ANN ARBOR, Mich. \u2014 The thumping music, the fireworks crackling overhead and the smell of singed upholstery could mean only one thing: a national championship celebration in a college town.<\/p>\n
Michigan fans spilled into the streets after the Wolverines beat UConn 69-63<\/a> to win the men\u2019s basketball national championship Monday night. College kids, being college kids, got a little rowdy. \u201cDusty wants us to have fun!\u201d one fan shouted amid a throng of partiers in downtown Ann Arbor. Signs of fun were all around.<\/p>\n The skeletal remains of a loveseat smoldered in the intersection between two fraternity houses as a firetruck pulled up to extinguish the last of the flames. In the downtown bar district, fans shimmied up trees and light poles and overtook the streets, returning almost immediately after a line of police officers shooed them back to the sidewalks.<\/p>\n Noah Griffith and Tori Katke, Michigan fans who live nearby, came downtown to watch the game and take part in the postgame revelry. They agreed it was a wild scene, but not quite as wild as the party after Michigan won the 2023 football national championship.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to call the \u201923 championship a 10, this is an eight,\u201d Katke said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was going to say football was a nine and this is a six,\u201d Griffith said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re comparing it to, like, Philly,\u201d Katke said. \u201cThe guy got all the way up on the light post.\u201d<\/p>\n With two national championship celebrations in three years, Michigan fans are enjoying a run that fans almost any school would envy. The only school that\u2019s had similar crossover success in recent times is Florida, which won football national championships in 2006 and 2008 under Urban Meyer and basketball championships in 2006 and 2007 under Billy Donovan.<\/p>\n Deep tournament runs in men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball, a trip to the Frozen Four in ice hockey and the hiring of football coach Kyle Whittingham have Michigan fans channeling Jim Harbaugh and asking, \u201cWho\u2019s got it better than us?\u201d The answer might be nobody, at least if you block out what happened to the football program in December.<\/p>\n This much is certain: No one had a better men\u2019s basketball team than Michigan in 2026. The Wolverines authored one of the greatest seasons in Big Ten history<\/a> by finishing 37-3 and ending the league\u2019s 26-year championship drought<\/a> while obliterating virtually every team in their path.<\/p>\n There were many nights when this team, assembled with a near-perfect mix of skills and personalities, played a transcendent brand of basketball. Monday was not one of those nights. With star Yaxel Lendeborg fighting through a knee injury and Michigan\u2019s 3-point shots not falling, the Wolverines labored all night before closing out the win.<\/p>\n All national championship victories are beautiful, even the ugly ones. Michigan fans know that all too well after waiting 37 years to hang another banner alongside the one commemorating the Wolverines\u2019 1989 NCAA title.<\/p>\n Jim Sorensen began attending games at Crisler Center in the early 1990s, when the Fab Five was creating a new generation of Michigan basketball fans. That team played for national championships in 1992 and 1993 but lost both times. John Beilein\u2019s Wolverines also lost twice in the national championship game, to Louisville in 2013 and Villanova in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen some great moments, and I\u2019ve seen some heartbreaking moments,\u201d said Sorensen, who attended a watch party for staff and students Monday night at Crisler Center. \u201cThis one is up there. Our football (championship) was awesome, but this is an equally great moment for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Blazing couches: 1 pic.twitter.com\/s3z5VOb8il<\/a><\/p>\n