March Madness 2026: The Best and Worst From Day 4

It’s been a long week so let’s get right to it.

The 3 best games of Day 4

1. (9) Iowa 73, (1) Florida 72 (South)

We had two second round classics that both could have occupied the top spot. We’ll go with the game that was better played from start to finish, even if it didn’t have quite as perfect an ending as the other

Florida overcame a 12-point deficit to seemingly take advantage late in the second half, but Iowa battled back in the game’s final minutes thanks to what head coach Ben McCollum referred to as “irrational confidence.” They found themselves down two with just under 10 seconds to play.

With Florida attempting to foul — an unusual end of game philosophy for a team up by two points, but one UF head coach Todd Golden has employed in the past, dating back to his days as the head coach at San Francisco — the Hawkeyes broke their opponent’s backcourt pressure and found Alvaro Folgueiras open for a corner three that would set the game’s final score.

Florida has one final shot at keeping its hopes of repeating as national champions alive, but Xaivian Lee’s drive to the basket was cut off and his attempted pass to Thomas Haugh deflected, allowing the final ticks of the clock to come off.

The loss, which was UF’s first tournament defeat in the state of Florida in 23 years, added Florida to the list of reigning national champions that have struggled in March Madness. Since 2007, only one reigning champ has advanced even to the Sweet 16 — UConn, which went back-to-back in 2023 and 2024.

On the flip side, it took Ben McCollum just one season to get Iowa to the promised land Hawkeye fans have been begging to see since the start of the century. After years and years of stellar regular seasons and postseason disappointments under Fran McCaffery (now the head coach at Penn), McCollum has Iowa in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.

2. (5) St. John’s 67, (4) Kansas 65 (East)

Speaking of teams that had not been to the Sweet 16 since 1999 …

St. John’s punched its ticket to the second weekend for the first time this century thanks to Dylan “Bells” Darling, who took advantage of some less than stellar Kansas defense to rip the Jayhawks’ heart out at the horn.

The finish was tremendous, but the preceding 39 minutes and 58 seconds — while always competitive — were at times tough to watch.

St. John’s played from ahead for nearly the entirety of the afternoon, carrying a 34-26 lead into halftime despite shooting just 28.9 percent from the field. The Johnnies were aided by 12 points off nine first half turnovers by KU. The Jayhawks would finish the game with 16 giveaways.

Despite shooting 36% from the field, 31% from three and 55% from the free-throw line, St. John’s advanced thanks to stellar defense and 11 offensive rebounds, a combination that helped them to attempt 15 more field goals than their opponents.

“This was the final for me, to get St. John’s to the next level,” Pitino said after the game “And we’re not done yet. We still have a lot in our tank.”

3. (6) Tennessee 79, (3) Virginia 72 (Midwest)

This was your classic “game was closer and better than the final score would indicate” tournament contest.

The team’s exchanged big shots late in the second half until Virginia strung together a handful of really disappointing offensive possessions together in the game’s final two minutes, ultimately sealing its fate.

Virginia’s Jacari White, who had air-balled two potential game-tying shots two possessions earlier, had one more chance to tie the game in the final minute, but he missed a contested layup. The rebound of the missed shot was batted out-of-bounds, with a lengthy review concluding that UVA’s Dallin Hall had touched it last. After the game, Hall confirmed that the ball had grazed his finger tip.

“I knew it hit me, barely,” he said. “Unfortunately, it worked out the way it did. It was a super-fast play, but there was a lot of opportunities, and it never comes down to the one play.”

Tennessee put the game away at the free-throw line and punched its ticket to a fourth straight Sweet 16 appearance. The Vols are, once again, two wins away from that long-awaited first trip to the Final Four.

According to the TNT broadcast, UT became the first team since the tournament expanded in 1985 to play two teams with 30 or more wins in its first two games of the NCAA Tournament. Nor problem for Rick Barnes and company.

3 teams that won it best

1. Alabama

It wasn’t ideal for fans watching from home to have the last game of the weekend turn into a complete laugher, but you can’t fault ‘Bama for that. The Crimson Tide went absolutely nuts from the outside on their way to a 90-65 romp over Texas Tech in a 4/5 matchup in the Midwest.

Alabama, which had been to the Sweet 16 just eight times in program history when it hired head coach Nate Oats, is now headed to the second weekend for a fourth consecutive year.

2. Iowa State

Playing without All-American Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State struggled in the first half of its 2/7 matchup with Kentucky. They fell behind by 11 early before slowly working their way out of that hole and taking a 1-point lead into the break thanks to a Nate Heise triple just before the buzzer.

The Cyclones flipped the proverbial switch in the second half, ramping up the defensive pressure to force UK into 20 turnovers, the most in its two seasons under head coach Mark Pope. Tamin Lipsey, who finished with 26 points, 10 assists and five steals, then got it going on the other end to turn a game that had looked like it could go either way into a laugher.

All eyes in Ames will now turn to Jefferson, whose status is up in the air for Friday night’s Sweet 16 matchup against Tennessee.

3. Iowa

Since its last trip to the Sweet 16 in 1999, Iowa had 10 cracks at getting back to the second weekend before this season. There was the stunning first round loss to 14th-seeded Northwestern State in 2006, the disappointing beatdown at the hands of Oregon when playing as a 2-seed in 2021, and so forth and so on.

Now, in year one of its new era under Ben McCollum, the Hawkeyes have finally gotten the second NCAA Tournament win, and they did it by becoming just the ninth No. 9 seed in tournament history to upset a 1-seed.

The 3 Biggest Disappointments

1. Florida

Not only did the Gators lose their shot at a repeat, but they became the first No. 1 seed to not make it out of the tournament’s opening weekend since 2023, when Purdue was stunned by Fairleigh Dickinson in the opening round and Kansas was upset by 8-seed Arkansas in round two.

2. Virginia

The Cavaliers were competitive, but when you’re a 3-seed losing to a 6 in a mostly chalky tournament, you’re going to find yourself on this list.

3. UCLA

Tyler Bilodeau not playing was a crusher, but UCLA finds itself in the third spot mostly because they let down CERTAIN PEOPLE who hyped the Bruins up as a Final Four pick for a SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR despite looking like a TOTAL IDIOT for doing the exact same thing 12 months ago.

Don’t dare me to do it again next year.

3 Day 4 Cheers

1. Ben McCollum

A year ago, Iowa finally made the always uncomfortable decision to move on from a head coach who was consistently stellar in the regular season but completely unable to get the job done in the postseason.

We’re still early on in the evaluation period, but the early returns indicate that they nailed the hire.

Despite being in his first year as a power conference head coach, McCollum was not going to back down from a guy on the other sideline who just cut down the nets a little less than a year ago.

Safe to say the man earned a top tier locker room celly.

2. Dylan Darling defying the laws of physics

This is absolutely wild.

3. The Big Ten

After being labeled by some as a perpetual March Madness underachiever, the Big Ten is having a moment right now.

Not only is the league sending six teams to the tournament’s second weekend (with a 13-3 overall record), but its seven wins of 20 points or more are already the most by any one conference in tournament history.

Will any of this matter if the league doesn’t finally break through and have one of its teams win a national championship for the first time since 2000? Probably, but for now it’s pretty cool.

4. Rick Pitino

With the win over Kansas on Sunday, Rick Pitino became just the third coach in college basketball history to reach the Sweet 16 in five difference decades.

The man’s been here and done this before. No reason to act like he hasn’t, even after a buzzer-beater.

The Rickdemption Story (TM) can reach a new level if the Red Storm are able to upset No. 1 overall seed Duke next week.

5. The Dan Hurley/Mick Cronin scream off

UConn pulled away late to make the final minutes uneventful, but at least we got this:

At least we got this.

5 Day 4 Jeers

1. The complete absence of Cinderella

The narrative isn’t going away, folks.

The 16 teams remaining are all from one of the sport’s five power conferences.

The only other time in the expanded tournament era when that’s happened? Last year.

2. The cheap shots in Florida/Iowa

This was as chippy and contentious a first weekend game as we’ve seen in some time.

Observe:

But it wasn’t all Florida.

The game’s most tense moment came during a jump ball between Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras and Florida’s Alex Condon, where Folguerias appeared to take a swing.

Both players were assessed technical fouls, and Folguerias, who would go on to make the game-winning shot, was not ejected. Florida head coach Todd Golden said after the game that the officials told him Folguerias wasn’t ejected because the punch he threw did not land.

3. The ACC outside of Duke

For the 47th consecutive year, the ACC has at least one team in the Sweet 16. For the second consecutive year, that streak is still alive because of Duke and only Duke.

Eight teams from the ACC were included in this year’s field, twice as many as a season ago. Seven of them are already home for the rest of March.

It was a nice step in the right direction for the conference this season, but the last six days have shown that there’s still a gap the league needs to make up.

4. Kansas and Kentucky

It was a disappointing year and a disappointing tournament for two of the bluest bloods in the sport, and unfortunately for both programs, that’s becoming something of a trend.

As if the losses weren’t bad enough, after Kansas’s game Bill Self wouldn’t commit to returning for next season, and after Kentucky’s game Iowa State had a player say the Cyclones knew the Wildcats would quit in the second half.

Woof.

5. Malik Reneau having to wait in a concession stand line after Miami’s loss to Purdue

The First Team All-ACC performer had just poured his heart out during the postgame press conference. Could we not have sent someone else to go get him a chicken strip basket?

Shameful.

All Day-4 Team

Fletcher Loyer, Purdue

Purdue’s favorite love/hate relationship player is back in the good graces of everyone in West Lafayette after going 4-for-4 from three and scoring a game-high 24 points in Purdue’s win over Missouri.

Alex Karaban, UConn

Yes, Tarris Reed became the first player with at least 40 points and 40 rebounds in the opening weekend of an NCAA Tournament since Tim Duncan in 1997, but Karaban was the man for the Huskies on Sunday, hitting four triples and scoring a game-high 27 points.

Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State

With Joshua Jefferson out, Lipsey had to step up and shoulder the scoring load for the Cyclones against Kentucky. He did that and more, finishing with 25 points, 10 assists and five steals.

Alex Condon, Florida

The big man was awesome in what may have been his final game for Florida, finishing with 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

Latrell Wrightsell, Alabama

Wrightsell led Alabama’s outside onslaught, hitting 6-of-9 from deep on his way to a 24-point performance.

3 Best Day 4 Dunks

Once again, the Friday/Sunday dunkers were just no match for the Thursday/Saturday dunkers.

1. Ernest Udeh, Miami

More about the play than the dunk, but this was cool.

2. J,P. Estrella, Tennessee

3. Johann Grunloh, Virginia

3 Best Day 4 Images

1. Tough night to be a Red Raider

2. Orange crush

3. Brayden Burries buckets

5 Notable Quotes From Day 4

1. “”I’ll get back, get with family, visit and see what’s going on. I love what I do. I need to be able to do it where I’m feeling good and healthy to do it fairly well. I’ll get back home, and it’ll all be discussed. I love what I do. I wanna feel good while I’m doing it, though” —Kansas head coach Bill Self

2. “If you’re a tough dude, this is a good spot for you. If you like yourself way too much, this is probably not the spot for you. We just try to recruit tough dudes that want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.” —Iowa head coach Ben McCollum

3. “You win some. You lose some. I’m hoping we get Duke at the buzzer next to make up for that Christian Laettner shot.” —St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino

4. “I think that parity is great for the game, but things change. I think once finances become part of it, there’s gonna be a breaking point for some of the lesser programs that just don’t have the finances. And that’s just an obvious statement.” —Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd

5. “I will die for this school. I love this place.” —Alabama guard Houston Mallette

Full Sweet 16 schedule for 2026 men’s NCAA tournament

Get hydrated, get some sleep, check in with the family, and we’ll meet back here on Thursday.