How to watch Michigan basketball chase history in NCAA championship game
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - APRIL 04: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates with Trey McKenney #1 in the first half against the Arizona Wildcats in the Final Four of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on Ap
FOX 2 - For the first time since 2013, the University of Michigan men's basketball team is playing for the NCAA tournament championship tonight.
The backstory:
The Wolverines face UConn in a bid for their first title since 1989 when Michigan defeated Seton Hall.
A win tonight would also be the first by a Big 10 school since 2000.
Michigan is looking to break a streak since then of going 0-3 in title games.
In 2013, Michigan lost to Louisville in the championship game, and in 1992 and 1993, when the Fab Five led squads lost to Duke and infamously in Chris Webber's time-out game, to North Carolina.
"We have a team that we think is elite," U-M coach Dusty May said. "But we also know that means nothing. You still have to do all the things that got you to this point, and you have to weather storms. You have to handle success."
For the Wolverines to go down as one of college basketball’s best ever, they’ll have to do it one more time by taking down a UConn program seeking its third national title in four seasons.
How to watch tonight:
Michigan and U-Conn play on CBS tonight with the game tip-off starting at 8:50 p.m.
The Wolverines (36-3) are a 7 ½-point favorite according to BetMGM Sportsbook - although UConn has been picked to lose by oddsmakers for the past two weeks.
If the Huskies (34-5) defy the odds again, they’ll become the first program to win three titles in four years since the UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and ‘70s.
How Michigan got here:
All eyes will be on injured star Yaxel Lendeborg to end the Big Ten's 26-year championship drought.
Yaxel Lendeborg rolled his left ankle and sprained his MCL in the national semifinal 91-73 win over Arizona
The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Lendeborg entered the game averaging 15.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists - but in the tournament is at a 19-point clip.
Behind 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara, the Wolverines have looked dominant in the tournament, winning four games by 17 or more points, including the last two.
Aday Mara going for 26 points to lead five players in double figures.
They are the first team to reach the 90-point mark five times in a single March Madness.
Lendeborg said he is goinmg to miss tonight's game, no matter what.
"Absolutely not," he said at his locker, surrounded by multiple rows of reporters. "Unless I wake up and I get up and fall off my feet, I’m going to be in that game."
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - APRIL 04: Will Tschetter #42, Trey McKenney #1, Elliot Cadeau #3 and Aday Mara #15 of the Michigan Wolverines look on against the Arizona Wildcats in the Final Four of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Sta
The Source: Information for this report is from the Associated Press.