Karma catches up to Florida basketball in stunning March Madness exit against Iowa
TAMPA − Senior guard Xaivian Lee raced down the court in a last, desperate attempt to save Florida basketball from a surprising early exit in the 2026 Men's NCAA Tournament. With 4. 5 seconds left, the Florida Gators still had a chance down 73-72 after Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras sank a 3-pointer to put the Hawkeyes ahead.
But Florida wound up not even getting a shot at the rim. Lee thought he had enough time to dish to All-American forward Thomas Haugh under the basket, but Haugh fumbled it away, and No. 9 seed Iowa pulled off a major upset , upsetting No.
1 seed Florida, the defending national champions. The basketball karma that Florida summoned in four second-half comebacks during its national title run a year ago ran out before a stunned pro-Gator crowd of 14,717 at Benchmark International Arena. "I'm going to remember this feeling for a while," Florida junior forward Alex Condon said.
"I'm just going to use it as motivation. I think it's going to make us better players individually just to know what this feeling is like, working hard all year to get into this position as a 1 seed and just letting it get away from us a little bit. "Yeah, we're going to use it for positive to make us better players in our careers.
" Iowa took the fight to Florida, and the Gators struggled early to match UF's physicality. The Hawkeyes outscored Florida 32-30 in the paint, a stunning result given UF's size advantage in the frontcourt. Rebounds were even 27-27 and Iowa outscored Florida 7-6 in second chance points.