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The Michigan Wolverines and UConn Huskies are set to square off for the biggest prize in college basketball in the championship game of the 2026 NCAA Tournament on Monday night.
For the Huskies and head coach Dan Hurley, it’s familiar territory, and they’ll play for their third national championship in four years. Meanwhile, Michigan head coach Dusty May has needed just two seasons to turn the Wolverines back into a national power, having last reached the title game in 2018 under John Beilein.
Both head coaches have successfully used the transfer portal to their disposal, with the Wolverines starting five players who began their careers elsewhere, and the Huskies having a pair of transfers in their starting five, including one who began his career at Michigan.
In this piece, we’re taking a look back at where each starter in the national championship game ranked as a recruit and respective their paths to this point.
Michigan Wolverines
The Wolverines looked every bit like a powerhouse through the first half of the season, blowing out any and all comers. May’s team is deep, talented, tall, and experienced.
Despite a small blip toward the end of the regular season and into the Big Ten tournament, Michigan has bounced back just fine in the NCAA Tournament, winning every single game by double digits, with a 13-point win over Alabama in the Sweet 16 serving as the closest margin of victory.
This is how the Wolverines’ starting lineup shakes out:
PG: Elliott Cadeau
Junior point guard Elliott Cadeau was an elite recruit in the class of 2023 who committed to play for Hubert Davis and the North Carolina Tar Heels.
247Sports ranked Cadeau as the No. 12 overall player in his class and the second-ranked point guard behind Isaiah Collier.
In two seasons in Chapel Hill, he started a combined 68 games and served as the team’s primary initiator on offense. Cadeau made the move to Ann Arbor this season and has drastically improved his shooting, going from 33.7 percent to 37.9 percent from beyond the arc on more than twice as many attempts as he took a year ago.
SG: Nimari Burnett
Like Cadeau, Burnett was a highly touted recruit out of high school, ranking as a four-star and the No. 38 overall recruit in the country.
He initially committed to Texas Tech University, where he played 12 games in 2020-21 as a true freshman. Burnett then redshirted due to injury before transferring to Alabama.
He played in 27 games, including nine starts, for the Crimson Tide in 2022-23, but entered the portal against before committing to Michigan and then-head coach Juwan Howard.
Burnett started all 32 games under Howard in 2023-24 and stayed in Ann Arbor when May came aboard. He’s continued to hold down his starting role and is now a valuable two-way guard who shoots 38 percent from beyond the arc.
F: Yaxel Ledenborg
Yaxel Lendebor is both the Wolverines’ most controversial and perhaps best player, and he comes with the most unlikely story of the starting five.
Lendeborg was entirely unranked coming out of high school and spent three seasons playing at the junior college level for Arizona Western College before transferring to UAB.
It was in Birmingham that he made himself a star, playing two seasons and averaging 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds,L and 4.2 assists a year ago. When he entered the transfer portal, 247Sports ranked him as the No. 1 transfer in the nation, and he’s shown exactly why this season.
Lendeborg was a unanimous first-team All-American this season and has turned himself into both the heartbeat of the Michigan team and a first-round pick in this summer’s NBA Draft.
F: Morez Johnson Jr.
Morez Johnson Jr. was a big-time recruit in the class of 2024 when he committed to the in-state Illinois Fighting Illini.
247Sports ranked him as the No. 31 overall recruit in the country and the sixth-ranked center, although he’s played mostly power forward for the Wolverines.
Johnson played in 30 games and started eight for Brad Underwood and the Fighting Illini last season before entering the transfer portal.
At Michigan, he immediately slotted into the starting lineup between Lendeborg and center Aday Mara and has had an immediate impact, averaging 13 points and 7.3 points per game across 39 starts.
C: Aday Mara
The aforementioned Aday Mara is flying up NBA Draft boards after a strong showing in the NCAA Tournament to this point.
The Spaniard was a five-star recruit in the class of 2023 and the third-ranked center. He initially committed to Mick Cronin and the UCLA Bruins, making 61 appearances, but just nine starts over his first two seasons.
He entered the transfer portal following the 2024-25 season and wound up in Ann Arbor, where he has started 38 of 39 games and serves as the team’s defensive anchor, averaging a Big Ten-leading 2.6 blocks per game.
Mara’s 7-foot-3 frame and soft hands make him an interesting prospect at the next level and a load to deal with Michigan’s opponents.
UConn Huskies
At this point, reaching the Final Four and winning national championships has become the standard under Hurley in Storrs.
Hurley took over a program in disarray in 2018, and after re-entering the Big East, has turned UConn into perhaps the best program in the nation right now on a year-to-year basis. In fact, it’s hard to argue otherwise.
This year’s team is made up primarily of players he recruited out of high school, supplement by a pair of transfer starters who have had a big impact and taken the Huskies from a second-round exit a year ago to the national championship game this season.
PG: Silas Demary Jr.
Demary, a four-star recruit in the class of 2023, began his career with the Georgia Bulldogs and played two seasons in Athens, starting 69 of 70 games played and earning freshman All-SEC honors in 2023-24.
Demary hit the portal prior to this past season and found his way to Storrs, where he’s been an important cog in Hurley’s three-guard starting lineup.
He averages 10.3 points per game to go along with a team-high six assists, and has improved his shooting each season in college, going from 30.3 percent, to 37.4, and finally 38.9 this season.
G: Solo Ball
Solo Ball was a four-star, top 50 recruit out of the state of Maryland when he signed for Hurley and the Huskies in 2023.
He made an immediate impact as well, playing in 39 games as a true freshman on a national championship winning team in 2023-24.
Last season, Ball started all 35 games for the Huskies and took on a more predominant role in the offense. This season, he’s received significantly more help from Demary and freshman Braylon Mullins, who we’ll get to shortly.
Ball is averaging 12.9 points per game for UConn, and while he’s only shooting 29.6 percent from deep, his 6.6 attempts per game ensure that opposing defenses have to stay honest.
G: Braylon Mullins
The aforementioned Mullins was a blue chip recruit out of Indiana in the class of 2025 and the true freshman has lived up to the billing at times this season.
He averages just 12 points per game on 33.7 percent from beyond the arc, but Mullins has maturity beyond his years and isn’t afraid of the moment, as he showed with his incredible game-winning 3-pointer against Duke in the Elite Eight.
Mullins has slowly but steadily improved his play on the defensive end of the floor as well for the Huskies. He’s a projected first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. But it wouldn’t be a shock to see him back in Storrs next season when he could be in line for a larger role and a big-time season.
F: Alex Karaban
The old man of the group for UConn, Alex Karaban, is also the lowest-rated recruit of the bunch, although he was still a four-star in the calss of 2020.
Tradtionalists will appreciate Karaban’s path through the college game, as he redshirted as a true freshman before earning a role as a start on both the 2023 and 2024 national championship teams.
There was talk that Karaban could enter the NBA Draft in 2024 following an impressive NCAA Tournament showing, but he remained in Storrs for another season.
Karaban saw his role in the offense grow last season, but his shooting dipped a bit from 37.9 percent to 34.7 percent from deep. This year, he’s back up to 37.8 percent and he’s continued to show off his versatiliy, hauling in 5.1 rebounds per game and guarding multiple postions on defense.
C: Tarris Reed Jr.
If there’s one player, above all else, who wants to win a national champion on Monday night, it’s Tarris Reed Jr.
The former four-star recruit in the class of 2022 committed to play for Juwan Howard and Wolverines and did just that for two seasons, making 66 appearances and becoming a full-time starter in 2023-24.
However, when Howard got fired and May came in, Reed hit the portal and eventually landed with the Huskies.
The 2024-25 season was a bit of an adjustmenet period for the Missouri native, as he came off the bench in all but one of his 35 appearance.
But this year, he’s taken ahold of the starting center job and performed admirably, scoring a team-high 14.8 points per game on 61.7 percent from the field, which led the Big East.
Reed also averages 8.8 rebounds and two blocks per game, and his athleticism makes him an intriguing prospect at the next level.
If he could go out with a win over his old team in the NCAA Tournament final, it would be quite the feather in his cap.