This weekend’s second round pretty much killed any chance of a Cinderella story for the 2026 NCAA Tournament but it wasn’t without some incredibly dramatic finishes. Let’s now rank the games from best to worst and compare how my pre-round intrigue rankings compare to how the games actually played out.

	Ranking the NCAA Tournament Second Round Games (Postgame)	Pregame Rank	Difference
1	(1) Florida vs. (9) Iowa (Sun- 7:10)- TBS (247)	15	14
2	(4) Kansas vs. (5) St. John’s (Sun- 5:15)- CBS (5)	4	2
3	(4) Nebraska vs. Vanderbilt (Sat- 8:45)- TNT (245)	8	5
4	(4) Arkansas vs. (12) High Point (Sat- 9:45)- TBS (247)	1	-3
5	(3) Gonzaga vs. (11) Texas (Sat- 7:10)- TBS (247)	5	0
6	(3) Virginia vs. (6) Tennessee (Sun- 6:10)- TNT (245)	13	7
7	(3) Michigan State vs. (6) Louisville (Sat- 2:45)- CBS (5)	10	3
8	(1) Arizona vs. (9) Utah State (Sun- 7:50)- TruTV (246)	11	3
9	(2) Purdue vs. (7) Miami-FL (Sun- 12:10)- CBS (5)	16	7
10	(1) Duke vs. (9) TCU (Sat- 5:15)- CBS (5)	9	-1
11	(2) Iowa State vs. (7) Kentucky (Sun- 2:45)- CBS (5)	2	-9
12	(3) Illinois vs. (11) VCU (Sat- 7:50)- CBS (5)	3	-9
13	(2) UConn vs. (7) UCLA (Sun- 8:45)- TNT (245)	12	-9
14	(1) Michigan vs. (9) Saint Louis (Sat- 12:10)- CBS (5)	7	-7
15	(4) Alabama vs. (5) Texas Tech (Sun- 9:45)- TBS (247)	6	-9
16	(2) Houston vs. (10) Texas A & M (Sat- 6:10)- TNT (245)	14	-2