2026 March Madness scores, winners, losers: Big Ten shines, ACC falls flat

The Big Ten has the goal within reach as the conference looks to win its first national championship since Michigan State won it all in 2000. With six teams advancing to the Sweet 16, the conference will have several teams with solid chances of reaching the Final Four after missing last season.

At least one Big Ten team is guaranteed to reach the Elite Eight. Indeed, No. 4 seed Nebraska and No. 9 seed Iowa will face off in the Sweet 16 as part of a South Region that also includes No. 3 seed Illinois. This is the first time since 2018 and only the third time that three teams from the same conference have qualified for the Sweet 16 within the same region.

The Hawkeyes are unequivocally the Big Ten’s most surprising representative in the Sweet 16 after toppling No. 1 seed Florida 73-72 on Sunday. Michigan, the Midwest’s No. 1 seed, appears to be the Big Ten’s leading title contender, but the Wolverines have plenty of company as the league seeks a breakthrough in basketball to go along with its three straight football titles.

Things are much less rosy for the ACC, which saw only one of its eight NCAA Tournament teams survive the weekend. That team was No. 1 seed Duke, who will now experience the obvious displeasure of playing No. 5 seed St. John’s in the Sweet 16 after the Red Storm pulled out a thrilling win over Kansas.

Here are the winners and losers from Sunday’s second round.

Winner: Epic Big Ten Day

Six of the Sweet 16 teams are from the Big Ten. Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Iowa are still alive heading into the second weekend. It is tied for second among all conferences behind the 2025 SEC, which sent seven teams to the Sweet 16. Guard play in the Big Ten has been particularly excellent this season, which may explain the large increase in Sweet 16 entries.

• Purdue’s Braden Smith is the all-time assists leader.
• Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr. just had a game-high 16 assists, the most in MSU history, surpassing senior Magic Johnson.
• Iowa point guard Bennett Stirtz is a potential first-round pick.
• Illinois point guard Keaton Wagler is a potential lottery pick.
• Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau had a much better year than many expected.

You understand.

No league posted a higher effective winning percentage than the Big Ten this year, which could also be directly attributed to that league’s field generals. It appeared in March. –Isaac Trotter

Loser: ACC down to one team

If you use NCAA Tournament success as your primary metric, the ACC can’t claim improvement this year. Miami’s 79-69 loss to Purdue and Virginia’s 79-72 loss to Tennessee on Sunday left No. 1 seed Duke as the only team in the league to advance to the Sweet 16.

If you zoom out, the ACC has made strides in the 2025-2026 season to restore its national relevance after placing just four of its 18 teams out of 68 last year. With eight teams participating in this year’s tournament and an ever-changing coaching roster, the conference is on a good trajectory. But that progress wasn’t evident in the 2026 NCAA Tournament results. –David Cobb

Winner: Dylan Darling the unlikely hero

Kansas didn’t seem too concerned about being beaten off the dribble by Dylan Darling, St. John’s point guard on final possession of the settlement. Maybe the Jayhawks should have devoted a little more attention to stopping the ball. Darling drove straight to the basket and scored a game-winning goal at the buzzer, lifting the No. 5 seed Red Storm to a 67-65 victory over No. 4 seed Kansas. Darling assessed KU’s Elmarko Jackson’s 1-on-1 defense and decided to take the game into his own hands, even though he had been held scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting up to that point. No one will remember what Darling did for the first 39 minutes and 56 seconds of the game. But they’ll certainly remember what he did to send St. John’s to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. -Cobb

Winner: Ben McCollum’s masterpiece

Iowa is heading to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 after beating top-seeded Florida 73-72. Iowa used a barrage of sharp faceoff chases to turn Florida’s defense into a pretzel, and Alvaro Folgueiras hit the game-winning three-pointer with less than five seconds remaining. Ben McCollum has now won more than 80% of his matches (449-107) during his career. Indiana, Maryland and Minnesota were the other Big Ten teams involved in the 2025 coaching carousel, but it’s clear that Iowa was the big winner with McCollum’s coup.

Florida’s team was much more talented than Iowa’s, but the Hawkeyes were the better team on Sunday. – Trotter

Loser: Florida’s title repeat hopes crash and burn

Todd Golden’s bid for a national championship repeat failed. The Gators lost 73-72 to No. 9 seed Iowa, and hot spots aren’t hard to find. Florida’s usually reliable interior defense was gashed. Iowa shot over 70% from 2 against Florida today. No team had ever done that against Golden in its 144 games in Gainesville. Iowa sliced ​​and diced one of the sport’s elite rim defenses.

Florida simply hasn’t had enough of Rueben Chinyelu, who has struggled for long stretches. Alex Condon delivered 21 points but struggled on defense. Xaivian Lee scored 17 points and three big 3-pointers, but blundered in the final seconds by not taking the potential game-winning layup at the horn.

Florida won the SEC. This earned him first place. This season is far from a failure, but the ending is heartbreaking. — Trotter

Winner: Iowa State DNA shines clearly

Iowa State played like it was backed into a corner without Joshua Jefferson. Even when offense was hard to come by in the first half and jumpers were going bad, Iowa State dug deep using defense, defense and more defense. The Cyclones blew up every Kentucky play in the second half of their blowout victory, 82-63. Iowa State forced 20 Kentucky turnovers and held the Wildcats to just 0.91 points per possession. – Trotter

Loser: Kentucky’s final defeat sums up its entire season

Less than 48 hours after Kentucky beat Santa Clara in thrilling fashion to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, it fell flat against No. 2 seed Iowa State. The irony of this sequence is that it is a perfect microcosm of Kentucky’s season as a whole: a spectacular victory followed by a disappointing loss. Kentucky was not a favorite in this game against Iowa State; However, Iowa State was without star player Joshua Jefferson after he injured his ankle in the first round against Tennessee State. Kentucky couldn’t overcome its turnovers, and now major question marks surround the program heading into the offseason.

THE The Wildcats were one of the most disappointing teams

in the sport after high preseason expectations centered on a roster worth more than $20 million. A second-round loss is not the norm for Kentucky. – Salerno

Winner: Purdue’s double attack

Defending Purdue was a pick-your-poison game for Miami on Sunday as the Boilermakers escaped with a 79-69 victory. The Boilermakers shot 53.2% from the floor as the duo of Fletcher Loyer and CJ Cox combined to drill 7 of 8 3-pointers. Cox exploded for three 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the first half as the Boilermakers erased a 7-point deficit.

With Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff wreaking havoc inside with a combined 27 points for the Boilermakers and quality shooters surrounding them on the perimeter, Purdue won what seemed like a never-ending beauty series. Star point guard Braden Smith finished just 3 of 12 from the floor, but that didn’t matter as he dished out eight assists to a balanced group of teammates who handled the scoring load. -Cobb

Winner: Tennessee advances to fourth consecutive Sweet 16

Tennessee was in an Elite Eight before Rick Barnes arrived for the 2015-16 season. Now, the Volunteers, seeded No. 6, are one victory away from winning a third consecutive season. Sunday’s 79-72 victory over No. 3 seed Virginia sent the Volunteers to the Sweet 16 for a fourth straight season, marking an unprecedented run of success for Barnes and the Tennessee program. Even during the height of Barnes’ 17-year tenure at Texas, the Longhorns never reached the second weekend of the Big Dance in four straight seasons. Likewise, Tennessee never had a string of tournament success like this under Bruce Pearl. The Barnes-Tennessee duo, now in its 11th season, has gone better than anyone could have imagined as both needed a revitalization in 2015. -Cobb