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Grammer: Why Donovan Dent got my vote for Mountain West Player of the Year (view my entire all-conference ballot)
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He went for 17 points and 8 assists in a wire-to-wire win over UCLA.
It was 25 points, 10 assists and zero turnovers four days later against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Thirty points, seven assists and no turnovers in a neutral-court game vs. Arizona State.
Then it was a 40-point game against the No. 26-ranked defense in the country, VCU — the highest point total any Mountain West player tallied this season.
And for UNM Lobo Donovan Dent, all that was just a preview for the one of the best individual conference seasons in Mountain West history, securing for him in my eyes the conference’s Player of the Year award for 2025.
No, it won’t be unanimous when the league announces its postseason awards on Tuesday — for the first time in a decade a joint ballot of coaches and league media for one postseason list.
Colorado State forward Nique Clifford had a POY-worthy season as well for the second place Rams, proving at times to be dominant, averaging 19.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game — each ranked second in league play.
Both were hot down the stretch, leading their teams — the top two seeds in this week’s Mountain West Tournament — to 8-2 records in the past 10 games (since Feb. 1). Dent averaged 22.0 points per game in that stretch, including 33 points, seven assists and two steals in a championship-clinching road win at Nevada, while Clifford average 20.0 points in the same stretch, including a 36-point, four-rebound, two-steal game on Friday at Boise State to secure second place.
It’s reminiscent to me of the 2014 race between San Diego State’s Xavier Thames, who won the award, and New Mexico’s Cameron Bairstow, the only other Lobo I’ve ever voted for as Mountain West Player of the Year.
Rather than take the social media route of trying to come up with ways why one of the two doesn’t deserve it, I’ll stick with telling you why Dent got my vote.
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The junior from California — the target of every opposing scouting report — became the first Mountain West player ever to average 20 points and six assists in league play (never mind the fact that the 6-foot-2 point guard also ranked in the top 10 in the conference in shooting percentage, free throw percentage, steals and blocked shots, proving to be one of the better defensive players in addition to the best offensive one).
His 600 points and 200 assists overall this season make him just the 14th player in the history of Division I basketball to accomplish that feat in the regular season and the first Mountain West player to do it without the aide of postseason games (Wyoming’s Hunter Maldonado in 2022 was the only other MW player to do it, but with postseason play).
Oh, yeah. And Dent put on his shoulders a team that lost Jaelen House (now playing in the G-League), Jamal Mashburn Jr. (now No. 4 in the country in scoring while playing at Temple) and J.T. Toppin (now an All-America candidate at Texas Tech) and led the Lobos to a 17-3 record and awire-to-wire Mountain West championship season.
I’ve been lucky enough to cover a lot of Mountain West basketball for more than half of the league’s existence.
It was a joy watching Dent and Clifford all season long, and for that, I thank them both. But from my seat in press row, I’ve never covered a season quite like the one Dent is having right now.
Grammer’s 2025 All-Mountain West ballot
First team:
- Donovan Dent, Jr., New Mexico
- Nique Clifford, Sr., Colorado State
- Tyson Degenhart, Sr., Boise State
- Nelly Junior Joseph, Sr., New Mexico
- Miles Byrd, So., San Diego State
Second team:
- Ian Martinez, Sr., Utah State
- Mason Falslev, So., Utah State
- Nick Boyd, Sr., San Diego State
- Alvaro Cardenas, Sr.,
- Boise State
- Obi Agbim, Sr., Wyoming
Third team:
- Nick Davidson, Jr., Nevada
- Kobe Sanders, Sr., Nevada
- Kyan Evans, So., Colorado State
- Tru Washington, So., New Mexico
- Dedan Thomas, So., UNLV
Player of the Year: Donovan Dent, New Mexico
Coach of the Year: Richard Pitino, New Mexico
Newcomer of the Year: Nick Boyd, San Diego State
Freshman of the Year: Magoon Gwath, San Diego State
Defensive Player of the Year: Nelly Junior Joseph, New Mexico
6th Man of the Year: Drake Allen, Utah State
All Defense Team:
- Nelly Junior Joseph, Sr., New Mexico
- Magoon Gwath, Fr., San Diego State
- Nique Clifford, Sr, Colorado State
- Tru Washington, So., New Mexico
- Miles Byrd, So., San Diego State
