A Transfer Portal Army, a First-Year System, and One of the Greatest Tournament Runs in College Basketball History. Michigan is Back on Top.

Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the Michigan Wolverines cut down the nets. For the first time since 1989, they are national champions. The final score was 69-63 over the UConn Huskies, but the number on the scoreboard does not come close to capturing what happened in that building or what it means for a program that has waited a very long time to feel this again.

The national championship is the second in program history, with the 2025-26 team joining the 1988-89 squad. The Wolverines earned their program-record 37th win in the process, which also ties the Big Ten record for most wins in a season, and delivered the conference its first national title since 2000.

Thirty-seven years. That is how long Michigan basketball has been chasing this. The Fab Five came and went without a ring. Programs rose and fell. Coaches were hired and fired. And through all of it, that 1989 championship sat alone at the top of the trophy case, waiting for company.

On Monday night, it finally got some.



How Michigan Got Here

Coach Dusty May, the 2026 USBWA National Coach of the Year, previously brought Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023 before taking over Michigan and leading them to the title game this season. He inherited a program that had just fired Juwan Howard and needed a complete rebuild. What he did in one year is nothing short of remarkable.

This was a championship built from outside. All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. That is the transfer portal era in full effect, and May showed zero hesitation in using every tool available to him.

But the critics who called them mercenaries missed the point entirely. There is a preconceived notion about transfers that they are all mercenaries who trade loyalty for easy dollars. Lost in the transactions is what is required to make the exchange work: a person willing to take a leap of faith, and someone else offering them the safety net.

May offered that safety net. And one by one, players bought in.

In addition to the national championship, the Wolverines won the Big Ten championship with a 19-1 record and claimed the Big Ten Player of the Year in Yaxel Lendeborg, the Defensive Player of the Year in Aday Mara, and Dusty May was named Coach of the Year.  They swept every major award in the conference and then went and swept the tournament too.

Michigan entered the title game scoring at least 90 points in each of its first five NCAA tournament games, becoming the first team ever to achieve that feat. They had been a wrecking ball all tournament, winning by an average of over 21 points per game heading into the championship. Nobody had come close to stopping them.

The Man Who Built It: Dusty May

Before this season, most casual college basketball fans knew Dusty May as the coach who took mid-major Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023 and turned heads. Michigan gave him the keys to a blue blood program and told him to rebuild it fast.

He did it faster than anyone expected.

Jackson said May immediately reached out to all of the Fab Five members to make them part of the program, and they felt a part of this championship run not unlike they were 33 years ago. That kind of cultural intelligence, understanding what Michigan basketball means to people who bled for it decades ago and bringing them back into the fold, is not something you teach. It is something you either have or you do not. May has it.

His philosophy on building the roster was equally sharp. He wanted a pass-first point guard that he could surround with equally unselfish but talented players. When he got Cadeau to Ann Arbor, May did what he promised. He surrounded him with options that make a pass-happy guard salivate, but also insisted that Cadeau not be afraid to shoot, telling him the coach would be angry if he did not. 

After the trophy presentation, May kept it simple. "This team's just found a way all season," he said. "They have a love, trust, respect amongst themselves."

The Player Who Won It: Elliot Cadeau

If Dusty May is the architect, Elliot Cadeau is the cornerstone. The junior point guard transferred to Michigan from North Carolina and turned himself into the best player in the country when it mattered most.

Cadeau was named the Final Four's most outstanding player after leading his team to the title, turning in extraordinary performances both against Arizona and UConn, leading his team after Yaxel Lendeborg got hurt in the first half against the Wildcats.

In the championship game, Cadeau scored or assisted on Michigan's first seven points and was the catalyst for a 15-8 run to start the second half, highlighted by a pivotal three-pointer to force a timeout and extend the lead to 48-37. 

Cadeau made 8 of 9 free throws and helped put several key Huskies on the bench in foul trouble, strangling UConn's rotation when they could least afford it.

After the game, walking the court with the trophy clutched to his chest, Cadeau said simply: "Everything. It means everything." And then: "Coach believed in me. And I believed in him." 

"Just the unselfishness the whole team has," he said. "Nobody cared about stats the whole season." 

The Game Itself: Ugly, Gritty, and Perfect

This was not the Michigan the country had watched all tournament. The team that had been dropping 90-point performances on every opponent it faced showed up in Indianapolis and promptly forgot how to shoot from three.

The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from three and finished 2 for 15 from beyond the arc. Their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg, was ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, finishing with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting. 

Michigan clanked 13 triples off the rim and relied on its inside defensive ferocity to win a game nearly as aesthetically unpleasing as UConn's 53-41 win over Butler in 2011. This was a championship won in the trenches, not in highlight reels.

But Michigan found another way. The Wolverines made over 20 straight free throws and finished the game 25 of 28 at the foul stripe, making up for their struggles behind the three-point line with their shooting at the foul stripe.

Michigan held UConn scoreless on its first two possessions before Morez Johnson Jr. opened the scoring with a layup. Cadeau and Johnson combined to score the first 15 Michigan points of the second half. 

It appeared UConn was going to take a lead into halftime before the Wolverines put together a much-needed 10-3 run to seize momentum and go up 33-28. Aday Mara had an assist to Lendeborg and a bucket on back-to-back possessions, followed by a thunderous put-back dunk from Roddy Gayle Jr. to cap off the run.

The second half was Michigan taking control and UConn refusing to die. UConn refused to go without a fight, cutting the deficit to four with under eight minutes to play, but it was quickly erased by a momentum-shifting dunk by Aday Mara that brought Michigan's bench to life.

Then came the dagger. Freshman Trey McKenney's three-pointer with 1:50 remaining gave Michigan a nine-point lead and felt like the killing blow. 

UConn had one last gasp. Solo Ball hit a three to cut it to four with 37 seconds left, and after two missed Michigan free throws, Alex Karaban barely grazed the rim on a three that would have cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds remaining.  The ball did not go in. The dream did not go in. The dynasty was over.

The Huskies, who had been 6-0 all time in NCAA championship games, saw that streak end at the hands of Michigan. 

What UConn Was Chasing and Why It Matters

To understand how significant this Michigan championship is, you have to understand what UConn brought into Monday night.

Dan Hurley's team was looking to do something that had not been done since John Wooden's famous UCLA teams of the 1970s: win three national titles in four years. The Huskies had won in 2023 and 2024 and were building what looked like the most dominant dynasty in modern college basketball. They came to Indianapolis with a 34-5 record, a roster full of experienced veterans, and the weight of history on their side.

UConn had been 6-for-6 in NCAA championship games all time. They had never lost one.

Michigan broke all of it.

The Wolverines proved why winning three titles in four years is such a difficult task. UConn shot 31% from the floor. Their stars, Karaban, Reed, Mullins, combined to shoot a collective disaster. Karaban was just 5-of-14 overall and 3-of-10 from three. Braylon Mullins was 4-of-17 from the field.

Michigan's defense did that. Give them credit for every one of those misses.

The Transfer Portal and What This Title Means for College Basketball

Love it or hate it, this championship is a defining moment for the era of college basketball we are now living in. All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. 

Lendeborg said it after the game without blinking. "They might be still calling us mercenaries but we are the hardest-working team. We are the best in college basketball and we will be one of the greatest ever."

The argument that transfer portal teams cannot build real chemistry or win the biggest games is now officially dead. Dusty May assembled a roster in a single offseason and won a national championship. That is going to change how every program in the country approaches roster building going forward.

Ann Arbor Went Crazy

Back in Michigan, the reaction was immediate and uncontrollable. The Ann Arbor Police Department said it had a large presence as thousands of fans celebrated the win, noting that two people were arrested and Ann Arbor Fire extinguished more than 40 fires in connection with the postgame celebration. Multiple street signs were also damaged during the celebration.

Thirty-seven years of waiting poured into the streets of Ann Arbor all at once. You cannot put a fence around that kind of emotion.

What Comes Next

This Michigan team will lose players to the NBA Draft. Cadeau, Lendeborg, and others will hear their names called in June. Dusty May will go back to the transfer portal and rebuild again. That is the nature of the game now.

But what this group did will not be forgotten. They came from everywhere, bought into one culture, played the ugliest prettiest game in Indianapolis, and did what the Fab Five could never do.

They won the whole thing.

Michigan is a champion. Again. Finally. And for the first time in 37 years, the waiting is over.