***Official 2026 NCAA Tournament Thread***

[cmhawks99]

The national media’s slobber fest on Iowa is starting out strong and insufferable this morning.

Yeah, it’s crazy. I can’t understand it… You’d think they’d know better than to celebrate an underdog beating the number one seed.. I mean they act like March madness was built on celebrating the underdog. It’s crazy ****…oh wait….

It’s funny you guys must have different TV sets than I do… I saw them say all kinds of awesome **** about Iowa State and their defense and how incredible their defense was and how great they played….

You might want to do a little research on stress and anger and hostility, and how it affects your life & your general overall health…

As for me, I can’t wait till Iowa State blows another SEC team out of the water.

You cats stay focused on Iowa

 

[Chizit]

Unbelievable. So apparently they actually wanted to foul on iowas last inbound. Even though they never had a defender within 5 feet of the ball and let stirtz catch it over their head.

So up 2, let’s foul and put one of the better ft shooting teams in the country on the line to tie it, and then only get the ball back with about 5 or 6 seconds to go full court to win it.

I guess the only silver lining in Iowa winning is this dumbass losing

 

[ClonerJams]

 

[SolarGarlic]

One thing I can't stand about our fanbase: We just advanced to the Sweet 16, and there's no thread on the upcoming matchup, and the top two threads are about firing Bill Fennelly and hating the Hawkeyes.

 

[jcf817]

One thing I can't stand about our fanbase: We just advanced to the Sweet 16, and there's no thread on the upcoming matchup, and the top two threads are about firing Bill Fennelly and hating the Hawkeyes.

1) we have a full 5 days to talk about the upcoming game
2) there is at least one thread discussing the matchup
3) discussing the Hawkeyes is relevant today and this week
4) people are capable of thinking about multiple things at the same time

 

[Big Daddy Kang]

One thing I can't stand about our fanbase: We just advanced to the Sweet 16, and there's no thread on the upcoming matchup, and the top two threads are about firing Bill Fennelly and hating the Hawkeyes.

That and the constant complaining about complainers.

 

[not-the-manager]

I'm impressed by how much better the Big Ten has gotten in the last five+ years. It was the best conference this season according to Evan Miyakawa. Now, Dusty May has a lot to do with both of those things—he not only stabilized but elevated Michigan, and their complete dominance from the start this season probably bolstered the metrics despite having some garbage at the bottom of the conference. Illinois under Brad Underwood has also ensured that the conference has four perennial top-20ish teams (Purdue, Michigan State). Personally, I don't care much about number of Sweet 16 teams, as the tournament is single-elimination and used to be more unpredictable. But even if we should put stock in it when it comes to comparing conferences, if the Big Ten title drought continues this season, then I think "We had over 1/3rd of the Sweet 16 teams" loses a lot of its heft

obligatory Williams & Blum comment that this should help the Big 12 if they do decide to market basketball rights separately

 

[BigJCy]

I've always liked Coach K....

 

[jdoggivjc]

I really don't understand the "experts" today when it comes to the Tenn-ISU predictions. In common opponents played this year, ISU is 5-1 with a +14 avg margin of victory, while Tenn is 2-4 with a +3.3 avg margin of victory (thanks to a 29 pt win against TSU)... so obviously Tenn is going to beat ISU on Friday "because Jefferson is questionable"... never mind they just got done obliterating UK, a team that beat Tenn twice this season.

I get transitive property doesn't work well in sports in instances, but compile them together and you start seeing trends. So the only thing I can imagine is these "experts" are completely ignoring everything they've seen in the tournament to this point and everything the stats are telling them and are just like "Well... Tenn is $EC so of course they're going to win."

 

[bluestarcyclone]

"Well... Tenn is $EC so of course they're going to win."

Yep. Basically the same experts that propagandized Florida into a 1 seed as some kind of inarguable truth when it probably should have been Houston in that last spot

 

[Cyhig]

One thing I can't stand about our fanbase: We just advanced to the Sweet 16, and there's no thread on the upcoming matchup, and the top two threads are about firing Bill Fennelly and hating the Hawkeyes.

Seems to me it means advancing to the sweet 16 isn’t special anymore. The program has reached the stage where it is expected

Kind of nice…

But I’m antsy each time the JJ injury thread is updated.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

I really don't understand the "experts" today when it comes to the Tenn-ISU predictions. In common opponents played this year, ISU is 5-1 with a +14 avg margin of victory, while Tenn is 2-4 with a +3.3 avg margin of victory (thanks to a 29 pt win against TSU)... so obviously Tenn is going to beat ISU on Friday "because Jefferson is questionable"... never mind they just got done obliterating UK, a team that beat Tenn twice this season.

I get transitive property doesn't work well in sports in instances, but compile them together and you start seeing trends. So the only thing I can imagine is these "experts" are completely ignoring everything they've seen in the tournament to this point and everything the stats are telling them and are just like "Well... Tenn is $EC so of course they're going to win."

I’m not sure who you are listening to but Tenn is regularly regarded as one of the worst teams left in the tourny and I don’t know anyone that isn’t an SEC shill that doesn’t think you will beat them pretty easily.

The path was always very nice/easy for ISU and even with the injury to JJ you won’t be seriously challenged till Michigan

 

[CyDude16]

One thing I can't stand about our fanbase: We just advanced to the Sweet 16, and there's no thread on the upcoming matchup, and the top two threads are about firing Bill Fennelly and hating the Hawkeyes.

There are actually a couple of threads about the upcoming matchup but okay lol

 

[CyDude16]

I've always liked Coach K....

It’s pretty crazy to think of the hypotheticals had we hired Coach K instead of Orr at that time.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

It’s pretty crazy to think of the hypotheticals had we hired Coach K instead of Orr at that time.

K had unlimited resources at Duke. He wouldn't have in Ames. That's where the hypothetical falls apart.

 

[awd4cy]

One thing I can't stand about our fanbase: We just advanced to the Sweet 16, and there's no thread on the upcoming matchup, and the top two threads are about firing Bill Fennelly and hating the Hawkeyes.

Miss the thread titled Virginia or Tennessee?

 

[clone52]

Unbelievable. So apparently they actually wanted to foul on iowas last inbound. Even though they never had a defender within 5 feet of the ball and let stirtz catch it over their head.

So up 2, let’s foul and put one of the better ft shooting teams in the country on the line to tie it, and then only get the ball back with about 5 or 6 seconds to go full court to win it.

I guess the only silver lining in Iowa winning is this dumbass losing

What was the point of their token zone press all game? To slow down the Hawkeyes?

 

[HoopsTournament]

Sweet Sixteen by Conference

• Big Ten 6
• SEC 4
• Big Twelve 3
• Big East 2
• ACC 1

 

[HoopsTournament]

Consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances

• Houston 7
• Alabama 4
• Tennessee 4
• Arizona 3
• Duke 3
• Purdue 3
• Arkansas 2
• Michigan 2
• Michigan State 2

 

[HoopsTournament]

Sweet Sixteen Droughts Snapped

• Nebraska Never
• Iowa 1999
• St. John’s 1999
• Texas 2023
• UConn 2024
• Illinois 2024
• Iowa State 2024