A Tale Of Two halves.
The Illini lived up to their advanced billing and looked fully like a team that could win the B10 chip. It was like UCLA, in the 1G if the 1H, was going to invoke a $cum-like 36-pt Little League Slaughter Rule.
But, then something very un-Cronin-like happened. UCLA's O went out and freaking sped-up the Illini. Now, part of that was aided by Wagler getting hurt, but a good chunk of it was Bilo being lifted in favor of said speeding up........Bilo with only 2 pts & 2 rebounds. And, as much as we like him, Bilo's 2 leaden feet on D being lifted was a game-changer. We somehow matched the #1 O in the land at 55% shooting, much of it inside the paint courtesy of our other 4 starters, Perry, Skyy, the Garbage Man and Dent.
All that said, it would be an amazing upset if UCLA pulled this one out, as the Illini are simply that good and diversified on O. And, Ill is vastly superior to us on the boards, 17-10 in the 1H.
We didn't play very intense D, but a big part of that is, again, Ill is the best O on the planet and that will be hard to overcome. Can just hope Cronin continues to go against script and attacks the paint as opposed to clinging to his perimeter weave.
GO BRUINS!