Michigan's season ended with an NCAA title. It started with winning the transfer portal.

Michigan won the 2026 NCAA men's basketball championship thanks to a roster built using the transfer portal, adding stars Yaxel Lindeborg and Elliott Cadeau.

It was 1989, and the word was out.

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Only weeks before Michigan began playing in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the team’s coach had accepted a job at another school. Though the coach had planned to leave at the season's end, Michigan's athletic director, famed football coach Bo Schembechler, immediately dismissed the coach and replaced him with someone deemed more loyal.

“A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan,” Schembechler said.