Michigan vs. UConn winners and losers: Dusty May, Big Ten, Elliot Cadeau; UConn’s magic, 3-point shooting originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It wasn’t always pretty, but No. 1 Michigan finally won a men’s basketball championship for the Big Ten.
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The Wolverines beat No. 2 UConn 69-63 in the 2026 NCAA men’s national championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Monday. Michigan won the program’s first national title since 1989 and the conference’s first national title since 2000 despite an ugly shooting display on both sides.
Michigan made 20 consecutive free throws in a game marred by fouls. Elliot Cadeau led the Wolverines with 19 points, and Yaxel Lendeborg played through ankle and knee injuries. Dusty May won his first national championship as a head coach, and the Huskies’ bid for a third national title in four years under coach Dan Hurley fell short.
Here are the winners and losers from the national championship game:
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Michigan vs. UConn winners and losers
Winners
Dusty May
May won a national championship in his second season as Michigan’s head coach. May is now 64-13 as the Wolverines’ head coach, and he broke a streak of four straight losses in the national championship game for the program. Michigan is now 2-6 in championship games, and May shut down speculation that he would accept the North Carolina job on Final Four weekend. Michigan won its six tournament games by an average of 19 points per game and scored 90 or more points five times.
Elliot Cadeau
Cadeau – Michigan’s point guard – faced extra pressure coming into the NCAA Tournament after the Wolverines lost guard LJ Cason to an ACL injury against Illinois on Feb. 27. Cadeau earned Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors with an efficient performance that included hitting 8 of 9 free throws with two assists and one turnover. He hit a clutch 3-pointer with 12:47 remaining to give the Wolverines a 48-37 lead and made the right decisions from the most important position. Cadeau also had 13 points and 10 assists in the 91-73 victory against No. 1 Arizona in the national semifinal. It was a fantastic performance for a player we knew would be critical in the Final Four run for the Wolverines.
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Yaxel Lendeborg
Lendeborg played through knee and ankle injuries. He struggled in the first with 1 of 5 shooting, but Lendeborg still logged 36 minutes. He had a chase-down block in the second half and scored six points in the final six minutes. Lendeborg averaged 18 points per game in the tournament, and the front-line of Morez Johnson (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Aday Mara (8 points, 4 rebounds) contributed to a well-rounded tournament run.
Trey McKenney’s dagger 3-pointer
The Wolverines led 62-56 before a frenetic sequence in the final two minutes, and Michigan guard Trey McKenney buried a 3-pointer that put the Wolverines ahead 65-56. That allowed for a turnover and two missed free throws in the final minute as Michigan closed it out.
Big Ten basketball
The Big Ten broke a national championship curse that went back to the 1999-2000 season. Michigan and Illinois reached the Final Four, and the conference finished with a 21-8 record in the NCAA tournament. That .724 winning percentage was the best of any major conference; ahead of the Big East (7-3, .700), Big 12 (11-7, 6.11), SEC (14-10, .583) and ACC (6-8, .429).
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Losers
3-point shooting
Neither team shot the 3-point ball well. Michigan was 0 of 8 from 3-point range in the first half and was 2 of 15 for the game. UConn was 9 of 33 from 3-point range, including a 4 of 18 mark in the second half. That’s a combined 22.9% shooting percentage from both teams on the largest stage. Was the venue at Lucas Oil Stadium to blame? That might be a conversation for a bad shooting night on both sides.
Dan Hurley’s tournament streak
UConn coach Dan Hurley had a 20-5 record in the NCAA Tournament coming into the game, and the Huskies had won 11 straight tournament games from the Sweet 16 on entering the matchup with the Wolverines.
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Hurley had an excellent game plan, but UConn struggled from 3-point range in the second half and did not have enough offensive firepower in the second half to close the gap. Hurley remains the elite coach in college basketball – with three Final Fours and two national titles in four years as proof. This might have been Hurley’s best overall coaching job in the tournament, and the memory of the 73-72 victory against No. 1 Duke will be a lasting one. It just wasn’t enough, and the Huskies lost their first national title game in school history.
MORE: What’s next for UConn after national championship loss?
UConn’s first-half foul trouble
The Huskies’ strategy of playing a slow down game against the Wolverines in the first half worked – Michigan had 30 field-goal attempts, no fast-break points and were 0 of 8 from 3-point range. Lendeborg was limited to four points on 1 of 5 shooting. The problem? UConn had 11 fouls, and Michigan converted 11 of 12 from the free-throw line. Silas Demary and Solo Ball were limited to a combined total of 17 minutes, and Michigan still led 33-29 at halftime.
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Ball picked up his fourth foul with 16:20 left in the game, and sat for 10 minutes in the second half. Those fouls kept the Huskies playing from behind. Demary fouled out with 1:07 remaining. UConn had 22 fouls and hit 12 of 16 from the line. Michigan had 13 and hit 25 of 28 from the line.
The transfer portal team argument
May was panned for building a roster with four featured players who were transfers in Lendeborg (UAB), Cadeau (North Carolina), Mara (UCLA) and Johnson (Illinois). What does this argument ignore? Michigan’s front-line from its Sweet 16 team lost Danny Wolf, a second-round NBA Draft pick; Vladislav Goldin, who played for May at FAU; and Tre Donaldson, who transferred to Miami. Nimari Burnett – a two-time transfer from Texas Tech and Alabama – was a second-year starter, and Roddy Gayle Jr. accepted a move to a role player on the bench.
“They might still be calling us mercenaries, but we’re the hardest playing-team in national basketball,” Lendeborg said on the TBS telecast. “We’re the best team in college basketball, and we’re going to be one of the greatest – ever.”
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This is called roster building in the transfer portal and NIL era, and it worked for May. How is this any different than the one-and-done era of five-star freshmen? Or from what Indiana did with Curt Cignetti in football – which was widely praised? Bottom line – the strategy won a national championship. Besides, Lendeborg, Mara and Johnson are first-round picks in SN’s latest NBA Mock Draft. That matters more.
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