{"id":201969,"date":"2026-03-23T02:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/201969\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T02:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:59:12","slug":"iowa-takes-down-no-1-florida-in-ncaa-tournament-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/201969\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa takes down No. 1 Florida in NCAA tournament thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mar 22, 2026, 09:53 PM ET<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. — Alvaro Folgueiras<\/a> nailed a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds remaining, and Iowa<\/a> eliminated defending national champion Florida<\/a>, sending the top-seeded Gators home with a 73-72<\/a> victory Sunday in the second round of the men’s NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

Under first-year coach Ben McCollum, Iowa reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015, while Florida (27-8) became the first No. 1 seed to be knocked out of this year’s March Madness.<\/p>\n

The ninth-seeded Hawkeyes (23-12) wasted a 12-point lead in the second half but rallied in the final minutes.<\/p>\n

Xaivian Lee<\/a>‘s driving layup put Florida ahead 71-68 with under two minutes left. Bennett Stirtz<\/a> answered with a floater to cut it to 71-70 with 57 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

After Thomas Haugh<\/a> missed a 3-point attempt, Stirtz missed a running layup, and Isaiah Brown<\/a> grabbed the rebound with 8.9 seconds left. Brown made his second free throw.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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But Iowa easily broke Florida’s full-court press, and Folguerias was wide open in the corner for his 3. Florida didn’t get a shot off before the buzzer, with Lee’s desperate drive ending with a pass that Haugh couldn’t handle.<\/p>\n

Coming off a 59-point victory over Prairie View A&M on Friday night, Florida played like a team that hadn’t been tested.<\/p>\n

It felt like a home game for the Gators, who played in front of a sea of orange and blue at Benchmark International Arena, home of the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n

Fans left stunned.<\/p>\n

Tavion Banks<\/a> led Iowa with 20 points, Folgueiras had 14 and Stirtz finished with 13 on another off night when he shot just 5 of 16. Cooper Koch<\/a> scored 12 points on four 3s.<\/p>\n

Alex Condon<\/a> led Florida with 21 points, Haugh had 19 and Lee added 17.<\/p>\n

A scuffle broke out just past the midpoint of the first half with Iowa leading 19-13 when Condon and Folgueiras battled for a loose ball. Both players went to the floor holding on tightly. Folgueiras swung his arm back but didn’t follow through with a punch, and the players had to be separated.<\/p>\n

Florida coach Todd Golden sprinted onto the floor to help calm things down, and both players were assessed technical fouls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 22, 2026, 09:53 PM ET TAMPA, Fla. — Alvaro Folgueiras nailed a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds remaining,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-201969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}