INDIANAPOLIS — There’s a dynasty brewing in men’s college basketball. And in a perfectly fitting twist, the University of Connecticut can cement that status by overcoming a powerhouse Michigan team that is racking up historically impressive numbers while hoping to go down as one of the sport’s greatest single-season squads of all time.
Those are the stakes in Monday’s national championship game between Dan Hurley’s Huskies and Dusty May’s Wolverines.
UConn is trying to become the first men’s basketball program since John Wooden’s UCLA behemoth of the 1960s and ’70s to win three NCAA Division I tournament titles in a four-season span, while Michigan is trying to cap a March Madness string of dominance, the likes of which were last shown by the Huskies while winning back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024.
“This run they’re on is one of the best — probably the best — since John Wooden,” said May, whose second season at Michigan has yielded the program’s eighth appearance in the NCAA final but first since 2018. “If we think riding in on a wave is going to take care of UConn, then we’re going to be very disappointed at about 11 o’clock tomorrow night, or whenever the game concludes.”
Tipoff at Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, is set for 8:50 p.m. The game will be simulcast on TBS, TNT and truTV, with HBO Max the streaming option.