***Official 2026 NCAA Tournament Thread***

Arizona is in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2015 and the 12th time overall. They are 4-7 in the Elite Eight. Their last Elite Eight win was in 2001 vs Illinois. Arizona is 1-3 as a #1 seed in the Elite Eight.
With all the success Arizona has had, these stats are quite shocking
 
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Anyone else find it interesting that Iowa only sold about 75% of their tickets for all home games this season? And that’s tickets sold, not actual attendance

But after the last 7 days, suddenly Iowa fans care about men’s basketball?
 
I think you're being too hard on him relative to his role on this team. Mast has typically been a big part of the reason they win or lose this year. Same as today. He and Buyuktuncel went a combined 0/11 from 3 and 5/22.
Relative to his role on the team is part of the problem. When you have a PG essentially that isn’t a shooter, doesn’t score a ton, and doesn’t create tons of scoring opportunities for teammates, and he’s playing 35+ a game, you are baking in a weakness in your team.

He is a decent player but without a stud guard beside him that guard court is a weakness offensively.
 
Anyone else find it interesting that Iowa only sold about 75% of their tickets for all home games this season? And that’s tickets sold, not actual attendance

But after the last 7 days, suddenly Iowa fans care about men’s basketball?
A fun thought experiment, they can only keep 1…

These 3 tournament wins or the the entire CC 4 years.
 
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I still can't believe Iowa is in the Elite 8. What a nightmare their fans are gonna be. Houston losing to a Big Ten team also sucks. Hopefully Michigan and Michigan State both lose tomorrow.
It’s already bad. A lot of McCollum made an Elite 8 before TJ. Gotta win today, or I’m gonna have to just shutdown social media
 
I’ve got myself fully prepared for an ISU loss tonight, and then enjoying not watching another minute of this tournament.
I'm at the point of: we lost our All-American power forward three ******* minutes into the first game. Even if he plays in this tourney he's likely going to be pretty limited. Basketball is somewhat unique among team sports in the outsized influence that one single player has on making a bad team a good team or a good team a great team. Hard to expect to win much after the first round against a buy-game team under those circumstances.

I still think we win at least one more though! The guys are playing great right now, and Jeffer is a grinder/dog/demon. Unless it's still a "full stop" from the docs, I'd be surprised if he doesn't give it a go tonight.
 
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A fun thought experiment, they can only keep 1…

These 3 tournament wins or the the entire CC 4 years.
If I were them, entire 4 years of CC

Didn’t Iowa lose in their first big 10 tournament game to Ohio State? And was something like 3-7 in their 10 games heading into the NCAA tournament? It seems they simply got hot at the perfect time. That will be hard to replicate for future years IMO

Edit: in fact, if it wasn’t for this tourney run, Iowa’s season would had been largely viewed as a “meh” season. Amazing what 3 games can do to change perceived perception
 
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Only Alabama and UConn stand between an Elite 8 with 5 B1G Insufferable teams in it. Pulling for B1G teams is NEVER a good idea. OK, I'll stop. :)
 
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This team has been playing It’s best basketball over the last month. However, I wonder if there’s any “rust” to shake off so to speak after having a fairly long break

On the other hand, Tennessee is in the same boat
 

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