Apr 4, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan Wolverines center Aday Mara (15) high fives forward Yaxel Lendeborg (23) during the second half in a semifinal of the Final Four of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images UConn has won two of the past three national championships but will enter Monday night’s title game against Michigan as a heavy underdog.
That’s because the top-seeded Wolverines have blitzed through their first five games of the NCAA Tournament, winning by an average of 21.6 points. That includes an 18-point dismantling of fellow No. 1 seed Arizona on Saturday night in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score.
UConn, the No. 2 seed in the East, followed a dramatic upset of No. 1 Duke in the Elite Eight with a systematic breakdown of No. 3 seed Illinois. Still, the Huskies will enter Monday night as the underdog for their third consecutive game.
Michigan was a consensus 7.0-point favorite across major sportsbooks on Sunday, with the Wolverines seeking to become the first Big Ten team to win the national title since the 1999-2000 season.
The line was sitting at 6.5 points at both BetMGM and DraftKings, where the line opened at 7.5. The total points line at 144.5 at both books. At DraftKings, the shortest odds on the winning margin was Michigan to win by 3-6 points at +425, followed by a Wolverines victory by 10-13 points at +450. UConn’s shortest odds for a victory were 3-6 points at +800.
The Wolverines are the 10th Big Ten team to reach the final in a season that began this century, but the most recent team to cut down the nets remains Michigan State in 1999-2000. Michigan looking to complete a turnaround that saw the program stumble to an 8-24 finish just two years ago.
UConn is in the final for the third time in four years, but will go up against a Michigan team that already is the first in history to score at least 90 points five times in a single NCAA Tournament.
“We know it’s just one more, so we’re going to try to get it,” Michigan’s Aday Mara said after Saturday’s beat down of Arizona.
The Huskies certainly have recent history on their site, and coach Dan Hurley will enter Monday night with a 350-179 career coaching record along with that pair of national titles. No program has won three in a four-year span since the 1972-75 UCLA Bruins.
UConn has 18 wins this season in which it has held its opponent under 40 percent shooting, and the Huskies held Illinois to 33.9% shooting from three-point range on Saturdya.
“We’re a group of fighters. It’s not appealing to everyone,” Hurley said. “I’m sure there’s some people in here that it’s off-putting for. But we are a group of fighters. We are incredibly tough. We’ve got incredible will. We go into these games, we’re ready for battle.
“Again, for us it’s not a game that we’re just kind of running around in uniforms throwing the ball around, hoping it goes in. That’s not what we’re doing out there. We’re fighting. It’s a life-and-death struggle for us to get to Monday night for the opportunity to win a championship, and then just to be able to prolong this season with each other and to make the people of Connecticut proud, to make the university proud and all the former great players.”
–Field Level Media
Apr 4, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan Wolverines center Aday Mara (15) high fives forward Yaxel Lendeborg (23) during the second half in a semifinal of the Final Four of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images UConn has won two of the past three national championships but will enter Monday night’s title game against Michigan as a heavy underdog.
That’s because the top-seeded Wolverines have blitzed through their first five games of the NCAA Tournament, winning by an average of 21.6 points. That includes an 18-point dismantling of fellow No. 1 seed Arizona on Saturday night in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score.
UConn, the No. 2 seed in the East, followed a dramatic upset of No. 1 Duke in the Elite Eight with a systematic breakdown of No. 3 seed Illinois. Still, the Huskies will enter Monday night as the underdog for their third consecutive game.
Michigan was a consensus 7.0-point favorite across major sportsbooks on Sunday, with the Wolverines seeking to become the first Big Ten team to win the national title since the 1999-2000 season.
The line was sitting at 6.5 points at both BetMGM and DraftKings, where the line opened at 7.5. The total points line at 144.5 at both books. At DraftKings, the shortest odds on the winning margin was Michigan to win by 3-6 points at +425, followed by a Wolverines victory by 10-13 points at +450. UConn’s shortest odds for a victory were 3-6 points at +800.
The Wolverines are the 10th Big Ten team to reach the final in a season that began this century, but the most recent team to cut down the nets remains Michigan State in 1999-2000. Michigan looking to complete a turnaround that saw the program stumble to an 8-24 finish just two years ago.
UConn is in the final for the third time in four years, but will go up against a Michigan team that already is the first in history to score at least 90 points five times in a single NCAA Tournament.
“We know it’s just one more, so we’re going to try to get it,” Michigan’s Aday Mara said after Saturday’s beat down of Arizona.
The Huskies certainly have recent history on their site, and coach Dan Hurley will enter Monday night with a 350-179 career coaching record along with that pair of national titles. No program has won three in a four-year span since the 1972-75 UCLA Bruins.
UConn has 18 wins this season in which it has held its opponent under 40 percent shooting, and the Huskies held Illinois to 33.9% shooting from three-point range on Saturdya.
“We’re a group of fighters. It’s not appealing to everyone,” Hurley said. “I’m sure there’s some people in here that it’s off-putting for. But we are a group of fighters. We are incredibly tough. We’ve got incredible will. We go into these games, we’re ready for battle.
“Again, for us it’s not a game that we’re just kind of running around in uniforms throwing the ball around, hoping it goes in. That’s not what we’re doing out there. We’re fighting. It’s a life-and-death struggle for us to get to Monday night for the opportunity to win a championship, and then just to be able to prolong this season with each other and to make the people of Connecticut proud, to make the university proud and all the former great players.”
–Field Level Media
![I don’t deserve this point: Vaishali on win against Tan in FIDE Candidates 2026, Round 7 India’s R. Vaishali was scathingly honest in her analysis of her performance during the seventh round of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 in Cyprus on Sunday.Vaishali notched up her second consecutive win of the tournament after beating China’s Tan Zhongyi. This helped the Indian jump to second place on the standings, just half a point behind leader Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine at the halfway stage. However despite the win, Vaishali said she wasn’t at her best on the board.“It was a horrible game. I don’t deserve this point at all. She [Tan] just blundered towards the end, it was just a bad game from me. Everything went wrong from the beginning,” Vaishali said after the match during an analysis of her match.The blunder she’s talking about came in the sequence around moves 36 to 38 — Rc6, Kg7, Ra1 — which ensured Vaishali walked away with the full point.Zhongyi began pushing pawns on the flank instead of consolidating her king position, and one of Vaishali’s key moments came on move 38 with Rxf6, winning a pawn and opening lines towards the black king.“When she blundered, it was a full piece so it was not that hard to convert with less time. There are games where it is harder, but in this one, it was easy,” she added.Vaishal will return to action in Round 8 with a game against Bibisara Assaubayeva.Published on Apr 06, 2026 #dont #deserve #point #Vaishali #win #Tan #FIDE #Candidates](https://i2.wp.com/ss-i.thgim.com/public/incoming/4ko91j/article70827814.ece/alternates/LANDSCAPE_1200/55189414811_7a54217201_o.jpg?ssl=1 "I don’t deserve this point: Vaishali on win against Tan in FIDE Candidates 2026, Round 7 India’s R. Vaishali was scathingly honest in her analysis of her performance during the seventh round of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 in Cyprus on Sunday.Vaishali notched up her second consecutive win of the tournament after beating China’s Tan Zhongyi. This helped the Indian jump to second place on the standings, just half a point behind leader Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine at the halfway stage. However despite the win, Vaishali said she wasn’t at her best on the board.“It was a horrible game. I don’t deserve this point at all. She [Tan] just blundered towards the end, it was just a bad game from me. Everything went wrong from the beginning,” Vaishali said after the match during an analysis of her match.The blunder she’s talking about came in the sequence around moves 36 to 38 — Rc6, Kg7, Ra1 — which ensured Vaishali walked away with the full point.Zhongyi began pushing pawns on the flank instead of consolidating her king position, and one of Vaishali’s key moments came on move 38 with Rxf6, winning a pawn and opening lines towards the black king.“When she blundered, it was a full piece so it was not that hard to convert with less time. There are games where it is harder, but in this one, it was easy,” she added.Vaishal will return to action in Round 8 with a game against Bibisara Assaubayeva.Published on Apr 06, 2026 #dont #deserve #point #Vaishali #win #Tan #FIDE #Candidates")
