PHILADELPHIA — The question will remain unanswered.
Would UCLA have beaten Connecticut if Tyler Bilodeau was healthy? That’s what will haunt the Bruins and their fans for the rest of March Madness.
Even without their leading scorer the seventh-seeded Bruins battled valiantly, briefly taking the lead in the second half. But in the end they simply didn’t have enough firepower to knock off No. 2 Connecticut, which surged late in its 73-57 win in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday.
“My message to our team is no excuses,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “Somebody brought up Tyler. We didn’t bring it up. It’s five-on-five. Sadly, I’ve got a lot of practice in dealing with that in NCAA tournament play, but it sucks for him.
“At the end of the day, someone said to me what would have happened if you had your guy? You never know. But I thought the bottom line was they played harder than us. Their defense was better than our offense, and I take responsibility for that.”
UCLA (24-12) failed to reach the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive season. The Bruins struggled with their shooting most of the night, going 19 for 49 (39%) in comparison to Connecticut’s 23 for 49 (47%). Both teams had the same number of free-throw attempts (21), but the Bruins made just 67% of their shots and the Huskies made 90%.
Connecticut’s Tarris Reed Jr., center, tries to work past (from left) UCLA’s Trent Perry, Donovan Dent and Eric Dailey Jr. during the first half Sunday.
(Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
“We could not finish at the rim,” Cronin said. “You’re not going to score 57 points and beat anybody in this tournament, let alone UConn. That’s because we didn’t finish at the rim.”
Cronin blamed himself for not finding a way to stop Connecticut forward Alex Karaban, who scored 27 points and helped fuel two decisive runs for the Huskies. He scored 10 points during a 14-0 run in the second half. Then, after UCLA closed the gap to 56-52, Karaban and freshman guard Braylon Mullins (17 points) keyed another 9-0 Connecticut run that effectively sealed the win.
“He was a tough matchup for us,” said Cronin, who was hit with a technical foul after objecting to a non-call during the Huskies’ 14-0 run. “If I had to do it over again, I probably would have put a guard on him and try to have our guy that started off on him guard somebody else on the wing.”
Four players scored in double figures for UCLA. Xavier Booker finished with 13 points, Eric Dailey Jr. had 12 points and Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark each finished with 11.
“I just wanted to comfort my teammates,” Dailey said. “Those guys are crying in the locker room right now. It’s not a good feeling.”
Cronin understood the pain. “Right now is not the time to coach,” he said. “Right now is the time to try to be a father figure for those guys.
“It’s tough on them.”
