Legends of the 2026 Men's March Madness

Round of 64

12-seed High Point University’s guard Chase Johnston hadn’t made a single 2-point shot all season. The graduate student’s role in games was solely to score threes, being 64 for 132 during the regular season. It was a miracle when the graduate student scored the game-winning layup against 5-seed Wisconsin, making it his only successful 2-pointer of the season and the first-ever tournament win for the Panthers.

11 seed VCU shocked 6th-seeded North Carolina behind an incredible game from Terrence Hill Jr. His 34-point performance might have been as shocking to his coach as it was to the North Carolina team, as Hill Jr. was not even a member of the starting five. Making matters even more dramatic than his heroics off the bench was the fact that he scored an incredible 23 second-half points, leading the team back from a 19-point deficit.

Defending champion Florida’s Oliver Rioux is the tallest player in basketball history, towering over the other players on the court, standing at 7’9”. Rioux is a fan-favorite for his standing dunks, tall enough to dunk on the hoop without even having to jump. At the end of Florida’s game vs. 16-seed Prairie View, when Florida’s lead was too big for PVU to overcome, the crowd’s chants of “we want Ollie!” were finally answered, and Oliver delivered his signature dunk, instantly going viral.

After 10-seed Santa Clara hit a three-pointer with 2.4 seconds left in the game against 7-seed Kentucky with no timeouts left, many thought the game was over. Otega Oweh proved them all wrong with an iconic, nearly half-court buzzer-beater to tie the game at 70 and set the stage for Kentucky to pull away and win the game in overtime. The final seconds of the game before overtime were pure, true moments of madness.

2-seed UConn’s Tarris Reed Jr. had a monster performance in the round of 64 game against 15-seed Furman. Reed had a mind-blowing 27 rebounds in the game, more than Furman’s entire team combined. In addition, Reed put up 31 points, making it a colossal double-double.

16-seed Siena’s starting five played almost the entire game against 1-seed Duke. Siena only executed one sub, but it barely counts because it was only for 2 seconds. Even crazier? They managed to lead the Blue Devils, the favorite to win the tournament, by 11 points at the half, making tournament history. Sadly, Siena couldn’t maintain the lead and ended up losing to Duke.

Round of 32

Dylan Darling hadn’t made a shot for 5-seed Saint John’s all game. With 4 seconds left on the clock, Saint John’s was tied with 4-seed Kansas. They needed to make a shot to avoid going to overtime. In the huddle, Darling asked his coach to run a play called Power to get the ball in his hands. After missing every shot that game, this was a pretty gutsy request. Shockingly, coach Rick Pitino agreed to run the play and set up Darling to score the game-winning buzzer-beater layup.

Alvaro Folgueiras and the 9-seed Iowa Hawkeyes pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament against defending champion 1-seed Florida. Down two points with nine seconds to go, Folgueiras made the game-winning three, leading the Hawkeyes to their first Sweet Sixteen since 1999.

4-seed Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. made so much history during this year’s tournament. In the round of 32, Acuff became the first-ever freshman to record at least 35 points and 5 assists in a tournament game. In addition, he shattered the record for most points scored by a freshman in the first two rounds of the tournament, with an unbelievable and monstrous 60 combined points. This staggering number also set the record for most points scored by an SEC player in the first two rounds of the tournament. The cherry on top? Acuff landed a signature shoe deal with Reebok, becoming the first men’s basketball player ever to have a shoe deal while still in college. The Acuff 1 will launch when Darius Acuff Jr. gets drafted into the NBA, a projected top-ten pick of the 2026 draft class.

Sweet Sixteen

2-seed Purdue was tied up with 11-seed Texas with just 11 seconds left in a close game, especially considering the difference in seedings. Nobody expected Texas to be able to keep up with, let alone (briefly) lead, Purdue. After Braden Smith missed a layup with only a second left in the game, Trey Kaufman-Renn got the offensive rebound and tipped the ball into the bucket, surviving what would have been an astonishing upset.

Elite Eight

After trailing Duke by as much as 19 points before halftime, a trip to the final four for UConn seemed unlikely. Braylon Mullins and the Huskies cemented their tournament future by outscoring the Blue Devils 44-28 in the second half. With two seconds left in the game, UConn was down two points. Braylon Mullins hit the game-winning, buzzer-beating miracle three to send the Huskies to their third final four in four years.

Final Four

In 1-seed Michigan’s colossal blowout of 1-seed Arizona, 91-73, Elliot Cadeau & Aday Mara came in clutch for the Wolverines. Point-guard Elliot Cadeau recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists. However, the stats can be misleading - some of Cadeau’s “misses” were actually passes to big man Aday Mara in order to combat Arizona’s elite rim guarding. Mara dropped a career-high 26 points, six points off of dunks that had the crowd going wild. This victory is even more impressive because Michigan dominated even after losing star player Yaxel Lendeborg to early foul trouble in the first minutes of the game, and then an ankle roll and MCL injury in the first half.

Championship

Elliot Cadeau was named the most outstanding player of the Final Four after leading Michigan to victory against UConn, 69-63. In an overall slow-paced game, Cadeau brought the fire. He scored a game-high 19 points and was there during every play, ready to steal the ball or make an explosive shot. Remarkably, Cadeau achieved all of this despite being the shortest player on the court (6’1”) in a basketball era dominated by size.