Full-Circle Moment for Former Wolverine Tarris Reed Jr. in National Championship

The former Michigan Wolverine will take on his team in the finals.

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Michigan will look to win its first national title since 1989 on Monday night when the Wolverines take on UConn. While the Maize and Blue have been one of the most dominant teams in the country, anything can happen in one game, and it's while the Huskies and Wolverines don't see each other often — there is a true connection between the two teams.

Center Tarris Reed Jr. The big 6'11" center began his career at Michigan, where he chose to play for Juwan Howard over teams like Michigan State and Purdue. Reed Jr. came off the bench as the Wolverines' sixth man in his freshman season, before starting for Michigan in Howard's final year with the program.

For Reed Jr. — it's a full circle moment.

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"Yeah, so I started my career at Michigan and now I'm about to play them my final game of college basketball," Reed Jr. told the media on Sunday. "I never would have thought that would happen in a million years. How cool a blessing is that?

"I know a couple guys on the team, but I feel like at the end of the day it's the game for the National Championship game, so I feel like they're going to be coming at my neck, we're going to be coming at their neck, so it's going to be a great, fun bloodbath and just a competitive game."

Michigan had a chance to pair Reed Jr. and Vlad Goldin

Reed Jr. saw his game improve from Year 1 to Year 2 at Michigan. He went from averaging 3.4 points to nine points per game, and he averaged 7.3 rebounds per game for the Wolverines in Year 2. Reed Jr. was a top-40 recruit and it began to show on the court. However, Howard lost his job after an eight-win season and, like a lot of Wolverines, he had to think about his future.

However, when Dusty May took the job to coach Michigan, he had an honest conversation with Reed Jr. At the time, everyone knew 7-foot center Vlad Goldin was going to follow his coach to Michigan, and Reed Jr. was concerned how that was going to work.

In a conversation with Reed Jr., May said he would love to make it work. Having two massive shot blockers in the paint would be a fun problem to solve — as long as Reed Jr. was willing to work on his game.

"I'll start with his development. He's incredibly impressive, and it's another situation where he went to a place that environment was perfect for him," May said of Reed Jr. "What he needed at that stage of his career was perfect for him, and I'm sure Juwan and their staff gets a lot of credit for his skill and the steps that it takes for a big guy to grow and develop, even though I don't think they would want any of the credit.

"My conversations when I got the job, I believe he was in the transfer portal already, and I know people around him, I know his coaches. So we started the process like we did with all the guys of let's get to know each other.

"He had a lot of connections at Michigan. He had a lot of relationships, and there were some things pulling at him that I think would have been very convenient for him to stay.

"He also had heard -- look, college basketball is very -- there's a rumor mill that you can find out just about anything you want to find out if you ask the right person, and he had heard that Vlad was probably going to be coming with us, and Vlad being a true center and him being a true center. So he came in, and I talked to his parents and I talked to everyone around him and he basically said, Coach, I know Vlad is coming with you. Do you think you can make that work? I said, hey, Tarris, you both are really good; it won't be easy. We haven't played like that before. But I'm very confident that because of both of your skill set and talent that we can figure it out.

"Now you're going to have to expand your game. You're going to have to become a better triple handoff guy. We're going to have to add some things to your game that you don't currently do if we're going to make it work, but you know what? Let's just stay in the gym, keep working, keep being around getting to know each other, and see if this is right for you and right for us and we'll revisit in a week or two."

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But that's when Michigan gained a commitment from Yale standout Danny Wolf from the transfer portal. Wolf became the best player on the Wolverines' roster in May's first season as the head coach, and Reed Jr. opted to go play for Dan Hurley at UConn. It's safe to say everything worked out for both parties.

Reed Jr. has become one of the best UConn players this season. He is averaging 14.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game for the Huskies, and as Hurley has said before, UConn will go as far as Reed Jr. takes it — which is to the finals.

"And then we ended up getting a commitment from Danny Wolf and I think the writing was on the wall then that this probably can't work with three seven-footers," May said. "It would've been fun to try in hindsight, but, yeah at that point it was well known that he was going to look at something different.

"We've maintained a relationship with him. The guys on our team, they all speak highly of him. They stay in contact. We've crossed paths. His younger brother was on the circuit so I'd see his parents in gyms and whatnot.

"It's a great family. He deserves the success. It's been fun to watch. He's put on a show in this tournament."

Michigan and UConn are set to tip at 8:50 p.m. ET on Monday night.