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Winners and Losers of the Men's 2026 NCAA Tournament Sunday Elite Eight
Michigan stomped Tennessee, Connecticut stunned Duke and the Final Four stage is set in the men's 2026 NCAA tournament.
In both contests, a substantial first-half run appeared it would shape the result. Tennessee had no answers for Michigan's overwhelming offense, and UConn dealt with a horrendous showing from beyond the arc.
But there was drama to come in the second contest.
Ahead are some winners and losers from Sunday's matchups, including a major accomplishment for the Big Ten.
Winner: Michigan's March
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For nearly five months, this has been the expectation.
Michigan, from the very beginning, has looked like an obvious Final Four contender. The back-to-back smackdowns of Auburn and Gonzaga in November were simply the start of a hugely impressive résumé.
Sunday's rout of Tennessee tied a fitting bow on the Wolverines' season-long march toward a spot in Indianapolis.
Yaxel Lendeborg paced Michigan with 27 points, and the offense showcased its depth yet again. Six more players scored between 8-12 points, while Elliot Cadeau collected 10 assists in the 95-62 victory.
Anything short of a trip to the Final Four would've been a severe disappointment for this outstanding roster, and Michigan emphatically sealed that opportunity.
Loser: Tennessee's Cold Spell
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At the midpoint of the opening half, Tennessee had played something close to an ideal game. Slow the tempo, grab a few offensive rebounds and keep Michigan out of transition. The score read 17-16 in U-M's favor.
And then, the next 10 minutes happened.
Michigan pushed the pace, showed off its ball movement and generated a flurry of clean shots. Tennessee, meanwhile, could not find anything near the rim, missed a handful of jumpers and watched the Wolverines score 18 straight points and head to the locker room holding a 48-26 edge.
You could try to keep an optimistic face—the classic "if they can do it, we can do it" idea—but that was an insurmountable deficit for UT's limited offense.
Springing the upset always would have required a defense-driven performance from the Vols. Their icy first-half finish wrecked that dream.
Winner: Big Ten
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Thanks to its depth of high-end teams, the Big Ten solidified itself as the nation's best conference this season. Cool, great.
Lately, however, the NCAA tournament has been unkind to the league.
The recent half-decade has featured exactly one Final Four team. Purdue ended as the national runner-up in 2024, and that's it. (UCLA was a member of the Pac-12 when it made a national semifinal in 2021.) Having another promising year finish with a bunch of earlier March Madness exits would've been deflating.
Illinois won a Big Ten showdown over Iowa on Saturday to punch its Final Four ticket, and Michigan followed suit on Sunday. As a result, the conference is sending a pair of programs for the first time since 2015.
Interestingly enough, this happened in 1989 when Michigan won a national title after clipping the Illini in a semifinal.
This time around, the conference foes could meet in the championship—something that hasn't occurred since Big 8 programs Kansas and Oklahoma in 1988.
Loser: UConn's Perimeter Shooting
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Heading into the matchup, Connecticut ranked 130th nationally in three-point percentage. Not elite, but a little above average.
And, yeesh, the Huskies would have settled for average.
They connected on a single three-pointer in 11 first-half attempts, then missed all seven triples in the first 13 minutes of the second half. Silas Demery Jr. finally broke through with back-to-backs threes as the clock ticked below 7:00 to play.
UConn finished just 5-of-23 from the perimeter, including a 4-of-21 mark among its starters. If you'd provided those numbers before the game, most everyone would have expected the Huskies to lose.
But there is, incredibly, more to this story.
Winner: UConn's Perimeter Shooting When It Mattered
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Insane. Unbelievable. Pick whatever word you prefer.
Tarris Reed Jr. kept the Huskies alive with his interior scoring, and some defensive stops allowed them to overcome a 19-point deficit. But as regulation hit a minute to play, UConn still trailed Duke by four.
Connecticut desperately needed a hero, and Alex Karaban first stepped up. The senior wing—who'd misfired on all five threes and was 2-of-9 overall—buried a triple. Cameron Boozer answered on the other end with a tough bucket, and Duke soon held a 72-70 advantage with 10 seconds to play.
And then, the unthinkable.
Cayden Boozer saw a pair of wide-open teammates and understandably tried to loft the ball downcourt. Braylon Mullins snatched the deflection, however, and dished the ball to Karaban, who passed back to Mullins. The freshman uncorked a 35-footer and found nothing but net with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
For 39 minutes, UConn managed just three triples. In the last minute, the Huskies made two—and those two vaulted Dan Hurley's team to the Final Four.
Loser: Duke's Collapse
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There is no silver lining, no moral victory for Duke.
Not when you're the No. 1 seed. Not when you built a 19-point cushion in the opening half. Not when you limit the opposition to a 5-of-23 clip beyond the arc or your superstar player does his part and scores 27 points. And so on.
That was, quite simply, a devastating loss—one likely to stick in the nightmares of the Blue Devils for a long time.
They had it.
Connecticut scored the first points of the game, but Duke equalized 51 seconds later. The lead ballooned to 19, and the Blue Devils saw Boozer hit a couple of clutch shots to protect their advantage down the stretch.
They had it.
Right up until they didn't.
