In 8.9 seconds, Iowa’s stunning win over defending national champion Florida shows the great and cruel side of March
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TAMPA — There’s nothing like March.
The NCAA Tournament is the greatest single event in American sports for a reason. Games like Iowa’s stunning 73-72 victory over defending national champion Florida on Sunday night in front of 14,717 mostly crushed Florida fans at Benchmark International Arena are precisely what make March compelling.
A final possession 3 in a virtual road game to send Iowa to its first Sweet 16 this century? In Year 1 under head coach Ben McCollum? And the 3 came off an assist by an All-American who started his career in Division II basketball, with zero Division 1 interest?
Are you kidding me? That’s the stuff of March dreams, played out on not only on televisions and pulsating arenas but in the imaginations of countless kids hooping on city blacktop playgrounds and matted dirt backyard farmhouse baskets alike, a symphony to the unifying dream of the NCAA Tournament and its grip on the American landscape.
Unless you are on the losing side, and the dream is a nightmare.
In that case, with immense respect for the poet TS Eliot, March is the cruelest month.
For Florida, the dream of repeating as national champions ended with a thud in Tampa, just a short 2-hour drive from its Gainesville campus.
The close of the game, from the Alvaro Folgueiras game-winning 3 to Florida’s ill-fated final possession (we’ll get there!), has understandably received the bulk of the attention in the stormy aftermath of Florida’s shocking tournament exit.
But the truth is Florida dug the hole that cost it the game in the first 30 minutes, falling behind by as many as 12 midway through the second half behind sloppy first-half turnovers and a leaky pick-and-roll defense that Iowa exploited again and again for baskets at the rim.
The Gators committed 6 turnovers in the first 7 minutes, helping Iowa build an early 10-point lead and more critically, belief that it could play with the SEC Champions, even in a hostile environment.
Once Iowa had the lead, it became easier for Ben McCollum’s team to control tempo, which the Hawkeyes did masterfully thanks to the patience and perfection of their All-American point guard, Bennett Stirtz. While he didn’t shoot well (5-16 FG, 0-9 from 3), Stirtz was a maestro running Iowa’s offense all evening, keeping the Hawkeyes organized and calmly getting them into the ball-screen and pick-and-roll looks they wanted against Florida’s switching and drop pick-and-roll coverages. The senior, who started his career as a Division II player with zero Division I interest, simply could not be sped up by the reigning national champions. He finished with 5 assists and 0 turnovers while playing all 40 minutes, and Iowa scored 20 points in the pick-and-roll in building its 33-31 lead at the half.
Florida created good looks throughout the first half against Iowa’s aggressive defense, but Florida missed 6 first-half layups and multiple open 3s, unable to exploit its athleticism advantage.
Most surprisingly, Iowa controlled the glass for much of the game as well, limiting Rueben Chinyelu, the best rebounder in college basketball, to just 1 rebound and ultimately playing level with Florida on the glass, 27-27, with 10 offensive rebounds to Florida’s 9 overall.
Denying Florida extra possessions proved vital in what was the slowest tempo game the Gators played all year—just 61 possessions—maximizing the meaning of every extra trip or shot.
Florida showed its championship resolve down 12, with Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon scoring 29 of their collective 40 points in the second 20 minutes, and the Gators ultimately stormed back to take the lead 69-66 on a Condon layup with just 2:40 remaining. Tavion Banks, who was Iowa’s most effective interior scorer all evening, scored on a dunk to cut it to 1, but when Xaivian Lee drove and scored on a layup and Alex Condon dove for a loose ball steal, the Gators had the ball and a 3-point lead with under 90 seconds to play.
That’s when things fell apart.
Boogie Fland drove aggressively and appeared to have a layup, only to take contact and lose the ball out of bounds. After review, Iowa was awarded the ball, and Stirtz drove and scored over Fland to cut the Florida lead to a point.
The Gators then lost their patience offensively, with Thomas Haugh attempting 2 dagger 3s and missing both, even though Florida built its rally on attacking the paint and getting to the free-throw line.
Still, when the Gators forced a stop and Isaiah Brown went to the free-throw line with under 10 seconds to play, Florida felt good about its chances of winning. Then Brown, just a sophomore, missed 1 of 2 free throws, opening the door slightly for Iowa to win in regulation.
That’s when Florida, one of the nation’s best defenses all season long, played its worst defensive possession of the season.
Florida stayed in the press that helped it slow Iowa’s offense and get the Gators back in the game, intending to foul the Hawkeyes and send them to the free-throw line with a chance to tie the game.
Unconventional as it may seem, there’s sound logic to the decision. Even if Florida fouled Stirtz, an 84% free throw shooter, the Iowa senior was having an off-shooting night. Maybe he misses a free throw under pressure with a roaring crowd. Even if he does not, Florida has the ball, a chance for a final shot, and the guarantee of overtime in a virtual home game against an Iowa team plagued by late-game foul trouble.
Of course, that depended on Florida executing. It did not.
It started with a curious decision to guard the inbounder, given Florida’s intent to foul. Fland compounded Florida’s problems by trailing a screen, allowing Stirtz to get a head of steam moving downhill. Xaivian Lee was screened by Tate Sage and did himself no favors by stepping up to the screen instead of over to help on Stirtz. Folgueiras’s man was Thomas Haugh, who had to step up to prevent a rim run for Stirtz, As soon as Stirtz made the pass to Folgueiras, Florida’s process failed — regardless of whether the shot went in or not.
“We didn’t do a good enough job containing Stirtz, helping (Fland) recover or switch,” Todd Golden said following the loss.
“The idea was to keep the ball out of Bennett’s hands, let him throw it to somebody else. So, we wanted a face guard and throw it to somebody else and then take a foul and put one of their role players in a pressure situation. But they ran a little kind of double stagger, got him loose. We just didn’t make a good enough play off the ball there to stop him from getting down the court, and then we had to make a split-second decision and we just didn’t make the right one. Again, I think we had a good plan in terms of what we were trying to do, but we didn’t execute it very well. They still had to step up and make a tough shot in a big moment, and they did that.”
Iowa made its final shot.
Florida failed to get one.
In a cruel irony from last year’s national championship game, which the Gators won by preventing Houston from even getting off a shot, Florida guard Xaivian Lee got downhill on a beautifully designed hammer action only to take an awkward driving angle and, with Folgueiras arriving with late help, elect to pass.
The pass was mishandled by Haugh and Florida’s season over. In truth, even if Haugh handled the pass well, he almost certainly does not get a shot off in time.
In tears after the game, Haugh bravely faced the media, but uttered few words.
“They just played harder than us. Made more plays and shots in the end. I don’t know,” a red-eyed Haugh said, hands over his head.
What else was there to say?
Haugh will forever be a national champion, one of the 5 best players to ever wear a Florida uniform and just the second Consensus All-American the storied program has ever produced. None of that eased the pain Sunday night.
Not for Haugh. Not for anyone in orange and blue.
This one will hurt and haunt Florida for a long time.
That’s March.
The greatest and cruelest month of all, summed up in 2 Florida basketball seasons and epitomized in 8.9 seconds of college basketball.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
