2026 NCAA Tournament (Day 4)

Games I watched (some of):

(7) Miami 69-79 (2) Purdue

Miami did well to hang for a while, every time it felt like Purdue had finally finished them off, the Hurricanes would come roaring back. The game was a bit closer--certainly more tense--than the score would suggest. Purdue is a nice team but I don't see them as a champion, I can't imagine they'll go undefeated from here. 

(7) Kentucky 63-82 (2) Iowa State

UK started off hot but they weren't able to keep that going for very long. Iowa State is nice team, deceptively long at every position and feature of batch of pretty good shooters. I can see the Cyclones winning it all (just sayin').

(5) St. John's 67-65 (4) Kansas

What an ending! St. John's had a decent lead through most of the game, Kansas warmed up late, whittled the lead down to nothing with about 14 seconds left. Because KU had only committed 2 fouls (who the fuck only two fouls in an entire half of basketball?!?!?), they were able to run off most of the remaining time by just fouling over and over. But with 3 seconds left and no more fouls to give, St. John's was able to get loose up the middle straight to the basket for the layup at the buzzer. Beautiful! I was kinda lukewarm on both of these teams all season long but I think the Johnies are getting hot at the right time, if they can keep their 3-point shooting going, they can hang.

(6) Tennessee 79-72 (3) Virginia

I thought Tennessee was the better side throughout, but UVA came back late and really made it tense in the last few minutes. But UVA just didn't have the scoring to keep up and UT milked the lead to close out the game. Not a huge fan of UT, but they if they can get hot from outside, they'll be a tough out.

(9) Iowa 73-72 (1) Florida

I figured Florida would pummel Iowa, but I was intrigued when I noticed the Hawkeyes up by double digits at halftime. Florida floundered around for a little while into the 2nd half but then they found themselves and took control of the game. So--and I watched the rest of the game and I still don't know--how was Iowa even close enough to hit a late shot on them? I'm puzzled. It felt like with about 12 minutes to go, Florida righted the ship and had full control, but somehow Iowa hung around and with 5 seconds left they were only down by 2. This is the first real shocker of the tourney for me, I thought Florida was a shoo-in for the Elite 8 and I fully expected them to be in the mix at the end of the tourney. I watched it and I still don't understand how Iowa won, but they hustle and when they get hot, they've shown they can win.  

Games I caught on the scoreboard ticker:

(9) Utah State 66-78 (1) Arizona

Not exactly a thumping but it looked like the Wildcats were in control throughout.

(7) UCLA 57-73 (2) Connecticut

Back and forth for a while, then UConn finished them off, I take it.  

(5) Texas Tech 65-90 (4) Alabama

Hmmm....I thought Bama was a major upset possibility and I thought Tech was a pretty solid team that would probably finish off the Tide. But, dang, it looks like Bama just took it to 'em from the gitty.