{"id":201999,"date":"2026-03-23T03:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/201999\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:36:06","slug":"takeaways-from-floridas-shocking-upset-loss-to-iowa-in-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/201999\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from Florida’s Shocking Upset Loss to Iowa in NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA– The first-seeded Florida Gators<\/a> on Sunday fell in its NCAA Tournament<\/a> Round of 32 game against nine-seed Iowa, 73-72, ending its 2026 title-defense season in heartbreak.<\/p>\n

Here are three takeaways from the game.<\/p>\n

Trouble Down Low<\/p>\n

Florida’s front court had carried the team to the NCAA Tournament. In the first half, it was a large part of why Iowa took control of the game.<\/p>\n

While Iowa shot extraordinary from down low, Florida’s four-big rotation<\/a> of Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Micah Handlogten struggled early. In the first half, the four combined to go 2-for-13 from the field, while Florida just had 12 points in the paint to Iowa’s 18.<\/p>\n

Chinyelu finished scoreless with just one rebound as he was in foul trouble for most of the second half.<\/p>\n

It also did not help that the Hawkeyes shot an impressive 70 percent from two, marking the first time any opponent had shot that well against a Golden-coached Gators team. <\/p>\n

Field Goal Droughts Cost Gators<\/p>\n

While Isaiah Brown’s missed free throw proved to be the difference between overtime and losing in regulation, Florida’s field goal droughts throughout the game proved costly. Florida went on a near-10-minute drought in the first half, missing nine shots in a row as Iowa took a nine-point lead.<\/p>\n

While Florida fought back, the Gators had multiple multi-minute field goal droughts in the second half, having to rely on free throws. Still, Florida was able to come back and take a late lead, both those droughts ended up proving costly in a one-point loss.<\/p>\n

Florida’s Resiliance Shown, but It Still Wasn’t Enough<\/p>\n

Already shown in its four regular-season losses, Florida fought back in the second half against Iowa.<\/p>\n

But as Iowa threw punches \u2013 both figuratively and literally \u2013 the Gators could not quite keep up consistently. After Florida nearly erased a double-digit deficit in the first half, Iowa took a 12-point lead midway through the second half thanks to a 13-2 run.<\/p>\n

Haugh and Condon, however, kept Florida in it and even sparked the Gators to a lead, scoring 15 and 14 in the second half on a combined 9-for-13 mark from the field. While Florida fought back once again, it simply wasn’t enough: Brown missed a free throw, Iowa hit a 3-pointer to take a one-point lead, and Florida failed to get a shot off as time expired.<\/p>\n

Florida’s toughness throughout this season was never in doubt. Sunday’s game, however, was the latest in the Gators coming up just shy of a close win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA– The first-seeded Florida Gators on Sunday fell in its NCAA Tournament Round of 32 game against nine-seed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-201999","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\/201999","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=201999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}