Sports reporter Talia Baia said Iowa’s upset of Florida, the defending national champion and No. 1 seed, “might be my worst heartbreak yet” as she reacted to the March Madness thriller on Sunday.
Baia — a diehard Gators alum, who went viral for her locker room interviews during last year’s NCAA men’s tournament — shared her heartbreak in a series of posts on X after the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes secured a 73-72 victory to clinch a spot in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.
“2025 vs. 2026,” Baia wrote with a broken heart emoji.
She included past videos of her watching Florida win the national championship over the Houston Cougars last year — and another video of her watching Sunday’s loss to Iowa while at home.
“This might just be my worst heartbreak yet. Don’t text don’t call,” Baia, who currently covers Notre Dame Athletics for ABC57 News in South Bend, Indiana, wrote in another post.
“This is 100% worse than a breakup maybe even a divorce.”
Baia made headlines last year when she covered the men’s basketball team as a student reporter for ESPN Gainesville.
Her locker room interview with Gators guard Bennett Andersen went viral following Florida’s 87-71 Sweet 16 win over Maryland in the NCAA Tournament.
Andersen gazed at Baia during a postgame exchange after the top-seeded Gators punched their ticket to the Elite Eight, and the internet had a field day with the moment.
Baia, who was a senior at the time, later announced that she and Andersen were selling an “NIL shirt together” after their exchange captured the public’s attention.
Iowa’s upset of Florida on Sunday was the first thriller of the March Madness men’s tournament.
With 4.5 seconds left to play at Benchmark International Arena on Sunday, Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras hit a go-ahead 3-pointer for a 73-72 win over the Gators.
Before that, the Gators had the second-largest victory margin in NCAA tournament history with a 114-55 first-round win over Prairie View A&M on Friday.