Michigan Wins NCAA Men's National Championship Over UConn, Declares Self 'One of the Greatest' Teams Ever

NEED TO KNOW

Key Takeaways

• Michigan won its first NCAA men’s basketball title in 37 years after defeating UConn 69-63 in Indianapolis
• Senior forward Yaxel Lendeborg led the Wolverines through the tournament and is expected to enter the NBA Draft
• Lendeborg declared the team will be considered "one of the greatest ever" in the sport

Michigan is the champion of men’s basketball once again!

The Wolverines celebrated their first national title in the sport in 37 years on Monday night after a relatively close game against the University of Connecticut rolled to a close, 69-63.

Led by senior forward Yaxel Lendeborg, the Wolverines coasted through the NCAA Tournament this past month with four-straight double-digit wins, closing out their title run in Indianapolis against an underdog UConn squad that appeared on the cusp of another miraculous comeback at times on Monday night.

“We’re the best in college basketball and we’ll be one of the greatest ever,” the 23-year-old star told the Associated Press. 

Michigan’s seemingly surefire victory Monday night — predicted widely by pundits across the country beforehand —  appeared in peril at times throughout the first half. The Wolverines trailed for much of the first 20 minutes while the Huskies held Lendeborg scoreless and limited Michigan’s high-powered offense — the same way their defense smothered Illinois in the Final Four. 

But as soon as Michigan’s leading scorer finally found the basket with three minutes left in the half, giving his team a 27-25 lead, the Wolverines and Lendeborg never looked back.

“They're legit," UConn coach Dan Hurley admitted after the game, per ESPN. "They definitely deserved to win the national championship. They're clearly the best team in the country this year.”

Hurley’s squad, led in part by Bill Murray’s son, assistant coach Luke Murray, proved resilient through the season and the past two weeks as they caught their way to the national title game — the team’s third in the last four seasons. The Huskies fell short of their third championship in four seasons, but provided one of the tournament’s most memorable moments with freshman Braylon Mullins’ last-second, game-winning shot to defeat tournament-favorite Duke in the Elite Eight.

“Proud of the guys,” Hurley said at the post-game press conference, according to the AP, before rhetorically asking himself, “How are you disappointed at all in your group?”

Many of the stars of Monday night’s game will be NBA-bound come June — including Lendeborg and Mullins. But individual efforts were far from the minds of the champions Monday, according to Elliot Cadeau, who was named the Final Four’s “Most Outstanding Player” after scoring 19 points to help seal Michigan’s first title since 1989.

“Nobody cared about stats the whole season,” Cadeau said, emphasizing his team’s winning strategy. “Nobody cared about nothing but winning.”

Read the original article on People