Purdue Outdoes Big Ten Champions, Duke’s Steady Defends to Keep Top 20 Rivals Closer!
Mar 14, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Donovan Dent (2) goes to the basket against Purdue Boilermakers guard Fletcher Loyer (2) during the first half at United Center. 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.