Trey McKenney and the Shot That Sent Michigan Back to the Top of College Basketball

A 19-year-old freshman from Flint went to the free throw line and considered practice on Monday night inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis with 13 seconds remaining and Michigan holding a six-point lead over Connecticut. Not the national title. Not the roughly 70 million college basketball fans. Simply practice. There are two free throws. Like any other representative from any other Ann Arbor Tuesday afternoon.
Both were swished by Trey McKenney. Michigan prevailed 69-63. And the Wolverines won their second national championship, thanks in part to a player who, to his own happy admission, still finds it hard to believe that anything is real at times.

The made free throws marked the end of a night that had been quietly challenging for McKenney for the majority of it. He had shot 0-for-3 from three and 1-for-8 from the field going into those final seconds. The championship game was not going as planned for a player who had averaged 12 points per game during Michigan’s entire tournament run, scoring a tournament-high 17 against Alabama and 16 in a commanding semifinal victory over Arizona. UConn had a strong defense. He wasn’t looking bad. In one version of the story, everyone remembers that line: “1-for-8, off night, biggest stage of his career.”

Rather, people will replay what transpired with less than two minutes remaining. Connecticut is still within striking distance as Michigan continues to push for a transition. Roddy Gayle Jr. found McKenney on the wing while driving and attracting the defense. Just one dribble. The arc is two steps behind. Let go. Only the net. Practically speaking, the game was over when the building erupted. When asked if he knew it was going in, Gayle responded, “Absolutely,” later. “Trey has the most confidence I’ve ever seen as a freshman.”

That self-assurance is not a recent development. It existed at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, where McKenney played for Coach Todd Covert for four years, amassing 1,970 career points, a 79-22 record, a Division I state championship in 2024, and three consecutive state semifinals. It was evident when he averaged 23.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.1 steals during his senior year. These stats may seem insignificant, but keep in mind that Michigan’s Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year should look like that. It was evident in 2025 when he came off the bench at the Nike Hoop Summit and went 7-for-9 from the field to score 22 points against an international all-star team. First, there was the confidence. It was followed by praise.

After graduating from high school, he was ranked in the top 20 nationally by recruiting services, ranking 16th on On3, 18th on ESPN, and 19th on Rivals. Given that McKenney had always dreamed of playing at Ann Arbor, Michigan’s acquisition of him felt noteworthy. He truly is a local tale turned national. A child from Flint, Michigan, a city that has endured decades of infrastructure problems, economic hardship, and the unique burden of being undervalued, never seemed to bear any of that burden himself. Woodrow Stanley, his grandfather, served as Flint’s mayor. Linnell Jones McKenney, his aunt, is recognized as the first female professional basketball player in the city. Although there is a strong familial bond with the game, McKenney has never seemed to take it too seriously.

By his own historical standards, his freshman season at Michigan was statistically modest: he scored 9.9 points per game, pulled down 2.8 rebounds, and came off the bench for a team so deep that starting positions were earned gradually. However, the basketball internet insisted for a large portion of the season that having this specific player as a reserve was Michigan’s greatest luxury. One widely shared tweet said, “We’re going to look back one day and laugh at the fact that this team was so deep that they had Trey McKenney coming off the bench.” The sentiment was accurate.

Observing his tournament trajectory gives me the impression that the 2025–2026 season was actually just the first draft of this player’s future. His season-long shooting percentages of 46.2% from the field, 39.1% from three, and 89.5% from the free throw line highlight the efficiency argument that his size and wingspan (6’9″) support. He is “a unique backcourt matchup” whose “massive wingspan” and physical play style create defensive issues that most 19-year-old guards just don’t create, according to a widely circulated analyst note.

There are already draft projections available. the class of 2027. initial round. A potential lottery. McKenney hasn’t made any public comments about it other than to calmly confirm that he will be going back to Ann Arbor the following year. It will be interesting to see if that year turns out to be a springboard for the NBA or just another chapter in the Michigan narrative he has been crafting since childhood. In any case, Monday night’s shot—from a teenager who claimed it felt like practice, off a 1-for-8 shooting line, on the biggest stage in college basketball—is the kind of moment that is preserved in program lore while the player is still learning the rest.