LOS ANGELES — UCLA upset No. 4 Purdue 69-67 on Tuesday night, but the victory seemed to do little to ease Bruins coach Mick Cronin’s wrath over the Big Ten’s scheduling.
Five of UCLA’s first seven league games were on the road. The Bruins came into the Purdue game on two days’ rest after playing at Ohio State, while the Boilermakers had been in Los Angeles since last week, having played at USC on Saturday.
“I want to thank the Big Ten for giving us five of our first seven on the road, bringing Purdue here on Thursday night when we don’t get back in L.A. until Saturday night and giving us the team picked to win the league on two days’ rest after five of our first seven on the road,” Cronin said in his postgame news conference. “Really, I want to thank the Big Ten for that.”
He later added: “I don’t think they care about basketball. Truly. That’s just my opinion.”
UCLA is 13-6 and 5-3 in conference play. The Bruins have already played at Washington, Iowa, Wisconsin and Penn State in addition to Ohio State, with their three conference losses coming against the Hawkeyes, Badgers and Buckeyes.
“We’re in a league in the Midwest. So that’s just gonna be what it’s gonna be,” Cronin said, reiterating: “But you ain’t got to play five of the first seven on the road, and then come home and get the team picked to win the league on two days’ rest.”
UCLA ended Purdue’s nine-game winning streak on Tyler Bilodeau’s 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining. Donovan Dent had 23 points, 13 assists — including on the winning basket — and three blocks to lead the Bruins. Bilodeau finished with 14 points, and Eric Dailey Jr. added 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Bruins have won six of nine and improved to 3-3 this month as they try to work their way up from midpack in the Big Ten. Beating Purdue is their biggest win of the season, having already lost to then-No. 5 Arizona, then-No. 8 Gonzaga and then-No. 25 Iowa.
“We know how good of a team we have, just which one of us shows up that night. Either we’re going to play hard or we’re not, and that’s been our struggle all season. I think we can build off this a lot and go on a big run here,” Dent said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
