In Reply to: I’ll always think we win that game if Bilodeau is healthy. posted by Fuzzy on March 25, 2026 at 16:40:04
Bilodeau's offense would have helped, but realistically, how much more was he going to score than Booker, who led us in scoring? Or Dailey, who was second? Would he have defended better than those 2? I'm not so sure. We were fortunate to get Reed in foul trouble early, and he played awful the whole game as a result. Would TB have drawn those early fouls? I'm not so sure, and Reed could well have eaten him up.
The point where we definitively lost the game was gain to yanking Dailey at the 8:11 mark of the 2nd half after he had scored 6 straight to get us back into the game and forced UConn to take a TO right before the under 8 TV timeout. We had 1 shot to take the lead, and it was to ride Dailey, who is very streaky, but when he gets on a heater is really hard to stop. Yanking Dailey led directly to the 11-2 run which sealed the game. That is the point where earlier in the season we would go to Bilodeau to take us home offensively, tho, so maybe, but not recognizing that it was Dailey who was the only player capable the way the game was going was criminal. And who knows, maybe Cronin yanks TB for defense at that point too.
I'll also point to the Sweet 16 game vs UNC, where Baylor had pressed UNC to get back into the game, and we didn't press until the game was over, which was all on Cronin.
But, on the whole, I do like the way the team closed the season playing its best ball, even without TB. I don't think we'll ever win a championship with Cronin tho. Even if he gets all the players and money he wants. It's not that easy - look at Kansas and Kentucky and UNC lately, programs with tons of money, yet also consistently washing out in or before the Sweet 16 lately.