Florida’s repeat dreams dashed by Iowa in final seconds of second-round thriller
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Florida won’t be raising that national championship trophy for the second straight season on April 6 in Indianapolis, and the Gators won’t even be going to the Sweet 16.
After a spirited rally from down 12 points early in the second half, the No. 1 seed from the South Region looked like it was going to escape the Hawkeyes’ upset bid on Sunday night in Tampa. But after taking a 3-point lead with 1:58 to go, it all came unraveled in the final moments for Todd Golden’s SEC juggernaut.
Iowa had 1 more chance down 2 with 8.9 seconds left but had to inbound from the other end of the court. All Florida needed was 1 more defensive stop to survive, but the Gators didn’t get that most crucial stop, with Bennett Stirtz feverishly dribbling the ball up the right side of the court and finding Alvaro Folgueiras all alone in the right corner.
He shot it from 3-point land, it went in, and the air came out of Florida as it suddenly trailed by 1 with 4.5 seconds left. But the Gators had 1 more shot to save their season and their chance at history, because it was out to match those Florida teams that won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007.
It wasn’t over, but then it suddenly was, after Alex Condon inbounded to Xaivian Lee, who dribbled for too long, drove the basket and tried to dish the ball underneath to somebody, anybody. There was nobody to catch the pass, and then there was no time left on the clock, as No. 9 seed Iowa held on for the 73-72 stunner to send the shocked Gators on the short trip home from Tampa to Gainesville.
Here is the fateful Iowa shot that sunk Florida in Sunday’s second-round heartbreaker:
After what turned out to be the game-winning shot, there were 3.9 seconds left, but the officials reset the clock at 4.5 seconds, so Florida had a little more time than it originally thought. But it didn’t matter, because the Gators couldn’t execute on their final possession, as their banner season suddenly ended at 27-8.
Instead, it’s Iowa (23-12) that’s moving on to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. While the Hawkeyes get ready to face Big Ten rival Nebraska in the South Region semifinals next Thursday night in Houston, Florida will be agonizing over a season-ending loss that brought a sudden to a season that saw the Gators win the regular-season SEC title and earn that No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Florida looked like it was going to complete that massive comeback from down 51-39 with 14:13 remaining. After Iowa’s Cooper Koch drilled a 3-pointer to give the Hawkeyes that 12-point lead, the Hawkeyes had an 82.3% chance to pull the upset, according to the ESPN play-by-play. But win probabilities are just numbers, and the Gators roared back to take that late lead, only to fall short in stunning fashion when they left Folgueiras too wide open in that right corner.
The Gators shot exactly 50% from the field, got 21 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists from Condon as well as 19 points and 6 rebounds from Thomas Haugh. Lee chipped in 17 points, too, but rebound stalwart Rueben Chinyelu was stuck in foul trouble, collecting 4 fouls and narrowly avoiding fouling out.
Chinyelu, such an integral part of what the Gators do, was reduced to 19 minutes, didn’t score and had 1 rebound, which in the end made a difference because Iowa just kept coming.
The Hawkeyes shot 51% themselves and had 4 players score in double figures, led by Tavion Banks’ 20 points. Folgueiras, the hero of the night for Iowa, had 14 points off the bench in 18 minutes, including the shot heard around college basketball on Sunday night.
Stirtz added 13 points for the Hawkeyes, while Koch had 12, as Iowa earned one of its best victories in program history.
Meanwhile, it was one of the worst moments in Florida basketball history, because the Gators’ dreams were so wide this March as they tried to close in on history, just like that 2007 team achieved in getting the repeat.
With Florida’s repeat dreams going up in smoke on Sunday and Iowa moving on, here is what the Kalshi market currently sees as the teams in the mix, minus the Gators, to get to Indianapolis next month:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
