Michigan muscles its way to program’s 2nd NCAA national title : NPR

Michigan celebrates after defeating UConn in the national championship game of the NCAA college basketball tournament in the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis.

Michael Conroy/AP

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Michael Conroy/AP

INDIANAPOLIS — Top-scoring Michigan had to grind to the ground to clinch the national title Monday, scoring just two 3-pointers all night but still clawing its way to a 69-63 victory over stingy and stubborn UConn.

Elliot Cadeau led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, at 7:04 of the second half. The second, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and went like a dagger, giving coach Dusty May’s team full of transfers a nine-point lead.

Unsurprisingly, UConn fought until the end. Solo Ball made a 3 to cut it to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely brushed the rim on a 3 that would have cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.

Michigan was also outscored 22-12 on the offensive glass by a UConn team that wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t until McKenney hit two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25-for-28 for the night that the Wolverines (37-3) were able to begin celebrating the program’s second title — the other in 1989.

But this game had a 1950s feel to it.

“If you told me we would shoot this poorly and be dominated on the glass and still find a way to win, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” May said. “This team has just found a way all season.”

Michigan’s Trey McKenney, left, and Elliot Cadeau celebrate in the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn in the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis.

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Michael Conroy/AP

Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 of 15 and won despite the struggles of their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Suffering from a knee and foot injury that left him unable to lift, the UAB graduate transfer finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

Truth be told, it wasn’t the best night ever.

UConn’s hopes of becoming the first team since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty to win three titles in four seasons failed, thanks to massive foul trouble and its own terrible shooting.

Coach Dan Hurley’s team shot 30.9 percent from the floor and missed its first 11 shots from 3 in the second half.

Braylon Mullins, the hero of Duke’s victory that put UConn in the Final Four, finished 4 of 17, although he made two late 3s that kept the game within reach.

UConn (35-5) covered the spread to 6 1/2 points, and Hurley kept his players on the court to watch the podium prepare for a trophy presentation headed not to Storrs, but to Ann Arbor.

Michigan members celebrate after beating UConn in the national championship game of the NCAA college basketball tournament at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis.

Michael Conroy/AP

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Michael Conroy/AP

About the only consolation: The Huskies clogged things up, slowed things down, and allowed Michigan to beat them in their game.

The Wolverines became the first team to score 90 points in five consecutive top-flight tournaments. They didn’t get to 70 in this one but, in almost every way, it was the prettiest of them all – one that gave them what even Michigan’s most famous teams, the Fab Five, couldn’t manage – namely, superb.

Style points aside, this was a championship built from the outside in – the best team money can buy.

All five of the Wolverines’ starters have played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. This is the product of the transfer portal that May has shown no hesitation in utilizing. His ability to form a makeshift group to make it a winner remains the value of a coach and a culture.

“They may still call us mercenaries, but we are the hardest working team,” Lendenborg said. “We are the best in college basketball and we will be one of the best ever.”