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Michigan basketball finally ends Big Ten title drought after more than 25 years
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Michigan did a lot of things on Monday night in Indianapolis.
It finally fended off UConn to capture its second national championship and first since 1989.
The injured but courageous Yaxel Lendeborg came through on his promise to the Fab Five to win the national championship in their honor.
And when the buzzer sounded, ending the Wolverines’ 69-63 grind-it-out national title game victory over the gritty Huskies, it also ended the Big Ten’s men’s basketball hardware drought that stretched back over a quarter-century.
That’s right. A Big Ten men’s basketball team hadn’t won a national championship since the year 2000, when a much younger Tom Izzo led Michigan State to the crown. It had been that long for a proud basketball conference that has been doing nothing but winning national titles in football recently.
There was Michigan football winning it all in 2023, followed by Ohio State in 2024 and Indiana last season.
But in men’s basketball, all the glory (and confetti) had run dry since those Spartans got it done 26 years ago.
Until Michigan outlasted UConn on Monday night, and created these vibes:
Like that social media post said, these Wolverines could feel it, alright. And it was a championship feeling over 25 years in the making for a conference that likes to boast about titles.
Finally, Michigan has another crown in men’s basketball and, finally, the Big Ten can boast about a championship in men’s basketball.