The 2025-26 men's college basketball season has come to a close, and the Michigan Wolverines are national champions. Last night, Michigan outlasted the UConn Huskies, 69-63, to capture their second NCAA title in program history and their first since 1989. Now that the game is in the books and a winner has been crowned, let's discuss the biggest takeaways from the 2026 National Championship.
Michigan had an all-time great defense.
When we look back on the 2025-26 Michigan Wolverines, the first thing that everybody will talk about is the team's offensive prowess, and rightfully so. Michigan was KenPom's fourth-best offensive team in the country. On top of that, the Wolverines finished ranked in the top ten in the nation in points per game (87.3, ninth), field goal percentage (50.7, sixth), and assists per game (18.6, tied for fourth). However, Michigan is the champion today because of its elite defense.
According to KenPom, the Wolverines were the best defensive team in the country with a rating of 88.5. Those defensive capabilities were on display last night because it felt like every shot UConn attempted was either blocked or heavily contested. Michigan held a UConn team that made 47.2% of its shots this year to just 30.9% from the field, the Huskies' worst performance of the season. And it wasn't just UConn. Arizona, Alabama, Tennessee, and Gonzaga all had their worst shooting performances of the season when facing the Wolverines. The defense was so dominant that Michigan won the championship despite only hitting two three-pointers. That tells you everything you need to know about this team's defensive supremacy.
The Wolverines would've crushed UConn if Yaxel Lendeborg was healthy.
It was very apparent last night that Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg was not fully healthy. The senior forward was dealing with ankle and knee injuries in the championship game, yet he still went out there and played to the best of his ability, which was not that great, as he admitted. During a sideline interview with CBS's Tracy Wolfson, Lendeborg said, "I feel awful. I feel super weak right now. I can't make anything... I'm missing plays that I don't usually miss."
We have said many times over the last few weeks that Yaxel Lendeborg looked like the best player in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. In the four matchups before getting hurt, he averaged 21 points per game while shooting 59% from the field. After sustaining those knee and ankle injuries, he averaged 12 points per game while shooting 41.2% from the field. If Lendeborg had been AVERAGE last night, Michigan would've won by 14 points. Therefore, it's safe to say that the Wolverines would've blown the doors off of UConn if their best player hadn’t been hampered by injuries.
Elliot Cadeau shouldn't have been the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
That leads us to our next point: Elliot Cadeau probably didn't deserve to be named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. I'm not trying to take anything away from the junior guard. He was the best player on the court last night. But this award is given to the best player over the course of the entire tournament, not the best player in the championship game.
Yaxel Lendeborg or Aday Mara were more deserving of this honor than Cadeau. Even with a bad knee AND ankle, Lendeborg still averaged 18 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game in the tournament while making 54.5% of his shots. Simultaneously, Aday Mara was the defensive anchor for the Wolverines, who also averaged 14.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game. Meanwhile, Elliot Cadeau averaged 12.3 points and 7.5 assists per game while hitting just 37.5% of his shots. If I were in charge of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, Yaxel Lendeborg or Aday Mara would've been named the Most Outstanding Player.
This year's Final Four was a dud.
The teams that reached the 2026 Final Four were all incredible. Between Michigan, UConn, Illinois, and Arizona, these teams averaged almost 34 wins apiece this season. Sadly, the actual games played between these squads leading up to the National Championship were boring.
UConn may have defeated Illinois by nine points, but it never felt like the Huskies were at risk of losing that game. After UConn forward Alex Karaban missed a three-pointer with 1:12 to go in the matchup, it seemed like Illinois was going to make the game interesting, but those hopes were quickly dashed when Huskies guard Silas Demary Jr. snagged the rebound and dished the ball out to freshman Braylon Mullins for a three-pointer. That essentially put the game away.
The Michigan-Arizona game was even more uneventful. The Wolverines led wire-to-wire on their way to an 18-point thrashing of the Wildcats. That game was basically over at halftime when Michigan went into the locker room with a 16-point lead. At no point in the second half did Arizona come close to making that game competitive.
The 2026 National Championship Game was bad.
This may be the biggest takeaway from the 2026 National Championship game. Though the matchup was only decided by six points, do not let the box score fool you; it was a BAD game. There were a ton of fouls, too many replay reviews, and not enough offense. It had everything you don’t want from a basketball game.
We need to start by discussing the fouls because holy sh*t did the referees have a quick whistle. There were 35 personal fouls called in this game, which turned the title game into a free-throw shooting contest. UConn and Michigan combined for 44 free throw attempts, while over a quarter of the game's points came at the charity stripe (37 out of 132, 28%). The Michigan faithful won't care, but casual fans do not want to see a team win a championship because they hit 25 of their 28 free throws.
The fouls and countless replays also disrupted the pacing of the game. It never felt like there were long stretches of basketball being played. Instead, there would be maybe three minutes of gameplay in between each whistle. That messes up the flow of the game and creates an unpleasant viewing experience for the fans.
Furthermore, both teams were offensively inept. I know that we mentioned earlier in this article that the Wolverines were an all-time great defensive team, and they are. However, that doesn't refute the fact that the offensive performances by both squads were abysmal. UConn and Michigan were a combined 22.9% from beyond the arc with 11 made three-pointers on 48 attempts. There were only 42 total baskets made in this game despite these teams attempting 123 freakin shots!
Lastly - and most importantly - the matchup never felt all that close. Michigan led for 75% of the game and was ahead the entire second half. UConn stuck around most of the game, but they were never a real threat to retake the lead from the Wolverines. The closest this game felt was when Alex Karaban hit a three-pointer with 2:30 to go in the second half to cut the lead to six points. Unfortunately for the Huskies, Michigan turned around and hit a three-pointer 40 seconds later to increase their lead to nine points.
The 2026 NCAA Tournament was fantastic. It gave us many memorable moments from the Kentucky buzzer-beater to force overtime against Santa Clara to Braylon Mullins' unforgettable shot against Duke to send UConn to the Final Four. Sadly, this edition of March Madness ended with a whimper rather than a resounding boom. That’s what I will remember most about the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
