INDIANAPOLIS — Monday night’s national title game between Michigan and UConn will be the consummate clash of an unstoppable team meeting an immovable program.
The No. 1 seed Wolverines solidified themselves as the preeminent force of the 2025-26 season with their 91-73 bludgeoning of Arizona on Saturday night.
But for their ruthless tear through the NCAA Tournament — and through the entire season — to be remembered for the wholesale dominance which has defined it, the Wolverines will need to whack the boss.
Since 1999, UConn has hoisted six title banners under three different coaches. The No. 2 seed Huskies offered a reminder of their championship DNA during Saturday’s 71-62 win over Illinois, which long predates Michigan’s rise under second-year coach Dusty May.
That victory put the Huskies on the cusp of winning three titles in four years, a feat that has not been accomplished since John Wooden’s heyday at UCLA.
From an analytics perspective, slaying Arizona marked a bigger achievement for Michigan than a potential win over UConn. From a psychological perspective, beating the Huskies would mean far more.
UConn might be entering Monday night’s title game ranked No. 9 at KenPom, No. 9 at Torvik and No. 7 at EvanMiya.com (Michigan tops the chart for each).
But the game will be played on the court and not on a spreadsheet, and UConn is a veteran of these battles in a way that Michigan is not.
“I don’t think anybody is going to count UConn out,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after his team became Michigan’s latest victim. “So that’s why when everybody was saying this is the national championship game; it’s not the national championship game. Monday night is the national championship game, and you have to fight to get there.”
Dan Hurley has UConn back in the national title game, and one win away from a legitimate sports dynasty
Matt Norlander
As Huskies coach Dan Hurley said before his team spoiled Illinois’ first Final Four trip since 2005, “we don’t hang banners for Final Fours at UConn.”
Michigan does hang banners for Final Fours. Otherwise, the Crisler Center would look a little barren with only the 1989 national championship banner adorning the rafters.
The eye test says Michigan — a team that led a previously dominant Arizona squad by as much as 30 in the second half on Saturday night — will control the Huskies.
It just might. Beating Michigan will take the most legendary performance of an already heroic tear through the NCAA Tournament for Huskies big man and former Wolverines center Tarris Reed. It will take more iconic March shot-making from freshman phenom Braylon Mullins and more gutsy play from hobbled guards Silas Demary Jr. and Solomon Ball. It will take every bit of Alex Karaban’s program-defining leadership.
All of Hurley’s schematic brilliance will need to be harnessed.
That’s just what UConn does, though. When the lights shine brightest, it rises the highest. It was the story of the Huskies’ unexpected run to the 2023 title as a No. 4 seed. It defined their 2014 title run as a No. 7 seed.
In fact, just two of UConn’s six championship banners were hung by a team that earned a No. 1 seed. Eliminating UConn will require Michigan to accomplish something that no team has ever accomplished before: beating UConn in the national championship game.
The Huskies are 6-0 all-time in national title games. Michigan is 1-6.
Past will meet present Monday night to create a potentially unforgettable title game bout. History is on UConn’s side, and it’s not for nothing. The Huskies can enter standing on the shoulders of past champions, including those of Hurley, his staff and those of Karaban. They already have rings for each ring finger.
But achieving the dynastic status that UConn is so tantalizingly close to reaching will require summiting the same type of mountain that its 1999 team climbed by upsetting a historically great Duke team for the program’s first-ever crown.
That was the only time in its six championship runs that UConn defeated KenPom’s top-rated team in the season’s final game. Duke was led by five future top-15 NBA Draft picks, while the Huskies countered with Richard Hamilton, who led the way with 27 points.
Michigan likely does not have five future top-15 picks on its roster, but its 36-3 record and +39.72 KenPom net rating put it in the same realm as the 1999 Duke team, which was 37-1 entering the title game and finished with a +43.01 net rating even after losing to UConn in the championship game.
The towering trio of Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara combine with a group of flame-throwing guards to make the Wolverines a seemingly inevitable champion.
Michigan owns more 90-plus point games in this NCAA Tournament than any team in the event’s history. The Wolverines were already the only team in Big Dance history to score 90-plus points and win four games by double-digits. Arizona became their fifth such victim.
The Wolverines own a plus-108 point differential in the NCAA Tournament vs. a plus-41 mark for UConn. That’s tied for the largest gap in any national title matchup since 1963.
A Michigan team that looked a bit unmotivated during the Big Ten Tournament has been firing at a historical clip since hitting the NCAA Tournament stage.
Michigan’s machine-like dominance and UConn’s proud past make the national championship game exactly what a national championship game matchup should be: a mandate to do something of true championship caliber.
UConn has to beat the best team in college basketball. Michigan has to beat the best program in college basketball.
