Defending champion Florida eliminated from March Madness by tougher, more physical Iowa team

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A dominant frontcourt helped Florida earn another No. 1 seed and positioned the defending national champion Gators for a chance at a repeat.

They ran into a more physical team.

Ninth-seeded Iowa played tougher inside the paint and across the court, knocking No. 1 seed Florida out of the NCAA Tournament with a 73-72 victory on Sunday in the second round. The Gators became the first top seed eliminated from this year's March Madness, and the first since Xavier in 2018 to fall to a No. 9 seed.

“If their plan was to try to finish over our size at the rim, I would live with that any day of the week,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “That’s been a really bad formula for teams all year. We’ve been one of the best 2-point field goal defenses in America. We just didn’t to it tonight. Credit to them.

“I thought they were tough and physical and did a good job finishing around the rim and we did not. We did not do a good enough job preventing them from finishing it, but if that’s what they saw and they exploited it, then credit to them.”

Tavion Banks, who led Iowa with 20 points, said he knew the Hawkeyes could pull off an upset after reviewing Florida’s games.

“The physicality. We’re in two different conferences; we’re in the Big Ten, they’re in the SEC,” he said. “But I just know we’re more physical. And after just watching the film and just seeing what they were doing, I just knew that we had an opportunity to win the game.”

It came down to the final seconds after Florida rallied from a 12-point deficit and had a 72-70 lead with 8.9 seconds remaining. Golden wanted his team to foul to prevent a 3-pointer, but Bennett Stirtz broke through the full-court press and saw Alvaro Folgueiras wide open in the corner. Folgueiras nailed the 3.

Xaivian Lee drove hard to the basket but tried unsuccessfully to dish the ball to Thomas Haugh, and the Gators didn’t even get a final shot.

“I felt he stepped up, maybe I could have shot a floater or pull up or something,” Lee said. “I was going pretty fast, and I thought I had time for the dunk in, but I don’t know.”

Alex Condon led Florida with 21 points, Haugh had 19 and Lee added 17.

Rueben Chinyelu, who broke a school record with his 19th double-double of the season in a 59-point win over Prairie View on Friday night, was held to zero points and one rebound in 19 minutes.

“In the first half, I was just out of it,” Haugh said. “I just feel bad. I didn’t make any plays, didn’t do anything to help the team out to win the first half. But yeah, second half I thought we started to get in it. But they’re a good team, and they just played way harder than us and hit more shots and just made more plays in the end.”

Chinyelu, who had four fouls, only took one shot.

“We were not strong enough around the rim in the first half, nor were we able to get any deep post catches,” Golden said. “A lot of his opportunities around the glass as well, he had no offensive rebounds tonight. So I think a combination of that was the reason he was not as effective as normal.”

Florida finished 27-8, missing an opportunity to advance to the Sweet 16 and continue its quest for another title.

An emotional Haugh stayed down on the floor after failing to handle Lee’s pass at the end. Lee also was bent down in frustration.

“I’m going to remember this feeling for a while,” 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.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness