UConn-Michigan for the Championship

I gotta say, that was a helluva basketball game.

Michigan and UConn played for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Monday night. They are two of the early winners in the brave new world of college basketball. Both teams have taken advantage of the virtually unlimited mobility of underclassmen to populate their teams with highly talented players who fit the systems the coaches want to play. The top four or five teams in college basketball are so talented and so well coached that they can beat just about any of the other teams in the tournament, and that’s exactly what we saw this year. Cinderella isn’t coming to the ball in this environment; she may look good, but these super teams are smokin’. Maybe this new environment is good for college basketball, maybe it isn’t, but when it comes down to the Final Four, it makes for some exceptional basketball.

UConn lost, but what a show!

I’m far from a rabid UConn men’s basketball fan these days. I no longer can get caught up in all the typical fan excitement. I don’t get excited for games, I struggle to remember names (which one is Stewart and which one is Ross?), I don’t read reports or analysis of upcoming games. I don’t know any of the stats.

Of course, I share tickets with my friend Paul for the games at the People’s Bank Arena (is that what it’s called now?), so I saw the men play several games in the 2025-26 season. Even so, I have only impressions of the team from those games, not the details that I used to remember in the Calhoun era.

I missed the entire Big East Tournament, and I didn’t see a lot of the games in the first two rounds of the NCAA National Championship tournament. I didn’t see the Michigan State game in the Sweet 16 and, believe it or not, I saw only the second half of the Duke game. I watched the Final Four. After seeing Michigan dismantle Arizona, I didn’t think UConn had a chance to beat them. Consequently, I didn’t spend all day Sunday and Monday getting emotionally charged for the game.

Like I said, I’m far from being a rabid UConn fan.

And then the Championship Game happened, and I couldn’t get enough of it. It was a spectacular display of college basketball, two exquisitely built and finely tuned teams playing with all the dedication and energy and courage possible. I was mesmerized by the quality of play, so much so that I enjoyed the great plays by Michigan almost as much as the plays UConn made.

Michigan has a great offense, and UConn has a dangerous but inconsistent offense. Both teams are loaded with some of the best talent in college basketball—the best of playground, fast-break, in-your-face hoops merged with discipline and complex team play. Both teams have multiple offensive players who bring a diverse collection of size, speed, and skills to the floor, so both teams can attack inside and out, at different speeds, and in different styles. Each team attacks with a bewildering assortment of looks. The teams are brilliantly coached. They execute their varied offenses effectively and with high-level basketball skills.

If the offenses were so good, why was the score so low? And why were the shooting percentages (Michigan 38% and UConn 31%) so dismal? Answer: The defenses were stunningly good. There was no zone defense to be seen (well, maybe here and there and I just missed it); it was pretty much man-to-man all the way. Why? Because the offenses were so good that the only way to stop them was for the defense to stay attached to every player, every play, all the time. Players didn’t get double-teamed, because the defense couldn’t afford to let other players run free. Leave a player unguarded and they’ll make you pay. What we saw was intense man-to-man defense, five on five, all game long.

The defense was intense, determined, and non-stop. Players switched, or fought through screens. Defenders rotated to cover offensive players who had broken free momentarily. It seemed that every shot was contested, and when players found themselves with an open shot, they missed often. Why? Because defense like that gets in the shooter’s head, and as the game progresses, the shooter comes to expect each shot to be contested. On the rare occasions when they get an open look, the shooter is distracted and not going through their normal, relaxed shooting rhythm that yields high percentage success. That was particularly the case with Braylon Mullins, UConn’s freshman guard, who repeatedly fired off anxious jump shots without getting himself settled into his shooting rhythm. Mullins shot under 25% for the game, well below his 42% season average.

The most dramatic and exciting sequences in the game occurred when Michigan succeeded in forcing an up-tempo style. They did it on occasion by deploying a full-court press, and they raised the pace a few times without the press. On those occasions, the basketball was fast and intense. One team would sprint upcourt with a scoring opportunity, only to be stymied by a dogged defender recovering and contesting the shot. Back they raced to the other end, where the offense was stopped by another defender. Back and forth, sometimes ending with one team scoring, sometimes with a foul, sometimes with collective exhaustion. But throughout the multiple fast break opportunities, defenders would not give up, running full-speed to get back into the play. It was a defensive coaching clinic.

All night long, the two teams played some of the best college basketball ever seen. Ten players, tenacious, intense, and persistently excellent. It was a great, great display.

What was the difference between winning and losing? Michigan was just a little bit better. They got a few more good shots, and they made a few more. They were calm, attacking all the time, while UConn always seemed to be struggling to keep up. The major statistical difference was that UConn was whistled for nine more fouls than Michigan, and Michigan took twelve more free throws. Why the disparity? Well, Michigan worked really hard to stop UConn’s offense while keeping their fouls under control, but UConn had to work just a little harder to stop Michigan. That little bit harder meant that they fouled a little bit more, and that was the difference. That plus Elliot Cadeau’s ability to create contact and draw fouls. Personally, I don’t enjoy watching players create contact not to make a play but to draw a foul, but the rules are the rules, and Cadeau draws fouls within the rules. Take away the points he created with his craftiness and the game would have been even.

Congratulations to Michigan.

And now, players will move on, to the NBA, to Europe, to other schools, or to their lives after basketball. The universities will reload with the finest talent coming out of high school or transferring in. I’m already looking forward to the 2027 Final Four.