Ann Arbor — Thousands of Michigan basketball fans poured onto South University Avenue in downtown Ann Arbor moments after the Wolverines defeated the UConn Huskies, reveling in the team’s first NCAA national championship in 37 years.
Just after the final buzzer rang, fans rushed out of Good Time Charley’s, a popular downtown bar, toppling chairs and leaving behind broken glass. The bar was empty within seconds as the revelers took the streets.
Some fans set off fireworks. A stop sign was torn down, and people climbed trees, light poles, and picnic tables.
Ann Arbor police officials said early Tuesday that two people were arrested during the post-game celebrations.
Authorities also said Ann Arbor firefighters extinguished more than 40 fires. In addition, multiple street signs were damaged, according to police. However, they said no serious injuries were reported.
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Multiple rounds of fireworks were set off in the middle of the densely packed crowd to screaming applause, and small bits of debris rained down.
Those standing next to businesses were at times crushed into the building walls by the swarms of blue and maize-clad basketball fans.
By 1 a.m. Tuesday, police had dispersed the crowd on South University Avenue, and some of the revelers had returned to nearby bars that remained open. The street curbs were littered with spent fireworks boxes, single shoes and empty alcohol containers.
UM freshman Joseph Stout grew up in Ann Arbor watching Michigan basketball. He said it feels really special to witness the win as a college student. His favorite moment was UM’s first three-pointer.“I’m feeling wonderful,” he said just a few minutes after the victory as students filtered out of the watch party at Crisler Center.
An emotional victory for the maize and blue
Indianapolis — At Lucas Oil Stadium, UM student Greta Lindall was sobbing when the buzzer rang out.
“I’ve been a fan for years. This means so much,” she said.
Lindall said she was so grateful for all the fans who showed up to pack the downtown Indianapolis arena with maize and blue.
“We have the best fans in the world — it really means so much.”
At Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, UM freshmen friends Jessica Tian, Abby Vong, Chloe Lin and Vicky Feng were on the edge of their seats in the final minutes of the game. Tian said she was worried UM might lose as UConn shaved UM’s lead down to four points.“I wasn’t expecting this,” Tian said of the win.“(UConn) kept shooting three-pointers, and we weren’t shooting three-pointers,” Lin added.
Michigan fans feel at home in Lucas Oil Stadium
Indianapolis — The arena was deep in the heart of Indiana, but it looked like a crowd inside Crisler Arena.
Terrance Harris and JJ Jester, University of Michigan fans from Columbus, Ohio, said they felt Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis might as well have been in the middle of Ann Arbor amid the sea of maize and blue in the stands.
“This is a home game for sure,” Jester said.
But Michigan’s lead wasn’t enough to alleviate the worries of the two men from Ohio.
“My heart has been in my throat since tip-off. Yaxel’s hurt, we need to be feeding the big guy,” Jester said, referring to stars Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara, Michigan’s 7′ 3″ center from Spain.
Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was also in attendance at the championship game after attending the Final Four on Saturday night.
“The game is terrific,” he said. “I’m feeling really good. This team has a championship feel to it — and it has all season.”
Duggan, a Michigan graduate, also felt like the stadium was in the middle of Ann Arbor.
“We were really excited to see all the ugly orange from Illinois go home and be replaced with maize and blue,” he said. “Now all they need to do is play Mr. Brightside.”
Michigan shooting woes had some fans on edge at halftime
Some Michigan basketball fans were showing signs of worry at halftime, despite the Wolverines being up by four points against the UConn Huskies.
“We’re just not shooting well,” said longtime Wolverines fan Don Watts. “But I think we’ll get them in the second half.”
Michigan players made fewer than 40% of their shots from the field during the first half and missed every three-point shot. Lendeborg, an All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year, was nursing knee and ankle injuries and made just one of his five shots from the field during the first half.
Watts said he’d been a fan since the 1960s when he attended the university. He thought that this team had to be one of the best he’s seen in his time as a fan.
“It’s up there with the 1989 team,” Watts said, referring to UM’s only men’s basketball team to win an NCAA tournament championship.
Moriah Johnson, sister of Michigan sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr., wore a jean jacket bedazzled with a large blue “M” and reading “Johnson 21 Sister” in the stands at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Johnson said she was proud of her older brother, but at halftime she felt more nervous than she had on Saturday night, when the team blew away Arizona in the Final Four.
“I’m feeling excited, we’ve got to win,” she said. “But yeah, there’s a little tension in the building.”
At the Michigan watch party inside Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Hannah and Hayley Freeman, freshmen UM twins, said the close score at halftime had them feeling nervous, but still confident that Michigan would prevail.
“There’s no doubt in my mind,” Hayley Freeman said.
Hannah Freeman said it would be really special for Michigan to win the championship since it’s their first year at school in Ann Arbor.
“We’re playing pretty good. We’re going to step it up,” she said.
University of Michigan regent attends championship game
Indianapolis — Businesswoman Denise Ilitch, an elected member of UM’s Board of Regents, wasn’t at Saturday night’s semifinal win over the Arizona Wildcats, instead calling herself a “Finals girl.”
Ilitch, whose family owns the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Red Wings, said she’s seen so much in sports, but she made sure to be at Monday night’s championship game.
“I’m very excited, a little nervous, but I’m always nervous,” she said. “As my family says, ‘It’s not over until it’s over,’ so I don’t like to take things for granted. But I’m so proud of our team, our coach, our university.”
Fans in line for nearly a day at one Ann Arbor bar
Ann Arbor — At Good Time Charley’s in Ann Arbor, some fans began lining up outside the South University Avenue watering hole nearly 23 hours before tipoff.
UM sophomore William Huddleston, junior Jaryl Shao and about nine of their friends lined up outside Good Time Charley’s around 1 a.m. Monday to get a spot at the sports bar when it opened at 5 p.m., late compared to a more committed group of revelers who arrived at 10 p.m. Sunday
Shao said some people brought sleeping bags and weathered light snow, and they took turns guarding their spot so they could go to class or the bathroom.
“There were tents out there,” Shao said before screaming after a Michigan score in the first half. “It was insane.”
The bar-goers cheered when fellow Michigan fans inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis were featured on one of the dozens of TVs at the sports bar, and they booed in unison when the University of Connecticut mascot danced on screen.
When the Star Spangled Banner played, fans raised a fist and yelled the lyric “Hail!” in a nod to the Michigan cheer.
Michigan fans Desirae Ott, 37, and her boyfriend, 35-year-old Brad Davis, watched the game from outside a window at Good Time Charley’s.
The two Ann Arbor residents huddled together as temperatures dropped into the 30s. They didn’t bother trying to get into the bar after hearing about a nearly day-long wait some diehard fans had weathered to get inside.
“It’s not often you get a national championship in your hometown,” Davis said. The two planned to hang around downtown Ann Arbor in hopes of a Michigan victory and celebrations in the college town.
Steve Pougnet, 61, drove from his home in Torch Lake in northern Michigan to watch the game at Good Time Charley’s with his two kids, who attend the University of Michigan.
“What better way to celebrate the Final Four than with my kids, right?” said Pougnet, who wore a Michigan shirt.
Pougnet said even though he’s a Michigan State University alum, he’s still proud to celebrate with his children.
UM band, dancers bask in team’s ‘amazing’ run
Indianapolis — For University of Michigan basketball band members Ella Blank and Gabe Walters, the experience of playing at the national championship was indescribable.
The two were part of an NCAA-mandated 29-member ensemble that traveled with the Michigan men’s basketball team to Indianapolis for Monday night’s showdown against the UConn Huskies. Both juniors had played for the basketball band since their freshman year and said they enjoyed watching the team grow and develop under coach Dusty May.
Blank said the team she was watching now was not the same team she’d played for her first year at the university.
“It’s unbelievable compared to my freshman year, when they didn’t have a great record,” she said. “If you told me now what Crisler (Center) would look like with the student section, I wouldn’t believe you.”
Both students said they were big fans of the team and getting to see every step of their success was priceless.
“One of the coolest things about being in the basketball band as a student is like, you get to see their progression of the team because through their highs, lows, everything, you’re always there to support them,” Walters said. “You’re never going to be an upset fan. You’re always rooting for the team, and that’s a very valuable experience.”
Avery Rock, a senior on UM’s dance team, called the run to the Final Four an “incredible” experience.
“This has seriously been one of the best weeks of our lives,” Rock said. “I mean, we’re representing the best university in the world. It’s been so awesome.”
Rock was one of 12 dance team members traveling with the team. Her fellow teammate, sophomore Courtney Borchardt, said she felt exactly the same way.
“It’s amazing to walk into a random hotel in Indianapolis and it’s filled with Maize and Blue and a ton of Michigan fans,” Borchardt said. “It’s really nice to see the Michigan community come together and cheer on the best university in the world.”
Michigan fans grab seats inside Crisler Arena for NCAA championship game
Back home in Ann Arbor, UM fans turned out for a watch party inside Crisler Arena, the home court for the Wolverines.
“Win by 50!” said sophomore Olecks Sakhno of how he’d like to see a win for UM shake out.
Sakhno and classmates Killian Picard and Jackson Koenig sported matching maize cowboy hats in the stands at Crisler Arena. All three acknowledged they were nervous, yet excited for the game.
“They’ve got the championship pedigree,” Picard said.
Sam Jurek and Henry Barron came to the watch party with more than a dozen others from their environmental science fraternity, Epsilon Eta.
Barron said he didn’t want to feel too confident and jinx the game for Michigan, but he was “feeling pumped.”
“It’s kind of unique that it’s all students here right now,” Jurek said. “I love when the crowd gets into it.”
Michigan students cram in homework before big game in Indianapolis
Indianapolis — Hours before Monday night’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game and about 270 miles away from campus, University of Michigan students were cramming to finish assignments in the lobby of the team hotel.
Connor Couch, a junior in the university’s Ross School of Business, took up a table in the lobby with a posterboard and markers. Although he had several assignments, including the posterboard due the next day, he said there was no way he couldn’t be in Indianapolis to watch the basketball team attempt to win their first championship in decades.
“My best friend got free tickets to the game, that’s something you can’t pass up,” he said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime game.”
The Michigan Wolverines and UConn Huskies are set to battle for the NCAA men’s basketball national championship at 8:50 p.m. ET in Indianapolis.
Couch said he brought the poster board with him from Ann Arbor. He and his friend drove down on Monday for the game and planned to drive back on Tuesday.
“I have a paper due too,” he said. “I’ll probably just do it in the car on the way.”
A few feet away from Couch in the Marriott hotel lobby, Natalie Mark, a neuroscience and environmental science double major, worked on her economics homework.
She drove in from Chicago, where her sister lives, because it was a shorter trip and would make her way back to Ann Arbor in the next couple of days.
Mark, a former basketball player herself, said she thought the team had what it would take to defeat UConn and capture UM’s first tournament championship since 1989.
“The team is really good,” she said. “They move really well together; you can tell they’re working as a team. No one is more of a ‘star’ than anyone else.”
How some UM students passed the time before the men’s basketball showdown in Indianapolis
Hours before game time, UM students and other fans were lined up outside Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis.
One group of UM students donning yellow sports coats and matching top hats was playing a game of rock, paper, scissors to pass the time.
Other fans were posing for photos in front of the NCAA trophy statue near the stadium.
“I hope you have a big story tomorrow,” Patti Haywood said as she and her husband, John, got a picture next to the statue.
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Staff Photographer Daniel Mears and Staff Writers Connor Earegood and Charles E. Ramirez contributed.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: UM students, fans revel in first championship win in 37 years: ‘This means so much’
Reporting by Sarah Atwood, Summer Ballentine and Julia Cardi, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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