Texas goes from First Four to Sweet 16, defeating Gonzaga 74-68 in March Madness

Nobody fills out a bracket expecting a First Four team to beat Gonzaga. That is the kind of result that makes March Madness worth watching every year, and on Sunday the University of Texas delivered exactly that, beating the Bulldogs 74-68 in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16. Texas entered the 2026 NCAA Tournament having to win a play-in game just to get into the field of 64. Four wins later, they are still playing.

The Longhorns' path to this point has been genuinely difficult. The First Four game alone would have been a reasonable endpoint for a team that squeezed into the tournament on the bubble. Winning that, then advancing through the first and second rounds against increasingly difficult opponents, and now eliminating a Gonzaga program that has reached the Final Four three times since 2017, puts Texas in a category that most tournament fields produce only one or two of per year.

How the game against Gonzaga actually played out

Texas led by as many as nine points in the second half before Gonzaga tightened the game in the final six minutes. The Bulldogs cut the deficit to three with 90 seconds remaining, but Texas made enough free throws down the stretch to hold on. The Longhorns shot 72% from the free throw line across the game, which was not outstanding, but they got to the line 22 times, and in a six-point game that volume matters more than the percentage.

Gonzaga struggled from three-point range, finishing 6 for 22 from beyond the arc. For a program that typically shoots above 36% from three on the season, that performance in a must-win second-round game was the primary reason they are going home. Texas's defensive pressure on the perimeter disrupted Gonzaga's usual spacing, forcing more isolation play in the half court than the Bulldogs prefer.

What it means to come from the First Four

The First Four is the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, played before the main bracket begins. Teams that enter through the First Four have to win five games to reach the Final Four rather than the four wins required for everyone else. Since the First Four format was introduced in 2011, only a handful of teams have reached the Sweet 16 by that route. VCU did it famously in 2011, reaching the Final Four entirely from the First Four. Texas joining that short list with a win over a program of Gonzaga's caliber puts their run in legitimate historical company.

Texas was a bubble team heading into Selection Sunday. Their regular season record in Big 12 conference play was inconsistent, and there was genuine debate among bracket analysts about whether they deserved an at-large bid at all. Getting placed in the First Four rather than receiving a standard seed was the committee's way of acknowledging that uncertainty. The Longhorns have spent the past week making that debate irrelevant.

Gonzaga's early exit and what it means for their program

For Gonzaga, losing in the second round is a sharp contrast to the standard their program has built over the past decade. Head coach Mark Few has guided the Bulldogs to at least the Sweet 16 in ten of the last eleven tournaments they have participated in, with the one exception being the COVID-shortened 2020 season when no tournament was held. A second-round exit to a First Four team will draw scrutiny about roster construction and whether Gonzaga's roster this year had the depth to compete with more physical teams.

Gonzaga graduates their two leading scorers after this season, meaning next year's team will look considerably different. Few has consistently rebuilt around transfers and freshmen, so the program is not in a structural crisis, but the 2026 tournament will be remembered as one of their more disappointing finishes given the expectations they carried into March.

Texas in the Sweet 16: who they could face next

Texas will learn their Sweet 16 opponent once the rest of the second-round results are confirmed. Based on the bracket, they are positioned to face a higher seed that survived their own second-round game, meaning the Longhorns will almost certainly enter their next game as underdogs again. That has been the condition for every game they have played in this tournament. At this point, their opponent probably knows what that means.

Texas's Sweet 16 game is scheduled for the regional semifinal weekend of March 27-28, 2026. The location depends on which regional bracket they fall within, which will be confirmed by the NCAA following the completion of all second-round games on Sunday evening.