Forty minutes away from another national championship, UConn will lean on its center, with the road to championship No. 7 running through his past.
Tarris Reed Jr. started his career at Michigan before transferring ahead of his junior season. Now a senior, he will anchor the Huskies when they take on the Wolverines on Monday night in Indianapolis, with a national championship on the line.
“I started my career at Michigan and now I’m about to play them in my final game… I never would have thought that would happen in a million years,” Reed said.
UConn head coach Dan Hurley has preached all season that the team will “go as far as Tarris takes [it].” Reed has delivered on that responsibility, with Hurley now knocking on the door of his third championship in four years. He would be the first coach to accomplish the feat in more than 50 years.
Reed has been the Huskies’ leading scorer in four of their five tournament games, including a historic 31-point 27-rebound performance in the first round. He is averaging 20.8 points per game during that span on a 58% clip, while pulling down 13 rebounds per game.
The Huskies advanced to the title game with a 71-62 win over Illinois. Reed logged his third double-double of the tournament, finishing with a team-high 17 points.
His presence inside created openings on the perimeter that UConn capitalized on. Braylon Mullins, riding the momentum of his game-winning buzzer-beater three in the Elite Eight, buried four of the Huskies’ 12 three-pointers on the night.
Solo Ball trailed Mullins with three of his own from deep. It was a glimpse of what Ball can do at his best, as his shooting has fluctuated all season. Though he is shooting under 30% from three this season, his ability to space the floor is vital to UConn’s offense when he gets into rhythm.
“When we’re able to hit shots and spread the defense, it makes it easier on everyone else,” Mullins said.
Ball played just one minute as a freshman during the oHuskies’ 2024 title run. With an opportunity to play a larger role in another championship, his availability is uncertain after Hurley announced Sunday that Ball suffered a foot sprain during the National Semifinal the night before.
Ball said that the injury is just “a bump in the road” and that he is focused on preparing for the championship. He will be a game time decision and did not practice on Sunday.
Even the smallest bumps could prove fatal against this Michigan squad. The Wolverines have looked unstoppable, dismantling Arizona in the Final Four after the Wildcats entered as the No. 1 team in KenPom’s net rating. Michigan won 91-73 over Arizona, though the 18-point win hardly demonstrated its control. The Wolverines led by as many as 30.
Michigan has waltzed through its tournament slate. Alabama gave the Wolverines their toughest test during the Sweet 16. The Crimson Tide led by as much as nine but still found themselves on the wrong side of a 13-point margin, Michigan’s closest score in the tournament.
Reed will now face what is likely to be the toughest test of his career against the Wolverines’ frontcourt, a unit that has powered Michigan to the championship game.
Aday Mara will be the primary matchup for Reed at center. The 2026 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year stands at 7-foot-3 with a near 7-foot-7 wingspan. He posted 26 points and nine rebounds during the Final Four victory on Saturday and is averaging 2.6 blocks per game.
“They play with a lot of tremendous size, especially in the frontcourt. It’s going to be a great challenge,” Reed said.
Alongside him are Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr. filling out the two forward spots. Lendeborg was named the Big Ten Player of the Year after averaging nearly 15 points per game. He has been the engine of this Michigan team, making impact plays on both ends of the floor.
“The size obviously jumps out at you… just how big they are at the 3, 4 and 5. They’ve just been dominant, scary with the size, scary with the rebounding,” Hurley said.
Lendeborg went to the locker room during the National Semifinal, after suffering an MCL sprain as well as a separate ankle injury. He returned in the second half and continued to play through the pain. Lendeborg told Tracy Wolfson on the TNT Sports broadcast that he is going to play in the championship “unless [he] can’t walk.”
“All imaging has come back clean, and he’s getting treatment and doing rehab all day today. I’m sure he’ll give it a go tomorrow, but that will be entirely up to him and the medical staff,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said.
Michigan’s size in the frontcourt will force UConn to find answers from the outside. The twelve threes on Saturday marked UConn’s best shooting performance of the tournament, an area they have otherwise struggled this March.
The way they defend, the size they have in the paint…we’ve been laying bricks at different times,” Hurley said. “We’re not going to get away with that on Monday night.
With questions surrounding Ball’s availability, the Huskies’ need for production from beyond the arc only grows.
This puts added pressure on Alex Karaban. He was the Huskies’ most reliable shooter at the start of the tournament but has since cooled off to 2-for-13 over the past two games. Hurley’s confidence in his captain is unshaken; he said that Karaban is “due.”
Karaban captain will play in the final collegiate game of his career Monday, looking to become the first three-time national champion since 1975.
“I’ve been thinking about Michigan a lot more than that,” Karaban said. “I think the emotions are going to hit when [I am] in that locker room and [I am] are putting on that jersey and realizing, like, this is the last 40 minutes in it.”
Tipoff is set for 8:50 p.m. and will be broadcast on TBS.