The Madness is Over

March Madness 2026 Recap

Photo by Gene Gallin on Unsplash

On the night of Monday April 6, the last game of the college basketball season arrived. After a long season, with over a thousand games played in total, the UConn Huskies and Michigan Wolverines battled it out to become the national champion. After a hard fought game and a late push from UConn, the Wolverines pulled through to win their second national title in men’s basketball.

With Michigan winning, the team created history in multiple different ways. Michigan became the first team in NCAA history to win the national championship with a starting lineup full of transfers. Along with that, Dusty May, the head coach of the Wolverines, won his first national title to cement his legacy as one of the best coaches in college basketball. The Wolverines were dominant throughout the season, the team went 37-3 throughout the season and were led by Big Ten Player of the Year, Yaxel Lendeborg. However, in the national title game, Lendeborg did not play his best after fighting through a left leg injury which he sustained in their Final Four matchup against Arizona. This meant other players had to step up, which is exactly what Elliot Cadeau did, and because of his stellar performance, Cadeau was named the 2026 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

Though Michigan won the final game, there were many amazing moments throughout the tournament. The moment that went the most viral was when UConn faced off against the Duke Blue Devils in the Elite Eight. The Huskies had been down almost the full game and were making a late push to try and win. After Silas Demery made a free throw to cut the Blue Devils lead to 2 with ten seconds left, all the Blue Devils had to do was not turn the ball over. However, that is exactly what Cayden Boozer did and after the steal, freshman Braylon Mullins shot the ball from 35 feet out for a game winning three, and made the shot, which sent the Huskies to the Final Four once again. Another amazing moment happened in the Round of 64, the 12 seeded High Point Panthers were facing off against the fifth seeded Wisconsin Badgers, hoping to pull off an upset. After a close game the Panthers were down one with 11 seconds left, that was until Nick Boyd missed a layup, this caused the Panthers to get on a fast break, after passing the ball to Chase Johnston, all he had to do was make a layup to pull off this victory, and he made it, this ended up being his first two point shot made all season and helped the Panthers pull off the upset.

Even though Michigan won the national title and many brackets predicted it, there were still no perfect brackets once again. This year, like many others, did not have a perfect bracket make it to the second weekend, even though there were over 26 million brackets made. Though this season has now ended, many people are already planning for next, and though they did not win it this year, the Duke Blue Devils are the current betting favorites for next season.