You find a way.

Or you find an excuse.

In today’s college basketball landscape, many choose the latter.

Insufficient playing time, a less desired role or statistics that are inconsistent with expectations are the breeding grounds for players opting for the transfer portal, rather than developing under one system.

And this phenomenon is heightened when the player comes from a prolific pedigree of high school basketball.

But Trent Perry was always keen on finding a way.

“A lot of people, especially nowadays, if they had the freshman year I had, they would probably transfer,” the UCLA men’s basketball player said. “For me, being able to stay close to home, being with my parents, and also being in a system that I already know, building a relationship with the coaches, it made me feel comfortable.”

Perry – a four-star prospect out of Harvard-Westlake School – played just 11.4 minutes per game and failed to start a single contest during his true freshman season in Westwood.

And after averaging 3.7 points per game on 36.9% shooting from the field and 34.3% from beyond the arc, Perry’s first year of college basketball looked a lot different than what he thought it would be after being selected as a McDonald’s All American during his senior season of high school.

But after talking to NBA players, including former-Bruin guard Aaron Holiday, Perry realized that if he wanted to play at the highest level, his freshman year experience was just one step in his journey.

“Honestly, it was tough, being what I was in high school to not being as much of an impact as I thought I would be my first year,” Perry said. “But I’m glad that I went through it that first year. I’m actually pretty grateful now that I take a look back on it.”

Nevertheless, at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, Perry had to make a decision.

Stay.

Or go.

Ultimately, it came down to Perry remaining close to his home and his family, along with with his comfort level in a system he already knew.

And after several rounds of discussions with the coaching staff about how they viewed him, how they were going to develop him and how they would integrate him into the system after the departure of guards Sebastian Mack and Dylan Andrews, Perry decided to stay loyal to the people who gave him the opportunity to be at UCLA.

“What’s the point in going through something once and then trying to transfer, and trying to learn, relearn something, and then go move into a different state,” Perry said. “There are a lot of factors that go into transferring. So why? You already went through it once. You’re really not going to go through it again.”

Deciding to stay with the Bruins was also about testing and fortifying his mental fortitude – an attribute of Perry’s game he has worked on since high school.

While many in his position would have packed their bags as soon as his freshman season concluded, Perry opted for the road less traveled.

“My philosophy is that you can always go two ways about things. Are you going to quit and say, ‘Oh, I’m done, like, I can’t do it anymore,’ or are you going to go the other way and you’re going to be like, ‘I’m going to go push through this? I’m going to find a way,’” Perry said.

Integral to developing Perry’s mental fortitude was spending part of this past summer with Phil Beckner – the trainer of nine-time NBA All-Star Damian Lillard – where Perry got to watch professionals work first-hand at their craft.

And through it all, one message was clear – do you have the mental toughness to keep pushing through adversity?

“Throughout my week of training, I got to see a bunch of different pros who not only found a way, but also had success while doing it,” Perry said. “And the whole entire time was just mental fortitude, like he was challenging me mentally, you need to push harder. You need to do this. You need to do that. Nothing you’re doing is up to par.”

But Perry’s time with Beckner and NBA players was not his first experience developing his approach to adversity.

In fact, the sophomore guards’ first two years at Harvard-Westlake looked very similar to his freshman season in Westwood.

“After my sophomore year, I wasn’t really playing that much,” Perry said. “I wasn’t happy, and I really could have transferred. I could have gone to a prep school, like Prolific Prep, Wasatch Academy, but at the end of the day, my dad was like, ‘Nah, you’re staying here. This is where you need to be. If basketball doesn’t work out, you have a great diploma from Harvard-Westlake, so you can get into any college. And from that forward, everything took off.”

Before Perry decided to reinvest himself in Harvard-Westlake and return for two more seasons, he and his parents sat down with coach David Rebibo to discuss his future.

In the conversation, the player and a coach – who have established a two-way relationship teeming with trust and accountability – discussed what they needed from each other going forward, Rebibo said.

“There were things like, ‘Maybe it’s not fair that you’re not playing, but there’s also the other side of it where you’re probably not doing certain things, and let’s look in the mirror, let’s watch tape, let’s get with coaches, let’s get better,’” Rebibo said. “And I thought he did, he never really pointed the finger. He never played the blame game. He decided to put his head down and work, and when my opportunity comes, I have to take advantage of it and help this team win.”

Rebibo added that Perry’s parents wanted to have a conversation about his role on the team to gain understanding, and once they did that, their loyalty shone through.

Perry’s family raised him to be someone who continues through adversity, and his approach to pushing through challenges is a testament to his character and his upbringing, Rebibo said.

And his return to Harvard-Westlake gave Rebibo confidence that the same thing would happen in Westwood.

“It didn’t surprise me one bit when he told me he was going back to UCLA. I kind of knew that,” Rebibo said. “And as frustrated as he as he might have been after his sophomore year, his family and he knew there were things that he needed to do to become who he wanted to be. And when those things would improve, everything he wanted would improve, and they did, and it just took time and I believe that’s part of why this process for him was so easy and not easy – because was able to engage in process and not fall victim to circumstance.”

Perry’s decision to return to the blue and gold has only borne the fruits of his labor.

The guard ranks third on the team in scoring, averaging 12.7 points per game on efficient 44.6% shooting from the field and 41.2% shooting from beyond the arc.

But Perry’s sophomore year jump did not manifest itself until after senior guard Skyy Clark went down with a hamstring injury against Iowa on Jan. 3. Perry was inserted into the starting five, which he has not left since.

“I had to see it as an opportunity I had to take, I couldn’t fold. I had to produce even more,” Perry said. “I like that kind of pressure, that kind of pressure really fuels me and puts a chip on my shoulder because I feel like, after my freshman year, a lot of people counted me out. So I feel like I had to prove a lot of people wrong, and I had to remind people that I’m still here.”

And Perry’s ascent to one of the most impactful players on the team and one of the best guards in the Big Ten came as no surprise to Rebibo, the coach who has seen him develop from sixth grade through his senior year.

In his junior season, Perry showed Rebibo what was to come just two years later at Pauley Pavilion.

He had 25 points all while dislocating his shoulder against Corona Centennial in the regional finals.

Perry came back to finish the game through injury, and returned four days later to play in Harvard-Westlake’s state championship game, where he had a near triple-double with 16 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, in a title win, Rebibo said.

“Trent’s a winner, I would tell you that I don’t believe that he attributes success to stats. He attributes it to wins and losses,” Rebibo said. “He wants to win, and he knows his greatest impact is winning. So when the opportunity came, I knew it was just a matter of time.”

The following year in his senior season, he knocked down all 11 of his free throws to win a semifinal bout that led Harvard-Westlake to their second consecutive state championship victory.

“Trent was hitting clutch shots in high school,” said Doran David, Perry’s trainer he started working with this past summer. “He was the guy for Harvard-Westlake, and he has a lot of experience being the one and being the leader of a team. He’s comfortable with big moments. He’s not scared of the moment.”

And Perry continues to prove his clutch factor on the biggest stage – knocking down six straight free throws to knock off No. 3 seed Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals Friday.

Perry has the opportunity to show his winning mentality when UCLA takes on the NCAA Tournament starting Friday when the squad faces UCF in the first round of March Madness.