The college basketball landscape will see a new national champion in 2026, following a thrilling upset on Saturday night. In a game held in Tampa, the top-seeded Florida Gators were narrowly defeated by the Iowa Hawkeyes, seeded ninth, with a final score of 73-72.
Playing in front of their home crowd, Florida faced heartbreak after a critical misstep by guard Xavien Lee, marking the Gators as the first top seed to be toppled by a nine-seed in nearly a decade. This echoes the last such upset, when Florida State took down Xavier in 2018.
The game’s climax came courtesy of Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras, who, despite earlier controversy, clinched the win with a decisive three-pointer with just 4.5 seconds remaining. This pivotal moment followed a tense scuffle earlier in the matchup, where Folgueiras and Florida’s Alex Condon clashed over a contested ball.
The altercation saw Condon throw Folgueiras to the ground, prompting a retaliatory punch from the Iowa player—a move that, while contentious, did not overshadow his game-winning shot. As the final buzzer sounded, the tipped pass sealed Florida’s fate, ensuring their exit and Iowa’s advance.
Folgueiras was already at the center of a major moment in the game when he and Florida’s Alex Condon got into a scuffle over a held ball in the first half.
The Iowa Hawkeyes stunned defending national champions Florida to make the Sweet 16
The Gators’ hopes to win consecutive titles for the second time in school history fell short
Condon then threw Folgueiras to the floor, leading to the Iowa star returning with a closed-fist swing.
A scuffle broke out as the teammates of both players gathered on the floor to separate each other.
It was initially speculated on TBS that Folgueiras would have been given a flagrant-two foul and ejected from the game for his thrown punch, but officials did not assess any sort of flagrant at all.
This incensed Florida coach Todd Golden, who began screaming at officials after both Condon and Folgueiras were only given double technicals.
Golden and Iowa head coach Ben McCollum then began screaming at each other in an escalation of the situation as the two exchanged curses but nothing more.
Neither coach was assessed a foul for their retorts.
Iowa took a two-point lead into halftime that ballooned to a 12-point lead with 14 minutes left in the second half.
But slowly and surely, Florida got back into the game – led by Condon’s 21 points, five rebounds and seven assists.
Mid-game, a brawl broke out between Florida’s Alex Condon and Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras (R)
Florida coach Todd Golden (L) and Iowa coach Ben McCollum (R) also screamed at each other
Other notable Gators included Thomas Haugh (19 points, six rebounds, two assists) and the aforementioned Lee – who ended with 17 points.
But Iowa’s shooting remained strong as guard Bennett Stirtz, who transferred to the Hawkeyes from Drake University with McCollum, knocked down a triple to make it a one-point game with under a minute remaining.
Stirtz ended the night with 13 points, five rebounds and five assists while Folgueiras ended up accumulating 14 points and five rebounds of his own.
But the Hawkeyes were led by the 20-point, six-rebound performance of another Drake transfer: Tavion Banks.
Following Stirtz’s triple to make it 71-70 to Florida, the Gators knocked down a free throw to extend the lead further.
Off the inbound, Stirtz raced up court and found Folgueiras in the corner to bury an open triple to go up 73-72.
Folgueiras then raised his arm and pointed to the sky as an acknowledgement to his father, who passed away when he was nine-years-old.
Folgueiras knocked down what proved to be the game winning shot in the corner
He pointed up to the sky after the shot to honor his father who passed when he was nine
Florida’s Xavien Lee (1) didn’t get off a clean pass for the final shot, dooming the Gators
Officials made a mistake with the clock, forcing a review while allowing the Gators – who ran out of timeouts to draw something up.
Off the inbound, Lee attempted to go coast-to-cost before finding Haugh inside. But even if the pass was clean, Haugh would have had roughly 0.8 seconds to go up through traffic and score a game-winning bucket.
But it was more calamitous than that. Lee drove under and tried passing through the trees down low, but it was tipped. The buzzer sounded and Iowa booked a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.
They’re now charting a course for Houston, Texas to take on their hated rivals: four-seed Nebraska.
