UCLA’s 7-game streak snapped as Mick Cronin questions his defense in loss to Illinois: "We got exposed" 

The UCLA Bruins, coached by Mick Cronin, saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end after they faced the Illinois Fighting Illini. On Tuesday, the unranked team would succumb in away territory by a tight five points, 83-78, as they fell to an 18-7 overall record, and 9-5 in conference play.

It was an all-out nip-and-tuck Big Ten affair where Cronin's squad was down by as much as 16, 71-56, midway through the layover period. But, they would slice the deficit down to just two, 80-78, in the final minutes of the game. Ultimately, however, the Fighting Illini would convert on their free throws to seal the game in their favor in front of their home crowd.

During the postgame press conference per On3, Cronin did not mince his words on the game's officiating, deeming it as one of the biggest factors for their defeat.

“As we got more comfortable and I got the right guys that could probe and pass, we started scoring," Cronin said. "Got back in it. Bas (Mack) missed a good attempt to cut it to four at half. If he gets that to go — they could have called a foul. I mean, they called every foul on us jumping into guys. They could have easily called a foul on the last play of the first half.

But, although he was singling out the job done by the referees on Tuesday, Cronin did admit that they need to work on their defensive lapses.

"But the story of the game is defensively, we got exposed," Cronin said. "Our inability to guard the perimeter by some guys and their ability to spread you out because [Tomislav] Ivisic can shoot the ball and then, we finally settled down to probe and pass and got our offense going and found a team.

"We found a team that could play at both ends, actually get a stop and probe and pass and find the open man and get a stop. Because there was a time we were probing and passing and scoring early in the half and we couldn’t stop them," he added.

(from 3:45 mark onwards)

Now tallying another defeat, Cronin and the rest of the UCLA Bruins will look to get back in the win column against the Indiana Hoosiers on Friday in another road conference matchup.

Tyler Bilodeau shines through loss on Tuesday

Although they saw their winning streak get snapped, junior Tyler Bilodeau was a huge bright spot for Mick Cronin and Co. through which they hope to see more outputs like these from him. In 32 minutes logged, the third-year forward dropped a game-high 25 markers with seven 3-balls, three rebounds, an assist and two steals.

On the 2024-2025 season, Bilodeau is averaging 14.3 points on 50.4% shooting, 4.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.0 steals per contest.