NCAA Tournament scores, winners and losers: Iowa's magical season, Purdue, Illinois, Arizona win in Sweet 16

A Purdue game-winner and an epic Iowa finish headlined Thursday's Sweet 16 action.

Isaac Trotter

Cameron Salerno

David Cobb

Mar 27, 2026

1:04 am ET

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6 min read

Getty Images

Oh, how sweet it is. The first stanza of Sweet 16 basketball delivered the absolute goods. Trey Kaufman-Renn's putback with less than a second to go propelled Purdue into the Elite Eight with a 79-77 win over Texas, and it came just moments after Iowa used a flurry to walk Nebraska down and send the Huskers home, 77-71, to book a trip to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987.

Illinois and Arizona will join 'em after dispatching Houston and Arkansas, respectively.

That's four down, four to go.

Let's dive into winners and losers from Thursday's slate.

Winner: The Ben McCollum hire for the ages

Once upon a time, Iowa had a legitimate decision to make between Ben McCollum or Darian DeVries to replace Fran McCaffery.

Take a bow, Beth Goetz.

McCollum was the A1 target, and McCollum just led No. 9 seed Iowa to the Elite Eight.

Is this real life? This year's March Madness doesn't have a Cinderella, but Iowa sure looks like it. This roster could cosplay as a mid-major outfit because it is. Nebraska's historic season just got felled at the hands of Robert Morris transfer Alvaro Folgueiras, three-star Drake commit Tate Sage and former Division II point guard Bennett Stirtz.

It's 40 minutes away from a Final Four, and McCollum may need an updated contract on his desk pronto. He's won 80% of his games for a reason. – Isaac Trotter

> Iowa scored 38 points off the bench tonight. The most its bench has scored against a high-major team all year.

Incredible, incredible stuff from Alvaro Folgueiras and Tate Sage pic.twitter.com/HGrfVfVdIe

— Isaac Trotter (@Isaac__Trotter) March 27, 2026

Winner: Illinois' defensive masterclass

Illinois is on the doorstep of its first Final Four since 2005, thanks to an unlikely source. The much-maligned Illinois defense rose to the occasion, holding Houston to just 0.90 points per possession in a 65-55 victory. Illinois coaxed the Coogs' offense into attempting a jumper on 59 of its 67 shots. That's a staggering number, even for a Houston club that entered Thursday with a dead-last rim rate among high-major teams. Illinois packed the paint, gobbled up space in the driving lanes and stayed home on elite snipers like Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan. It took Houston nearly 31 minutes to score just 30 points. That type of defense can take Illinois much farther than just the Elite Eight. – Trotter

Loser: Nebraska's run ends in frustration

Nebraska had never won an NCAA Tournament game before last week, so Cornhuskers fans shouldn't be too frustrated about a Sweet 16 exit. But the circumstances will irk them. It wasn't reigning national champion Florida who eliminated Nebraska, which would have been a less frustrating potential outcome had the No. 1 seed Gators had survived the first weekend. Rather, it was Big Ten rival Iowa, who was a No. 9 seed. The Hawkeyes aren't exactly basketball royalty, and their 2025-26 season didn't feature nearly the same highs as Nebraska's. The Cornhuskers reached No. 5 in the AP poll amid a 20-0 start and achieved their best NCAA Tournament seeding since 1991. This team beat the likes of Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan State during the regular season and came within a single victory of reaching the Elite Eight. But its strong defense ran out of steam against the Hawkeyes, leaving the Cornhuskers to stew over the fact that their corn country neighbor is dancing on with a 2-1 edge in the season series. – David Cobb

Loser: Texas on the wrong side of heartbreak

Texas was the lone double-digit seed in the Sweet 16 and was just seconds away from potentially sending the game to overtime. However, what hurt Texas was allowing second-chance opportunities. In total, Purdue outscored Texas 22-12 in second-chance opportunities. None was more important — and will hurt more — than the final possession when Purdue star Trey Kaufman-Renn tipped in a missed shot with 0.7 seconds left in the 79-77 win over the Longhorns. Texas had an incredible run from the First Four to the Sweet 16, but time ran out on the No. 11 seed in the West Region. — Cameron Salerno

> TREY KAUFMAN-RENN GAME-WINNER 🚨

PURDUE ADVANCES TO THE ELITE 8 🤯 pic.twitter.com/CYj7ltsGXT

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 27, 2026

Winner: Purdue's veterans show their savvy

Texas' strategic decision to deploy a small-ball lineup for the final possession played right into the hands of a veteran Purdue team that read the situation perfectly. The Longhorns benched seven-footer Matas Vokietaitis for the play, which meant Kaufman-Renn was the biggest player on the floor.

The Longhorns intended to protect against Vokietaitis getting switched onto a smaller, quicker guard on the