Winners and Losers of the Men's 2026 NCAA Tournament Thursday Sweet 16

After a three-day hiatus, the 2026 men's NCAA tournament resumed with quite the one-two punch of games to open the Sweet 16.

Even though the Purdue-Texas game began 20 minutes before the Iowa-Nebraska game, they ended almost simultaneously, and in dramatic fashion, leaving us all to frantically switch back and forth on the volume.

After that, we almost needed the Arizona blowout of Arkansas and Illinois 10-point win over Houston, just to get our collective pulse back under control.

In addition to the actual victors (Arizona, Illinois, Iowa and Purdue) and actual defeateds, we've put together a list of the biggest winners and losers from Thursday's action.

Winner: Iowa's Bench vs. Nebraska

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Iowa's Alvaro Folgueiras

Alvaro Folgueiras had already been etched into Iowa history with the game-winning triple that he hit in the second round upset of Florida, but his incredible tournament continued in earnest in Thursday's 77-71 victory over conference rival Nebraska.

After going for 14 points in each of the Hawkeyes' first two games, he kicked it up a notch for 16 in the Sweet 16. Five of those points came in the final minute, as he delivered a pair of dunks that essentially knocked the Cornhuskers out cold.

Folgueiras wasn't even Iowa's most valuable bench player in this one, though.

That honor goes to freshman Tate Sage, who set a new career high in both points (19) and rebounds (eight) while also tying his previous best mark in assists (three).

Sage hit the three-pointer at the end of the first half that gave the Hawkeyes a bit of momentum heading into the locker room. He also hit a dagger of a corner three to put Iowa up by six with about 80 seconds remaining. And he found a cutting Folgueiras for one of the aforementioned late dunks.

All told, that duo went for 35 points (on 17 field-goal attempts), 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals on a night where starters Cam Manyawu and Tavion Banks were rendered ineffective.

Loser: Nebraska's Penalty Kill Defense

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Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg

With 58 seconds remaining in regulation, Nebraska's Braden Frager drained a three-pointer to cut the deficit from six to three. Fred Hoiberg immediately called a timeout to make sure everyone was on the same page about what they were going to do on defense in order to get the ball back with a chance to tie.

But when play resumed, only four Cornhuskers took the floor.

It was a bold strategy, Cotton, and it didn't work out for them.

Cael Combs threw the inbounds pass the length of the floor to a wide-open Alvaro Folgueiras, who not only made the dunk, but converted the three-point play after getting fouled by a scrambling Berke Buyuktuncel.

It's unclear who was to blame for the blunder, but it was Rienk Mast who noticed from the bench that they were short-handed and started running to the scorer's table.

However, he was far too late, and the result was a back-breaking moment on par with Chris Webber's infamous timeout call in the 1993 national championship game. (Coincidentally enough, that game also ended with a final score of 77-71.)

Winner: TKR at the Last Second

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Trey Kaufman-Renn

Purdue got all it could handle from what had been the only double-digit seed remaining in the field.

But those four senior Boilermakers weren't about to let this turn into another chapter of this program's shortcomings in March.

Fletcher Loyer was the start of the second-round win over Miami (FL), and he had another solid showing against Texas, shooting 4-for-8 from distance en route to 18 points.

Braden Smith was a bit light on the assists for a change, managing just five dimes after averaging 9.5 over his previous 14 games. However, he scored 10 of his 16 points in the final 12 minutes, including a big layup in the final minute.

Oscar Cluff battled tooth and nail with Matas Vokietaitis and Camden Heide before ultimately fouling out in the closing seconds, but he went for 11 points and had four offensive rebounds which led directly to eight Purdue points.

The biggest star, though, was Trey Kaufman-Renn, who finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.

After starting 7-for-7 from the field, TKR had been pretty quiet for most of the second half. In the 14 minutes prior to the game-deciding possession, he missed a pair of layups, scored two points on free throws and grabbed just one rebound. But he was just lying in wait for his big moment, tipping in Smith's missed shot with less than one second remaining in a tie game.

It wasn't quite a buzzer-beater, but it might as well have been. Jordan Pope's heave at the buzzer didn't even get off in time, as Purdue advances to the Elite Eight for the second time in three years.

Loser: Texas, in Spite of Tramon Mark's Best, Injured Efforts

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Even a badly rolled ankle wasn't going to slow down Tramon Mark on Thursday night.

The sixth-year senior entered the Sweet 16 with 1,981 career points. And on a three-point attempt that would have brought him north of 2,000, he landed on Fletcher Loyer's foot and went down in a heap. He did stay in the game, made two of the ensuing three free throws and got to that 2,000-point plateau, but he had to come out less than a minute later to get his ankle taped.

He was clearly in pain the rest of the way, limping up and down the court more often than not.

When the ball was in his hands, though, it seemed to block out that pain for a few seconds, as he drained his next four field-goal attempts to finish with a game-high 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting.

Also playing through pain for Texas was Jordan Pope, who revealed after the game that he was playing on a broken foot suffered in the second-round win over Gonzaga. He still played 33 minutes and shot 4-for-9 from three-point range.

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, those veteran leaders leaving it all on the floor wasn't quite enough to keep the miracle run alive.

Winner: The "Arizona Ass-Kicking Invitational"

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Arizona's Koa Peat

Before Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale were on the call for the First Four showdown between Texas and NC State, Barkley said, "This isn't March Madness. This is a Arizona ass-kicking invitational."

Well, Arkansas sure got kicked around by Arizona in San Jose.

As was the consensus expectation heading into the game, the Razorbacks were helpless on defense against the big, bad Wildcats.

In storming out to a 54-43 halftime lead, Arizona shot 18-for-28 from the field, 3-for-4 from distance and 15-for-17 from the free-throw line. And the 'Cats didn't exactly relent from there.

All five starters as well as reserve big man Tobe Awaka went for at least 14 points apiece. Add Anthony Dell'Orso to the mix and each member of the seven-man rotation shot at least 50 percent from the field, as Arizona eclipsed 100 points with more than five minutes remaining in regulation.

It was a bloodbath on par with what Florida did to this Arkansas defense one month ago in a 111-77 rout.

Up next for Arizona? A Purdue team with a similar pedigree of elite offense and a defense that struggled mightily to stop anything toward the end of the regular season.

The Boilermakers do play much slower than Arkansas, so maybe don't expect another total north of the century mark. But this freight train could be on its way to Indianapolis.

Loser: Houston's Shot-Making

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Over the past six seasons, Houston has been the best team in men's college basketball.

As far as Torvik data is concerned, that's a fact which is not even open to debate.

Year after year, though, the Achilles' heel on this Cougar machine has been those stretches of games where they cannot hit water in the ocean.

It buried them in a hurry in the 2021 Final Four loss to Baylor. They scored just 44 in their 2022 Sweet 16 loss to Villanova, and they weren't much better in the 54-51 loss to Duke in the 2024 Sweet 16. And in last year's national championship, they blew an 11-point lead midway through the second half thanks to a stretch in which they scored on one of 10 possessions.

Houston found a new low early in the second half against Illinois, though, allowing the Illini to go on a 17-0 run.

What had been a tie game quickly turned into a hole from which the Cougars couldn't possibly escape. Unable (or unwilling) to get to the rim, mid-range jumpers and three-pointers repeatedly missed their mark while Illinois couldn't be stopped.

Houston did eventually start scoring again. In fact, it scored more points in the final 11:30 (29) than it did in the first 28:30 (26). Still, the Cougars only got to 55, eliminated from the NCAA tournament with fewer than 60 points for the fourth time in six years.

Winner: The Big Ten

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As you've undoubtedly heard a few dozen times over the years, the Big Ten has not won a national championship in men's college basketball since Michigan State did so in 2000.

There have been plenty of close calls. 2002 Indiana, 2005 Illinois, 2007 Ohio State, 2009 Michigan State, 2013 Michigan, 2015 Wisconsin, 2018 Michigan and 2024 Purdue all played in the national championship. Seven other Big Ten teams have made Final Fours in the past quarter century. Yet, the drought continues.

With six Big Ten teams making the Sweet 16, though, the chances are about as good as ever.

And with three Big Ten teams already advancing to the Elite Eight, there's still a dream scenario in which the Final Four in Indianapolis is simply a Big Ten party.

We already know the representative from the South Regional will be a Big Ten team, as it'll be Iowa and Illinois squaring off in the first game on Saturday.

In the West, Purdue will surely be the underdog in that clash with Arizona, but anything's possible.

Now, we wait to see what happens on Friday, with Michigan still the clear favorite to come out of the Midwest Regional, while Michigan State reasonably could be the survivor in that East extravaganza.

Illinois knocking off Houston in Houston was the big one, though.

The Illini didn't shoot it at anything close to their usual standard of excellence, but they out-toughed Houston, defending well without fouling and owning the glass. They looked the part of a title contender in that game to set up a clash with the Hawkeyes.