PHILADELPHIA — Familiar circumstance.

The Bruins are in the Round of 32 for the second consecutive season, again playing against a No. 2 seed thousands of miles away from Westwood.

Yet, they are also in unfamiliar territory.

The Bruins will face the Huskies for just the second time in school history, last playing against each other in 1995 in the Elite Eight.

No. 7 seed UCLA men’s basketball (24-11, 13-7 Big Ten) will face No. 2 seed UConn (30-5, 17-3 Big East) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday night at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Both teams are coming off late Friday night victories with the Bruins defeating No. 10 seed UCF and the Huskies taking down No. 15 seed Furman in a game that finished past midnight.

While UCLA has a limited history with UConn, the head coaches of both schools have a lot in common.

Coach Mick Cronin led Cincinnati when coach Dan Hurley was at St. Benedicts Preparatory School in New Jersey, and Hurley helped Cronin recruit Rashad Bishop to the Bearcats, Cronin said.

Both coaches – each known for their fiery personalities and intense coaching styles – also come from high school basketball coach fathers, an attribute seen in the way they helm their team.

“When I look at Mick and coaches like Mick, they’re all the coaches that I’ve either modeled myself after or admired, the ones that can balance holding their players to the highest standard, where the players have that respectful fear of their coach, but also they love playing for their coach,” Hurley said. “It takes a special coach to pull that off.”

Hurley and Cronin may have to rely on their hard-nose coaching styles Sunday, with both head honchos potentially losing one of their star players for the Round of 32.

UCLA senior forward Tyler Bilodau and UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. both missed their teams’ first round matchup with the former missing his second straight with a knee sprain and the latter out with an ankle injury. CQ#7 – bilo, CQ#8 – silas OK

The loss of either player for the bout between the two historic programs could be a decisive blow with Bilodeau leading the Bruins in scoring and Demary leading the Huskies in assists and steals.

Both players are officially questionable and their playing will most likely be a gametime decision come Sunday night, with Hurley and Cronin likely relying on how the players look in walk through before making a decision.

If Bilodeau is out, the Bruins will likely have to turn to their star-studded three-guard lineup to makeup for the loss in scoring production, although the trio struggled with efficiency Friday night, combining for 11-for-34 shooting from the field.

However, with Demary potentially missing the Round of 32, Hurley will also have to change his gameplan accordingly.

“The shooting, scoring that they’ve been able to put around Dent allows him to just pick his spot so he wants to score,” Hurley said. “But that guy, he’s got some Steve Nash ability to just read leverage and whip the ball around, put you in closeouts and find shooters, so we’ve got to decide here quickly. We got to pick up poison with Dent and decide what we’re going to do, ball screen, defense wise, quickly.”

On the opposite end of the court, Cronin will have to plan around Husky center Tarris Reed Jr.

Reed – the Huskies leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 14.3 and 8.7 per game, respectively – is coming off a historic night in the Round of 64, scoring 31 points and grabbing 27 boards. Reed could give the Bruin defense nightmares, particularly if Bilodeau is on the bench Sunday night.

And if the Bruins are going to mitigate Reed’s impact on the interior, they are going to have to continue their late-season defensive performance, and avoid how they played early in the season – when they the worst defensive team in Cronin’s career, Cronin said.

“Two months ago, we were nowhere where we needed to be defensive-wise, he kind of joked around with us saying we were his worst defensive team,” said sophomore guard Trent Perry. “And so that kind of lit a fire in us to, withhold those expectations, because we know we can do it and we’ve done it, especially these past couple of games.”

But the joke that lit a fire under Perry and the Bruins, did not seem like a joke to Cronin.

“Well, metrically, it was,” Cronin said about his team being his worst defensive squad. “If you look at KenPom, at that point, they were the worst defensive team in my 23 years, and that’s changed. We have pushed a lot of buttons schematically. But generally, our care factor has been much better. Defense and rebounding are more effort than anything else.”

Cronin will likely not have to monitor the team’s care factor give then win-or-go-home nature of the contest, but his schematic defensive changes will have to hold true against one of the best offensive teams in the nation.