CHICAGO — No. 6-seeded UCLA was already without its leading scorer, Tyler Bilodeau.
So, when it also lost in-form guard Donovan Dent to a calf strain, No. 7-Purdue proved too much to handle in Saturday’s 73-66 Big Ten Tournament semifinal loss.
But, frankly, coach Mick Cronin doesn’t care.
“They practice under 11 banners that say National (Champions) every day,” Cronin said of his players, “they warm up under another banner with 19 Final Fours (and) we don’t even have one with conference championships, because there’s 36 or something, so many.”
“So next week is what it’s about for us.”
Next week is the NCAA Tournament, which the Bruins (23-11, 13-7 Big Ten) enter as a projected No. 7 seed in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s bracketology.
And even if Cronin doesn’t consider it relevant, the Bruins were tied with the Boilermakers (26-8, 13-7 Big Ten) within four minutes of the game’s finish despite trailing by double-digits multiple times in the second half. They held the Boilermakers to 46.3% shooting, as Cronin wondered how he would’ve cobbled together a team for the championship game Sunday should they have pulled off the improbable upset.
UCLA received double-digit contributions from four players, with guard Trent Perry leading the team with 15 points and nine assists, forward Xavier Booker scoring 12 points, forward Eric Dailey Jr. adding 11 points and guard Skyy Clark recording 10 points.
But Purdue outrebounded the Bruins by 11 and outscored them by eight on second-chance points, which Cronin said ended up being the difference maker.
The team’s reserves, including Steve Jamerson II, Eric Freeny and Brandon Williams, played double-digit minutes that Cronin said could prove valuable in the March Madness.
Cronin noted that both Bilodeau and Dent could have played through their knocks, but he thought there was “no point.”
“Guys stepped up on our team,” Cronin said. “Valiant effort by some kids that hadn’t played a lot.”
Dent left with a calf strain, according to Cronin, midway through the first half. He had logged 77 assists to just six turnovers during the team’s previous seven games, including the Big Ten Tournament’s first-ever triple-double during Thursday’s 72-59 win over No. 17-seeded Rutgers, as UCLA had put together a 6-1 record.
Bilodeau didn’t feature after being ruled out with a knee sprain following his early exit from the Bruins’ 88-84 victory over No. 3-seeded Michigan State on Friday. He is expected to be available for the NCAA Tournament, as will Dent.
“No matter who we take the floor against in the NCAA Tournament,” Cronin said, “we’re going to run out there, and we’re going to be the ones wearing a baby blue in four letters. So, we believe in ourselves.”
Freeny, with an uptick in minutes, showed off an offensive toolkit that included a step-back 3-pointer and slithery layup during an eight-point outing.
Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer and forward Trey Kaufman-Renn helped the Boilermakers build an early advantage with 16 of the team’s first 21 points. Early on, the score was 15-2 in their favor, moments after Cronin was given a technical foul.
In the second half, the Boilermakers opened a 40-27 advantage with back-to-back 3-pointers. At one point in the period, the game appeared to get out of hand when Dailey almost committed a backcourt violation as he lost control of his dribble beyond the 3-point line. He then turned the ball over before Purdue’s 7-foot-4 forward Daniel Jacobsen dunked over him.
But UCLA persisted as Perry and Clark combined for 18 second-half points, and the game was tied as late as the 3:41 mark, 62-62, before Purdue closed with an 11-4 run.
On the way to the locker room postgame, Dailey repeated “way to compete this week” to his teammates. In this tournament, Clark said, the Bruins finally learned what it meant to play with effort, vital to executing “actual” Cronin defensive-minded basketball.
“We grew up a lot this weekend,” he said. “And we’re just going to carry that into March.”
