Michigan beat UConn 69-63 to claim the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball championship, and it was not pretty. The Wolverines made exactly two three-pointers all night. Two. Against a defense-first UConn team, they won on grit, muscle, and the refusal to fall apart when their shooting abandoned them.

UConn came in with a reputation for suffocating opponents on defense and grinding games into slow, ugly possessions. Michigan matched that energy and then outlasted it.