UConn men’s basketball (34-5) will look to cut down the nets on Monday night for the seventh time since 1999 as the Huskies are set to take on 1-seed Michigan (36-3) in the national championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in a battle of two massive powers, one old and one new.
The Wolverines came out of the Midwest Region after knocking off Tennessee in the Elite Eight in Chicago. On Saturday, they dismantled fellow 1-seed Arizona in the Final Four 91-72, and have scored at least 90 points in all five
of their NCAA Tournament games thus far.
Dusty May has constructed one of the more well-rounded rosters in the recent history of college basketball, combining size with skill to create a dominant team that has some really impressive wins. After beating Howard and Saint Louis during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, they took down Alabama in the Sweet 16, then the aforementioned Volunteers and Wildcats. Monday is the Wolverines’ first title game appearance since 2018.
The Huskies came out of the East Region after Braylon Mullins’ 35-footer knocked top overall seed Duke out of the big dance. On Saturday night, they smothered Illinois on the defensive end for the second time this season, winning 71-62 behind four threes from Mullins and a double-double from Tarris Reed Jr.
The NCAA Tournament run for UConn started with Furman and UCLA in the first weekend in Philadelphia before knocking off Michigan State in the Sweet 16 and then the Blue Devils and Fighting Illini. Dan Hurley has the Huskies in the title game for the third time in the past four seasons, their last appearance coming during their 2024 title run in Phoenix. Hurley mentioned that Michigan has the look of his ‘24 team, but with that comes a lot of pressure as well.
UConn is a perfect 6-0 in national championship games, the best record all time with a minimum of four appearances. Michigan is 1-6 in championship games, the worst all-time on the same criteria.
No team has won three titles in four years since UCLA won 8 of 9 championships from 1967-1975. No Big Ten team has won a title since Michigan State won it all in 2000. Which of these streaks comes to an end on Monday night?
Date/Time: Monday, April 6, 2026, 8:50 p.m.
TV/Stream: TBS, March Madness app
Radio: UConn Sports Network, Sirius XM 84, Sirius/XM online streaming
Odds: Michigan – 7.5, over/under 144.5
Location: Lucas Oil Stadium — Indianapolis, Indiana
KenPom Predicted Score: Michigan 77 – UConn 70
Series History
The Huskies and Wolverines have played three times in their history, and not since 2016 in the Battle 4 Atlantis. UConn has won two of the three matchups, winning that game in the Bahamas as well as winning in Storrs in 2009. Daniel Hamilton led five Huskies in double figures with 16 points.
Availability report
During his pregame press conference, UConn head coach Dan Hurley announced that Solo Ball would not practice on Sunday and is in a boot. Hurley said they’ll monitor him ahead of an MRI, while Ball said he will do everything he can to prepare for Monday’s championship game.
On the Michigan side of things, Yaxel Lendeborg hurt his left knee and tweaked his ankle on a play in the first half of their blowout win. He made the decision himself to return in the second half and play. His MRI showed a low-grade sprain in his knee, but his ankle is swollen. He has vowed to play, but obviously will not be 100%.
The injury report comes out at 9 p.m. the day before the game. The next one comes out two hours before game time, as the NCAA has mandated the injury reports during the postseason.
What to Watch For
The Tarris Reed Game
The point has been beaten to death at this point, but in case you’ve been living under a rock, Tarris Reed Jr. is facing his former school in the title game on Monday night, and he’s having a great tournament.
“I started my career at Michigan, and now I’m about to play them in my final game of college basketball,” Reed said. “I never would have thought that would happen in a million years. How cool a blessing is that?”
Reed played two years at Michigan, playing on a pair of underwhelming squads that failed to make the NCAA Tournament under head coach Juwan Howard. He started as a sophomore and put up solid numbers, but that also coincided with the Wolverines’ infamous 8-24 season.
Reed has his hands full on Monday with how deep the frontcourt is for Michigan. Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. provide different looks on the low block that each pose their own separate challenges. Seeing how Reed has handled himself against some of the tough bigs so far in the NCAA Tournament, it’s a safe bet he won’t back down just because of the hype that Michigan has around them.
Elite vs. Elite
The UConn defense has been the focal point of the success that they’ve had all tournament long. The Huskies held Illinois to just 62 points, its second-lowest scoring output this season behind the 61 they also scored against UConn back in November. Duke looked lost on the offensive end for stretches in the second half of the memorable Elite Eight comeback. When things look like they may be going south, the defense steps up and steers the Huskies on the right track.
On the other side, the Michigan offense has been unreal all year long. The Wolverines have scored 90 or more points in all five NCAA Tournament games so far, including 91 against an Arizona team that has the second-ranked defense in the nation. For the most part, they can get whatever they want on the offensive end of the ball and go on big runs in the blink of an eye, as they did multiple times on Saturday.
It will be intriguing to see which gives in on Monday night. The Huskies have done a phenomenal job of limiting elite offenses all tournament long, but the Wolverines don’t seem to falter no matter what. UConn would prefer to play a game in the high-60s to low-70s, while Michigan prefers to score in the upper-80s and 90s, and usually does.
Senior sendoff
In college basketball, it’s not often that players know it’s going to be their last game before it ultimately is their last game. Going through the NCAA Tournament, you could lose at any point and have it be the end.
For the seniors on UConn’s roster, they have the rare advantage of knowing exactly when their final game will be. Alex Karaban, Tarris Reed Jr., and Malachi Smith, as well as Alec Millender and Dwayne Koroma, will see their careers come to an end on Monday night, win or lose.
“I’m just reminding guys what our goal is the entire year, and to be 40 minutes away from it, you’ve got to invest everything you have right now to prepare the right way and to execute out there tomorrow night,” Karaban said.
You know that these players want to end their careers with a bang, but even if it doesn’t go their way, the season and careers that each of them had in a UConn uniform have cemented their spot in program history.
Floor general battle
With the frontcourt stealing the show, the point guard matchup between Elliot Cadeau and Silas Demary Jr. is flying under the radar a bit. Both players had excellent games in the semifinals. Cadeau had 13 points and 10 assists to go along with four steals, and Demary stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, nine rebounds, and seven assists.
“He’s a great player, shooting it well right now, making a lot of plays,“ Demary said on Cadeau. ”He had a really good game last night, so just trying to make it as tough as I can on him throughout the whole game.“
Demary still isn’t 100% after the ankle injury he suffered against St. John’s last month, but looks better and more mobile with each passing game. His defense on Cadeau is critical, and vice versa, to see who will have the edge on Monday night.
Underdog mentality?
Michigan enters the game Monday as 7.5-point favorites, which makes a ton of sense if you see what they’ve done all season long. The Huskies have been in this spot before, just this weekend, actually, when Illinois was a 2.5-point favorite even as the lower seed.
“These are all one game, Game 7, single game elimination,” Hurley said. “There’s been plenty of times in the history of this tournament where the best team hasn’t won it. You’ve just got to be better for one night, and obviously, for us, we need to play the game a certain type of way.”
Even if Vegas doesn’t think the Huskies can pull it off, the players aren’t worried about that in the slightest and are just focused on what they can control.
“Ever since we went back to back, we’ve always had a target on our back,” Karaban said. “What Coach has done, bringing this brand back to the national level and really a target for everybody, everyone is excited when they play UConn.”
I’ll close with this. The last team to win a national championship that was as big an underdog as the books have UConn on Monday was 1999, when the 9.5 point dog Huskies “shocked the world” and beat Duke in Tampa.
In this program, anything is possible.
