Illinois fans roast Skyy Clark as UCLA men’s winning streak comes to an end
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Skyy Clark’s three-pointer was well off the mark with about eight minutes left in the game, giving fans another chance to unleash more vitriol.
“Skyy you suck!” chanted the Illinois students who felt jilted by the UCLA guard’s departure from their beloved team nearly two years ago.
The Illini were no less forgiving on the court.
Scoring with ease and disrupting every UCLA player besides Tyler Bilodeau, Illinois ended the Bruins’ nearly monthlong winning streak Tuesday night after withstanding an epic comeback in which UCLA missed only one more shot the rest of the game.
Trailing by 16 points with less than five minutes to play, UCLA closed to within two after it made 10 consecutive shots, including a Clark three-pointer with 28 seconds left that momentarily silenced his critics.
But after extending their lead to three with a free throw, the Illini snagged a critical offensive rebound when 7-footer Tomislav Ivisic tipped the ball to a teammate with six seconds left. The Bruins were forced to foul again and two more Illini free throws sealed their fate during an 83-78 loss inside the State Farm Center.
UCLA’s defense was too pliable in enabling the Illini to shoot 50.9% on the way to ending the Bruins’ seven-game winning streak. A big issue was the UCLA guards’ inability to stay in front of their man, leading to them repeatedly getting beat off the dribble.
UCLA sophomore forward Eric Dailey Jr. learned at an early age from his basketball coach parents it takes seemingly endless work to achieve lofty goals.
“We got exposed defensively tonight,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said after his team fell to 18-7 overall and 9-5 in the Big Ten, “and different guys not being able to guard the ball.”
Illinois (17-8, 9-6) was also the far tougher team, outrebounding UCLA by 13 while grabbing 10 offensive rebounds.
Bilodeau finished with 25 points, making nine of 17 shots and seven of 12 three-pointers, while fueling a comeback that seemed unlikely given the way the Illini were getting almost everything they wanted offensively.
Guard Kasparas Jakucionis scored 24 points to lead Illinois and Ivisic added 16 on the strength of making four of six three-pointers. Clark suggested communication issues amid the din of a crowd of 15,544 contributed to defensive breakdowns.
“We gave up a lot of easy buckets just not switching [on screens], especially on guard-to-guard stuff,” Clark said. “On stuff like one through four [positions], stuff that we usually do. When the crowd’s in it, it’s loud, it’s hard to hear, and just some stuff that we gotta pick up on and fix.”
The Bruins’ offense also sputtered, especially early in the game when there was little ball movement but plenty of tough shots. Cronin finally identified a lineup that could make shots and get stops, leading to his team’s big run.
But a key breakdown came when UCLA guard Dylan Andrews enabled Illinois counterpart Dylan Boswell to split a trap, leading to a pass resulting in an Ivisic dunk with 17 seconds left.
UCLA’s Sebastian Mack (11 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals) countered with two free throws with 11 seconds to go before the final sequence doomed the Bruins’ comeback hopes.
Guard Kobe Johnson added 14 points for the Bruins, but forward Eric Dailey Jr. had a quiet five points and center Aday Mara was scoreless in only eight minutes while fighting the lingering effects of a suspected case of norovirus. After Illinois’ Morez Johnson Jr. muscled Mara out of the way for a rebound leading to a dunk with 13 minutes left, Mara was yanked from the game, never to return.
Clark’s return to the court he once called home was not a quiet one. Students were on the player who spent his freshman season here from the moment they spotted him before the game.
“Quitter!” the students chanted before heckling him while he shot practice free free throws in front of them.
As if that wasn’t enough, two students positioned behind UCLA’s basket scribbled messages on whiteboards.
“#55 5 teams 5 years” one message read, alluding to Clark playing at a series of schools.
Kobe Johnson finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds as the UCLA men’s basketball team committed just three turnovers in a lopsided win over Penn State.
“When you guys leave, Skyy knows where the door is,” another message read.
Clark did not fuel the taunts, remaining expressionless.
“I was just tuning it out,” he said after finishing with nine points and seven assists.
There was another more pressing irritant for the Bruins. Coming off a stretch in which they took care of the ball at a historic level, committing just three turnovers in back-to-back games for the first time since the statistic was tracked starting with the 1976-77 season, the Bruins were not nearly as meticulous with their ballhandling.
When Andrews lost the ball to conclude a sloppy stretch by his team, UCLA had its fourth turnover and only 6:10 had elapsed. The Bruins were much better the rest of the game, finishing with eight turnovers.
With his team trailing only 31-25 at the game’s midpoint despite a fairly dreadful showing, Cronin turned toward his bench and clapped in encouragement as his players left the court for the locker room.
They would not be in nearly as good of a mood the next time they headed there, the students serenading Clark with one final chant.
“Bye-bye Skyy!”
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