Despite offensive struggles and rebounding woes, the Michigan Wolverines proved once again that they are the best team in the country this year. They clinched their first NCAA title since 1989 with gritty defense and clutch play in beating Connecticut 69-63 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — It was ugly for long stretches, but in the end that didn't matter. Michigan did enough great stuff to win a national championship on Monday night, knocking off Connecticut 69-63 at Lucas Oil Stadium to win their first crown since 1989.
It was a historic night in many ways. UConn was 6-0 all-time in NCAA title games before losing Monday night. Michigan was just 1-6 with everything on the line.
And they were the first Big Ten team to win the NCAA title in 26 years, with the league going a history-making 0-8 in title games since Michigan State won in 2000.
Michigan (37-3) won despite missing their first 10 three-point attempts and allowing 22 offensive rebounds. The Wolverines were just 2-for-15 from deep, only the second team since the three-pointer was introduced in 1987 to make two or fewer shots in the title game and still win. Connecticut in 2011 — when they made just one three — was the only other team.
"If you'd told me we would shoot it 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," Michigan coach Dusty May said. "This team just found a way all season."
Michigan was a team built out of the transfer portal, with starters Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB), Elliot Cadeau (North Carolina), Aday Mara (UCLA), Morez Johnson Jr. (Illinois) and Nimari Burnett (Alabama) all playing elsewhere before coming together for this 2025-26 season.
They destroyed ranked teams by double-digits or more all season, and won the Big Ten going away. They only lost three times, to Wisconsin at home after starting the season 14-0, to then No. 1 Duke in a neutral site game in February and to Purdue three weeks ago in the Big Ten championship game.
Then they went on an incredible run in the NCAA Tournament, scoring 90-plus points in their first five game, which had never been done before.
They never got it going offensively on Monday night, but they did enough. Cadeau led the way with 19 points, and would win the Most Outstanding Player award. His decision-making in attacking the basket was exceptional, and he made 8-of-9 free throws.
Lendeborg had 13 points, Johnson 12 and Mara added eight. Trey McKenney had another solid game, with nine off the bench. All were great on the defensive end as well.
A total team effort.
"When you bring a group this talented together, and they decide from the beginning that they're going to do it this way and they never waver and they never change, that's probably the most uncommon thing in athletics now," May said. "For these guys to cut down the nets after all they've sacrificed is pretty special."
Both teams struggled to score throughout the first half, and it was a one-possession game most of the way Michigan led by four at the half, 33-29. The Wolverines stretched the lead to double-digits a few occasions, and UConn would take a few swings, but never got closer than five points.
Alex Karaban, who won national titles in 2023 and 2024, led the Huskies (34-6) with 17 points. Tarris Reed Jr. had 13 points and Solo Ball, despite constant foul trouble, had 11.
Freshman Braylon Mullins, an Indiana native playing a half-hour from his Greenfield, Ind., home, also had 11 points, but he was 4-for-17 shooting from the field. it was just the second time all year where he missed 13 shots or more in a game.
For Connecticut coach Danny Hurley, the loss was tough to swallow, but he also understands how special this Michigan team was. They were a huge challenge, and they were the better team on this night.
"Just what the group was able to overcome throughout the year, the growth, the way they played in March, just the whole experience that this team has given the coaches, the fan base, to be one of the last two teams standing," Hurley told reporters after the game. "A lot of people talk about, 'You're better off losing in the first game in the Final Four than losing in the championship.' That is the biggest bunch of crap of all. It is such bull. It is. It's like, this is where you wanted to be. It hasn't set in yet. On the flight (Tuesday), it'll set in, on the bus ride back.
"Eventually, it'll hit you that you were close to pulling off what would have been a historic third championship. But this team just gave us so much this year. We just didn't make enough shots."
Connecticut was 21-for-68 shooting, just 31 percent and had 11 turnovers against a Michigan defense that switched many of their movements and pushed the ball out of the paint. Good looks were hard to come by, and they were just 4-for-18 from three in the second half.
"It's hard to have a level of disappointment where literally it just came down to we just didn't make enough shots in the basket," Hurley said. "To be able to keep that team under 40 percent from the field, 38 percent.
"This team has destroyed everyone they've faced in this tournament. Again, your team gives you 22 offensive rebounds. That's how hard we played."
Michigan won its six games by a combined 114 points, a 19.0 average. It's the most in NCAA Tournament history, passing the 1981 Indiana national champions (113) and the 1979 Michigan State team (104).
"You know, all year we've been just finding ways to win,'' Cadeau said. "We made two threes the whole game. We weren't making shots. We had a couple assists, not as many as we usually do, but we constantly just been finding ways to win all year, no matter how everybody is playing.''
For May, this was his first title after making two trips to the Final Four, the first in 2023 when he was the head coach at Florida Atlantic. All national championships are special, but this one had the added bonus of being played in Indianapolis, not far from his boyhood home in southern Indiana.
May, who was a student manager at Indiana for Bob Knight, understands the magnitude of it all.
"What a way to wrap up the '25-' 26 college basketball season with this group.''
Indeed.