Mick Cronin held Tyler Bilodeau after seeing him in shootaround
· Yahoo Sports
It didn’t have to be pretty for the UCLA Bruins in round one of the NCAA tournament. UCLA escaped the first round matchup with a 75-71 win over UCF despite Tyler Bilodeau being sidelined with a knee injury.
UCLA nearly had Tyler Bilodeau on Friday
UCLA thought they were going to have Bilodeau for the game but his knee was barking at him when he woke up and Mick Cronin opted to let him rest up. UCLA wasn't able to breakaway from the Knights but the Bruins survived the wonky game.
Visit xsportfeed.quest for more information.
Mick Cronin protected his guy
“I didn’t like the way he was moving in shootaround this morning,” Cronin said of Bilodeau. “He wanted to play and I said no. If you want to know why I said no, then you should probably never coach.”
The game crawled to the finish
Not only did the game lack rhythm, with the final minutes of the game taking over 30 real life minutes but UCLA survived some abnormalities, which Cronin pointed out postgame.
A game of abnormalities
“Crazy stuff happens in March, like Trent (Perry) missing three free throws. Never happens but he’s human and I still want the ball in his hands,” Cronin said. “Skyy didn’t get to double-figures because of his foul trouble, got his tooth knocked out. No call, a couple of times. It was a wild game.”
It wasn't just a chipped tooth for Skyy Clark
Clark did get hosed on a couple of calls, picking up a phantom call when the referees incorrectly gave Clark a foul. Clark also turned the ball over on an apparent UCF foul but when the play went to review, they couldn’t retroactively call a foul on the Knights, as Clark picked up the turnover.
UCLA has found their groove late in the season
UCLA will hope for a less weird game on Sunday against No. 2 UConn but the Bruins are hoping that the winning continues. The Bruins are now 7-2 since their meltdown versus Michigan State in the regular season.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Tyler Bilodeau wanted to play in UCLA's tournament opener versus UCF