Defending champs go down in March Madness thriller after tempers flare between Iowa and top-seeded Florida
There will be a new national champion in college basketball in 2026 after No. 1 seed Florida was knocked off on Saturday night by the nine-seed Iowa Hawkeyes in a 73-72 stunner in Tampa.
Despite playing on home soil, the Gators were undone by a poor final decision by guard Xavien Lee that saw Florida become the first one-seed to fall to a nine-seed in eight years.
Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras, who controversially threw a punch at a Florida player in a scuffle earlier in the game, knocked down the go-ahead triple with 4.5 seconds to go.
After Florida drew up a play, Lee drove the full length of the court and attempted to get a pass off to forward Thomas Haugh.
The pass was tipped and buzzer sounded, marking Florida as the first one-seed to lose to a nine-seed since Xavier fell to Florida State in 2018.
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.
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.
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