The Florida Gators will not be repeating as national champions.
The Gators, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, exited the men’s NCAA Tournament in the second round after a 73-72 loss to the No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes.
After trailing by as many as 12 points in the second half, Florida led a furious comeback, taking a 72-70 lead after two Isaiah Brown free throws with under 10 seconds to go.
Then came the game’s decisive sequence.
On the ensuing inbounds play, the Gators’ defense lost track of Bennett Stirtz in the backcourt, and the Hawkeyes guard sprinted down the court and found forward Alvaro Folgueiras in the right corner for the go-ahead 3-pointer. On Florida’s final possession, guard Xaivian Lee drove under the hoop and had nowhere to go, throwing a desperation pass that turned into a loose ball as time expired — meaning the Gators never even got a shot off.
“On the last play, we wanted to take a foul to prevent them from getting off a three, and they got away from us,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said in his postgame press conference. “We weren’t able to take it and they knocked it down, so credit to them for that. Just a tough way to go out.”
Said Iowa head coach Ben McCollum of his team: “It’s just tough kids. They fight. They compete. They stick with it. They exemplify everything that we’ve wanted in Iowa basketball. They’ve established the foundation that we’ve desperately needed, and couldn’t be any more proud of them.”
The Gators were looking to repeat for the second time in school history, having achieved the feat after winning the 2006 and 2007 men’s tournaments. Florida is one of only two programs to repeat as champions in the 21st century. The only other school to do so since 2000 is Connecticut, with the Huskies winning in 2023 and 2024.
Here are some other notable happenings from the first weekend of tournament action…
Two of the top three NBA prospects are out
The Gators weren’t the only school to go out on a last-second bucket.
The No. 4 seed Kansas Jayhawks were eliminated 67-65 by No. 5 St. John’s on a buzzer-beating layup by guard Dylan Darling.
Kansas’s Darryn Peterson, who many presume will be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, scored 21 points in the loss. He finished the tournament averaging 24.5 points in two games. Most importantly for Peterson, he averaged 36.5 minutes after injury issues plagued him during the regular season.
Joining Peterson out of the tournament is AJ Dybantsa, the BYU forward who is also in contention for the top pick. Dybantsa scored 35 for the Cougars in a first-round loss to Texas.
Duke’s Cameron Boozer, another highly touted prospect, is still alive as the Blue Devils are headed to the Sweet 16.
A tale of two conferences
The Hawkeyes’ win was significant for the Big Ten.
The conference is sending six schools — Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, and Iowa — to the Sweet 16, its most since 1975 and tied with the 2016 ACC for the second-most schools from one conference in a Sweet 16 ever. (Though the conferences certainly are bigger these days…)
On the flip side, the current ACC sent eight teams to the men’s tournament…and only one, Duke, will make it to the second weekend of games.
Not a great weekend for Cinderella
Has NIL ruined the college game?
Expect the hear that question across sports talk this week after a chalky opening weekend in both the men’s and women’s tournaments.
In the men’s bracket, seven of the top eight seeds are still alive, and the lowest seed left is No. 11 Texas. While a double-digit seed in the Sweet 16 is nothing to scoff at, the Longhorns are hardly a plucky underdog given their track record as a program this century.
On the women’s side, the chaos has been even more subdued. Only three lower seeds have won as of Sunday tonight, and two of those came in No. 9. vs. No. 8 matchups.
On an exciting note, though, that means the biggest stars in the women’s game are still alive, setting up a potential collision course between players like Connecticut’s Azzi Fudd, UCLA’s Lauren Betts, and Texas’s Madison Booker.
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