On Sunday, the No. 1 seed Florida Gators fell to the No. 9-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in one of the major upsets of the event so far. This game was a much closer affair for the SEC school than their first Big Dance encounter against Prairie View on Friday, which they won with ease, 114-55. On Sunday, the Big Ten school won by just one point, 73-72.
The game was not only a close affair, but a heated one too. During a timeout in the first half, the benches of both teams, led by their coaches, were at each other. The incident unfolded shortly after an on-court incident between Florida’s Alex Condon and Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras.
Both coaches hurled insults at each other. Iowa’s Ben McCollum had to be physically restrained from coming to blows with Florida’s Todd Golden.
Tavion Banks was the leading scorer for the Hawkeyes this Sunday, scoring 20 points. He wasn’t the game’s top scorer, as Florida’s Alex Condon had 21 points. The Gators also had the second-highest scorer in the game in Thomas Haugh, who racked up 19 points. However, that wasn’t enough to take them to the Sweet 16.
Iowa will now advance to play No. 4 seed Nebraska on Thursday.
Ben McCollum on the In-Game Fight Between Hawkeyes and Gators in March Madness Round 2
Shortly after the first half brawl between the Gators and the Hawkeyes, Iowa coach Ben McCollum spoke about it in an interview. It seems that he didn’t give much thought to it.
“They were just going for the ball, and then everybody got all sensitive. Their people got sensitive. It was like we’re just trying to play ball. It was whatever. We’ll compete, we’ll fight, we’ll see what happens,” McCollum said.
In the end, Iowa did what their coach asked of them, and they managed to snatch an upset over one of the favorites for the South Region. This was a disappointing end to the Gators’ season.
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