INDIANAPOLIS — High-scoring Michigan had to get down and dirty to dig out the national title Monday, making only two 3-pointers all night but still muscling its way to a 69-63 victory over stingy, stubborn UConn.

Elliot Cadeau led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, which came 7:04 into the second half. The second, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and felt like a dagger, giving the coach Dusty May’s team full of transfers a nine-point lead.

To no one’s surprise, UConn fought to the finish. Solo Ball banked in a 3 to cut it to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely grazed the rim on a 3 that would’ve cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.

Michigan also got outrebounded 22-12 on the offensive glass by a UConn team that would not go away. Not until McKenney sank two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25 for 28 for the night could the Wolverines (37-3) kick off the celebration for the program’s second title — the other coming in 1989.

But this game had a 1950s feel to it.

“If you’d told me we would shoot it this poorly and (be) dominated on the glass and still find a way to win, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” May said. “This team just found a way all season.”

Michigan’s Trey McKenney, left, and Elliot Cadeau celebrate during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis.

Michael Conroy/AP

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Michael Conroy/AP

Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 for 15 from there and won despite the struggles of their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, the graduate transfer from UAB finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

Truth be told, it wasn’t anyone’s prettiest night.

UConn’s hopes at becoming the first team since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty to win three titles in four seasons came up short, done in by massive foul trouble and its own terrible shooting.

Coach Dan Hurley’s team shot 30.9% from the floor and missed its first 11 shots from 3 in the second half.

Braylon Mullins, the hero of the Duke win that put UConn in the Final Four, finished 4 of 17, though he made a pair of late 3s that kept the game in reach.

UConn (35-5) covered the 6 1/2-point spread, and Hurley kept his players out on the court to watch the podium get set up for the presentation of a trophy heading not to Storrs, but Ann Arbor.

Members of Michigan celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis.

Michael Conroy/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Michael Conroy/AP

Advertisement

About the only consolation: The Huskies clogged things up, slowed things down and made Michigan beat them at their game.

The Wolverines came in as the first team to crack 90 points in five straight high-flying tournament blowouts. They didn’t hit 70 in this one but, in almost every way, it was the prettiest of them all — the one that gives them what even Michigan’s most famous teams, the Fab Five, couldn’t manage — namely, a natty.

Style points aside, this was a championship built from outside — the best team money could buy.

All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. That’s the product of the transfer portal that May has shown no reluctance to use. His ability to form a makeshift group into a winner is still the value of a coach and a culture.

“They might be still calling us mercenaries but we’re the hardest-working team,” Lendenborg said. “We’re the best in college basketball and we’ll be one of the greatest ever.”

A minor earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.5 struck in Southern California on Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 2:06 p.m. Pacific time about 9 miles north of Tecate, Mexico, data from the agency shows.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly.

President Trump repeated threats to Iran during during his Monday press conference, including against Iran’s civilian infrastructure if a deal to end the war is not reached by Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET. Negotiations, he said, must include an open Strait of Hormuz.

“Every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again. I mean complete demolition by 12 o’clock, and it will happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to, we don’t want that to happen,” Trump told reporters.

He added: “We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation.”

After days of flip-flopping messaging, vacillating from demanding Iran open the Strait of Hormuz to telling U.S. allies it’s up to them to open it to an Easter Sunday profanity-laced social media post demanding Iran open it, Trump said a successful negotiation would have to include “free traffic of oil.”

“We have to have a deal that’s acceptable to me and part of that deal is going to be, we want free traffic of oil and everything,” he said.

Asked about his mixed messages about the status of the war, and whether it was winding down or ramping up amid his latest threats, he said: “I don’t know. I can’t tell. It depends what they do. This is a critical period. They have a period of, well, till tomorrow, at eight o’clock.”

Trump said he can’t discuss a potential ceasefire, but the U.S. has “an active, willing participant on the other side” of negotiations.

Asked if he’s concerned that bombing of power plants and bridges would amount to war crimes, Trump said, “No. I hope I don’t have to do it.”

He opened the press conference by describing the successful rescue mission for the downed airman over the weekend.

Trump spent several minutes describing the rescue mission, calling his decision to authorize the rescue as “risky” and “hard.”

“But in the U.S. military. We leave no American behind,” he said. The president claimed Iran “got lucky” when they took out the U.S. fighter jet.

CIA Director John Radcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine all recounted the rescue operation at the press conference — Trump’s first since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran more than a month ago.

The news conference comes days after Trump formally addressed the nation from the White House last week and said the conflict would end “shortly.” At that address, he criticized other countries, though didn’t name any specifically, and said it was up to others to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the route through which 20% of the world’s oil is transported.

Iran’s closure of the strait during the war has led to a jump in gas prices globally, hitting around $4 per gallon last week in the U.S.

The president has also been threatening a surge in strikes on Iran Tuesday, unless the strait is reopened by tomorrow evening.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump said on social media over the weekend, “Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”

The post comes as negotiations between the U.S. and Iran have made some progress. A 45-day ceasefire proposal was submitted to the U.S. and Iran on Sunday. On Monday, Trump called the proposal “a significant step.”

The president has repeatedly said the war would last roughly six weeks. But now, in its sixth week, the timeline on when the war would end and how achievable Trump’s objectives are remain unclear.

For weeks, Trump has been moving the goal posts on the administration’s goals with Iran, including whether the U.S. will remove Iran’s uranium stockpiles. Trump has also suggested that the U.S. could end the war but strike Iran again later if they aim to build up nuclear defenses.

Polling shows that Americans oppose the war in Iran. Even among Republican supporters of the president, his approval rating has dipped. A CNN poll released last week showed that Republicans who strongly approve of Trump’s job performance dropped to 43%, compared to 52% in January.

High costs, including gas prices, remain a top of mind concern for voters heading into the midterm elections in roughly six months. On Monday, Trump said the high prices might last into the summer.

“We’re never going to let them have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of Iran. “And if we have to pay a little extra for fuel for a couple of months, and we’ll do that, but we’re never going to allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”