Sports Poets Society

ROBERT DEUTSCH/IMAGN IMAGES The Michigan Wolverines, including coach Dusty May (gold shirt) and the players,  acknowledge fans after their NCAA title game win. Michigan vs. UConn - National Championship NCAA tournament extended highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZLXQ62lWlQ Michigan defense holds off UConn  Wolverines snare NCAA title on strength of defense, not offense Wolverines surge past Huskies despite offensive struggles to win NCAA men’s national title game.  Jordan Mendoza USA TODAY 8 apr 2026 - USA TODAY US Edition INDIANAPOLIS – You wouldn’t think Michigan would be all smiles at halftime. Yes, it had a four-point lead over UConn in the national championship game, but it was an unattractive fourpoint lead. It was arguably the worst first-half performance of the season. Not only did the Wolverines fail to make a single 3-pointer in the first half – the only time that’s happened this season – but there were no makes outside of the paint. An awful first 20 m...

Brendan Marks The New York Times - Mercoledì 8 aprile 2026 Pagina 31 INDIANAPOLIS — There are no words for moments like these. Or at least none that Dan Hurley, the men’s basketball coach at Connecticut, prepared. But minutes after the game was over — after the confetti rained down at Lucas Oil Stadium, celebrating Michigan’s 69-63 national championship win over UConn — Hurley had to say something. There’s no stopping the hurt when you finish second, not on the final Monday night of the college basketball season. But it is a coach’s duty to at least dress the wound. To saddle up next to Alex Karaban, who won 126 games with UConn in four years, including two national championships, and pull him in tight on a walk down a back tunnel. To whisper the only thing that could maybe, possibly, transcend the magnitude of a career-ending loss: “You know I love you, man. ” There is much to love: not just about this one game, or season, but everything Karaban has represented for UConn over the past...

Un impianto enorme - Il Lucas Oil Stadium di Indianapolis (capienza da 70.000 spettatori)  ospiterà le Final Four maschili come nel 2010, 2015 (foto) e 2021 UConn sfida Illinois e insegue il terzo titolo in quattro anni, m a Arizona-Michigan sembra una finale anticipata 4 Apr 2026 - La Gazzetta dello Sport di ANDREA BUONGIOVANNI  Dieci milioni e 300.000 telespettatori a partita. È l’audience-media statunitense del Torneo NCAA 2026, con le Final Four da disputarsi tra oggi e lunedì (dirette per l’Italia su Dazn). Mai, dal 1993 con tre sole sfide ancora in programma - si avevano avuti numeri così alti. Rispetto allo scorso anno, per esempio, si registra un +9%. Insomma: è di nuovo March Madness-mania . E non è un caso che l’ultimo atto della stagione, in programma davanti agli oltre 70.000 dell’Oil Stadium di Indianapolis, sia attesissimo. Illinois-UConn  Si parte così, stanotte alle 0.09 italiane. È sfida tra squadre arrivate sin qui abbastanza a sorpresa . Testa di serie ...

Tristen Newton of the Huskies scored 20 points and was named most outstanding  player of the men's Final Four. Zach Edey of Purdue scored a game-high 37. PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES Connecticut caps dominant two-year run with a second title Huskies repeat in dominant fashion 9 Apr 2024 - The Washington Post BY CHUCK CULPEPPER If the NCAA men’s basketball tournament counts as one of the nation’s ultimate rodeos, then it just witnessed maybe the smoothest two-year case of bronco riding it ever saw. Coach Dan Hurley’s Connecticut Huskies spent Monday night finishing an unimaginable calming of the rambunctious event, becoming the first repeat national champion since Florida in 2006-07 and only the second since Duke in 1991-92. It parked a program little-known four decades ago way up high on the list at six national championships, in third place shoulder-to-shoulder with North Carolina. In its 75-60 win over an excellent Purdue whose shots started suffering against Connecti...

UConn became just the fourth program to have six or more national titles after winning it all in 2024. It's also the first back-to-back champion since Florida in 2006 and 2007.  Christian Petersen/Getty Images https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/insider/story/_/id/39901608/ranking-all-mens-ncaa-national-champions-including-2024-winner-uconn John Gasaway,  ESPN Insider - Apr 9, 2024, 08:45 AM ET UConn has achieved something truly exceptional with its 2024 men's national championship . Not only did the Huskies repeat as champions, they did so after losing three starters from last year's championship team. Indeed, many repeat champions of yesteryear benefited from a higher degree of roster continuity. So congratulations, Dan Hurley, on finding a different path to a successful title defense. Just where does UConn's 2024 team rank on the all-time list of men's national champions? We took a shot at coming up with an answer. Starting with Oregon in 1939 and goin...

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39904076/connecticut-huskies-cruise-sixth-ncaa-championship Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff Writer Apr 8, 2024, 11:34 PM ET GLENDALE, Ariz. -- On paper, the plan wasn't working. Zach Edey had 14 points, the reigning Wooden Award winner was talking trash to Dan Hurley and the UConn bench, and Purdue led the Huskies with 8 minutes left in the first half. UConn had elected to guard Edey one-on-one with Donovan Clingan , essentially allowing him to score at will, while focusing most of their defensive attention on the Boilermakers' other players. Edey was dominating UConn's projected lottery pick center like nobody else had all season. But UConn, as it has done consistently over the past two years, stayed the course and trusted its game plan. Edey couldn't beat the Huskies by himself, and his teammates weren't doing much to help. The floodgates opened for UConn in the second half, and the Huskies ultimately beat Purdu...