{"id":703695,"date":"2026-04-07T17:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703695\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:02:27","slug":"the-winners-and-losers-of-the-ncaa-mens-national-championship-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703695\/","title":{"rendered":"The Winners and Losers of the NCAA Men\u2019s National Championship Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

College Basketball<\/a>College Basketball<\/a>Dusty May\u2019s Michigan Wolverines were the best team in college basketball all season. Here\u2019s how May\u2019s roster of transfer-portal stars took down UConn in the title game.\"\"Getty Images\/AP Images\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Steven Ruiz<\/a>April 7, 11:55 am UTC \u2022 11 min<\/p>\n

Who shined brightest in the NCAA men\u2019s national championship game? Who fell short? And what will we remember from this men\u2019s NCAA tournament? Let\u2019s dive into a special edition of Winners and Losers.<\/p>\n

Winner: Dusty May<\/p>\n

This is the future that college basketball traditionalists warned us about years ago. Michigan won a national title on Monday night with a starting lineup featuring five transfers\u2014four of whom joined the program this past offseason. It\u2019s the first time that\u2019s ever happened in the history of the sport, but we\u2019ve been headed in this direction for the past few seasons. Last year\u2019s Florida team that won the title had four transfers in its starting five. The UConn team that won the title before that had three. Championship teams are built\u2014or bought\u2014through the transfer portal now, and no coach has gotten more out of it than May since he arrived in Ann Arbor two years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having $10 million to splurge on talent<\/a> certainly made it easier for May to work the portal last offseason, but there were other coaches working with similar, or even superior, budgets who didn\u2019t get near the results the second-year Wolverines coach delivered. St. John\u2019s had the nation\u2019s top portal class<\/a> and a Hall of Fame coach and couldn\u2019t get past the Sweet 16. Kentucky reportedly spent over $20 million on its roster<\/a> and needed a miracle 3 to get out of the first round. Kansas State matched Michigan with a five-star transfer and three four-star players out of the portal and didn\u2019t even sniff the tournament. You can\u2019t win without spending on transfers in this era, but spending on talent doesn’t guarantee winning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit of a shame that the coaching job May did this season after bringing in all those new players wasn\u2019t commemorated with an award. Nebraska\u2019s Fred Hoiberg won the Big Ten\u2019s Coach of the Year award, and Arizona\u2019s Tommy Lloyd, whose team was run off the court by May\u2019s Wolverines in the Final Four on Saturday<\/a>, took home the national award. Lloyd gave May a shout-out during his acceptance speech, saying that the Michigan coach was more deserving of the award. It\u2019s difficult to disagree after what we saw over the past weekend, and really the entire college basketball season, which the Wolverines dominated from start to finish. Michigan won 11 games by at least 30 points this season. Monday\u2019s 69-63 win over Connecticut was its first single-digit win of the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the dominant nature of this team that made May\u2019s coaching job so impressive, either. Despite the lack of competitive games, Michigan was a blast to watch all season. The offense shares the ball like a team that has been playing together for years. The defense, built around a massive front line led by 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara, is impossible to unlock thanks to its coordinated switching. Because of how connected they looked on both ends of the court, it\u2019s wild to think that this collection of players had never played a game together before last November. Mara was stuck on UCLA\u2019s bench. Yaxel Lendeborg was playing for UAB. Elliot Cadeau was seen as a highly recruited bust at North Carolina. Morez Johnson Jr. couldn\u2019t find a regular spot in Illinois\u2019s rotation. It\u2019s not like these guys were sure things who were expected to thrash through the competition like they did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Wolverines were ranked seventh in the AP preseason poll. May needed only a few months to have this group playing a level of basketball we\u2019ve rarely seen at the \u201camateur\u201d level. If this Michigan team, and the way May\u2019s built it, is what\u2019s wrong with the current state of college basketball, then there isn\u2019t much of a problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loser: Dan Hurley\u2019s Plan<\/p>\n

UConn head coach Dan Hurley went into Monday night\u2019s game knowing that he had an inferior team, but that didn\u2019t mean UConn didn\u2019t stand a chance against Michigan. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be the best team,\u201d he said on Sunday<\/a>. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have the best season to win this tournament. \u2026 The good thing for us is it\u2019s not a seven-game series. Just gotta play one game on Monday night.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Connecticut needed to be better than Michigan for just one night, which is a lot more manageable. To do it, there would be a few nonnegotiables for the Huskies. They couldn\u2019t let Michigan get out on the fast break. The Wolverines are too big, strong, and athletic to stop once they get going downhill. UConn would have to win its one-on-one matchups defensively to avoid having to help and risk leaving shooters open on the perimeter. Michigan shoots the ball too well from deep. And, finally, the Huskies would have to shorten the game and turn it into a low-possession half-court affair. If UConn did all of that, and knocked down shots (obviously), it had a chance of pulling off the upset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Welp, Connecticut did all of it on Monday night. The Wolverines scored only two fast-break points. Michigan\u2019s first make from 3 didn\u2019t come until the 12:47 mark of the second half, and it hit only one more after that. It was only a 65-possession game<\/a>, which was right on UConn\u2019s season average<\/a> and well below Michigan\u2019s average of just over 71 possessions, per KenPom<\/a>. When CBS\u2019s Tracy Wolfson checked in with Hurley after the under-eight timeout in the first half, he said, \u201cWe\u2019re dragging them into the only type of game that we have a chance to win. Connecticut did what it set out to do; it just didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It turns out that this Michigan team also holds up just fine in a half-court fistfight. If anything, the half-court setting only made the size and athleticism gaps between the two teams more evident. Mara and Johnson were a load to handle for UConn\u2019s smaller frontcourt whenever they touched the ball around the rim. Lendeborg, the Wolverines\u2019 \u201csmall\u201d forward, looked bigger and stronger than Tarris Reed Jr., UConn\u2019s center. The Huskies guards couldn\u2019t keep Cadeau out of the paint and couldn\u2019t stop him from putting the ball in the basket even when they fouled him. And while the Wolverines didn\u2019t get much offense from their wings, their defensive pressure overwhelmed UConn\u2019s ball handlers and slowed down the Huskies\u2019 typically crisp passing. Connecticut couldn\u2019t do much of anything in the half court, and by the second half, it seemed like Hurley\u2019s team needed to catch Michigan in transition to have a chance at scoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe things would have been different if Connecticut\u2019s shots were falling. The Huskies made just nine of the 33 3-pointers they jacked up on Monday night. These weren\u2019t the quality shots we typically see from the Connecticut offense. Most of them came off the dribble or after a scramble for a rebound. The Huskies rarely shot 3s in rhythm, and even when they did, Alex Karaban and Braylon Mullins didn\u2019t cash in nearly enough to keep the game competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet even though his plan wasn\u2019t working out and the foul calls heavily favored Michigan, it was a surprisingly chill night for Hurley. There were no tirades aimed at the officiating crew. No headbutts thrown. He almost seemed happy on the sideline, even with his team chasing the game late. It\u2019s as if he found some measure of contentment knowing that he got his team to play the game it had to play to stand a chance against Michigan, even if it wasn\u2019t enough. Or maybe he just didn\u2019t want to be the second UConn coach to show his ass<\/a> over Final Four weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loser: Silas Demary Jr.<\/p>\n

I feel a little bad about calling Demary\u2014who\u2019s been playing with a high ankle sprain throughout the tournament\u2014a loser, but the way he so thoroughly lost the point guard battle to Cadeau was one of the bigger determining factors in the game, so I don\u2019t really have a choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Demary was UConn\u2019s big portal addition last offseason, and he was viewed as a missing piece after the team\u2019s issues at point guard in 2024-25. Tristen Newton graduated after the Huskies\u2019 back-to-back titles, and Hurley was unable to find another point guard who could attack the paint coming off a ball screen and hit pull-up 3s. Demary had been the solution for much of this season, but he has not played well since the Big East tournament final loss to St. John\u2019s, when he rolled his ankle. He\u2019s scored 22 points total since reentering the starting lineup in the Sweet 16 win over Michigan State. He scored just two against Michigan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just Demary’s lack of scoring that was an issue on Monday night. He couldn\u2019t crack Michigan\u2019s defensive shell, even when bigger defenders switched onto him. UConn really had no way of getting the ball into the paint without posting up Reed, who was bothered by Mara\u2019s length and not nearly as efficient as he typically is from the block. With Demary getting stonewalled on the perimeter and Reed bricking his hook shots, Connecticut didn\u2019t have many other options. Karaban, Mullins, and Solo Ball aren\u2019t really penetrators and are much better shooting off screens. Since Michigan\u2019s defense was switching, which neutralizes off-ball screens, UConn started spamming screens with Reed. Hurley knew that Mara, the one Wolverines player who doesn\u2019t switch, would drop off, providing more space for the Connecticut player using the screen. At one point, Hurley had Reed set five straight screens on one possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michigan switches screens 1 thru 4. So UConn has their 5 (Reed) set **FIVE** in a row with Mara sagging back into the paint pic.twitter.com\/Fl8oxDGJ0l<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jordan Sperber (@hoopvision68) April 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

UConn\u2019s ball handlers were getting space but couldn\u2019t do much with it. Look at all of the missed shots just outside the restricted area on this shooting map, via ESPN.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"ESPN<\/p>\n

Those are the inefficient shots Michigan wants opponents to take, and it\u2019s as good as any team in the country at forcing them thanks to Mara\u2019s rim protection. By using Mara\u2019s man as the screener, the Huskies were allowing him to camp out in the paint as a shot deterrent. But that was their only way of getting the ball into the paint, with Demary unable to penetrate off the dribble when Mara was dragged away from the basket and out of the action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winner: Elliot Cadeau\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s point guard had no such problem getting the ball into the paint, whether he was taking it in there himself or dishing it off to a teammate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau came up big in the Final Four to lead the Wolverines to a title \ud83c\udfc6<\/p>\n

Cadeau finished with a game-high 19 points in the National Championship game. pic.twitter.com\/8PjEQ2iFTu<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 B\/R Hoops (@brhoops) April 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Cadeau didn\u2019t put up huge numbers over the weekend\u2014he averaged 16 points and six assists\u2014but he was a deserving winner of the Most Outstanding Player award. He led the Wolverines with 19 points on Monday, two days after he handed out 10 assists against Arizona. And that assists number may be shortchanging Cadeau, who was instructed by May to throw passes off the backboard to his big men<\/a>, according to the Michigan coach. \u201cIt\u2019s the genius of Dusty, something he saw in film,\u201d assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. told The Athletic. \u201cAnd Elliot is a wizard with the ball. He probably had four missed shots credited to him that were passes.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t teach this as a coach. <\/p>\n

Dusty knew Arizona\u2019s size was going to make it hard to throw lobs to Mara\/Morez, so during Cadeau\u2019s 2\/14 FG start, MANY of them weren\u2019t even shot attempts. They were just lobs off the glass. <\/p>\n

How soon did you see it? The first play of the game.\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/5SdgLyePG7<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/axYHB0J6AL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) April 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s game<\/a>, May said that Michigan had brought Cadeau in to be a \u201cpass-first quarterback\u201d for his team and called him \u201cbrilliant\u201d and a basketball \u201csavant.\u201d I don\u2019t know how many coaches would have seen that in Cadeau after his two seasons at North Carolina, where teams would routinely leave him wide open on the perimeter. Here\u2019s Florida State doing it last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cadeau got his redemption this season with May and the Wolverines, and he didn\u2019t pass up an opportunity to hit back at his skeptics. \u201cThey said I couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d he said on Instagram Live<\/a> from the locker room. \u201cThey tried to tell me I was ass.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Typically, I\u2019d scoff at the idea that a former five-star recruit who\u2019s received scholarships from two national title\u2013winning programs is some underdog story. But in Cadeau\u2019s case, opposing teams had defended him like they thought he was ass. Not anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoser: Yaxel Lendeborg\u201d \u2014Yaxel Lendeborg<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s best player turned in a forgettable performance in Monday\u2019s title game, scoring just 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting. But Lendeborg had a valid excuse for his off night: He was playing on both a bad ankle and a sprained MCL, suffering both injuries on the same play on Saturday night against Arizona. With just one day off to recover, it was a minor miracle that Lendeborg was able to even play, much less be a productive member of the team. Lendeborg didn\u2019t seem to see it that way, apparently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I feel awful,\u201d Lendeborg told Wolfson in the most honest and self-deprecating in-game interview I think I\u2019ve ever seen. \u201cI feel super weak right now. I can\u2019t make anything. Oh man, I\u2019m trying to push through because it\u2019s the championship game obviously. I’m missing plays that I don’t usually miss.”<\/p>\n

Lendeborg may not have been hitting shots he typically makes, and he missed all five of his 3-point attempts, but he still had a positive impact on the game for Michigan. Most notably on defense, where he defends every position on the court and typically picks up the player bringing the ball up the court. Even with limited mobility, the 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward had no problem staying in front of UConn\u2019s guards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lendeborg was better in the second half after his interview. He never found the range from 3, but was able to get more shots around the rim and didn\u2019t look very \u201cweak\u201d when doing so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winner: The NBA-to-College Coaching Pipeline<\/p>\n

North Carolina was eliminated from the tournament weeks ago, but still managed to snag some of the title-day spotlight by naming Mike Malone its new men\u2019s coach\u2014a move that made the entire basketball world say huh?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nationally, Malone\u2019s name hadn\u2019t really been thrown around as an option, which contributed to the surprise when the news was announced. North Carolina had seemingly set its sights on big names from the college ranks, but it was turned down by Final Four coaches May and Arizona\u2019s Tommy Lloyd. Vanderbilt\u2019s Mark Byington, Texas Tech\u2019s Grant McCasland, and Iowa\u2019s Ben McCollum were rumored as options before Malone, the former head coach of the Denver Nuggets, was ultimately picked as the replacement for Hubert Davis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was equally surprising that an established NBA head coach like Malone would make the rare move from the NBA to college. Mike Woodson made the move to Indiana in 2022 from a Knicks assistant job, but it had been years since he had been in a head coach role in the pros. Fred Hoiberg was fired by the Bulls before taking the Nebraska job. Larry Brown was fired by the Bobcats before heading to SMU in 2012. All of these coaches were forced down to the lower level. Malone, who was fired by Denver a year ago, is going willingly, before the next NBA head coach hiring cycle<\/p>\n

The new money that NIL is pumping into the sport isn\u2019t just attracting players. Maybe coaches want a piece of it, too. And now that player recruitment and roster construction is more straightforward than it used to be\u2014money is often now the deciding factor in where a recruit ends up\u2014running a college program isn\u2019t the grind it once was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Malone takes over a UNC program that has a general manager in charge of filling out the roster with talent while the coach, for the most part, can just coach. It\u2019s a lot closer to the NBA model. Now that schools are running their basketball programs like professional outfits, they\u2019re starting to look for coaches with that level of experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Steven Ruiz<\/p>\n

<\/a>Steven Ruiz has been an NFL analyst and QB ranker at The Ringer since 2021. He\u2019s a D.C. native who roots for all the local teams except for the Commanders. As a child, he knew enough ball to not pick the team owned by Dan Snyder\u2014but not enough to avoid choosing the Panthers.