All hail: Michigan outmuscles UConn, claims second national title
INDIANAPOLIS -- Michigan is a national champion for the first time since 1989, standing as the best in the land even if the Wolverines weren't at their peak on Monday.
Michigan defeated UConn 69-63 to turn back the Huskies' bid for a third national championship in four seasons. Led by Most Outstanding Player Elliot Cadeau's 19 points and endless energy, the Wolverines had to go off-script to end their title drought.
"We have a lot of banners at (Crisler Center), but we had just one lonely center banner, and we wanted to change that," said Michigan coach Dusty May, who took over a program that went 8-24 in 2023-24.
All-American Yaxel Lendeborg had a quiet 30 minutes after a self-described "awful" and "soft" first half, but Michigan, the first title-winner in college basketball to start five transfers, came well-armed to the fight.
Cadeau and Morez Johnson Jr., who scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half, made shots and impactful effort plays on both ends.
"It means the world to me," Cadeau said. "I was down on myself last year. It means the world to me to be Most Outstanding Player and win a national championship."
Michigan's perimeter shooting was virtually non-existent in the first half -- the Wolverines were 0-for-8 from 3-point range -- but yielded nothing close to a clean look to UConn freshman Braylon Mullins and Alex Karaban.
The Wolverines were held to 33 points in the first half, which put them 61 points behind their scoring pace from five prior NCAA Tournament wins.
Without their usual outside-inside balance to stir the offense, Michigan finished with 36 points in the paint and knocked down 25 free throws.
"All year we've just been finding ways to win," Cadeau said. "We constantly just find ways to win all season."
Lendeborg returned to the court in the semifinals after sustaining left knee and ankle injuries earlier in the contest, and he decided then that he wouldn't miss the title game.
"It took a lot to get on the court. I was having a lot of mental issues. These guys stuck with me. They believed in me, really helped me out," said Lendeborg, who put up 13 points against UConn. "I just tried to find a way to do something to help the team out. I did the best I could regardless of the outcome, but it feels really, really good to be a national champion."
The Huskies reached Indianapolis on the back of Mullins' buzzer-beater against Duke in the East regional final, and he kept the hot hand with four 3-pointers against Illinois. However, he shot 4 of 17 from the field on Monday. Karaban made 5 of 14, and they were both 3 of 10 from 3-point range.
UConn shot 30.9% from the field, and when the teams switched baskets at halftime, the Huskies came up empty on their first 11 3-point tries.
"They just made it so tough on us around the rim," UConn coach Dan Hurley said after he instructed the Huskies to wait courtside for a handshake line while the Wolverines celebrated for several minutes. "Just an incredibly talented, incredibly imposing team physically. They're legit.
"They definitely deserved to win the national championship. They're clearly the best team in the country this year. They're just so hard to score against at the rim. I could talk about the threes that we missed, and I thought we had a lot of good threes that we missed. But they just made it so tough on us around the rim."
The Huskies scrapped to the bitter end. Down nine with less than two minutes remaining after Michigan's Trey McKenney splashed a stepback 3-pointer, UConn went 4-for-4 on foul shots before Solo Ball banked in a trey, trimming the deficit to 67-63 with 37 seconds left.
McKenney hit two free throws with 13.4 seconds left to set off the Michigan celebration.
Tarris Reed Jr., a transfer from Michigan, had 14 rebounds and 13 points, though he shot 4-for-12. Karaban had 11 rebounds and led UConn with 17 points.
"This guy changed my life," Hurley said of Karaban. "The joy he's brought to the university, the fan base. His decision to come to UConn has made us -- Florida won the national championship last year. I'll probably get in trouble for this. Michigan won the national championship this year. But he's helped to make UConn, I think, right now -- we're probably the premier program in college basketball right now, having been to three out of four national championship games, having won two of them. He's put UConn in that rarefied place in college basketball."
Hurley, bidding to become the seventh college coach with at least three national title wins, lost a game in the Final Four for the first time (5-1).