***Official 2026 NCAA Tournament Thread***

[clonedude]

Hey, btw…. were there any Iowa fans there last night besides that idiot in the Hawkeye helmet that his mommy knitted for him? The place was entirely red.

Even Iowa fans don’t believe in this team yet I guess? Still a women’s field hockey university I guess?

 

[GoSTATE71]

Also, Houston was ass last night

Illinois is a strong team but that performance was abysmal. You literally got to play a Sweet 16 game in your own city and totally crapped the bed

 

[Letterkenny]

At this point it all comes does to matchups and shooting the ball well. EIU has had favorable matchups except for the Florida game, which they overcome by rebounding the ball well and hitting shots from the outside. Houston struggled last night shooting the ball, and that ended their season. If ISU can continue to play defense and make 10 3 pointers or so, we will be fine tonight, go 4 of 25 from behind the arc and ISU will be going home. Tennessee does not protect the ball well, let's hope that trend continues and we can turn them over 15 ro 20 times.

I'm hoping we got through our bad shooting stretch in that first half against Kentucky.

 

[Kinch]

Sean Miller lost on a colossal gamble by taking his big out on Purdues last possession. Said he wanted to avoid a ball screen he knew would happen. This is why you practice all summer for situations like that one. I think he is a good coach, but Texas will make a huge mistake by pulling a Kansas State and give him a huge contract based on three games.

 

[awd4cy]

To be fair, TJ's first two sweet 16 appearances we ran into a couple of the hottest teams in the country. It will always be about matchups and Iowa got a couple that really favored how they want to play.

Didn’t both Miami and Illinois lose right after playing us?

 

[Shawker]

Hey, btw…. were there any Iowa fans there last night besides that idiot in the Hawkeye helmet that his mommy knitted for him? The place was entirely red.

Even Iowa fans don’t believe in this team yet I guess? Still a women’s field hockey university I guess?

Nebraska fans had a 24 hour head start on buying tickets and they'd quite literally never been there before.

 

[Kinch]

Nebraska fans had a 24 hour head start on buying tickets and they'd quite literally never been there before.

Which means tavern Hoks had no faith in their boys.

 

[FerShizzle]

Yeah which makes me wonder if Tugler stays for a reset.
I wouldnt be shocked if Will Wade throws a bag at him, which he could do before it was "legal."

Tugler would demand some dollars on the NIL market. His defense and rebounding is plug and play almost anywhere.

 

[iahawks]

Hey, btw…. were there any Iowa fans there last night besides that idiot in the Hawkeye helmet that his mommy knitted for him? The place was entirely red.

Even Iowa fans don’t believe in this team yet I guess? Still a women’s field hockey university I guess?

The other teams had a day head start to buy tickets and Houston fans probably got a lot of tickets. Hoping Iowa fans can be about 30% for tomorrow. Illinois will have a lot of fans there.

 

[JD720]

Nebraska fans had a 24 hour head start on buying tickets and they'd quite literally never been there before.

Plus, their bowl travel funds have been accruing interest for years. Plenty of money to spend.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Illinois is a strong team but that performance was abysmal. You literally got to play a Sweet 16 game in your own city and totally crapped the bed

They just overachieved most of the year. Also went unnoticed, but they played a pretty soft non con as well. Sampson got a lot of mileage out of a bunch of guys that just didn't fit together real great for whatever reason

 

[rosshm16]

Houston was 364th (out of 365 teams) in the average distance of their two-point shot attempts, 8.3 feet. That's really long. For comparison, we are #101 at 5.5 feet which was #1 in the Big 12, Iowa is #66 with 5.2 feet, Saint Louis was #1 in NCAA D1 with 3.8 feet, and only one other team had an average over 8.0 feet.

Their offense lived a bit of a charmed life this year making long two's.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Didn’t both Miami and Illinois lose right after playing us?

Correct. I don't remember a lot about that Miami team, but in Illinois case it was that a couple of guys had really great tournament runs relative to their career averages -- Domask and Shannon -- and we didn't have anyone to match up with their stretch 4/5, the kid who ended up getting a bag from Tang the next year. Domask was a matchup nightmare too, he was a big physical guard that had the booty ball thing down to a science at that point in the season. They ended up getting trucked by UCONN who also would've trucked us and trucked pretty much everyone they played that year.

 

[rosshm16]

They just overachieved most of the year. Also went unnoticed, but they played a pretty soft non con as well. Sampson got a lot of mileage out of a bunch of guys that just didn't fit together real great for whatever reason

Uzan wasn't as good this year, he was a dog/demon last year but was way less efficient this year:

2025: shot 45/43/78%
2026: shot 38/34/73%

I think he played off the ball a lot more with Flemings on the floor.

 

[Kinch]

Probably the stupidest excuse Tavern Hoks fans made is that Cornhuskers had a 24 hour head start. You wonder if that is what they tell their mom when they introduce her to their girlfriend.

 

[Bigman38]

Sean Miller lost on a colossal gamble by taking his big out on Purdues last possession. Said he wanted to avoid a ball screen he knew would happen. This is why you practice all summer for situations like that one. I think he is a good coach, but Texas will make a huge mistake by pulling a Kansas State and give him a huge contract based on three games.

The clip from the postgame presser is going around a big this morning. It's worth a watch, agree or disagree, he explains it pretty thoroughly.

 

[madguy30]

The had to play defending champ Florida in Tampa, that wasn’t an easy path. Got a break with Nebraska sweet 16 I suppose but I wouldn’t say it was cake.

That 'defending champ' Florida was not the same roster as last season. Just because they won the title last year doesn't mean they were as good this year.

Clemson was also really just not that good.

Nebraska was pretty good but didn't look to defend very well last night and had no inside game. Definitely ooked like Hoiball.

 

[not-the-manager]

I've seen a lot of people twisting themselves into knots trying to put down Iowa being in the Elite 8. Go back a couple weeks in some of these threads, and there were people saying they would rather face Duke or Michigan than Florida.

Do I wish Iowa had lost in the first round, yes. Do I worry about ISU losing tonight, and the season being over, yes. Do I care about Iowa making it farther in the bracket, no (as long as they don't win a championship).

The last 15 seasons, ISU has made more NCAA's, and usually lasted longer once there. The world is not ending because Iowa got hot at the right time. So did the Cyclones.

Yes. This is the first season since 1954 that none of Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, or UCLA made the second weekend. Plenty of teams make great runs, but there are ~10 programs that have truly sustained success, which is kind of crazy and shows how unpredictable the tournament is, or at least used to be. Good for Iowa, but all the "Now just put some money into it and we'll be even better!" talk is an oversimplified way of thinking belied by history. They may certainly make the tournament every year and win some games, but there just haven't been many programs that have had team after team make deep runs

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Didn’t both Miami and Illinois lose right after playing us?

Correct. I don't remember a lot about that Miami team, but in Illinois case it was that a couple of guys had really great tournament runs relative to their career averages -- Domask and Shannon -- and we didn't have anyone to match up with their stretch 4/5, the kid who ended up getting a bag from Tang the next year. Domask was a matchup nightmare too, he was a big physical guard that had the booty ball thing down to a science at that point in the season. They ended up getting trucked by UCONN who also would've trucked us and trucked pretty much everyone they played that year.

Yes they both lost in the Elite 8 but both squads were playing peak basketball when we met up with them.

 

[Kinch]

The clip from the postgame presser is going around a big this morning. It's worth a watch, agree or disagree, he explains it pretty thoroughly.

My guess is when Painter saw that Miller was going to make that defensive substitution he may have told Smith you don't even have to make this, just get a good bounce of the rim.