Ann Arbor — A season full of bashings ended with the Michigan basketball team’s biggest bash of all — a national title celebration that the Wolverines haven’t experienced since 1989.
That long wait ended on Monday, when Michigan beat UConn, 69-63, in the NCAA Tournament final at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
And after waiting several days to celebrate the program’s second national title, Saturday’s festivities started with a parade through campus. The party then moved indoors for a ticketed event at Crisler Center, where the national championship banner was raised to the rafters.
“Anytime you have a group come together and you feel like they gave you so much more than you could ever give them, it melts you,” coach Dusty May told the crowd, as he was surrounded by the players on stage at center court. “These guys did it for each other, they did it for the staff, they did it for all of you and they did it for all the right reasons with class, with great effort and support for each other. That’s all you can ask for as a coach.
“They’ve left a legacy. They’ve been an example and a standard for all Michigan teams going forward.”
Athletic director Warde Manuel was among the many who spoke during the celebration event. He called May’s Wolverines the “most dominant team ever” and rattled off a list of their accomplishments, from winning a program-record 37 games and capturing the outright Big Ten regular-season title by four games to going 19-1 in conference play and not losing a single true road game.
There were also several reminders on stage, with Michigan’s Big Ten regular-season title and national title trophies sitting alongside the ones the Wolverines brought home from the Players Era tournament and NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional.
“They beat the best in America consistently and dominantly over the course of this year,” Manuel said. “What set them apart was a culture built on leadership, toughness, composure and a genuine belief in one another. This team thrived in adversity and played for each other. No moment was too big, and no amount of attention took them away from the goals they had set for themselves.”
On top of that, the Wolverines snapped the Big Ten’s lengthy national title drought that dragged on since Michigan State last won it all in 2000.
“And it won’t be our last, I promise,” said Manuel, before announcing he reached an agreement with May on a contract extension that drew the loudest applause.
It was a season “we’ll remember the rest of our lives,” Ann Arbor mayor Christopher Taylor proclaimed. There were plenty of blowouts and not many tense moments. It ended with the Wolverines delivering their one shining moment in the NCAA Tournament final, which led to some fewer couches in the morning — “I get it, but I do not condone it,” Taylor quipped — and a bunch of fireworks at night in Ann Arbor. Taylor joked about how he was a student in 1989 when Michigan won the national title and had a hand in the mess that was made on South University Avenue. This time around, he was in charge of cleaning up the mess.
Several players were interviewed on stage throughout the event and shared their recollections from the national title game win over UConn.
Guard Trey McKenney recalled his dagger 3-pointer, noting he didn’t hear the crowd erupt and “blacked out totally,” while guard Nimari Burnett spoke about what was behind his tears when the final horn sounded.
“What went through my mind is all the work that these guys put in, that we put in individually, as a team,” Burnett said. “It was beautiful moment that I’ll never forget. All the emotions of my college career went through my mind. To end this way, hanging up banners here in Crisler is the best feeling ever.”
Others including guard Elliot Cadeau, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, forward Yaxel Lendeborg, the Big Ten Player of the Year, forward Will Tschetter and guard Roddy Gayle Jr. thanked the fans for their support all season long.
Lendeborg stated if he could come back and play for five more years, he would.
“I feel like the least that we could’ve done was bring the national championship back home to you guys,” Lendeborg said.
In the morning, thousands of fans lined up on both sides of the parade route that started at the president’s house, went down State Street and ended at Yost Ice Arena. Players, coaches, staff members and Manuel traveled in the bed of pickup trucks, popping confetti and tossing souvenirs along the way.
May brought up the rear in a vintage firetruck, signing anything and everything that fans threw to him, from basketballs and jerseys to shoes and even a maize-and-blue sombrero.
On a day where the team celebrated its first national title in 37 years and officially put a bow on the 2025-26 campaign, it’s already turning its attention to going back-to-back and returning to next season’s Final Four that will be close to home.
“Coming into the summer, it’s going to be the same goal,” McKenney said. “We’re going to try to get back to Detroit.”
Tschetter wasn’t afraid to take it one step further.
“The future is very bright. It’s in amazing hands. We’re definitely going to be hanging a ton more banners up there,” Tschetter said. “Get ready for next year to do the same thing.”
jhawkins@detroitnews.com
@jamesbhawkins
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan celebrates its ‘most dominant team ever’ in Crisler Center party
Reporting by James Hawkins, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
