilodeau went from the center to the front and Dailey from the power forward to a small front in the movements that could help maximize their skills.

“I think I can go to the glass a little easier not to push the biggest guys, just space the ground, can display four smaller men,” said the 6-9 bilodeau, “so I think it’s going to be good.”

Dent is one of the five veteran transfers, joining the Senior Redsirt Steven Jamerson II center, the junior center Xavier Booker, the senior goalkeeper of Redsirt Jamar Brown and the senior striker Redshirt Anthony Peoples Jr. Cronin identified Jamerson, a transfer from the University of San Diego who previously played for the coach Steve Lavin, like “a huge flight to us” based on what he showed in coach Steve Lavin.

An early positive evaluation of assistant coach Darren Savino was supported by Cronin conversations with the coach of Saint Mary, Randy Bennett, who regularly faced Jamerson at the conference on the west coast and called him the most underestimated man on the west coast.

“He can project, he can defend, he can bounce back,” said Cronin. “And it has a legitimate size – it is at each bit 6-10.”

Jamerson showed good instincts in the basket on Tuesday, something Booker always learns in his transition from being more a wing player during his two seasons at Michigan State. Playing alongside Dent will undoubtedly help in his attempt to become more a rim post player.

“We are trying to understand things for lobs and all that,” said Dent, “but we approach them a lot.”