Michigan defeated UConn 69-63 in the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game on Monday night, ending a 26-year national championship drought for the Big Ten.
The Wolverines captured the second NCAA title in school history and the first since 1989 after scoring over and swatting down opponents at a record rate during March Madness.
Its roster, freshly constructed out of last year’s transfer portal, had become the first team to score 90-plus points in five straight tournament games in the same season. With the help of 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara, the defense amassed eight or more blocks in the first four games of the tournament — the first time that’s happened since blocks became an official stat in the 1980s.
The Wolverines (36-3) had only three swats against Arizona, but that was a 91-73 win in a game that was supposed to be the best of the tournament but turned into something else.
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